What’s recently happened?
Michigan City High School’s (MCHS) Prom, titled “Meet Me at Midnight,” took place on Friday, May 3. The event began at 5 p.m. that evening, and students were able to enjoy music, food, and fun with their friends. Erin Piazzisi was crowned Prom Queen alongside Jaden Hart, who was crowned Prom King.
MCHS’s production of “Clue” was the weekend of April 26 and had four performances. The production featured both a lead and understudy cast and was jam-packed with fun for audiences to experience.
Following this production, the Drama Club now turns its attention to choosing and preparing for next year’s musical and inducting new members into the International Thespian Society, which will happen shortly.
MCHS was excited to cheer on one of its most prestigious alumni as Braden Fiske (Class of 2018) was drafted into the NFL onto the Los Angeles Rams. Before playing football at both Western Michigan University and Florida State University, Fiske played for the Wolves, who were proud to cheer him on for his recent achievements.
Both the MCHS Band and Choir competed recently at the Indiana State School Music Association Organizational contests. At these events, Treble Chorale received a Gold, City Singers received a Gold, Concert Band received a Gold, and Wind Ensemble received a Silver. All groups received Gold ratings in sight reading.
What’s coming up?
MCHS is preparing to close out its school year with a slew of end of the year events. Perhaps the biggest is the graduation ceremony, which will take place on June 2. This event is always special and honors the graduating class as they move on to bigger and better things.
Preceding the graduation ceremony will be the Distinguished Banquet, which will take place on May 30. The event is held to celebrate the seniors graduating at the top of the class as well as teachers and staff members who have inspired them throughout their school years.
The end of the school year also brings the end of the year concerts. Showcase, the choir’s final concert, will be on May 17 at 7 p.m., and it will feature students from Treble Chorale and City Singers. Pop’s Night, which took place on May 7, featured all band students as well as choir students from Concert Choir and Beginning Chorus. On May 9, the jazz band will have a concert entitled Swing Night as well.
MCHS is also holding awards ceremonies for all grade levels in the following weeks. On May 6, the Freshman Awards took place. On May 8, the Sophomore Awards will occur, and the Junior and Senior Awards will take place on May 14 and 16 respectively. All events will celebrate the successes of students this academic year.
Staff spotlight:
Heather Kessler is a social studies teacher at MCHS. She has been teaching for five years, and how she got into the job is a bit of a funny story.
“Kristen Freitag made me. She called me up on a Sunday night and made me come in for an interview. That’s actually not a joke,” Kessler said.
Now, she teaches U.S. Government, both advanced placement and dual credit, as well as Geography and History of the World.
“I’m also getting my master’s degree in political science from Indiana University, and I only have a few more classes,” Kessler said.
Kessler is very dedicated to her family life outside of school.
“I have three boys, and our family raises sheep and cattle on our family farm. We like volunteering in our community,” Kessler said.
This came as a natural continuation of her past.
“I grew up on a farm. I’ve raised sheep my whole life, and when I met and married my husband, we started building our own herd of cattle,” Kessler said.
This time of year is particularly enjoyable in such a line of business.
“We just finished up lambing and calving season, so we’ve got babies running around everywhere, and we’re getting ready to show at the La Porte County Fair and around the country,” Kessler said.
Every now and then, farm life invades school life in the best kind of way.
“When my husband got rolled by a cow in the field, we had to watch that video in class, because why not? Another time, I tried to explain why I had a jar of dirt in my house. It was from a show where, if you make it to the finals, you get to show on the dirt, which is everybody’s goal. When we won, I took some dirt,” Kessler said.
Kessler is both an enjoyable teacher and a hardworking family member.
Student spotlight:
Levi Scoville is a senior at MCHS. He is a member of the robotics team, which he dedicates a lot of his time to.
“We just wrapped up our robotics season, and we did alright. This is the first year that we drove the swerve drive module,” Scoville said.
Of course, most people do not have a basic understanding of what this means, but Scoville knows the topic inside and out.
“It's like the caster wheel of a shopping cart that’s powered in every way. It spins around, it can point in any direction you want, and it goes. You run four of those on a square robot that drives on the ground, and it lets you turn very quickly if the wheels don’t shred themselves and the device doesn’t break teeth off of gears,” Scoville said.
This was an issue the team had the previous year.
“We drove the original edition last year, which was discontinued, and we learned why. It had a lot of errors. It worked better this year. It was notably faster, and it was notably better when it was working,” Scoville said.
Scoville intends to take these skills that he has gained to Purdue University next year.
“I’m going to be in computer science. I’m going to try to focus on cybersecurity, but I’m staying as a major in computer science because it has the advantage of being more general and having a lot of different applications,” Scoville said.
Scoville is still attempting to find out what this degree will lead him to in life.
“I’m hoping to get a good job opportunity. I hope to look into internship opportunities through Purdue and go from there,“ Scoville said.
Scoville’s talents will no doubt be extremely beneficial to him in whatever route he takes.