GreatNews.Life Student Voices: Munster makes memories

What’s happened recently?

On Tuesday, January 6, Munster High School (MHS) welcomed students back after a two-week-long winter break. Semester two began, and students were introduced to their new teachers.

Students were given until Friday, January 9, to drop classes if needed.

Winter Break allows students to celebrate the holidays and relax before semester two begins. Many MHS students and staff celebrated New Year’s Eve, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and more. 

As MHS goes into semester two, the staff wants to keep up attendance rates and bring down tardies. In order to do this, there is now a reward for students who have perfect attendance to add an incentive to get to school on time every day. Every student who has perfect attendance and no tardies will be put into a draw. Every two weeks, the administration will draw names randomly. Anyone who gets drawn is given a reward for keeping up attendance.

What’s coming up?

On Saturday, January 24, MHS students can attend the Winter Formal from 5:30-8 p.m. The event will be held in the MHS commons, and students are encouraged to dress semi-formal.

Winter Formal tickets cost $25 per student, and students are required to purchase their own tickets. If a student wants to bring a date from outside of MHS, they must fill out a date request form.

The dance will include music, and the commons will be decorated as a winter wonderland. The commons were decorated by the MHS student government at the end of semester one to raise excitement for the event, and the decorations are expected to stay up for the dance as well.

As students go into semester two, testing such as the SAT can become overwhelming. The Winter Formal is an opportunity to raise morale and let students relax despite the potential stress.

Staff spotlight:

Green vines and posters cover the walls of a neatly decorated room. The lights are dimmed, and plants are scattered about the classroom. Coming from the rush of an intense passing period, biomed and Pre-AP biology students can feel a wave of calm as they walk into Hannah Wiesemann’s classroom. 

“I always think about what’s going to make me comfortable because I spend a lot of time in this classroom, and I wanted to make it feel like something that I would be comfortable being in, and I think that helps my students be comfortable too,” Wiesemann said.

Wiesemann has been teaching at MHS for three years and has found community through her fellow teachers. 

“I like being able to work with Michael Bakker for the Pre-AP class, and get feedback on how to teach a subject better than I did before,” Wiesemann said.

Wiesemann was drawn to teaching because of her love of science and wanting to spread that passion to future generations. Wiesemann has discovered that her students often open her mind to new perspectives.

“I have situations all the time where I think something one way and a student will open my eyes to a different point of view,” Wiesemann said. “It makes me kind of rethink how I taught something or how I thought about something originally.”

Student spotlight:

MHS Senior August Kirk is surrounded by a seemingly endless amount of art supplies and drawings. He had been looking for inspiration for his AP art project. Suddenly, inspiration struck, and he excitedly barged into his brother’s room.

“We’re making a video game,” Kirk said.

His entire life, Kirk has had an appreciation for all kinds of art. He inherited a love of music from his parents. He found a passion for literature and storytelling at a very early age, but in fourth grade, he started drawing constantly and knew that was his passion. 

“I firmly believe that artistic expression is mankind’s greatest ability,” Kirk said. “It’s our purpose in life to exchange our soulful passions with the world, and I want to be someone else’s inspiration in the distant future.”

Kirk knew that making a video game was the way to integrate all aspects of the arts he had grown up loving. But he knew he could not do it alone. He gathered his friends and decided to utilize their talents in making the game.

“I realized I have the resources around me; I have friends who code, animate, and voice act. I have a brother who composes brilliant music,” Kirk said.

As Kirk has continued to develop the video game, he has realized that it is not just a final project for an art class; it has become his way of learning how to take on bigger challenges.

“This game is essentially a way of testing the waters for future college art projects: ‘Am I able to work well with a team of like-minded people?’” Kirk said.

Kirk’s game, CadeNza, is about halfway completed and is planned to be a rhythm game centered around a character named Misa Mistrelk.