Saint Peter High School inducted its 36 newest members of the SPHS Chapter of the National Honor Society (NHS) at a special ceremony at the Performing Arts Center on October 26.
 

The National Honor Society is the nation's premier organization established to recognize outstanding high school students. More than just an honor roll, the SPHS chapter of NHS serves to recognize those students who have demonstrated excellence in the areas of scholarship, service, leadership, and character. These characteristics have been associated with membership in the organization since its beginning in 1921.

In a normal school year, the NHS induction ceremony is held in late spring but due to the pandemic situation, the induction ceremony for most of the newest members was postponed to this fall.

SPHS school counselors and NHS co-advisors Jana Sykora and Maggie Carlson presided over the October 26th induction ceremony while Principal Annette Engeldinger provided the welcome. NHS leadership team members John Borgmeier and Rahima Jamac also spoke on the four qualities that serve as standards for NHS -- Scholarship, Leadership, Service, and Character.

The newest member of the SPHS Chapter of the National Honor Society inducted on October 26 includes the following students (listed alphabetically by this year’s grade):

SENIORS - Megan Beran, Gergely Hajos, Alyssa Hrdlicka, Autumn Pauly, Seth Reicks, Aubree Volk, Wesley Yang, and Chase Yeager.

JUNIORS -- Luke Borowy, Sarah Busse, Sky Gassman, Katherine Gurrola, Bryan Harroun, Shea Hildebrandt, Anna Klatt, Eva Kracht, Jaiden Landsom, Elyssa Meixner, Makayla Moline, Lauren Odland, Bennett Olson, Morgan Petersen, Ryenne Pettis, Brooke Rehnelt, Grace Remmert, Lilly Ruffin, Salena Smit, Zachary Smith, Connor Snow, Lilian Sund, Maija Tollefson, Madelyn Tollefson, Molly Voeltz, Josephine Wiebusch, Eleanor Winterfeldt, and Hannah Wohlers.

The four new inductees from the SPHS Class of 2020, who were inducted in mid-May, included Matthew Witty-Frank, Allison Madden, Kaden Oeltjenbruns, and Marina Sawyer.

After the induction, Carlson also announced SPHS’s NHS leadership team for 2020-2021. Those included:

• Senior class representatives - John Borgemeier & Rahima Jamac.
• Junior class representatives - Shea Hildebrandt & Eva Kracht.
• Secretary - Eleanor Winterfeldt.
• Treasurer - Hannah Wohlers.

Saint Peter High School Principal Annette Engeldinger announced recently that SPHS senior Kelson Lund has been named a Commended Student in the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program. A Letter of Commendation from the school and National Merit Scholarship Corporation *(NMSC), which

conducts the program, was presented to this scholastically talented senior on September 24.

About 34,000 Commended Students throughout the nation are being recognized for their exceptional academic promise. Although they will not continue in the 2021 competition for National Scholarship awards, Commended Students placed among the top 50,000 scorers of more than 1.5 million students who entered the 2021 competition by taking the 2019 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).

“Those being named Commended Students have demonstrated outstanding potential for academic success,” a NMSC spokesperson said. “These students represent a valuable national resource; recognizing their accomplishments, as well as the key role their schools play in their academic development, is vital to the advancement of educational excellence in our nation. We hope that this recognition will help broaden their educational opportunities and encourage them as they continue their pursuit of academic success.”

Fans of some Saint Peter High School sporting events will have the option of watching games online with the installation of the new video system in the school’s gym through the NFHS Network System.

Partnered with the National Federation of State High School Associations, 44-plus high school state athletic/activities associations, and PlayOn! Sports, the NFHS Network is a joint venture created to provide fans with the ability to stream high school sports on any device, from wherever they are.

