Category: School Happenings

Ready or not, here comes college.

Penn Manor High School had its annual Education Day yesterday, when many colleges came to the school gym and set up stands with lots of information about open houses, scholarships, majors, minors and applications.

There was also a College Night held at Conestoga Valley High School.

Many of the schools return each year to the annual event with vital information to help students choose colleges.

Gretchen Schwartz from The Pennsylvania College of Art & Design said, “I came for Education Day before.”

“West Chester is the school that I am very interested in,” senior Morgan Talbert said, “I visited the college and I also went to the table. There were many colleges here today that I’ve never heard of.”

Students were eligible to visit the event during their lunch and some teachers were allowing students to visit during their third block class.

“Education Day shows a variety of schools that you can choose to go to, Penn State is currently the college that I am most interested in,” junior Matt Duvall said.

Last night, there was a bigger education event which was held at Conestoga Valley High School.

Guidance Counselor Mrs. Long said the Conestoga Valley event would include three sessions.

Representatives of different colleges are looking to help students with any questions they may have and help them to choose the right college, Long said.

“Penn Manor is only offering 75-different colleges today, but  at Conestoga Valley, 250-different colleges will be present,” Long said.  “Any information about tonight’s event can be picked up in the guidance office. There are pamphlets that explain a lot of the details and the different seminars.”

For some younger students, there is plenty of time to think about the future, but for others, deadlines are coming fast and the pressure is on.

By Allana Herr

National competitions, prize money and speeches at MIT are all part of 15-year-old Ben Clark’s busy schedule.

Clark, who’s interested in Astrophysics as a major in college, is currently competing in the National Siemens Competition and is one of 60 regional finalists. The competition starts off with 1300 competitors overall and is broken down by regions. Clark is one of the 30 individual finalists, while there are also 30 teams.

Clark is known as a whiz kid at Penn Manor High School, top in school rank, level of classes and all-around academic achievement. He is looking at many top colleges around the nation, and they, most likely, are looking at him.

“Cal Tech and MIT are the only schools I have applied to so far,” said Clark.

With an astonishing GPA of 4.772 Clark is sure to get in to one of his top schools, being Cal Tech and Princeton, in that order.

“My focus for college will be my courses and studies, fun stuff also, I’m not boring, but I do find studying and research fun,” Clark said.

Clark in fact is doing his own research on stars and has formulated a new theory about them, hence the Siemens competition and possibly a little stardom for himself.

The Siemens Competition winner gets a prize of $100,000 and Clark is already guaranteed $1,000 in scholarship money for winning his region.

“I was looking for binary stars and I used a very large, low-quality data set, but through my analysis I was able to get useful results,” said Clark about his data.

Clark’s evidence is deemed so useful that he is going to MIT on November 5 and 6 to read his research.

It all started one year ago when he got involved in Astrophysics research.

“I decided to look for a mentor so I sent an email to Dr. Spergel, the head of the Astrophysics department at Princeton. Two days later I got an email back providing me with a mentor, Dr. Blake,” said Clark.

“Astrophysics is going through its golden age,” said Clark.

As he started his analysis he realized that they could look at close binary stars. He knew that binary’s have significant applications to star formation so Clark and his mentor decided to focus on that instead.

“That’s what I love about science, theories lead to new theories,” said Clark.

“He (Blake) suggested that we use SDSS (Sloan Digital Sky Survey)  to look for M dwarf  and brown dwarf binaries. M dwarf is a small star and a brown dwarf is between the size of a star and planet,” Clark said.

The competitions have some serious competitors. “I would like to win, but I don’t think I’ll win,” said Clark. “I don’t like to assume things like that.”

“I also have no idea what I’ll be up against,” he added.

Clark’s results will be published in a major Astrophysics journal.

Clark also has competed in various other math and physics competitions. A significant math competition Clark is very proud of was the United States of America Math Olympiad (USAMO). Only 500 people in the nation qualify and Clark qualified in 2009 and 2010.

For Physics, Clark competed in the United States of America Physics Olympiad (USAPhO) and was one of 300 in the nation to qualify. He also made it to the semi-finals of that competition.

By Brian Dunne

Academics, Character, Leadership and Service.

Those four words are the qualities of each and every of the 45 juniors and seniors inducted into the National Honor Society at Penn Manor High School.

The National Honor Society is a nationwide organization that has been recognizing outstanding high school students since 1921.  Penn Manor, on the other hand, has been an active chapter since 1930.

Students who faculty members say excel in academics, character, leadership and service can be nominated.  Nominated students must maintain a grade point average of 3.85 or higher and stand out in their community to be considered to the National Honor Society.

This year, 24 juniors and 21 seniors were inducted into the National Honor Society.  Not only can a student be a member of NHS, but they also can be one of the officers.  Sophia Wu-Shanley was elected president, Jessica Cheng; secretary, Allison Duke; treasurer and Mikah Farbo; historian.  Advisers are Kathy Grenier and Erick Dutchess.

