The Portage Exchange Club welcomed PHS grad Brandon Vickrey as its guest speaker at the August 7 meeting. Vickrey had been at guest at Exchange on two other occasions: once four years ago as one of four outstanding freshmen and last November as one of the Senior Students of the Month.
Vickrey was invited back to tell the club how he left his mark on Portage High School by starting the student radio station, PowWowRadio.net, an online versions of the school newspaper and an online magazine. His long-time friend and co-creator of the various online publications, Collin Czilli, was supposed to speak also but was unable to make the meeting because of his work schedule.
Vickrey praised PHS for affording him and other students such a variety of options for exploring their interests and talents.
“There are not many other schools that offer as many opportunities as Portage. We have Student Council, athletics, ROTC, the music programs, fine arts, vocational. There is something for everyone who wants to get involved. And if something didn’t exist, they gave us the opportunity to explore it. As freshmen, Collin (Czilli) and I approached then Assistant Principal Tom Sanidas. He had been our principal when we were at Myers Elementary School. We wanted to start a student radio station. Mr. Sanidas trusted us and let us run with it. That’s pretty amazing."
"We've had so much support from the administration and staff. Besides Mr. Sanidas, the principal Mrs. (Caren) Swickard and the publications teacher Mrs. (Melissa) Deavers-Lowie have been incredibly supportive of our efforts."
During their sophomore year, they started reporting school news on the closed circuit system three days a week.
“Eric Mesarch did the sports highlights. The students got to see themselves on TV and got a kick out of that,” Vickrey said.
Besides being involved in media at PHS, he was a member of Student Council and National Honor Society. He also covered many athletic competitions and other extracurricular activities, taking photos and doing write-ups for PortageLife.com, an all-positive community online news outlet. He announced several Gary Rail Cats games and for the past two summers did the PA announcing for the Northwest Indiana Oilmen of the Midwest Collegiate League out of Whiting, Indiana. He just learned on August 15 that he was selected by the Oilmen as the Director of Communications. His job will include play-by-play broadcasting and public relations.
Vickrey is also a freshman at Valparaiso University. He plans to major in Digital Media, looking to have a career eventually in broadcasting or sports information.
“I’m going to miss Portage High School and all the things we’ve been involved in. But we are leaving it in good hands. We’d like to come back in ten years and see how it has progressed and know that we started it."
“The one piece of advice I would give to incoming high schoolers is: Take advantage of all the opportunities at Portage. You’ll get so much more out of it. Get involved!”