Tippecanoe Valley: Giving Back

               Throughout the past, Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation has given back to the community tremendously.  But in the 2013-2014 school year, Valley has helped out in several projects, such as cleaning up damage from November’s tornadoes, having a fundraiser for a family after the loss of a loved one, and participating in a toy drive.  All of the schools have helped the surrounding community in many ways; whether a cake raffle or a community service day, Valley’s students know what it means to serve the community.

               As mentioned in a previous post, November tornadoes destroyed several farms within the community, leaving a mess of debris behind.  But, with the help of students from Mrs. Paxton’s agriculture classes and community members, the destruction was cleaned up within a matter of hours.  Without their help, it would have taken much longer for the affected families to repair buildings and pick up debris.

               Also, near the end of 2013, a Tippecanoe Valley student lost a family member after a tragic accident.  In order to help the family, one of the student’s friends, sophomore Monica Hatfield, set up a fundraiser with Home Economics teacher Mrs. Deb Zawlocki.  For one school day, students could pay $1 to wear a hat, and $5 for both pajamas and a hat.  The money went to the student’s family.  When asked how it felt to help out a friend, Hatfield said, “It feels amazing to know I’m helping someone.  Especially when it’s for a friend who needs me.”

               Finally, Tippecanoe Valley High School students participated in a toy drive.  All toys were donated to two local charities, Toys for Tots and Helping Hands.  The week-long toy drive brought in more than 500 toys, with the winning classroom donating approximately 200 toys for kids around the community. 

               So, even though Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation might be just people growing up around cornfields and in small towns, it by far has one of the greatest communities around. 

New Class: Political Studies-Part Two

               Seniors in the Political Studies class at Tippecanoe Valley High have entered their second semester of YEA.  During the first part of the class, students came up with an idea for a unique business, and began working on business plans.  The businesses range from children’s educational games to new devices for every-day items such as lockers and automobiles.  Now, with a scholarship and a trip to Florida on the line, the students are wrapping up business plans and venturing out to create their businesses/services.

               Even though Political Studies consists of Government, Economics, and English, the students meet with their YEA! leaders and mentors every Tuesday.  Several community members have dedicated their time and knowledge to helping the students with their business projects.  They give advice on the business plans and suggest ideas for developing the companies.  Senior Cyndi Stamberger, a student in the Political Studies, appreciates the mentors’ help, saying that “they have a lot of life experience and they know what they’re talking about.” 

               Many of the students in Mr. Jeff Shriver’s and Mrs. Melanie’s Mason Political Studies class have great ideas, but only one group will be declared the winner.  The prize: a trip to Florida and a chance to earn a college scholarship.  “I’d really love to win and go to Florida!” Stamberger said.  “I am working with Alicia Carnes, and we are creating a bra with a pocket in it.  It is more convenient for women since most of the outfits we [women] wear don’t have pockets.”  Even though both Carnes and Stamberger are confident in their business, they have both learned that “bras are really difficult to work with.” 

               All in all, the Political Studies class has progressed smoothly with their business plans/projects.  A winner of the project will be announced in May, and the victorious group will present their business plan in Florida.  A final update on this story will be released after the winner’s trip.

November Tornado Damage

Everyone knows that tornadoes are common weather occurrences during Indiana’s peculiar spring and summer weather patterns, but a chain of 26 confirmed tornados throughout the state in the middle of November should cause some alarm. It is known as the second biggest tornado outbreak in Indiana. On November 17^th, three of these tornadoes damaged many parts of our community and devastated a handful of local families. Sophomore Karis Tucker and Freshman Lucas Mills are two students who were stunned to see their farms destroyed by the tornadoes.

There were three tornadoes in Kosciusko County, the first tornado was an EF1 and ran near Talma and went past Mentone. The second one was an EF2 and went from Rock lake to east of Silver Lake. The third tornado was an EF1 tornado going from Oswego to Warsaw.

 Many people realized how bad the devastation was and wanted to help. Church members, fire fighters, police, neighbors, family, and friends from the community graciously helped both farms clean up the destruction.  Fifteen students from TVHS spent their day cleaning up the Mills farm and the Tucker’s farm. With the help of construction crews and the other community members, Tucker farms was almost entirely picked up. The next day twenty students visited the Mills farm for the afternoon and picked up the remainder of the damage.

Junior Cody Demske helped clean up the farms. “I loved knowing I make a difference in someone’s life, its heart breaking to see someone go through that, it’s hard to imagine putting yourself in their place. It was cold but well worth it.”

 All the students and community members courteously sorted through the debris and recycled loose parts they could find. With debris scattered all over the fields and piled on top of each other, the job could have easily taken weeks to clean up but was finished in only three days due to the help from community members. We have an incredible community, when someone is in need of help our community steps forward and helps them. 

