What’s recently happened?
December is always a busy time at Riley High School (RHS) with finals and many events during the winter months to keep the positivity in the air.
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” was recently performed by the RHS Drama Club with two nights of performances and one day. They then had auditions for “Hello Dolly,” a musical from 1969.
Following that were a bunch of meets for Boys and Girls Wrestling. The Swim and Dive team had a city meet at its home school.
The Boys Basketball team partnered with Center of the Homeless, Hope Ministries, and St. Margaret's House celebrating their second annual “Just for Kicks” game. They provided shoe donations for the Christmas season.
Speaking of fundraisers, an entrepreneur college class came up with a project called Do Good December. The class collected toys and books that will be donated to the Ronald McDonald House Charities in South Bend, rewarding the top two donors with a prize.
Honoring the recent passing of Guidance Counselor Charan Richards, the counseling department is having its sisterhood coat drive. These were donated to RHS’s feeder school, Monroe Elementary School.
Overall RHS has helped the community greatly with many different drives, providing people access to resources they were unable to obtain.
What's coming up?
Winter break and the holidays are finally near as we get closer to the end of the year. Students have two weeks to spend time with their family and friends, and just time to gather themselves for the upcoming rest of the school year.
“I'm excited for winter break because I get to go on vacation to El Salvador to visit my family,” RHS Student Erika Nicodemus said. “It's nice for students and staff to be able to focus on their family time rather than schoolwork.”
Sports will continue through the next year including basketball, wrestling and swimming.
Senior events will start to become more frequent starting January, celebrating the upcoming graduation of the class of 2025.
RHS’s principal posted on “Riley Recap” that his school will continue to “Raise The Bar.” He is working to work towards an academically successful school year. He set goals such as reading comprehension levels and attendance rates.
Staff spotlight:
Jennifer Bauwens-Byers, who teaches human services, has been a great example of being inclusive about the holidays. She maintains cultural awareness in the classroom so that all of her students feel welcome during this time of year.
“It’s really important as a social worker, to not only know about the different cultures, but probably most importantly to me is that everybody feels safe in my room and feels good about being in my room and feels like they can be who they are,” Byers said.
She set up decorations for Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa, having her students help make the decorations. She makes sure to ask students questions about the holidays to make sure she is being correct about what she teaches. She put up some videos for her classes to teach them more about the holidays.
Besides the December holidays, she keeps her mind open, learning about the different holidays throughout the year, such as the Lunar New Year.
As for the holidays, she believes that traditions are important, making memories while thinking of past memories.
For her, it's the best time being with family because she's with people that she cares about and people she knows very well. She likes being able to let loose and be yourself.
As a person, she gets a lot out of being a teacher.
“Teaching is about connecting with the students and seeing them learn and do their best and grow,” Byers said.
Family time and traditions are important to her, as for many people, and as these holidays are coming up, more people get to experience this.
Student spotlight:
Since winter break is close, many students are finishing activities such as plays. Kate Eliza Watterson recently participated in RHS's “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” She was a fairy; a dancing role. Her group took creative liberty into making the fairies bug-like and scary. She also helped with other tasks in the play.
She’s been in choir for four years, using her singing experience to audition for the next play, which will be a musical. She hopes to get a lead role but will also be happy for the ensemble.
This holiday season she plans on spending time with her family, which is a very important thing to do, especially if you have the time.
She also receives a lot of support from her friends.
“My close friends are my biggest supporters, especially my best friend. He helps me out a lot,” Watterson said.
Friends and family are an important part of life and help people get through school. Watterson has friends from school who support her through everything.