Drama Puts on the Addams Family
On November 13-15, the GHS drama department held their fall musical, The Addams Family. In previous years, the drama department hosted drama night in the fall where they put on a few mini plays, but this year they put on one big musical. Doing the Addams Family musical for the fall show was not a bad idea because 883 tickets were sold and they raised $6,100 in total. Their highest selling show before the Addams Family was Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory the Musical in the spring of 2014 which sold around 600 tickets.
“Theater has been a big part of my high school life. I remember going to see Little Shop of Horrors when I was in the 8th grade and thinking: ‘I want to do that’. So I joined and I fell into one of the most supportive and loving families of people I’ve ever known. Not only do I get to do what I love (acting), I have developed greatly as a person,” said senior Scott Nolan.
Now, the drama department is getting ready to compete at state and the directors are already brainstorming ideas for the spring show.
Paranormal Society: First Trips of the Year
The GHS Paranormal Society is run by the school cop Officer Peter Ghrist. This year there are over 70 students taking part in the club which is much more than previous years. Since there are so many students in the club, they take two trips (14 people on each trip) to each location and it is done by a first come, first serve basis.
“I joined paranormal society with a group of my friends because we thought it would be an exciting experience and a great way to hang out with all of my friends. I love scary movies and ghost shows so I figured this was the right club for me,” said junior Chyna Rex
They started off the year by taking their first trip to the Crown Point Court House. They recently took their second trip to the old Crown Point jail which, students have said, was the scariest trip so far.
Student Shout-Out:
Dana Jelenski is a name that is well known by many students at GHS due to Jelenski taking part in so many school clubs and activities. Not only is she the president of the junior class council and international club president, she also takes part in drama, art club, student council, booster club, and much more. She also takes part in a new club to the school, best buddies, which is where students get to interact and become friends with the GHS special needs students.
On top of all of that, she is also a member of NHS, FCCLA, paranormal society, and has been in girl scouts since she was in pre-school. She is also a dance teacher at Griffith’s YMCA for ages 3-5. With all of her extra curricular activities, she takes on AP English 12, AP US History, and pre-calculus honors.
Teacher Shout-Out:
Lorrainne Hageman has been teaching at Griffith for 11 years. She started as a part-time English teacher and was only supposed to teach at Griffith for one year. She then moved to teaching French and has been teaching French at Griffith ever since and is the only French teacher. She attended Purdue Calumet and got her bachelors degree in French international studies and minored in English. Hageman studied abroad for six weeks in Northern Quebec and has been to multiple places around the world.
She decided to share her love for all of the different cultures by helping out international club and she been in charge of the club since 2006. In previous years, Hageman and the international club went on vacations in France, Madrid, Spain, and Ireland.