Student Spotlight:
During Halloween season, haunted houses are a popular attraction for people looking for a scare. Lowell senior Madeline Bogathy has a unique perspective of these events as she’s the one behind the scenes making it all happen. Not only this, but she has extreme talent in producing special effects makeup.
Her and her family have been producing haunts together for 7 years. It all started out in the Jane Ball Elementary School Gym with less than 48 hours to complete an entire haunted house. They’ve worked their way up since then and now own their own professional venue.
They specialize in speedy construction and complete mobility, with each of their attractions able to be taken down and moved to a new location within a day. Additionally, all of their profits go to charity. Their most recent haunt was “The Hells of Havenwood” which was completely nonprofit, accepting only donations towards disaster-relief food banks and monetary donations towards the “Don’t Be A Monster” anti-bullying campaign.
They pride themselves in designing scares and layouts that have never been seen before.
“Anyone can jump out at guests with a chainsaw, but it's way more rewarding to take it to a level that is not only entertaining to our actors, but to our guests as well.” says Bogathy.
Their motto is “Give them something to laugh at and something to run from.”
Madeline’s talents shine with the work she does in FX makeup and production. She started working with FX when she was 11, and had her first professional job at 13.
“I’ve always enjoyed art, but being able to see something I created living and breathing on screen is what made FX stand out to me.”
She already has an impressive resume, with her most recent work being an FX artist for Chris Brown’s music video, “High End”.
What’s Happening
Lowell’s Fall sports teams’ seasons are coming to an end, but have all performed exceptionally well.
The varsity and junior varsity football teams both ended their regular season with a perfect 9-0 record. This is only the fifth time in school history that varsity has accomplished an undefeated regular season. They captured a sectional championship for the fourth year in a row by defeating Griffith 42-7 in the finals.
Both girl’s and boy’s cross country continued their dominating winning streaks. Girl’s captured a first place title in conference, sectionals, and regionals. This was the first time in 16 years that the girl’s have won the regional meet. They placed 11th in the state which is the highest ranking in school history. Boy’s cross country remained on top in the area and received first in conference, sectionals, regionals, and semi-state. The boy’s ended their season finishing as 12th in the state.
The boy’s soccer program saw improvement this season ending with an 8-6-2 record. This was their best record in the past 10 years.
On October 26, Lowell High school hosted it’s annual Track or Treat fundraiser event. In true Halloween spirit, everyone was welcome to come in costume and trick or treat throughout the school. Teams and organizations gathered candy to hand out, and set up games for the guests to play. Every Lowell sports team was represented as well as some clubs/organizations.
This event is held annually in order to raise money for Special Olympics and other community projects. This year, Track or Treat was successful in raising over $4,000 for the causes. Track or Treat is always a hit within the school as students enjoy dressing up and having a good time with their friends.
What’s Coming Up:
Lowell’s theater has been working hard to prepare for their performance of Anne of Green Gables. The show is being put on in the LHS auditorium on November 9th at 9 am, November 10th at 7 pm, and November 11th at 1 pm and 7 pm. Theater members say they expect an interesting interpretation of the play and want everyone to come out and watch!
The football team continues it’s road to state as their next goal is a regional championship. They compete against New Prairie at home Friday, November 10th. It’s expected to be a hard-fought battle as the (12-0) Devils take on the (11-1) Cougars in the Inferno.
It’s reached the time of the year to make the transition into winter sports. All winter sports are beginning their training in order to succeed throughout their seasons. Girl’s basketball has their first game November 9th against Hammond Morton. Boy’s basketball starts tryouts on November 6th.
Staff Spotlight:
Within the past year at Lowell High School, the Spanish department has been altered quite a bit. Despite these changes, one teacher has continuously held a huge role. Mrs. Solano has been teaching at LHS for 8 years and has become a very favorable teacher while doing so. This year she teaches six classes and four levels of Spanish: Spanish I, Spanish II Honors, Spanish III Honors, and AP Spanish Language and Culture.
She wasn’t always a fan of Spanish, and at first, she didn’t even enjoy it.
“I knew I was good at it, but I just didn't like it. It wasn't until my third year of taking the language and I had the opportunity to study abroad in León, Spain the summer after my junior year that I fell in love with the language and the culture. It was then that I knew I wanted to teach Spanish. I wanted to see other people have a passion for the language that I have fallen in love with.”
Even though she didn’t always like Spanish, she knew that she wanted to be a teacher from a young age.
“I decided roughly in middle school that I wanted to be a teacher when I was older. I loved working with younger kids so I had in my mind that I would teach at the elementary level. Helping and serving others was what I enjoyed doing. When I hit high school, my Spanish teacher was the one person who affirmed my decision to become a teacher. She always told me I was good at working with other students in my class.”
Once she decided Spanish was her passion, she had to change to secondary education because Spanish is not widely offered at the elementary level.
She’s also had the opportunity to visit multiple countries such as Spain, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic. Traveling to these countries has improved her Spanish speaking, because every country has different dialects and different words to mean the same thing. It also gave her the travel bug and now she aims to see more of the world. Ultimately, visiting these places has allowed her to have a better appreciation for different cultures and people.