What's recently happened?
The Michigan City High School (MCHS) Wolves basketball season, unfortunately, has come to an end. In the 2022-23 IHSAA Class 4A Boys Basketball State Tournament, the Wolves won its playoff game against John Adams High School and went on to win against rival La Porte High School.
Despite all of the hard work, the Wolves were unsuccessful in beating Mishawaka High School in the third round of the tournament.
The third quarter of the school year has ended and now MCHS is in the home stretch to the end of the school year.
Spring sports have just begun; Boys and Girls Track and Field had their first meets within the past week at Portage High School.
This year in sports, MCHS added a brand new sport to the schedule: Boys Volleyball. The team had its first game ever on March 20. Due to this being the first time Michigan City has had a Boys Volleyball team, much can be learned and expected from the boys in their first season ever.
What’s coming up?
The MCHS Choir will be hosting a showcase in which it will sing and dance to various songs. The choir has held multiple concerts prior, including “One City One Sound” and the Veterans Day concert.
“It was a great way to get us out there and comfortable singing in front of people. It's definitely been a good year, and I can't wait to finish it off,” said Makaylin Jenks, a senior choir member at MCHS.
There will be a Winter Sports Award Ceremony to commemorate the winter sports seasons finally coming to an end. This acts as a great opportunity for coaches, peers, and family alike to honor the student-athletes for their hard work and dedication.
Prom is quickly approaching, and seeing as time flies by this time of the year, the Class of 2024 steering committee is busy at work planning for the festivities.
Spring Break is coming extremely fast; in just two weeks, the MCHS students will be on spring break enjoying the time of rest.
Staff spotlight:
Being well-traveled and having many experiences is a quality of high caliber. Finding teachers with such qualities is quite difficult. Bruce Stahl, the resident Psychology, Sociology, and History of Chicago teacher, exudes such characteristics from all the different things he’s done throughout the years.
Stahl has been teaching for 23 years, beginning his life in education when he worked in special education at various schools like Krueger Middle School (KMS), Barker Middle School (BMS), and MCHS. Eight years later, he found himself teaching in the Social Studies Department of MCHS and hasn't looked back since.
Before ever being a teacher, Stahl started an apprenticeship at United States Steel as a boilermaker in 1968. It was there that he began his road to teaching.
“As a boilermaker in the mill, I was responsible for training apprentices with various skills they would need to become a craftsman. There were two goals I had as a young man, to be a manager in the mill and someday become a teacher. It took 32 years in the mill to be ready to retire and become a teacher,” said Stahl.
Simultaneously to him working at the mill, he began his 15 year journey to obtain his undergraduate degree in sociology. He ended up finishing his apprenticeship in 1973 as a 22-year-old craftsman. By 1985, he had received his master's degree from Valparaiso University in geography, and, in 2005, Stahl completed his certification in special education and social studies.
After many years of being a teacher, Stahl knows exactly what is important in his classroom: comfort and individualism.
“Forming relationships with the students, you see that everybody is talented and has something to give to others. I try having a classroom that the students have ownership of, where they feel comfortable, and safe, and can agree or disagree without fear of being right or wrong. Everyone is important,” said Stahl.
Stahl is full of surprises when it comes to life outside of the classroom. As a Chicago-trained improviser, a photographer, and a high school soccer referee, he's a jack of all trades.
Stahl was a regular at the Annoyance Theatre & Bar for a year and a half. He’s participated in both improv plays and musicals. Most recently, he took part in two scripted shows at the Footlight Theater in Michigan City.
Aside from his acting gig, Stahl is a devoted railfan and has many of his photographs published in different railroad publications. Along with that, he has discovered a new hobby: urban exploring, which is essentially exploring abandoned man-made structures.
In the end, you have to love what you do during your day job. Stahl truly does, and his aspirations coming true is one of the greatest blessings there is for the MCHS students.
“Find a job or career that you truly love. What a great way to start your day by going to a job that fulfills your needs. Also, you may not agree with other people's beliefs, but remember that they are not wrong, just different,” said Stahl.
Student spotlight:
Melanie Baker, a senior at MCHS, has learned many beneficial life lessons from her high school experiences, the A.K. Smith Career Center, and gymnastics.
Ever since Baker was young, her education has always been of extreme importance. When she reached high school, she had the same outlook and dedication. During her freshman year, COVID-19 hit, and everything changed when Michigan City Area Schools (MCAS) went online.
“Junior year was our first full year back in high school; ‘normal’ was coming back, and I finally got to see what high school was in full effect. Now, it's the end of senior year, and I couldn't be more excited to graduate, but I’m also sad because it's almost over,” said Baker.
As a junior, Baker was accepted and enrolled into the A.K. Smith Health program and is now a senior enrolled in the Health II program. This program has allowed her to experience things beyond a normal high school class. Currently, she is working towards becoming a certified nursing assistant (CNA), learning skills and requirements.
“Going to A.K. helped me understand the ‘real world’ more than I used to. It teaches a lot of life skills no matter what class you are taking; it's a great opportunity to get an idea and experience of what you want to do after graduation. You get real certifications that can help you get jobs, and you earn a good amount of college credits as well,” said Baker.
This past winter sports season, Baker was team captain for the MCHS gymnastics team. Her gymnastics journey didn’t just begin there though. Baker had been doing gymnastics for about 11 years; she was a level six working level seven skills. At this time, she had decided to quit due to the pain from a knee injury, but in her junior year of high school, she decided to return.
Due to the injury she had suffered during her time in club gymnastics, she struggled to subdue the pain. Despite its prevalence though, Baker pushed through and made it to her senior season, where she learned so much about what it means to be a leader.
“It was a very young team with a lot of freshmen and sophomores, which is where the captain title came in place. We were helping coach the girls a lot of the time; they would come to talk to us about different skills, being reliable to make it to practice on time, being a leader and role model for meets and practices. It was so hard at the end. It was over; that was it. I had such a great support group and couldn't ask for better coaches to make everything possible,” said Baker.
Now that the 2022-23 school year is reaching an end, Baker is looking towards her future so she may achieve her hopes and dreams. Once she's graduated, she hopes to continue her love for schooling at college majoring in architecture and interior design and minoring in photography.
After all is said and done Baker wouldn’t have been able to do it without the support from her teachers and coaches.
“Find a teacher or an adult you like and can trust; it only takes one person. Someone you can go to when something may seem hard, someone that can help motivate you to do what you need to, to get advice from. High school gets hard, you might lose motivation, and having that one person will help more than you think,” said Baker.