What’s Coming Up:
Summer for Griffith High School students is over halfway through, and August means a new semester with new opportunities. Students will experience multiple new schedule changes this year, many of them being extremely beneficial to kids. The first, and most highly anticipated, is the removal of late start Tuesday, and the addition of early release Tuesday. In previous years, school days on Tuesday would start at 8 am, compared to the usual 7:30 am. This allowed time for teachers to have meetings before school, and gave students an additional 30 minutes of sleep once a week. Starting the school year of 2018-2019, Griffith will now have early release on Tuesdays instead. School will start at 7:30 am, but students will be released at 12:30 pm. This extra time will allow teachers to have meetings after school without being constrained to 30 minutes before school starts, and students will have extra time for activities and homework.
“Having a half day on Tuesday will give me additional time to work on homework, which will be very convenient for my first year of high school,” said Danny Sheffield, an incoming freshman.
The second schedule change is the addition of a homeroom period. This is similar to Panther Time, a homeroom-like class that was in place during the 2015-2016 school year. This homeroom will allow additional time for students to complete schoolwork, as well as for teachers to prep for upcoming classes. The class occurs during fourth hour, halfway through the eight period school day.
Finally, fall break will go back to being a week long, compared to the long weekend from last year. This year, fall break will last from Monday, October 22, until Friday, October 26.
What’s Happening:
Summer break for most students means relaxing at the beach or going on vacation, but many students at Griffith are using their summers to finally play on their travel team, attend prestigious conventions, and condition for fall sports. Incoming seniors Stephanie Lester, Zoe Dieguez, Molly Mills, Emma Loomis, and Maddie Nolan attended Hoosier Girls State, and Mikey Worosz and Jonathan Vasilak attended Hoosier Boys State, both at Trine University in Angola, IN. At these conferences, the finest students from their classes learned about government, elections, campaigning, community, and more through campaigning, meetings, guest speakers, and demonstrations. At the end of the week, delegates knew more about government than 90% of their state!
In the great downtown of Griffith, the central market is continuing to thrive every Friday night, drawing in more people each week with its unique food, vendors, and live music. Food vendors include gourmet hot dogs from Hogs & Dogs, bubble tea and smoothies from Lulu’s, deep dish grilled cheese from Sizzlebox, and many more. Crafters offer handmade jewelry, benches, and even dog treats. Central Park offers fun for all ages, including a new playground for kids and teenagers, sidewalks for walking through the entire park, and a beer garden for adults that is also family friendly.
On July 21-22, Park Full of Art will take over Central Park for the weekend and display art and vendors from all over, ranging from elementary student artwork to professional artists and crafters.
Student Spotlight:
Graduate Ali Schoon is not losing her full plate after leaving high school. Schoon, who was previously class president for junior and senior year, and National Honor Society Vice President senior year, is continuing her busy schedule this summer. She has been playing softball for GHS for 12 years, and travel ball for six for Joliet Dirt Devils. With the Dirt Devils, Schoon travels nearly every week to states such as Illinois, Wisconsin, and even a recent trip to Kansas, as well as various fields in Indiana. Every week, Schoon travels one hour to practice in Joliet with the team. Travel ball is basically a year round season, and they only break for high school season when Schoon plays varsity catcher. Schoon signed to University of Missouri St. Louis on a softball scholarship where she will be studying Psychology and Spanish. She will be on the pre-med track as a psych major, as well as playing softball for them.
During high school, Schoon was successful in almost everything she did. In academics, she made the AB honor roll seven semesters out of eight, after receiving a high C in AP Calculus, but maintained a 4.0 GPA all four years. She was class president junior and senior year, and planned the first boys powderpuff volleyball game on top of prom and the senior prank. Her graduating class became a very involved and organized class. Throughout her four years, Schoon was also involved in newspaper, and was the Voices and Entertainment Editor. She also participated in Best Buddies, student council, choir and chorale, Pantherettes, volleyball, and international club, holding a position or large role in most of them.