What’s recently happened?
After spouts of water from the sky clouded the day of June 9, the evening saw clear skies as Penn High School’s Class of 2025 walked the commencement stage.
Over 850 Penn students came together to raise over $22 million in scholarships from several colleges and universities across the country, from Ivy Tech Community College to the University of Notre Dame and Stanford University.
This cohort’s valedictorians included Zaina Arain, Areej Arif, Joel Benavides, Akul Bhambani, Elizabeth Brady, Chris Chen, Lynn Chung, Matthew Deahl, David Guarraci, Jaanavi Kaushik, Stanley Liew, Lunia Liu, Liam Perrin, Noah Shafer, Sophire Sharpe, Jawad Siddique, Jennifer Yang, and Megan Zhang. The salutatorians were Jacob Bognar, Brock Gibson-Ross, Shin Sakaue, and Noah Sytsma.
Just two weeks after the school’s commencement was held at Notre Dame’s Purcell Pavilion, four Penn students participated in the Summer Apprentice Program from Notre Dame’s Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. The Kingsmen took up one-third of the cohort hosted from June 16-27, and several others are set to participate in the same apprenticeship from July 7-18.
Over the course of these two weeks, Penn Seniors Adriana Aquila, Maria Horner, and Eliza Wright, alongside Penn Junior Ella Durand, explored the vast selection of the Notre Dame Museum while experimenting with several different artistic outlets before creating a project of their choice— from pencil drawing and oil painting to sculpture and mixed media.
“We’ve learned about all of these different and new art methods and techniques, and we’ve been working on a big project that’s going to be in the university’s museum for an exhibition,” Horner said.
On June 28, all apprentices invited their families and friends to the museum for a ceremony commemorating their two weeks of hard work.
The halls and classrooms of both Schmucker Middle School and the district’s high school have been bustling as the Penn Harris Madison (PHM) School District’s annual summer camps have commenced.
Some of these camps, such as the media, speech and debate camps, have taken place at Schmucker due to work being done on the high school's air conditioning system. However, camps like the Robotics Academy rely on their home classrooms for these instructional weeks.
This academy for both elementary and middle school students emphasizes the educational aspects of Penn Robotics, and its purpose is to teach important stem skills and real-life translations to younger students.
What’s coming up?
Plenty more PHM summer camps are set to take place within the next month for the students.
Throughout all of July, many elementary schoolers will participate in the Visual Arts Camp, where they will get to learn all about personal expression through different mediums.
“This camp helps like-minded students from different elementary schools explore, share, and grow their love of art with each other,” Visual Arts Counselor Eliza Wright said. “I love working with the kids who don’t know much about art yet, and this camp gives them a glimpse into the types of media that they don’t usually get to work with in elementary school.”
With the start of the Visual Arts camp, Penn’s athletic camps will also start to ramp up. From July 6-12, both the Boys and Girls Wrestling and the Girls Basketball team camps will take place, with the Penn Football and Girls Volleyball camps set for the week after. On July 22-23, the inaugural Girls Flag Football will be held for prospective players.
The annual St. Joseph County 4-H fair began on June 27 and will remain open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. until July 5. All midway attractions will begin operation at 2 p.m. each day, and $35 unlimited-ride wristbands will be accepted all day on June 27-30 and July 2-5.
From July 18-26, the Elkhart County 4-H fair will take place in Goshen, featuring its usual attractions and a diverse concert lineup. A drone show will take place on both Juyl 21-22, and a demolition derby will wrap the week up at 7:30 p.m. on July 26.
Community member spotlight:
Born and raised in Mishawaka, Steve Hickman is no stranger to hard work. Whether it be in the classroom or in the corn fields, he’s fought through it all. After growing up in the same vicinity he now resides, Hickman received a full-ride athletic scholarship to Manchester University in the late 1970s.
Hickman began his teaching career at LaVille Jr.-Sr. High School before he worked with the School City of Mishawaka for over 30 years. He’d spent time at John Young Middle School, Beiger Elementary School, and Twin Branch Elementary School before retiring in 2024.
Over his several years in education, Hickman has coached football, boys and girls basketball, baseball, and track and field.
“I had played sports and was an athlete my whole life,” Hickman said. “I wanted to stay involved with it, and that’s why I wanted to coach and teach P.E.”
For the majority of his adult life, Hickman has spent countless hours working to keep up the infrastructure that grows the food all Hoosiers eat with the Indiana Crop Improvement Association. He devotes a majority of his time in the summer and fall to coordinating inspections with the farmers of Indiana to ensure that their harvests are growing correctly.
When he’s not working, Hickman can be seen spending time with his pet dogs and with his four grandchildren, or traveling the country, coast to coast. His favorite is the east coast, specifically along the Atlantic Ocean. No matter where he’s traveled, Hickman remains in Mishawaka, where he has established a life for himself and his family.