Student Spotlight
This month’s student spotlight is Zack Mitchell. Mitchell is a sophomore at Westville and has attended the school since kindergarten. His favorite thing about Westville is how much the school has to offer.
“Westville is underestimated in everything from sports to academics,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell has a long list of extracurricular activities that occupy his time. He is involved and active in Cross Country, Track and Field, Basketball, Athletic Council, Science Olympiad, and, his favorite, Advanced Choir. Zack feels advanced choir is a very positive environment and they’re “a small family.”
Choir is also Zack’s favorite class in school, but his favorite subject is science. When Zack isn’t participating in afterschool activities or working on school work he enjoys running, playing basketball, and singing.
Along with being very involved in afterschool activities, Mitchell is also a very dedicated student. His personal goals for this school year include maintaining straight A’s, receiving an award in every sport he plays, and breaking the school record for the two mile run.
After high school, Mitchell plans on going to college for engineering and hopes to participate in some sports. He hopes to get a job at a design company later in life. Mitchell is one of the most dedicated and ambitious students at Westville and is sure to go far in life.
Westville’s First Annual Christmas Tree Lighting
On December 2nd, the Westville Fire Department Auxiliary put on Westville’s First Annual Christmas Tree Lighting at Prairie Meadow Park. The night began at four o’clock with a performance from the Westville High School Band followed by the Advanced Choir. Each group performed a handful of Christmas classics for the spectators to listen to and enjoy.
After the band and choir performances, Santa was escorted by the local police and fire departments for a surprise visit at the event. Kids got the chance to meet Santa and tell him what they wanted for Christmas.
Finally, the Westville Varsity Poms team put on a small performance in front of the Christmas tree before the final act of lighting the tree.
As the performances and activities came to a close, everyone gathered around the tree with their hot cocoa and cookies. Coordinators from fire department said a few words about about the event and then started the countdown. Everyone joined in and was in awe by the beautiful lights. As the night came to a close, everyone was filled with a sense of Christmas spirit. For the first time, the community had a way to come together and celebrate the Christmas season. It was a great way to start this festive time of the year and this is sure to become one of Westville’s many traditions.
What’s Coming Up
It’s that time of year again, and Westville Basketball is in full swing along with all of the special events that come with it, including Homecoming. Homecoming is a two week long affair full of friendly competition, school spirit, and giving back to the community.
The festivities started on December 4th with the canned food drive and coin race. Grades 7-12 each had their own bucket for collecting canned food and monetary donations for the food pantry. Along with going towards a good cause, all the the donations counted as points for each grade in the spirit week competition.
The following week marked the beginning of Spirit Week. Every day of the week is given a different theme and each grade receives points for having people dressed up in their themed attire. On the final day of the spirit week competition, Friday the 15th, a pep rally will be thrown to help raise school spirit even more and pump everyone up for the big game.
The fun will continue at 7 o’clock when the boys start their game against Kouts High School. During the game, the winning grade of the spirit competition will be announced along with the Homecoming King and Queen. Finally, the festivities will wrap up with the Homecoming dance where students will be able to dance the night away. Homecoming is sure to be a fun night for all and a great source of school spirit.
Teacher Spotlight
This month’s teacher spotlight is Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith has been a teacher for thirty-four years, four of which he’s been at Westville. Throughout his time as a teacher, he also taught at Hebron, Southwest Michigan, Chicago, and Gary.
In order to get to this point in his career, he had to go to school for Ag Education and NRES (Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences). He graduated from Andrean High School and then took classes at Purdue University, University of Illinois, and Chicago State University.
At Westville, Mr. Smith teaches numerous classes in his field, including Agriculture Mechanics, Landscape Management, Animal Science, Ag Business, and Intro to Agriculture. He also sponsors the FFA (Future Farmers of America) club, and Student Council. Mr. Smith’s favorite part about teaching is, “working with a variety of people, adults and students alike.”
It is clear that Mr. Smith loves his field of study because he spends a great deal of his free time on agricultural related activities. He is a park ranger at the Dunes and enjoys hiking and gardening. An interesting fact about Mr. Smith is that he was a park ranger at Pulmin National Park for thirty-one years. He was also voted best hair his senior year in high school.
Mr. Smith is one of the kindest and most passionate teachers at Westville, and his own love of agriculture shows in his work and is passed down to many of his students.