What’s Recently Happened?
A great way to spread cheer during holiday season is through music.
On December 6th, the Westville Band wowed the audience as they played a night full of many Christmas favorites. The Westville Choir brought on more holiday spirit, following their winter concert up on December 13th. Both groups put on a great performance and made it a fun night for everyone.
On December 5th, Westville High School students got the opportunity to hear the inspirational words of Trey Mock, the Indianapolis Colts mascot known as “Blue.” Mock and other members of the Colts team travel all over to many different schools sharing the presentation, “A Mascot Life.” This presentation tells of how Mock became a mascot, how he got to where he is today in his career, and even how he himself created Blue.
Although very interesting, the main purpose of this program is to showcase Mock’s mission of “Choose Love.” This portion of the presentation spoke of the importance of being kind and helping others. Mock stated how one family truly made him realize this, and how good it feels for him to do things for others. It could definitely be said that all students and staff thoroughly enjoyed this presentation and were grateful for Mock to visit Westville High School and share his important words.
Season to Be Jolly
Before we knew it, autumn was over and the first snowflake had fallen. December, as everyone knows, is truly the season to be jolly. Everyone gets ready for the Christmas season, preparing for gatherings and shopping for family and friends in hopes of finding the perfect gifts.
In the midst of all the hustle and bustle of the season, Westville High School put on a night for people to take a seat, relax, and enjoy the show. On December 16th, the Westville Theatre presented “The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon.” This event was perfect for the whole family to come out and enjoy.
Finals took place December 18th through December 21st, ending the first semester of the 2018-19 school year. After all the stress and hard work of final exams, students got to relax and enjoy spending time with family and friends for the holiday season over winter break from December 24th to January 7th.
The Westville High School Junior Varsity and Varsity Boys Basketball teams played Hanover Central at home in the Blackhawk Gym on December 18th. To celebrate the season, it was a Silent Night game, which is a fun event students look forward to attending each holiday season.
Teacher Spotlight
Teaching a classroom full of students can be challenging at times. It is up to the teacher to determine how to explain things well enough that the students themselves are able to understand. For Westville High School’s Chemistry teacher, Dr. Arnt, this can be an even greater task sometimes, as she not only teaches integrated chemistry and chemistry, but also dual-credit chemistry to students.
Dual-credit chemistry is offered at Westville High School through Purdue Northwest for academically-interested students to take. Those enrolled then have the opportunity to receive both high school credit and college credit for the course.
To get to this marvelous point in her scientific career, Dr. Arnt had to go through a lot of education. She attended DePauw University for an undergrad in zoology and then Indiana University for dental school where she received her DDS. Dr. Arnt’s career first started out in the field of dentistry, but she then decided that it wasn’t the path that interested her. She realized then that she wanted to become a teacher and did so by obtaining her teaching certificate.
Dr. Arnt knew that she wanted to help students prepare for college and be able to hold a great job outside of school. She took this desire and her experiences and knowledge of Chemistry and applied it to a career teaching chemistry.
This year is Dr. Arnt’s first year teaching at Westville High School. She stated how she feels welcome by the warm family atmosphere of the school and is impressed by all the hardworking students. An interesting fact that most of Dr. Arnt’s students do not know about her is that she was a member of the Navy for three years.
Moreover, it takes a certain kind of person to be able to do what Dr. Arnt does as a career. She puts her time, effort, and knowledge into teaching for the well-being and benefaction of the students.
Student Spotlight
A student that is smart, hardworking, and athletic all in one is not very easy to come across. At Westville High School, a student such as this is sophomore, Trevor Henckel.
Trevor is quite involved with extracurricular activities at school. Highly enough, he is able to balance his schoolwork with clubs and sports which surely shows in his academic achievements. Last school year when Trevor was a freshman, he received the Top Scholar award for his grade and also reached Principal’s Honor Roll. During his free time, he is an active member in several clubs including Science Olympiad and Spanish Club.
As for sports, Trevor is a dedicated team-player on the Westville High School’s baseball team in the spring. If he had to pick just one specifically, Trevor stated that his favorite class would be World History. Even though Trevor still has part of his high school career left to go, he has already decided that he wants to attend college for engineering. Altogether, Trevor is a great student both academically and athletically.