Mock Interviews

On Thursday, December 5^th, the freshmen class did their annual mock interviews.  The mock interviews are part of the career planning class taught by Mr. Parker and Mr. Engbrecht. For the last few weeks the freshmen have been preparing for their interview. They have been practicing interview skills along with writing resumes, hand shake, eye contact, appearance, and posture.
                The freshmen have been placed into groups according to their career. There were thirty-one different groups with five to six freshmen in each group. Once every member of the group gets interviewed then the interviewer will choose a winner who gets “hired.” The interviewers were Mr. Parker and Mr. Engbrechts internship and ICE students which are all either juniors or seniors at TVHS. The Interviewers were given the names of their interviewees early and were told to look them up on social media and find out as much information about the student as possible. Some of the freshmen had a wide awakening when their interviewers asked them about some of their inappropriate material that was on their social media. We are hoping that they will now be more cautious about what they put on public media. The interviewers asked them a series of common interview questions and pick a winner based on their answers, speaking, handshake, appearance, posture, and willingness to take notes and ask questions.
                I am a senior at TVHS and I am interning at the hospital next semester, since I would like to become a nurse one day I got six students who  want to become nurses also.  I thought interviewing them was very fun and a good experience. We were also allowed to ask our interviewees a random question that they didn’t know was coming. I asked the same question to all of the freshmen. The question was “what can you bring to this business that no one else can?” while some answered the question very well  there were a few who didn’t do so well but it was entertaining either way. I think the interviews are a good experience for the internship students, ICE students, and career planning students. I hope that the freshmen are more prepared for future interviews and I hope they know what to expect in the future.

Author Mike Mullin Visits TVSC

             With incredible writing and taekwondo skills on hand, Mike Mullin, author of the Ashfall trilogy, visited both the Tippecanoe Valley Middle School and Tippecanoe Valley High School in November. During his time at the schools, Mullin spent time with the TVHS Creative Writing Club, a group where each member’s goal is to write a novel during National Novel Writing Month (November). They learned how to spark their imaginations and improve their writing techniques by creating stories about objects, such as bowling pins and baseball gloves. The group also learned how to publish a story and avoid writer’s block.
            Sophomore Cassie Abalos, a member of the Creative Writing Club, said she really enjoyed Mike Mullin’s presentations. “One of the topics I enjoyed most was the ‘What If?’ discussions. Mr. Mullin basically grabbed a marker and asked us, ‘What if this marker…?’ and everyone in the club pitched in ideas. Some of them were pretty crazy, but everyone had so much fun with it!”
           Abalos, who is currently working on a fantasy novel, learned many valuable things from the author’s presentation. “I think the most valuable lesson I learned from his discussion was to never give up. He said determination is key to writing any good novel. Just remember that it may take some time to polish your idea, but it’s never a good idea to throw it away.”

N.E.W. Career Workshop

              Twenty-five sophomore girls at Tippecanoe Valley High School attended the N.E.W. workshop in Warsaw, Indiana.  N.E.W. (or, Nontraditional Employment for Women) is an annual event which gives high school females the opportunity to learn about career areas that are dominated mostly by males.  Women from various job positions such as a meteorologist, minister, broadcaster, and lawyer were at the conference to talk to the students about their careers and how to deal with gender discrimination.

               The students also got the chance to try their hand at several projects, ranging from building a tool box to welding.  All girls who attended the event learned that there are very many opportunities within their grasp and that all females have the right to pursue their dreams.

Freshman Field Trip: JA Finance Park

Every school year, all Tippecanoe Valley freshmen are required to take Preparing For College and Careers, a course which helps  students learn about different career paths and college expectations. Also, through this class, they gain real-life experience by traveling to the Junior Achievement (JA) Finance Park in Fort Wayne, Indiana; it is a center where kids can learn how to make a budget and use it effectively.  Students from Mr. Darren Parker and Mr. Aaron Engbrecht’s attended the event for one day in October.

JA Finance Park is a not-for-profit organization, which, according to the group’s mission statement, empowers young people to own their future economic success by enhancing the relevancy of education.  Volunteers ranging from Fort Wayne community members to upperclassmen from Tippecanoe Valley helped at the event by supervising each station. After each student is given their marital status and number of children, they are instructed to “travel” to different businesses and create a budget not only for themselves, but their family members as well.   The stations are specific to their own category and are very unique.  From banks, automotive shops, and restaurants, to retail stores and entertainment, the JA Finance Park allows for students to make a budget for everything they will need in the real world.

At the end of the day, after “traveling” to various businesses, students calculate their final budget and see if they have any extra money remaining for either saving purposes or spending on a certain object.  After this, they can see how well (or how poorly) they created a budget.  This event helps students plan for the future and build skills they will need as well.