Viewpoint: Celebrating Penn High's Class of 2022 and community supporters

South Bend Tribune
·2 min read

Dear Michiana Community,

This past Monday, June 6, Penn High School graduated 833 members of the Class of 2022 into the world. Commencement season is a time for both recognition and reflection, not just of our graduates but for the entire community. As a public school corporation, Penn-Harris-Madison Schools is collectively supported by the families that send their children to our 15 schools and also by the residents of our namesake townships, the state of Indiana and this great nation. It’s an investment by the community, in the community, for the community.

This is a time of celebration not just for the students and their families, but for all of us. Nearly half of Penn’s graduating class has earned an Indiana Core 40 with Academic Honors diploma. The fifth cohort of our award-winning Early College Academy graduated approximately 100 students, more than 70 of whom have earned an associate’s degree. These students actually graduated from Ivy Tech before Penn High School!

We also have many students who’ve attended Elkhart Area Career Center, earning more than 30 specialized college credits from Ivy Tech through the completion of a certificate program. Our outstanding academic and extra-curricular programming have positioned our seniors to earn admissions to public and private universities across Indiana and across the country. They include Purdue, IU-Bloomington, Butler, DePauw, Notre Dame, Stanford, Princeton, Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, DePaul and Northwestern — just to name a few. So far the Class of 2022 has earned approximately $11 million in scholarships and counting!

Seventy-three Penn students in the Early College Academy program graduated this year with an 2-year associate's degree from Ivy Tech along with their Penn High School diploma.
Seventy-three Penn students in the Early College Academy program graduated this year with an 2-year associate's degree from Ivy Tech along with their Penn High School diploma.

Teachers and educational staff are public servants, so it should be no surprise that school is where many of our students are inspired to go on and serve their country. Approximately 10 graduating seniors are going into the U.S. Armed Forces or joining an ROTC program in college. P-H-M is proud to be a part of Indiana’s public school system. We are a diverse district reflecting and celebrating the rich heritages, cultures, languages and varying abilities of the more than 11,000 students we serve.

Our graduates are Olympic medalists, inventors, rocket scientists, musicians, nurses and entrepreneurs putting their expert minds and capable hands to work, serving as first-responders, leading our faith communities and service organizations, and contributing in countless other ways to the Michiana area, the Hoosier state and our great country. Your investment has helped produce educated, responsible, contributing and caring citizens of the world.

This Viewpoint was written by Jerry Thacker, superintendent of Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp., and P-H-M's Board of School Trustees.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: P-H-M district reflects the cultures, abilities of 11,000-plus students.