Those interested in viewing Saints boys and girls basketball games and wrestling matches this winter season can go to www.nfhsnetwork.com and sign up for a subscription to access the video feeds of these games/matches. Saints volleyball matches, starting in the fall of 2020, will also be shown through this system. The cost of the subscription is $69.99 for the calendar year or $10.99 per month, for those who are only interested in access during a particular sports season. 

In addition to those home events here at the SPHS, subscribers will also be able to access video feeds of away games for those schools using the NFHS Network System. Several Big South schools and area schools already use the system including Waseca, Le Sueur-Henderson, Blue Earth Area, Windom Area, Jackson County Central, Waterville-Elysian-Morristown, Maple River, and Luverne. 

SPHS Activities Director Jordan Paula said other events held in the gym, such as graduation, youth sports, and other programs may be broadcast. The video feed for an event like graduation, according to Paula, would be available for free to the general public. 

“We are excited to be able to provide video feeds to Saints’ fans who might not normally be able to get to a game or event,” Paula said. “We are extremely thankful for the Triple A Capital Campaign funds which paid for the purchase of the Pixellot video system used by the NFHS Network. The $2,500 purchase price was a fixed cost and any future funds needed to update and maintain the system will come from subscriptions that are purchased by our fans. The school also gets a certain percentage for subscriptions that are purchased by Saints fans.”

The video will only have the audio feed from the gym, but at this point there is no play by play commentary. 

“The capability is there should we decide to have students become a part of the broadcast or we can at some point add a connection to a radio broadcast that is going on, but that is something for later on as we get more familiar with the system,” Paula said. 

There are plans to install a similar video system at Floyd B. Johnson Field to do online video feeds from football, boys soccer, and girls soccer games. However, internet access will need to be made available at that location before that happens, according to Paula. 

New equipment will benefit CTE, art, math, and science programs

Saint Peter High School students enrolled in classes through the school's CTE (Career & Technical Education) program will now get the opportunity to use the CNC (Computer Numerical Control) plasma cutter the district recently purchased using AAA (Academics, Arts, and Athletics) funds that were raised privately. 

The AAA funds were raised through the school's recent Capital Campaign to provide enhancements to Saint Peter High School's academic, athletic, and arts programs. The Capital Campaign began around the time the new SPHS building opened in the fall of 2017.

According to Michael Reeser, SPHS’s metalworking instructor, adding the plasma cutting system will allow St. Peter students to experience an industry tool that is commonplace in the manufacturing workforce. Students will apply critical thinking skills to operate and manage several software systems, coordinate systems, tool path building, and G code programming to produce quality products.

“Students will identify issues with production and problem solve for solutions to maintain quality and quantity of the products for the consumer,” Reeser said. “Allowing for creativity in design, this system will expand our ability to capture student ideas and components to push for innovation in production.”

In addition, the CNC system will foster collaboration between departments to provide industry level equipment and processing to students outside of the manufacturing wing such as art, math, and science.

Students will learn to communicate using the languages of manufacturing, technical reading, and technical writing. Applying math, science, and art to create ideas and then convert those ideas to actual products.

 

Two Saint Peter High School seniors were recognized recently by the prestigious National Merit Scholarship Program for 2020 for their exceptional academic promise. 

Grace Werner, the daughter of Ray and Kim Werner and Keith and Deanna Ruffing, has been named as a Semifinalist for 2020. She is currently spending her senior year of high school studying abroad in Germany through the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) Program. 

Werner is one of just 16,000 to earn semifinalist honors out of the 1.5 million students who entered the 2020 competition by taking the 2018 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). She is now eligible to become a National Merit Scholarship finalist, which will be announced in February 2020. 

Aubry Landsom, the daughter of Craig and Lisa Landson, was named a Commended Student for 2020. Commended students place among the top 50,000 of the 1.5 million students taking the PSAT/NMSQT and she is one of 34,000 to earn the Commended Student honor.

Even though Commended Students do not continue in the 2020 competition, it is a tremendous honor to achieve that level, according to a National Merit Scholarship spokesperson.