#1StudentNWI: Students Remain Busy at Washington Township High School

#1StudentNWI: Students Remain Busy at Washington Township High School

Tests Are Never Over

Every high school student remembers taking ISTEPs in middle school. Those three days were exhausting. Well, this year’s freshmen and sophomores thought it was over, but they thought wrong. Starting this year sophomores and freshmen in have to take a new required ISTEP. The tests are never over.

Sophomore Kortney Wilgus thought she was done with I-Steps and only had to worry about ECAs, SATs, ACTs, and finals in high school. However this year she had to take a math ISTEP and an English ISTEP.

“I don’t think that we will ever be done with ISTEPs because they keep getting them back even though they promised us that we would be done after 8th grade”, says Kortney.

The test will never end for high school students. They have to worry about SATs, ACTs, and college and now they have to worry about ISTEPs. This test is very important, though. It is just another thing to put on an already busy high schooler’s plate.

Spring Break 2016

This year at Washington Township spring break starts at the end of March. Students are already looking forward to a week break. Some of them have big plans and others are just spending the week relaxing.

Senior Trenton Rhodes will be staying home this year. He plans on hanging out with his friends the whole week.

However, others have plans to travel this break. Freshman Ethan Jones will be traveling down to Orlando, Florida with his friend and his family.

“I am most excited for the warm weather and the beaches”, says Ethan. Last year for spring break he also went to Florida with another one of his friends.

Hopefully everyone at WT, either staying home or traveling, has a fun and safe spring break!

Kyla Banaski Hearts Her Vocational

This year for her senior year, Kyla Banaski decided to do something different with her schedule. She took a jump and enrolled in a vocational at Portage High School. Kyla is currently taking the Health Science class. This class will get her more prepared for her future career. When she gets older she wants to be a physician's assistant.

“I have known for a while that I have wanted to be a part of the health field so I knew taking this vocational at Portage would provide me with the basics that I need to know and give me clinical experience before starting college," says Kyla.

This is Kyla’s first year of vocational. She didn’t enroll in a class last year because she still needed credits for her academic honors. Kyla definitely does not regret taking it this year though. She says the most interesting activity the class did in school was when they dissected a sheep heart.

Kyla says, “We have two different types of clinicals in my class. We have on-site clinical experience that we do all year at Portage NorthShore offices. During the months of March and April, we do off-site clinical experience which is more like job shadowing. If we are lucky our on-site doctors will actually let us do vital signs and greet some patients."

For those months of March and April, the students get to pick where they would like to spend their days working. Kyla is choosing to spend them at the Lakeshore Bone and Joint Institute, which is exciting.

Kyla is really happy she chose the class that she did. She has made great friends there and has really received the experience to help her next year in college while she’s on her way to becoming a physician’s assistant.

Mrs. Moore and DECA

“DECA inspires future leaders, entrepreneurs and professionals by igniting a passion in the fields of marketing, finance, hospitality, and management” (IndianaDECA.org). This month DECA advisor, Julie Moore, lead the Washington Township High School DECA team to victory. Just on the first of the month, the team traveled down to Indianapolis for the State competition where they did very well.

“Through DECA, students become academically prepared, community oriented, professionally responsible, and experienced leaders” (DECA.org).

This year Mrs. Moore has 29 high schoolers that are a part of this club. At this year’s District competition many students got first in their category. Jimmy Cox and Sam Soucie received first in the Buying and Merchandising section. Tiffany Miller got number one in the Hospitality and Tourism Professional Selling division and James McKean got first in Professional Selling. Also a congratulations to Natalie Burchert for being elected the new District 1 president.

“My favorite part about being a DECA advisor for Washington Township is seeing the competition. I love seeing the students compete!” says Mrs. Moore. She really enjoys helping the students succeed and better work for their future.

This is Mrs. Moore’s tenth year being an advisor and hopes to continue doing it in the future years.