GreatNews.Life Student Voices: Valparaiso High School celebrates Winter Formal, ready for the spring season

What’s recently happened? 

Valparaiso High School (VHS) has been busy with many late winter activities, in academics, extracurriculars, and sports. On February 21, VHS hosted Winter Formal, which was organized by Key Club and held in the VHS Cafeteria. Winter Formal often does not have the attendance of Homecoming in the fall, or Prom in the spring, but many people still got dressed up and went to the dance.

“Winter Formal was okay,” Sophomore Araya Hlinsky said. “There were a lot of freshmen and sophomores, but I still had fun with my date.”

On February 26-28, the VHS Drama Club performed in Mocha Madness, the annual improv show directed by English teacher Colleen Peluso and community member Matt McCann. The show consisted of four different teams – Bluetooth Dudes, Lapis Lattes, Matcha Men and Razzle-Dazzlers – improvising in short games.

“I really loved Mocha Madness this year,” Freshman Eleanor Steiner said. “I made many new friends and had a lot of fun performing with them!”

For juniors, early March signals the time to take the SAT. Juniors at VHS took the test on the morning of March 4, though some students also choose to take it in the winter. The SAT is facilitated by the school, so many students at VHS do not take the also-common ACT.

On March 6, the Boys’ Basketball team traveled to Chesterton to compete against Hobart for Sectionals, where the Vikings won 49-39. On the weekend of March 7, Varsity Singers – the VHS Show Choir – competed in the ISMAA competition and won a gold. The Gymnastics team competed at Regionals.

What’s coming up?

VHS runs its academics on a quarterly schedule, and the third quarter will be wrapping up shortly. While there are no finals at the end of quarter three, it can sometimes be a stressful time for students trying to submit make-up work and get their grades up for quarter four. Students at VHS will have one week of quarter four, then it will be spring break, which lasts March 21-29.

“I’m really excited for spring break,” Sophomore Pauline Rall said. “I’m going to Myrtle Beach. I’m not sure what I’m going to do, but I know I’m going to have fun with my family.”

After Spring Break, Honors Art students will display their year’s work at the AP/IB Honors Art Show, which will take place on Thursday, April 9, and Friday, April 10, in the Upper Gym at VHS from 6-8 p.m. At the show, each of the 19 Honors Art students will have a booth with their art, and during the show they will be present to answer questions and explain their pieces to the public. Information about the art show can also be found on posters, which were made by the students, hung around VHS and Valpo.

In the athletic world, the Boys Varsity Basketball team will be attending Regionals on Saturday, March 14. Also on March 14, Gymnastics and Vikettes – VHS dance team – will be competing at State, and Girls’ and Boys’ Track and Field will be competing. After this, Boys’ Volleyball Varsity and Junior Varsity, Boys’ Track and Field, Boys’ Varsity Basketball, and Softball Varsity and Junior Varsity all have many games and meets coming up.

Staff Spotlight: 

Math teacher Todd Winland hasn’t always wanted to be a teacher. 

“I was a good math student when I was a kid,” Winland said. “Whenever we did standardized testing, I was always the one who would get in the 99th percentile for math, but I had no idea what that meant. And when I graduated from high school, I wanted nothing to do with going to college.”

After graduating high school in Baltimore, Maryland, where he was born and raised, Winland went straight into the workforce and quickly ended up in a manager position. In 1996, when he moved to Valparaiso with his family, teaching still wasn’t at the top of his mind. At his job outside of high school, Winland quickly worked his way up at Papa John’s, where he was working, until he ended up managing a location for ten years. 

“I was successful, made decent money, started a family and the whole nine yards,” Winland said. “There were days that I had to be there at 7 a.m., and there were days that I had to be there until 2:30 a.m. Eventually, I just didn’t see myself doing that forever.”

While working at Papa John’s, Winland met someone who would eventually inspire his shift in careers. One of the employees at Papa John’s at the time was a student at VHS, who often struggled with math homework. One day, she asked Winland for help with it, and he realized that he enjoyed teaching.

“I’ll never forget, I started to help her with it, and she understood it. She started to bring her homework in more often, and she started to ask me for math help on a regular basis. I really enjoyed helping her, and it made me feel good that this kid, when she asks me for help, understands what’s going on because I’m helping her,” Winland said.

Winland then went back to school, and began teaching, which he has done for 20 years – 18 at VHS. He now believes that math as a subject is one of, if not the most important thing that students can learn.

“What we teach in math at the high school level is problem solving,” Winland said. “Trying to teach kids how to think so that they can think for themselves, so that they can take a situation and understand it. If I’m doing my job right, I should be improving more about their lives than just their ability to do a math problem.”

Student Spotlight:

Junior Jackson Kick is one of many students at VHS juggling extracurricular activities in addition to regular school. With the school, he is currently the vice president of the History Club, a recruitment officer for Drama Club, and he used to play saxophone for VHS’s Jazz Band. Outside of school, Kick is an Eagle Scout, plays for the Valparaiso University (VU) Community Band, and even takes flight lessons at the Porter County Airport, something that a friend from Eagle Scouts recommended. 

Currently, he can only fly with an instructor, but he wants to turn flight from a hobby into an occupation.

“I want to go into commercial aviation,” Kick said. “It’s kind of my thing. I actually just got my student pilot’s license in the mail, I was ecstatic. I want to go to Purdue Aviation, which has around a 3% admissions rate, but I hope I can get in. Of course there are many other good options. I hope to go into commercial aviation because they really need pilots right now and it’s a fascinating field.”

Most recently, Mocha Madness, the Drama Club’s annual Improv show, has taken up much of Kick’s time. He has done Mocha Madness for the past three years, beginning in his freshman year.

“My sister had done Mocha Madness for two years,” Kick said. “She was a senior when I was a freshman, and she loved it. Then I did it, and I have really loved it. To me, it’s all about the people. I like it a lot because it’s a different type of acting, and it’s not mainstream.”

In school, Kick enjoys his American Literature class with Mr. Weil, where he can really flex his love of history. His first lesson for underclassmen and new students at VHS is about trusting their abilities.

“Once you figure out where everything is in the building, I think you should stop worrying about what people think about you. You should care about yourself and do what you want to do. But if you do too much too fast, you’re going to start hating what you do. I think you need to find the thing that is important to you and that you enjoy. It’s where you meet your greatest friends in life, and you can realize who you are as a person,” he said.