GreatNews.Life Student Voices: Polar plunge freezes Griffith, and a night filled with questions is on its way in March

What’s recently happened? 

On Friday, February 27, Griffith hosted the inaugural Special Olympics “Polar Plunge” to help raise money for the Best Buddies Program and the Special Olympics. The event also helps promote inclusion, diversity, and those with disabilities. 

“We’ve been wanting to do one for a while, a spot opened up, we took it, and it worked,” said Melissa Diekelmann, who is the lead special education teacher at Griffith. “We raised about $8,600, and I’m hoping we expand the involvement and raise even more money.” 

Earlier in the month, on February 12, Griffith High School held an ICE walkout in protest of the association.

“I’ve had family who have been deported, so this is very important to me,” said Junior Damontae Biloche. 

These types of walkouts have been happening all over the country, and many in the state of Indiana as of late.

What’s coming up? 

The National Honor Society (NHS) is hosting its annual spring “Trivia Night” on Friday, March 13. 

On spring trivia nights, there is usually a holiday or special event that night is based around. Last year, it was Pie Day. This year, however, the night is based on Friday the 13th. 

“I’m trying to find spooky questions,” said Junior Asher Harris, a member of NHS. “I like this prompt. It’s different and pretty fun.” 

On the athletic side of the school, sports like Boys Baseball, Girls Softball, and Girls’ Tennis are beginning their seasons. 

“I can’t wait,” said Sophomore David Newsome. “I’m really looking forward to pitching and hopefully getting some Varsity playing time.” 

Newsome played mainly on Junior Varsity last season and was the number one pitcher on staff, with limited Varsity time as a freshman. 

With their seasons almost underway, Griffith looks to have some of their best teams from last season take the field or court, en route to going back to their winning ways.  

No matter who is playing, there will always be a game to see for Griffith, and they will fight till the very end to win. 

Staff Spotlight:

Previously a literary journalist, Julie Larson is the adviser of both Panther Press and Yearbook at Griffith.  

Larson, in her seventh year of teaching, teaches a wide variety of classes, with most falling in the realm of English. 

“I’m currently teaching Panther Press, Yearbook, journalism, dual credit speech, the dual credit composition course, and AP Seminar,” said Larson. “In the past, I’ve taught AP Language and Composition, Intro to Literature, English 10 and 11, and I also taught students who didn’t know English well.” 

Larson graduated with a master’s degree in English but decided to go into a literary publication called “Blotterature.”  

“We published fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and art,” said Larson. “All of those things were encompassed within our literary journal.” 

Transitioning from literary journalism to news journalism was hard for Larson, and there was a lot of research and help to go into the new class at Griffith. 

“I knew nothing about the reporting side of journalism; I needed a lot of research and help to really get things going and running smoothly.” 

With the WJOB High School Sports Radio Station moving its studio to Griffith over the summer, Larson hopes to have more kids join Panther Press so they can see the new in-school studio and put it to good use. 

“New internships will pop up. There will be more opportunities, and student involvement will go up,” said Larson. “I’m really excited, and I can’t wait to see what the future brings.” 

Student Spotlight:

Panther Press wouldn’t run as smoothly without Co-Editor-in-Chief Kenny Gong. 

Gong is a junior at Griffith who has been running the Panther Press lab for two years now. He has overcome some pretty large challenges in the newsroom.  

“The big theme is just being able to adapt,” said Gong. “We’re all really still trying to figure out what to do and how to run a place like this. We do whatever we can, whenever we can, wherever we are.” 

That is one of the biggest things to take away from Gong; he is always willing to help, even if he doesn’t know how.  

“I’ve helped more staffers than I can count with stories in Panther Press,” said Gong. “It’s rewarding for me to see them happy when they see their story up on the website or hear their title over the announcements.” 

This is the first year that Gong has had someone share the workload with. His Co-Editor-in-Chief is Jack Gaham. 

“Working with Jack has made the whole thing easier. There are a lot of people to keep track of, and splitting the workload with Jack has made me and him both more effective,” he said.

Gong has his work cut out for him, but he loves it. He hopes to do even more for Panther Press next year and in the future.