#1StudentNWI: Upcoming Basketball Games and Theater Department Events for Lowell High School

#1StudentNWI: Upcoming Basketball Games and Theater Department Events for Lowell High School

Student Spotlight

Despite sophomore student Damien Rex only being in theater for two years, he landed a substantial role in Lowell’s fall play, Arsenic and Old Lace.

Arsenic and Old Lace is a play that follows the antics of a family that is seemingly harmless. Throughout the play, the secrets of the family unfold, telling the story of the true craziness within.

Damien played the role of Jonathan Brewster, the diabolical brother of the main character. “It felt awesome to play someone with evil intentions. It was really cool having people comment after the show about how creepy I was,” explained Damien.

While Damien said the hardest part of the role was the memorization, he was able to overcome this and have a very successful performance. Damien did an excellent job of encapsulating the creepy aspect of the character, which increased the entertainment value of the play.

Damien decided to continue with theater based off of his interest in acting as well as his passion for music. His interest has only increased and he has found himself really enjoying theater.

“I really like getting to embody different characters and be different each time. I also really like being on stage and having people watch and enjoy our performance,” shared Damien.

We look forward to seeing Damien’s future performances in the Theater Department.

Teacher Spotlight

Mrs. Bell is a math teacher that is known by her students to be an excellent teacher. This year, she was recognized by the AP-TIP for her accomplishments.

AP-TIP (Advanced Placement Teacher Investment Program) is an Institute For Educational Initiatives that was created by the University of Notre Dame. Their mission is to improve the quality of Advanced Placement classes for students around Indiana, consequently improving test scores.

Lowell High School participates in the AP-TIP IN program, which means they receive year-round incentives. These include extensive training of teachers, additional time-on-task for students through tutoring and exam preparation, and financial incentives for students and teachers when testing yields the qualifying scores.

In November, Mrs. Bell was named AP-TIP Math Teacher of the Year for her teaching of AP Statistics.

“Winning AP Teacher of the Year was very rewarding. AP TIP is a really useful program and I had the chance to work with some great teachers. I've been lucky enough to have success with my AP program, and I credit this program for a lot of that success. For them to choose me from this group of teachers was definitely an honor.” Mrs. Bell said of winning the award.

She has 15 years of teaching experience, five of which being at Lowell High School. In this time, she has made an impact on the students through her teaching style and fun personality. This year, she teaches Probability and Statistics, AP Statistics, Algebra I, and next semester, Algebra II.

“I think math benefits students in more ways than they know. There is a lot of logic in math and it helps with problem solving skills. I think Stats in particular is useful, it's the only math class I've ever taught where I haven't heard, ‘When am I going to use this?’”, shared Mrs. Bell.

All of us at Lowell High School are pleased to have such an awesome teacher like Mrs. Bell, and we look forward to continuing to succeed and learn more in her math classes.

What’s Happened?

On November 8-11, the Lowell Theater Department performed the play, Arsenic and Old Lace. The students did a great job of playing the quirky characters, especially seniors Destini Mink and Lauren Ritter, as leads Abby and Martha Brewster.

Lowell High School has also been recently running several fundraisers for organizations in the area. L-Club is currently running the Hope Center Project. The Hope Center provides emotional support and informational resources to families battling cancer in Northwest Indiana. L-Club is running several raffles during multiple Lowell basketball games to raise money for this organization.

Additionally, the Lowell High School National Honor Society is hosting a fundraiser for Mommy’s Haven. Mommy’s Haven is a Lowell-based organization that empowers and equips pregnant women who are seeking parenting options. By providing physical, emotional, and spiritual support during and after pregnancy, this organization is able to really benefit the lives of these women. The fundraiser is currently taking place, and is a competition between grades to see who can bring in the most items. Each grade is assigned different items to bring, and whichever grade brings in the most will win a prize.

NHS has also announced Lowell’s first ever senior trip, which will take place in spring at Navy Pier. The day will consist of two hours spent on a boat on Lake Michigan. During this time, there will be a lunch buffet, games, and a panoramic picture. Afterwards, students will also have time to hang out at Navy Pier.

What’s Coming Up?

The Shakespeare Festival performed by the Dramatic Literature class will take place on December 13 and 14. This is a six-show performance, highlighting some of Shakespeare’s work with scenes, parodies, and songs. This year’s theme is Shakespeare ‘N Out, based off of the show Wild N’ Out.

Coming up on December 7, both the boy’s and girl’s basketball teams have games. The boys take on Valparaiso at home, and the girls face off against Munster away.

The North Pole at Lowell will take place On December 18, from 4 to 7 PM in the Lowell High School Cafeteria. The cost of admission is $5 per child ages 2-11. Come out and enjoy taking pictures with Santa, playing games with Santa’s helpers, making your own Christmas ornament, playing a Christmas cookie walk game, and writing letters to deployed soldiers!

Our first semester ends on December 21, which also kicks off Winter Break. Winter Break ends on January 6 when we come back to start classes for second semester.