What’s recently happened?
Michigan City High School (MCHS) has had a very busy month. Homecoming took place Friday, September 29. MCHS took home the win against Portage High School with a score of 21-8.
Meaghan Painter also took home a significant win that night, having been crowned Homecoming Queen. She represented the yearbook and was escorted by Lorenzo Panazzo. She competed against 11 other highly accomplished girls who spent the day representing their clubs with pride.
MCHS was host to a College and Career Fair on Tuesday, October 3. The fair included booths from several colleges from both inside and outside of Indiana as well as several career-focused booths. Students from schools throughout the area had the opportunity to ask questions and connect with representatives as well as take home information to ruminate on their college and career opportunities.
MCHS's Wolfpack Pride Marching Band had two significant successes this past month. Firstly, there was a long two-competition day on September 16, where the team performed at the Concord Invitational in the morning and placed third. Then at Hobart High School that evening, the group received a Gold for musical and visual achievement. Secondly, the band performed at the Plymouth preliminaries where the group received a Silver, improving the score vastly in comparison to past years.
"It's inspiring to see how much we've grown since my freshman year," said Drum Major Sophia Barczak.
In fact, three years ago, the band numbered only 16. Now, it’s earning all Golds and Silvers and continues improving every day.
The school year is not even yet a quarter through. There's plenty more for MCHS to offer in the upcoming months.
What's coming up?
On Saturday, October 25, MCHS's Class of 2025 will be hosting its Spooky Sprint 5k Fun Run. It costs $20 to participate, $10 for ages 0-18. It will begin at 9 a.m. The event's website states that the race will begin at Washington Park, run along the beach, up Beachwalk Lane, and back along Lakeshore Drive. Participants are encouraged to wear costumes.
The Class of 2025 will use profits from the event to fund the many events it intends to plan in the two years before it graduates, including prom as well as graduation celebrations and the senior picnic.
MCHS will be hosting an updated version of last year's Friday Night Live, now titled Saturday Night Live. It will take place on Saturday, October 28 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., and the event is entirely free. Keeping in time with the season, it will be a Halloween-themed event. Featured activities include volleyball, a video game truck, pop up art, free food, open gym basketball, ping pong, laser tag, and a costume contest with prizes.
MCHS's Drama Club is gearing up for its rapidly approaching performance weekend for the production of “Mamma Mia!” The production will take place on November 10, 11, and 12 with performance times of 7 p.m., 7 p.m., and 2 p.m. respectively. The group is very excited for these dates to arrive and invites the community to see the fruit of their labor in November.
Staff spotlight:
Cheri Whitler is a visual arts teacher at MCHS where she has been working for 24 years, and she has a fascinating life story that brought her to the high school.
"I started out in college thinking I was going to be a psychology major. I had taken photography in high school, and I really liked it. When I went to college and thought I wasn't going to do well being a photographer, I was convinced to study something else. When I couldn't find anything else, I decided to drop out of the University of California Berkeley and attend the San Francisco Art Institute to get my degree in photography," Whitler said.
After this, she went back to school at Valparaiso University to get her teaching license and began substituting in the area she grew up in.
"I actually started teaching when I was 30. I started much later than most do," Whitler said.
Photography is the class Whitler is best known for at MCHS, and perhaps that is because of the sheer amount of students that take it.
"I have four sections of it this semester and five next. It's also the only art class we offer a third year of," Whitler said.
Photography is an interesting subject to be teaching, according to Whitler. The way the art form has morphed and updated throughout the years is a particular reason for this.
"When I started teaching, digital still wasn't very popular. When digital became popular, film became a niche art form because, for a while, it was seen as outdated in a bad way. Then, it became outdated in a good way," Whitler said.
Whitler's class focuses mostly on this version of photography.
"The advantage I have now is that kids in high school never have experience in doing film. It's new to everybody, and it's exciting. They always talk about the dark room scenes in ‘Stranger Things’ – when they see dark room scenes in movies, they know what it is, and it makes them more interested in it," Whitler said.
Whitler teaches two classes besides photography: Fiber Arts and Visual Communication.
"I love photography because that's what my degree is in, but I do like to have that variety in my day. I don't like teaching one thing all day," Whitler said.
Whitler, due to her later teaching start, had some clarity on the field that she finds important in her day-to-day experiences.
"A lot of teaching is like parenting. It's about what you're comfortable with and where you let things go. In parenting, your kids might make you mad, but you know that's not worth getting upset about. It's the same with students. You have to find where you can push them outside of their comfort zone and where you have to be careful with them," she said.
Whitler models a story not often told – the winding road to finding where you want to be. All the same, she remains a powerful role model at MCHS, as seen in the many students that pass through her classroom every year.
Student spotlight:
MacKenzie Rojas is a senior at MCHS. She is on the school's Varsity Softball team, a very central part of her life.
"The school's softball team hasn't had a good feeder program from the city. We haven't had a lot of softball players who come in committed to softball," Rojas said.
This has been a cause for struggles in the team, but Rojas doesn't let it dim her excitement.
"We've struggled for the past three years, but I'm excited for this year. I want to start earlier this year, to give us a competitive edge," Rojas said.
Rojas is also a member of a competitive travel team that is currently in season.
"I've been playing travel for seven or eight years. It's a lot more competitive. We have a good team. We're called the Triple Crown Broomsticks – we're out of Valparaiso. I joined half way into their first season, so I've been playing for three years, almost four."
Despite knowing this is her last year on the local teams, Rojas hopes for the future of the teams as well as her future in softball.
"It’s a bummer because I'll be graduating. Hopefully I play college softball, but I want to see the city softball program evolve," Rojas said.
Rojas is also a very involved artistic student at MCHS.
"I took Fiber Arts as my first required art class sophomore year. Now I'm in Advanced Art. To be in the class, you have to be nominated to do it. We get to do whatever we want artistically. I love crocheting because it's a generational thing in my family, and so I'm making a sweater," Rojas said.
Rojas has loved the experience thus far.
"I get to see all my friends making these really cool projects," Rojas said.
In retrospect, Rojas looks at her past years at the high school and her remaining year with a smile.
"I've made a lot more friends than I expected to as a senior, and I've gotten to keep the ones I made in middle school, so it's really special," Rojas said.
Rojas is a talented and hard-working student who is certain to go places, whatever passion she follows or route of life she chooses.