The inductees are:

Landon Alecxih, Lars Andersen, Sara Bennis, Abigail Barley, Kayla Bixler, Haley Blazer, Ian Bricker, Josh Carle, Mark Christman, Eric Clark, Erica Coakley, Benjamin Crisman, Natalie Dell’Estate, Andrea Deibert, Olivia Dietrich, Zachary Estep, Kayley Gaukler, Jennifer Hanner, Selena Hasircoglu, Mikayla Herbert, Andrew Herr, Peter Horning, Elsie Huber, Zachary Kauffman, Peter Keares, Alex Kirk, Kelly Lenahan, Jing Li, Erin Loy, Harrison Manning, Karen Myers, Michael Nitroy, Abigail Novak, Zachary Rayha, Lauren Ressler, Brianna Rice, Abigail Sanders, Jenna Santaniello, Sarah Scheaffer, Megan Schlegelmilch, Conner Snow, Cody Straub, Ian Toomey, Laura Witwer, Faith Zimmerman.

By Cree Bleacher

Let’s see if hard work pays off.

That’s the attitude of many students in Amy Wall’s Marking and Law class. As they compete against others in their class, in the Apprentice Competition for the next week, they do everything they can to make the most amount of money for their team.

There are four groups competing against each other, trying to advertise and sell their product better than the others.

“Sweetness” is selling puppy chow, gum and soda, “White Rabbit” is selling milkshakes and tie-dye t-shirts, “Thundercat’s Milkshakes” are selling obviously milkshakes and “That Fish Shack” is offering a game where you can win goldfish.

“Mr. Zeigler started it about ten years ago,” said Wall, a business teacher at Penn Manor.

“Part of it goes up for donation, and how you place, you get to pocket like all the money,” said junior Alex Murr.

There are many things that go into this hands-on project. In the class students learned how to grab people’s attention. Some of the techniques the group, “Sweetness,”  used were hanging up big signs, having everything on the table so people could see it and wearing shirts that go along with what they were selling.

One of their tactics was to have a costumed White Rabbit walking around the cafeteria to promote their merchandise.

“They get to apply everything they learned,” said Wall.

“You have to balance something that’s good with price,” said Murr. “You have to take into account advertisement, which costs money. You can get sponsorships, but we don’t have any.”

The groups had about three weeks to a month to work with their group to come up with an idea and presented their plan in front of the class last week.

“We started out with a $100 loan that we have to pay back,” said Murr.

“The money comes from the Penn Manor Education Foundation,” said Wall.

The most successful group she ever had in her class made $700 after paying back the deposit, and the least amount of profit made was a mere $8.

All four groups are doing so well that at this point it’s still anyone’s game.

“If we’re not in the lead, we’re in the top two,” said Murr.

“I think were doing pretty good, but I honestly don’t know,” said Abby Buckwalter. “It’s messy and annoying.”

Buckwalter is a part of “Thurdercat’s Milkshakes.”

Now that they have started selling their goods, they realize how messy it is to make milkshakes at such a fast pace.

After a few days of actual business, many groups figured out what they should have done differently.

“The T-shirts are a little pricey,” said Michael Weber, a group member of “White Rabbit.”

Many groups participating in this project stick with selling food and drinks, but one group decided to take a chance and use something different.

Junior Suarez, a group member in “That Fish Shack” said, “We might be the underdogs because we chose a different idea.”

However the novel idea seems to be working out so far.

“Right now the gold fish group is in first place, as of this morning,” said Wall.

By Liz Lawrence and Brian Dunne

An eye-opening experience undoubtedly.

On Monday, two Honduran men, Professor Henry Garcia and Aldrin Borjas, took a tour of the Penn Points news room with nothing less than shocked faces.

Garcia, the regional director of Perspire Choluteca school district in Honduras is here learning how an American school works. Things such as teaching strategy, format and what type of facilities we use are all questions to which he is seeking answers.

With the help of his translator, Mark Mentzer, Garcia said, ” The biggest difference between our school district and Penn Manor is we have very little materials, don’t have enough desks and chairs and no audio and visual learning equipment.”

“One of the things we’re hoping to do is a teacher exchange.” Garcia said, “where teachers from Honduras would come here and teachers from here would go to Honduras. Hopefully that experience would create a positive attitude for the teachers.”

“We can learn a lot of things from coming here and seeing the education in America,” Garcia added.

Honduras is the second poorest country in the Americas, and it shows in their budget.

“Teachers make about $400 a month and we have about 300 teachers,” Garcia said.

That’s a sliver of the $67 million annual Penn Manor’s budget.

With 6900 kids in their district, compared to 5500 in Penn Manor, there isn’t enough money for every kid to have pencils or every teacher to have chalk. This makes education in Honduras very challenging, to say the least.

Mentzer explained that the money the school receives is paid directly by their central government. Yet, the school district is extremely reliant on generous people around the world to help pay for education for their students.

By Jessen Smith

Walking into school in the morning, many Penn Manor students are noticing the yellow caution tape leading into the building.

Students are buzzing about the reasons for the tape. Rumors circulated concerning replacing steps, new light fixtures and school vandalism.

