#1StudentNWI: Westville Offers New, Unique Opportunities for Student Body

#1StudentNWI: Westville Offers New, Unique Opportunities for Student Body

Proud To Be A Blackhawk!
The Westville Athletic Council was established last year in an effort to recognize student athlete leadership. The top students and athletes were selected to be members of the club. In September 2015, several members of the Athletic Council attended a seminar at Merrillville High School about a program called Champions Together.

Champions Together is a partnership between Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) and the Special Olympics. The goal is to promote servant leadership among student athletes while changing their lives, as well as the lives of those with intellectual disabilities. After returning from the seminar, the student athletes were immediately inspired to get involved with Champions Together, but first, there were three requirements Westville had to satisfy.

First, an event needed to be planned, organized, and administrated inclusively by students. Westville student athletes organized a basketball camp and set up drills to do with fellow students with intellectual disabilities.

Senior Brandon Watkins said, “This was one of the greatest experiences I have ever participated in.”

Brandon also explained, “I love the game of basketball and helping the other students play is the best feeling.”

Westville-1Student-September-2016_02 The second requirement was whole school involvement. Members of the Athletic Council set up a day that was devoted to “White-Out the R-Word.” The R-word is an overused slang term referring to students with disabilities. Athletic Council Members made a banner and had every student sign it pledging not to say the R- word.

Senior Nathan Albers explained, “This event really made me realize how offensive this word can be to someone, and I am proud to say I decided to white-out the R-word from my vocabulary!”

The third requirement was raising a minimum of $1,500. The fundraising event was supported by the entire community. The Athletic Council hosted a Trick- or- Treat around the school’s track. Students of all ages dressed up and got candy around the track. All proceeds from the admission fee went to raising money for Champions Together.

On September 21, 2016 Westville was awarded a banner by Champions Together after meeting all the requirements. We are proud to hang this banner for everyone to see in our gym, but without the banner, the program was rewarding enough to every student and faculty member who participated.

Senior Bryce Creutzberg said, “Champions Together was an experience I will never forget, and it truly was life changing.”

Westville has big plans for the future with Champions Together and hopes to have an IHSAA Unified Track and Field Team.

We would encourage every school to become involved with Champions Together, and experience the rewarding feeling. It leaves an impact on more than one student; it is a joint effort by everybody.

Westville-1Student-September-2016_03Teacher Spotlight
Room 7 belongs to Mrs. Jamie Forney. She teaches health and physical education at Westville High School. Forney is not only a teacher; she is a wife and mother of two young children at home.

Forney is on her fourteenth year of teaching at Westville High School and strives to bring new ideas and more opportunities to the school. She has gone above and beyond to improve the health science program at Westville.

Last school year, Forney heard about a program called Project Lead The Way. She researched the classes and was immediately hooked. She wanted to bring Project Lead The Way (PLTW) to Westville, and that is exactly what she did.

Forney spent multiple nights making presentations to persuade and inform members of the school board about PLTW. After the biomedical class of Project Lead The Way was approved by Westville School Board, Forney completed the necessary certifications to teach the class in the upcoming school year.

Forney sure didn’t become a teacher to have the summers off! Over the summer, she completed eight hours of online training through PLTW and then went to Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) to go through eighty hours of lab experience just to teach the first class. She will continue going to IUPUI to receive Project Lead The Way certifications that make up the biomedical class for the next four years. The class provides knowledge to any student who is interested in studying the medical field after high school.

Westville-1Student-September-2016_04 Forney said her favorite part of teaching is “watching students learn difficult concepts and then seeing their excitement when they realized they have accomplished it.”

This is one of the reasons she enjoys PLTW so much, because it gives the students real world challenges to solve.

She has brought many guest speakers from the biomedical field to share with the students about their careers. The students are very active in labs every week. Her goals for the future of Project Lead The Way at Westville are to adopt more classes to teach. Forney also hopes to hear students’ success stories after high school that sparked in her Project Lead The Way class.

When you walk into Westville High School, you see written on the wall: “Small School. Big Opportunities.”

That is because of dedicated teachers who are always searching for new ideas to bring to Westville, like Forney. We are honored to have Forney, who is such an inspired and enthusiastic mentor, teaching the new program Project Lead The Way.