#1StudentNWI: Portage High School in the Spotlight

#1StudentNWI: Portage High School in the Spotlight

Drake Bell in the Building

On Monday September 17, Portage High School got the opportunity of a lifetime. One of the largest traveling arts festival, High School Nation, came to PHS.

High School Nation is an arts festival that tours the country visiting different high schools and promoting the arts in schools. The festival not only promotes the arts but encourages them as well.

At the festival students were able to play music inspired games to win prizes, learn dances from choreographers, make crafts, and listen to artists perform. The festival is sponsored by Takis. The festival had arisit performing such as Kerri Medders, Nikki Wives, and Drake Bell.

Bell, a famous actor as well as musician was very excited to kick off the fall tour at PHS.

“This is around my fifth or sixth tour,” Bell said, “it was just awesome and an amazing kick off to the fall tour.”

1Student-Portage-September-2017-02PHS was one of three schools in the state of Indiana to receive a visit from the tour. The tour not only brings the arts to the school in a festival setting, but also donates to the school in a signficant way. High School Nation donated $30,000 to PHS for use in their music department.

Friday Flyover

On Friday, September 29 PHS is getting another great opportunity brought to the school. ABC7 News in Chicago has chosen PHS to be a part of their Friday Flyover special.

The Friday Flyover is where ABC7 flies their traffic helicopter over the football field of the school and gives the school a chance to showcase its school spirit.

During the flyover one should be looking out for interviews with student athletes, formations on the football field put on by students, athletes, and the marching band, as well as interviews with faculty. The PHS cheer team, dance team, football team, marching band, and many more will be present to represent PHS!

The flyover is a way for PHS to show the chicagoland area their spirit and love for the school. Anyone from PHS is allowed to attend, and the event is counted as volunteer hours for freshman, sophomores, and juniors at the high school.

The event will be from 5-7 a.m. at the Portage High School football field on September 29th. It will air on T.V during the 5 a.m. broadcast of ABC News on channel 7.

Teacher Spotlight

1Student-Portage-September-2017-03Spanish teacher Natalie Krause is fairly new to PHS but has already made an impact on students lives. Krause is a spanish I and II teacher at the school as well as the spanish club advisor. This is Krause's’ second year teaching at PHS alongside her husband. Krause is not only involved inside the high school but does a lot outside of the high school as well.

Krause is an active marathon runner, having run 25 total marathons so far.

On the weekend of September 15 she officially ran her 25th marathon. This was a huge step and accomplishment to her.

“My goal is to run 50 marathons by the age of 50.” Krause said.

By hitting her 25th marathon, she is half way there. But this wasn’t the only accomplishment from this 25th race. Krause also beat her personal record time. This was a huge accomplishment for her as she has been working on improving her time since she ran the Boston marathon this past spring.

Krause will be running more marathons in the future and is planning on running her third Boston marathon this upcoming spring.

Student Spotlight

1Student-Portage-September-2017-04On Friday, September 22 PHS had their homecoming game during which they crowned their homecoming queen and Mr. football.

This year the homecoming queen was senior Jamie Valadez and Mr. football was football player and senior, Drake Guerrero.

Valadez is a cheer team captain, student council member, captain's council member, and student mentor. She has been cheering at the high school for four years now and has been cheering competitively for a while as well. Not only that but Valadez was on the gymnastics team at the high school her freshman year.

Valadez is very involved at the high school as well as in extracurricular activities. She is well known around the school not only for cheer but for her work in the newspaper. Valadez has been involved in publications since her junior year. She is a staff writer for PHS’ Pow Wow (newspaper) and writes mainly sports stories but enjoys writing any type of story given to her.

She says she is very thankful for the opportunity to be homecoming queen this year.

“This is something I’ve wanted since I was a freshman,” Valadez said, “it’s just something I really wanted and I can’t believe my dream really came true.”

Valadez was nominated through the cheer team and had couldn’t be more thankful. She said how she’d like to thank everyone that helped her put up signs and helped her along the way, as well as everyone who voted for her.

Special thanks to Hope Anderson for providing the photo of Jamie Valadez!