The real cause, according to school officials, is deteriorating ceilings.

Penn Manor High School’s principal Phillip Gale said the problems began to show over the summer after a part of the ceiling collapsed. The Dryvit, an external finishing material, was installed with a poor structural system. The screws used in the structure were too small to support the weight placed upon them. Because the screws could not hold the weight, the Dryvit began to pull away.

Over the years, the weather  has weakened the existing structure even more. Any rain water that was collected above the ceiling made its way into puddles above the Dryvit. The sitting water had been forcing the ceiling to part from the hardware. The risk and danger brought about by the deterioration was on a rise.

But is the Dryvit unsafe?   “Yes,” Gale said.

After seeing the caving of the outside ceiling, Penn Manor officials called professionals in to perform architectural studies of the structure.  The results proved the need for a reconstructed ceiling.

To keep the students out of harm’s way, caution tape has been put around all areas where the original Dryvit is still in place. The tape runs from the stairs leading outside of the bridge, under the overhangs outside of the cafeteria, all the way to the stairwell leading to Central Complex.

There is no hazard facing the students or faculty as long as they remain in the designated areas, Gale indicated.

All Dryvit in the walking path had been safely removed before school began in August, he said.

In order to fix the ceiling, the  existing Dryvit will be demolished. The demolition and construction should be completed by January of 2011.

In a recent article in the Lancaster New Era, Penn Manor’s superintendent Mike Leichliter, said the new overhangs will be installed with aluminum.

After it is taken down, a new structure will be installed that is much safer and will eliminate all threats the old one may have previously posed.

Because the original contractor built the structure to standards of that year, they are not liable for the costs of the project.

As of now there is no set cost for the demolition and re-installation. The district currently has the job out to bid. The price of the construction will depends on the bid themselves and the decisions of the overseers.

Penn Manor plans on paying for the costs with district funds as well as capital funds. Gale said the rests of the costs should be covered by the school’s insurance.

No other major projects are scheduled for Penn Manor High School in the near future.

By Toni Warfel

It’s that time of year again. Lace up your boots and pull that wool hat snug around your ears. The annual Penn Manor ski trip to snow-capped mountains in the great state of Vermont will be held this year from February 10th to the 13th.

The trip will cost $350, which includes bus fair, lodging in Vermont and lift tickets used to access the slope’s ski lifts. The cost also goes toward some of the meals skiers will be eating in the snowy north.

“I’m really looking forward to Stowe mountain,” said Penn Manor senior Kyle Kahn,  “I have been there before and it has by far, THE best slopes on the East Coast.”

Unfortunately, unlike last year, the skiers will not be staying on the slopes of Killington, but instead will be staying in Northern Lights Lodge, located two miles from the bases of mountains Sugarbush and Stowe.

“I’m really excited because I’ve heard it’s one of the best slopes on the East Coast,” said Tyler Wilson.

“Killington is just too busy, Stowe and Sugarbush are much better and are my favorite mountains to go to,” said William Zapata, a nine-year ski trip chaperon and teacher at Penn Manor. Zapata also coaches girls’ soccer, ”

Last year was our smallest group,” he said. “We’ll have to see how quickly the buses fill up this year.”

“I’m looking forward to having the option to ride on two new [to the ski trip group] mountains. But I am pretty upset that we have to get up at the crack of dawn, and drive 45 minutes to the slope,” School Resource Officer Jason Hottenstein said.  “Two years ago it was so cold that I didn’t even take my skis off the bottom of the bus.”

By Ben Embry and Dillon Walker

Penn Manor students and faculty are going to be tested on how much they care about the environment.

A new recycling initiative, originally started by facilitator of the gifted, Sallie Bookman along with Jake Shiner, Mike Nitroy, Sarah Schaeffer, Kate Harrold and Ellen Blazer, was created after they attended a leadership conference in Penn State last spring.

“I do it at home so its hard not for me to do it,” said Bookman. “Its a good thing for all of us to do.”

At the leadership conference they had to pick one thing that they thought their school needs to improve on. Another school decided that improving on school spirit would best fit. Penn Manor picked recycling.

But it didn’t work right away.  That was six months ago.

This September a new and improved recycling effort was launched. And now several groups are working together to make sure they succeed, creating a club and getting more people involved.

Learning support teacher Rachel Taylor’s Life Skills students collect used newspapers for recycling and use containers set out by Waste Management.

“Bins randomly showed up after Mrs. Bookman left a message,” Maddy Hess, a senior at Penn Manor High School said.

Extra bins were placed around the school to collect as much recycling materials as possible, including paper cans and empty plastic Turkey Hill bottles.

“By law, the school is required to recycle,” Hess said.

Everyday Penn Manor High School goes through an average of 800-1000 plastic Turkey Hill bottles.

One of the group efforts is to contact Millersville businesses to donate money in exchange for their logo that will be placed on the back of a recycling t-shirt to be sold at high school lunches in the near future, which will also support the environmental effort.

By Mary Treier