Life in the Spotlight

Portage High School chemistry teacher Heather Castle does it all. She teaches, sponsors PHS YAR (Young Adult Readers) book club, Recycling Club and coaches PHS’s Academic Super Bowl Team (for science) and coaches the Science Olympiad team. Castle...

Clichés about “hard work paying off” and “practice making perfect” could not describe someone more accurately than Portage High School senior Mackenzie Barcelli. After four years of total devotion to academics, athletics and extra-curricular...

Balancing a job, advanced placement classes, athletics and managing Portage High School’s yearbook staff (the Legend) sounds impossible for most people, but not for PHS Legend Editor-in-Chief Nick Jordan. With all these responsibilities, Jordan is...

Portage boys basketball coach Rick Snodgrass has had plenty of success on the court. He has earned a reputation of turning programs around, dedicated 29 years to coaching high school basketball, captured three sectional championships and won 298...

Portage High School junior Amanda Haupt has made her mark on all aspects of the school. Haupt pulls off the rare combination of excelling in academics, athletics, community service and theater. Haupt has been a member of the tennis team since picking...

Last fall, Midwest Family Federal Credit Union President and CEO John Peterson sat at a Greater Portage Chamber of Commerce banquet waiting to find out the winner of the 2012 Volunteer of the Year Award. As the presenter read through the comments...

Simply put, Portage High School senior Eric Mesarch has rocked all aspects of high school. Mesarch, recently named the 2013 PHS Outstanding Young Man, has stood out in the classroom, on the baseball field, as a leader and as a person. Mesarch...

What inspired Mark Monks to become a police officer was the idea that he could help people and change the world. Twenty years later, he has realized that what he enjoys most is working to help others and informing young children about the duties of a...

A lot has changed in the Portage Parks and Recreation Department over the last quarter of a century. The programs have grown and evolved, Prairie Duneland Trail has formed, Imagination Glenn Park has expanded and the Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk...

When Portage Parks Superintendent Jenny Orsburn was interviewed by PortageLife.com last month, she aptly dubbed Portage Director of Public Works A.J. Monroe as “Mr. Portage.” Monroe, a PHS graduate and longtime resident of the city, oversees the...