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Penn High students showcase 'Building Bright Futures' with trades, robotics and anti‑vape campaign
Summary
Students from Penn High highlighted homecoming events, a long-running building‑trades house project, a 120‑pound robotics entry and an anti‑vaping club; administrators used the spotlight to tie activities to the school's 'Building Bright Futures' theme and to report academic and extracurricular achievements.
Students and staff presented accomplishments Monday at the Penn‑Harris‑Madison board meeting, showcasing vocational pathways, competitive teams and student‑led prevention efforts.
Student council members Rebecca Ramirez, David Geraci and Maureen Butch opened the spotlight with remarks about the year's 'Building Bright Futures' theme and recent events including a widely attended homecoming parade and pep rally. Les Crooks and Building Trades students described ongoing house‑building projects (program reported as House number 58 this year) and invited students to explain classroom learning applied to real construction work.
Seniors Nolan Jason and Layden Allen spoke about the Building Trades experience and its impact on career goals. Joel Benavides described Penn’s robotics program and the engineering capstone class (EDD), noting his group’s knee‑brace prototype won first place at a Purdue competition and earned a $5,000 scholarship.
School staff highlighted academic and extracurricular success: increases in AP participation and qualifying AP scores (staff cited ~1,600 qualifying scores and nearly 71% of test takers earning a 3+ on at least one exam), National Merit semifinalists, Scholastic Writing awards, and dozens of students headed to national competitions. The Athletic Director reported 535 fall student‑athletes and multiple sectional and regional championships.
Students Blake Basil and Connor Gagan presented the 'Air We Share' anti‑vape club, which used JUUL settlement funds to bring prevention speakers and distributed more than 600 free T‑shirts as part of awareness outreach.
Administrators framed the presentations as part of a broader strategy to connect academics, career pathways and student engagement under the district’s improvement goals.
Provenance: student spotlights and recognition (topicintro: SEG 001; topfinish: SEG 1217).
