GreatNews.Life Student Voices: Lake Central falls into a new season, celebrating recent school-wide success

What’s recently happened?

On September 10, Lake Central High School hosted its annual Club Fair during Pathways to Excellence hour within the school day. A variety of clubs ranging from debate to robotics were featured along the hallway called Main Street. Each grade was dismissed at a different time throughout the class period to check out these new opportunities. 

“Before the fair, I didn’t know about the Environmental Club, Women’s Empowerment Club, Astronomy Club and Rune Magazine. I am going to join the Women’s Empowerment Club because it seemed really fun. I also noticed the Debate Club. I even saw a club where you can decorate the halls for Homecoming and Spirit Week called Freshman Class Cabinet,” Freshman Sophie Spitler said. 

Not only is the Club Fair helpful for the student body, it also helps club presidents at the beginning of the school year gauge how many members are going to join the club so they can prepare for callout meetings. 

What’s coming up?

Every year, Lake Central has its Homecoming dance in the fall. This year, it lands on September 27 from 6-9 p.m. Only currently enrolled students are allowed to attend the dance, and the price for a ticket cost $39. Many clubs join together to plan the entire Homecoming week, including Junior Class Cabinet.

“I like being in the Junior Class Cabinet because you get to relax and also plan. We get to pick a theme for a hallway and then see it play out,” Junior Jocelyn McNabney said. 

The club discussed a variety of possible themes for the dance such as Minecraft, Disney, galaxy and Halloween. Speaking of themes, the Senior Class Cabinet spent its past meeting on Sept. 12, discussing the dress up days for the week of Homecoming. The theme days are going to be college shirts on Monday, Country versus Country Club on Tuesday, Decades Day on Wednesday, sorority versus fraternity on Thursday, and a school spirit day on Friday. Seniors will wear their senior shirts, while the rest of the student body dresses up in blue and white. 

Staff spotlight: 

During this past spring, Lake Central students had soaring passing rates on the 2025 AP tests, so all of the teachers that got a pass rate above 90% received an award. Kathryn Clark was one of two teachers that got an award for two classes. Both her AP Seminar and AP English Language & Composition class had incredibly high passing rates. There was a 96.4% passing rate in AP English Language & Composition, and a 95.2% pass rate in AP Seminar. 

“I was surprised and honored to win an award for my scores in both AP Language and AP Seminar. Historically, our school hasn’t focused heavily on scores and pass rates for the AP tests. It was a wonderful surprise this year when there was recognition of excellent pass rates. It’s also a huge honor to the school that every English-related AP course (AP Language, AP Literature, AP Seminar, and AP Research) had above a 90% pass rate. Our English Department is amazing,” Clark said. 

Both AP Seminar and AP Research are a part of the two-year AP Capstone program at Lake Central. AP Seminar is an introduction course on how to research topics professionally. AP Research has students utilize the skills they gained the previous year in AP Seminar on a year-long research project on one specific topic. 

“AP Seminar first came to Lake Central in the fall of 2020, and AP Research began in the fall of 2021. I’m the only one who has ever taught AP Seminar. I proposed the course to the administration, did field research, wrote proposals to get it approved by the school board, and recruited students into this brand new program. It’s such a helpful course, and I believe in it wholeheartedly. I feel so grateful that Lake Central students have bought into the program and have worked hard to make it successful,” Clark said. 

Student spotlight:

Throughout these past three years, Senior Jessica Salerno has been a part of the magazine in Publications and Lake Central Television (LCTV). She is the first member to ever be a part of both programs as an editor, and her effort shines through the work she produces. 

“Balancing both Publications and LCTV was a little challenging in the beginning. I had to work on filming and editing episodes while also writing, making captions, and planning for magazines. Now that I have been doing it for three years, I am able to balance it better in general,” Salerno said. 

Even though Salerno has been incredibly successful in her high school career, there were still challenges she faced participating in both classes. 

“The biggest struggle for balancing both was having to keep up with deadlines. Sometimes, deadlines get so tight and close together that it feels like I’m behind or I have to rush to complete things. The earlier I get things done, the better I feel about my assignments,” Salerno said. 

Over the last couple years, Salerno figured out how to solve those conflicts and took a lot more away from the program than just the final grade.

“These classes have helped me communicate better, and I’ve experienced many new things in this program. I feel that I’ve unlocked this deep passion for storytelling and editing. I just love it. The program has really helped me grow into who I want to be. I’ve also met some of my best friends in the class,” Salerno said. 

Salerno even took a trip down to Indiana University the past summer to participate in the High School Journalism Institute Workshop. She was in the Documentary Filmmaking class. By the end of the week, she had won the Ernie Pyle Reporter award and a scholarship to Indiana University’s Media School for $500 if she chooses to further her education there.

Her hard work and endless hours spent on projects in both classes gained her a spot as co-editor-in-chief for LCTV. The first episode for season 12, a show that Salerno hosted, came out on September 12. Both of these opportunities have prepared Salerno for her future. She plans to continue journalism as her minor in college.