#1StudentNWI: Showing Off Talent and Compassion at Kouts High School

#1StudentNWI: Showing Off Talent and Compassion at Kouts High School

What's Happening
Murder by Indecision: Age has caught up with Agatha Crispy (Amanda Gardin), the world’s best-known mystery playwright, as she attempts to crank out her newest and last manuscript. Senility is setting in and the words just don’t flow like they used to. Ignoring her pestering agent Ruth Less (Hollie Schweller), Agatha sits down to write, wrestling with her characters and babbling to her imaginary friend Typy, the typewriter. As she struggles through the first few pages of her play, Miss Maple (Truitt Anweiler), Inspector Dryfus (Stephen Carnell) and all her characters come to life on stage, then crumple with every balled-up page tossed into the trashcan. When she stops typing, her characters take on a life of their own, lamenting how Agatha is ruining their reputation in the literary world with this last flop of a manuscript. If only they could influence Agatha somehow to help her and themselves! The play took place April 30 and May 1st, and was a great success! Great job, guys!

Kouts-HS-1Student-NWI-May-2016-2ISSMA: On April 22nd, Kouts High School Band performed in the ISSMA concert festival at Concord High School. The band not only ranked Gold in sight reading but also in the performance category. On Saturday, April 23rd, the Choir performed at Northridge High School for the same event. The choir ranked Silver in both sight reading and the performance category. Congrats to both the band and choir!

Rube Goldberg Nationals: While the buses for Choir were taking off to Northridge, the Rube team was on their way to Waukesha County Technical College in Wisconsin to compete in the National Rube Goldberg competition. The theme this year was “Rainy Day”. The machine being built had to open an umbrella and, astonishingly, the Rube team did it in only 44 steps! The team had a total of 4 out of 6 successful runs. The team didn’t win any awards, but they received many honorable comments from judges. The team was composed of Travis Brubaker, Lukas Mergenthaler, Kyle Mergenthaler, Kyer Knifel, Tristan Lane, John Wehner, Alex Gurekovich, Brendan Ready, and Malachi Wittmer. Mr. Otto, the team coach, wants to give a shout-out to the team for putting such hard work in and can’t wait until next year!

Kouts-HS-1Student-NWI-May-2016-3Student Shout Out
Special Shout-out this month to senior, Kelley Hershberger. Not only does this girl put her heart into NHS, Student Council, her church, and community, but also to her peers and her future. Kelley has been awarded the Lilly Scholarship for 2016 which allows Kelley to have a full- tuition, required fees, and book stipend for four years! This senior, who puts her heart towards others and community, deserves this award, wholeheartedly! Congrats, Kelley!

Prom King and Queen Announcement: Tyler Aiken and Sarah Cieslak! Congrats, guys!

Kouts-HS-1Student-NWI-May-2016-4What's Coming Up
Coming Up In the Month of May: May is a month of service. Kelley Hershberger leads the school in a quest for service and has put together a big Water Walk on May 7th. This Water Walk stems from the service of a bigger group of people banded together to help bring water to those in need in Africa. In order to build one well, it takes $7000. So, leader Kelley, has taken it upon herself as Student Council president to make this organization the priority of this year. So far there’s been a benefit dinner, donations, an upcoming cornhole tournament, and this Water Walk, but we are still reaching for our goal.

If you’d like to learn more about Water Wells for Africa please go here: http://waterwellsforafrica.org/. If you’d like to sign up for the Water Walk or donate to the cause please go here: https://sites.google.com/a/eastporter.k12.in.us/students-4-water/. If you do plan to donate, please note that it is no longer $30 but $10 per person. If you’d like to help by purchasing clothing apparel please go here: https://teespring.com/students4water.

There is more than enough fresh water in the world for domestic, agricultural, and industrial use. However, the poor are largely excluded from this globally recognized “human right”. The millions forced to collect water from drains, ditches, and streams suffer a deprivation that threatens life, destroys opportunity, and severely undermines human dignity. This is the problem and it can be solved.