What's recently happened?
Former Merrillville High School (MHS) Student Aniya Edwards struggled to decide what her career would be. Many current students are now in the same position she was.
Edwards graduated MHS in 2019, and she is now at Purdue University - West Lafayette getting her masters in Civil Engineering. When she looked back on her high school experience, she remembered the challenges of picking out a potential career pathway. She decided to come back to MHS to expand students’ knowledge of engineering.
“I knew I wanted to do an outreach of it.” Edwards said. “When I went to high school, I didn’t really know what engineering was. My junior year I think that was the first time they established a civil or engineering class here. Now that I know what it is I’m going to do, I’ll go back and let everybody know what it was”.
Getting the word out about engineering is important to her because she almost majored in something entirely different.
“You have certain people that are good at things you know, and they make it,” Edwards said. “You’re an A student, honor roll, and you’re taking all these AP classes, but you don’t really know what exactly you should choose”.
Along with teaching different branches of engineering, she also focused on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs refers to making sure all needs are met before making big decisions, such as a career.
“It’s a universal concept, but a lot of people struggle with decision making, and usually, we like to trivialize it in high school, but that problem exists outside,” she said. “That problem exists when people are old and people don’t know what they’re trying to do or what they want to prioritize. I really wanted to focus on what helps with that, which is prioritizing what you need in the most basic form.”
Fully understanding the weight of a decision is what Edwards wanted to push by adding this point to her presentation.
“Any help I can give when it comes to getting insight on what the next step is after high school I’m like, ‘I have to show them, you know, they need it.’” Edwards said. “If they want that advice, then I’ll for sure be there.”
What’s coming up?
MHS’ new Girl’s Wrestling team have proved themselves to be fighters. The team has an undefeated record of 7-0.
One of the seniors on the team, Joy Cantu, is ranked number one in the state for 110 pounds. Joy Cantu was the first girl to join the Boy’s Wrestling team, and she is now one of the reasons MHS decided to add a girl’s team.
Joy Cantu’s sister, Julianne Cantu, is also highly ranked. She is ranked number three for 130 pounds as a freshman. Other members of the team have made top 20 in the state and will hopefully continue out the season with this same momentum.
The team will go against Chesterton High School and Central Noble High School before going to IHSAA Sectionals, Regionals, and Finals.
Staff spotlight:
Paul Unterfranz is one of MHS’s 10th grade English teachers. He is the teacher for the majority of our academic teams including Quiz Bowl and Academic Superbowl.
He was originally a history major, but after experiencing being at MHS, he decided to come back as an English teacher.
“I started subbing here and I liked it,” Unterfranz said. “I went back and got my license to teach and then I always wanted to come back here because it seemed like a place that fit. The students were good, I just felt comfortable here.”
Students are a big part of teaching. Leaving a long-lasting impression is important.
“I try to impact them with consistency,” he said. “I don’t like missing a whole bunch of days – I like being here just so that there’s some consistency. I think a lot of the time, especially with teenagers, a lot of things are changing, so I like to hopefully be a consistent aspect of people’s lives.”
Unterfranz also impacts students by being the teacher for Quiz Bowl and Academic Superbowl.
“I usually leave every competition impressed by what you guys know,” Unterfranz said. “I wouldn’t have known that stuff when I was a teenager so to see a 16, 17, 18 year old knowing that stuff. It is very impressive.”
This is a chance for MHS academics to shine.
“Athletics are great and there’s always those opportunities,” he said. “With arts, there’s always those opportunities but there doesn’t always seem like there’s opportunities for students to gain recognition for academics outside of the classroom. These teams provide that”.
Student spotlight:
In a world where violence can fill screens and reach young children, Freshman Zion Eastland wants to go against it all.
Eastland learned to play the drums from his father. As he grew older he advanced and learned how to play the bass guitar, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, and is currently learning the violin. By hearing about his father’s life full of music, he wanted to live his life similarly.
“Music is important to me because I think music is the only way the world can really change,” Eastland said.
There are a lot of issues that impact the world, but Eastland wants to focus on one main idea.
“I don’t like the fact that people get judged so much for their style or their skin color,” Eastland said.
He looks up to musicians who share his same mindset. Eastland wants to become someone who can stop violence altogether.
“It’s like just when you look at it, Michael Jackson and all other people had peace movements,” he said. “A lot of violence is just kind of unreasonable.”
The disastrous concert called Woodstock ‘69 was an act of violence that moved him. The overcrowding in the concert caused multiple deaths, but seeing how attendees reacted inspired him.
“Everybody was just trying to help each other because there was a food shortage,” he said.
Even while the attendees were going through a traumatic event, they still tried to help each other the best they could. That event impacted many people and Eastland hopes to impact people in the same way through his music.
“I hope if I do become a musician then the violence stops,” Eastland said.
