What's recently happened?
The month of December held so much for the Andrean High School (AHS) students. They started the month off right with lots of Christmas decorations in the hallways and Christmas themed dress down days.
In the month of December, AHS also put on its annual Young Adults Really Care (YARC) Christmas party. It is a Christmas party put on for members of the community with special needs. The students volunteer to help out and it leads to a very fun experience for all involved.
Both the Girls and Boys Basketball teams played a lot of games in the month of December as well. The boys current record is 6-5 and are ranked first in conference. The girls record is currently 10-9 and are also first in conference. It’s safe to say that AHS basketball is thriving and it would be worth it to try to catch one of their games! The schedules for both teams can be found on AHS’ athletics website.
While on the topic of AHS athletics, it has also been wrestling season. While all of AHS wrestlers have excelled this season, one to note is Senior Rosie Yurechko.
December was also the end of the first semester. Students got to dress up the Monday and Tuesday before break. Monday’s theme was ugly sweater and Tuesday’s was pajamas.
The following Wednesday-Friday were midterms. Students rigorously studied and put all of their newly learned skills to the test. Students were then released from school early on Friday and Christmas break began. AHS students got almost two and a half weeks off to spend with family and celebrate the birth of Jesus.
During this time many students spent time together, with family, or preparing for the upcoming semester.
Students returned to school on January 6, 2025, and started the second semester. For a lot of seniors this was a bittersweet return because it marked the beginning of the end of their time at AHS.
The first few days back were spent adjusting to new schedules and classes and finding the swing of being back at school. By now most students are pretty comfortable in their new classes and are ready to hunker down and prepare for the last few months of the 2024-2025 school year.
What’s coming up?
The end of January marks a very significant time for most Catholic schools across the nation. It’s Catholic Schools Week!
Catholic Schools Week is a time for both students and teachers to dress up all week in different themes. The Student Council comes up with fun and unique themes for the students to participate in that correlate with different challenges. All of the challenges are different ways to celebrate the Catholic faith and allow students to express their faith.
Catholic Schools Week is a very exciting time for students because being that AHS is a Catholic school, uniforms are required. During Catholic Schools Week, students get a chance to show off their individuality and express themselves and their school spirit by dressing down.
A lot of the spring sports are beginning their winter workouts and training. AHS athletes work year round to show their exemplary talents and always work towards getting better. AHS athletics are always a big competition in every sport, and the AHS family couldn’t be more proud.
While the athletes prepare for their upcoming events and matches, AHS gifted and accolade worthy theater group is currently working to prepare for its upcoming spring show. The show has not been decided yet, but stay tuned to find out what amazing performance the AHS theater group will be portraying. The spring is also a great time to come tour AHS. Incoming freshmen for the 2025-2026 school year are encouraged to set up a shadow day at AHS.
Staff spotlight:
Jennifer Markovich is AHS’ very own fashionista.
Walking into this lively teachers room, students are greeted with fun colors, patterns and a whole lot of Hello Kitty! There is glitter and fun spread all around her room, and it perfectly embodies Markovich’s character.
The Theater, Film Literature, and freshman English teacher brings so much fun and joy to every class she teaches. Each day it is so fun to walk down the hallway and see what eccentric outfit she has in. There is one factor that never changes – a super fun headband!
Markovich has been teaching in Merrillville and Michigan City schools for the past 21 years, and joined the AHS family last year.
Markovich felt that teaching appealed to her because she had always gravitated towards people that were younger than her and she loved helping and teaching them, so the idea of teaching just came naturally to her.
She went to college at Governor State University in Illinois and began her teaching career very shortly after.
Markovich is the theater director at AHS. The theater group is currently working on choosing their upcoming play, and from there it will be long days and nights spent preparing to put on another killer show.
“Theater is for everyone. Whether you’re a freshman or a senior, take the risk, come and show us what you’ve got,” Markovich said.
She loves the students at AHS because they are so kind, respectful, and positive.
“I love walking down the halls and getting a smile and a wave from so many of my students. It just makes me feel so good to belong to something so much bigger than just me or the class I teach. I belong to a family,” Markovich said.
Student spotlight:
If the AHS spirit was put into one person it is Rosie Yurechko.
Yurechko comes from a long line of alumni, so the choice to come to AHS was very simple when choosing her high school.
She has stayed very involved over her four years at AHS. Between years spent on the soccer, basketball, softball and wrestling teams, Yurechko has put in her time into AHS athletics. After narrowing her time down to just wrestling, Yurechko picked up an internship position on the Athletic Training team. Yurechko works very hard to take care of her fellow athletes on and off the court/field. She liked working with the football team a lot because they’re always very polite and funny.
This year Yurechko was determined not to cut any weight in her wrestling season, and learned to wrestle as a “heavy weight.” Yurechko’s hard work paid off as she won both Sectionals and Regionals in her division.
“It filled me with so much pride to get to see my name hung up in the gym after my wins,” Yurechko said.
Yurechko is looking to go to Purdue University - West Lafayette for college and do an accelerated program for Exercise science with licenses in Athletic Training and EMT.
For Yurechko AHS embodies stability. The traditions stay the same, the building stays the same, and for her, the people stay the same.
“I want to graduate, find a good job back home in Northwest Indiana, and get married,” she said. “I’m not sure if I’d make a good mom or not but that could be a goal; to be a good mom one day.”
Yurechko’s advice for students is to fight for what you think is right. She also leaves her peers with this quote:
“Once you've wrestled, everything else in life is easy.” - Dan Gable