#1StudentNWI: Fall Beginnings at Lowell High School

Homecoming
A typical weekend for a Lowell student usually kicks off with a Friday night football game. The first weekend of October, however, had something a little more special planned. Not only did the game include amazing plays from the varsity football team, but it also provided an opportunity for many other student groups to participate in the celebration. A few hours after the school’s pep rally, fans were filling the stands in preparation for the big game. Lowell’s advanced chorus, Premiere Distinction, started the game with the national anthem while ROTC presented the colors. After that, the game was off. The white-out themed fan section was cheering as loud as they could the whole night.

Half-time gave the marching band a chance to present what they had been working hard at for many weeks, before the debut of the homecoming court. Freshman Eli Love and Rachel Kampe, sophomores James Sanders and Lauren Kazer, and juniors Trever Espravnik and Hope Poortenga took the field representing the 2016 homecoming court. They were soon followed by the senior nominees; Darion Hornickle and Sara Lewandowski, Nikola Stefoski and Maddy Nowak, Costen King and Makenna Smith, and finally the king and queen Isaac James and Riley Schilling.

Representing your school in your homecoming court is an experience many never have, Makenna speaks of her experience saying “I felt honored to be nominated for homecoming queen with my best friend since kindergarten. We might not have won, but we are trying again for prom!”

Students spent the next day prepping for the dance. Between the stress of the game, preparation for the dance, and plans after, it was a busy weekend for LHS.

School and Community Events
Lowell’s choir program has been busy this month. Along with their performances at the football games they performed at the pep rally and put on their annual spring concert. The concert featured performances from each of the four choirs with songs varying from barbershop quartets to Adele’s “Someone Like You.” Multiple solos allowed the audience to appreciate the individual talent of students and the combined efforts of the choir as a whole.

After their concert, students also had the chance to watch the performance of the Purdue Glee Club. The experience helped students better understand where they could go with the choir in the future and what exactly they could accomplish in the future.

October is breast cancer awareness month and students and staff of Lowell have done their best to draw attention to the cause. Girl's volleyball holds a dig pink game each year to support the cause and this year was no different. The game was fierce and drew quite the crowd, just as it does each year. The fun event lets students support each other and a worthy cause.

In the community, six girls went above and beyond to represent and support their community. Bailee Stover, Bailey Kein, Rebecca Karstensen, Kelly Murphy, Allison Bender, and Morgan Charters each competed to be Lowell’s Distinguished Young Woman.

The scholarship program involved constant practice and dedication to succeed in categories like poise, interview, fitness, talent, and a few others. After weeks of work, Rebecca took the title with Morgan and Kelly placing second and third respectively.

She states; “The program is so helpful for young girls who are on the road to college. Distinguished Young Women allows us to network and create bonds with new people that we wouldn’t normally, and the people we meet are so genuine and kind. As the winner, I can only encourage the next generation of bright, young girls to participate and experience all the wonderful things I did.”

Staff Shoutout:
Lowell High School is very happy to welcome a new Spanish teacher to its staff. Miss Micic comes to Lowell bringing a surplus of experiences. She has traveled the world and taught for twenty years. For seventeen of those years, she worked in Russia at the Anglo-American School. Originally from Crete she can speak six different languages. This year she is teaching Spanish one and two to the students in her classes.

Miss Micic acquired her passion for teaching through tutoring at a college. Working with the students is not only her favorite thing about teaching but is also what she is most excited about for the school years. If she had the opportunity to teach any class she would teach World Culture and History, personally I couldn’t think of anyone better to teach such a class.

Lowell’s students and staff are more than excited to welcome Miss Micic to the team and look forward to seeing what she will do.

Student Shoutout:
Kelly Murphy has been playing instruments since she was four years old. Now, she is the co-captain of the drum line. Since the sixth grade, she has been involved in band. Now she has been marching and drumming for four years and plans to continue in college. Playing center snare now, she not only is in marching band, but also prepares for group and solo ISSMA, pep band, and pit band.

Band requires plenty of commitment so when I asked Kelly what made her want to stay in band she simply stated; “Everybody is like family. If not for the people I probably wouldn’t have stayed even though I love drumming. The people are so inviting, they’re such nice people.”

Kelly also placed third in Distinguished Young Women. “It was great,” she says, “I got so close to all the people in there and I got to meet people I never knew before. I built friendships, a lot of us are from different groups so it was really cool to get to know people different than myself.”

With her busy schedule and numerous achievements, Kelly stays humble crediting much of her motivation to her mother her lead her to always do her best.