xbaortfinary ■■■■ paragon 2013 * •> UPl %] 1 x j 17 jRgj \ y — WMm - \_] Marker in hand, Connor McShea, senior, creates a poster in his economics class. Flapping her arms in excitement, Emma-Sarah Stephens, senior, embraces her inner nerd for senior Spirit Week. Assisted by her prose book, Tania Cordova, senior, practices one of her three speech pieces in the speech room. Hands together, Nick Novakovich, Buddy Director for Best Buddies, finds out his Buddy for the year is Annie Burke, senior. Pointing towards the bleachers, Mr. Keith Koszut, science teacher, explains to Kailee Loughlin, junior, the physics behind dropping objects and measuring with exact angles.! extraordinary more than ordinary 12 culture/foreign language 16 a week in the life of 22 food for thought 30 style 32 election coverage 36 extra mile ■■■■■■ the munster mind 84 just the two of us 88 us vs. them 92 the best list 98 extravagance 102 homecoming 104 dance marathon 110 dances 114 extraordinary stories Dfr snowflurry 122 how to gangnam style 126 fandom 142 south lake shooting 148 superfans 158 little details 1111813111 club group shots 172 senior ads 192 index 216 MUNSTER HIGH SCHOOL extraordinary Muinncsttoerr Hkliignhh SCcrhhnonoll DPa^rr^angrovnn 210^1133 8808 Columbia Ave volume 48 Munster, IN 46321 219.836.3200 www.munster.k12.in.us Enrollment: 1,581 Ill 3 3113 03137 5449 ordinary, schmordinary 7:00 a.m. Alarm clock goes off. 7:30 a.m. Bell rings. Go to locker. Go to class. Six classes and one lunch period later Drive, take bus, ride bike, walk home, etc. Let's be honest. High school is pretty ordinary. We get stuck in early mornings, repetitive classes, and late nights. We have homework, games, rehearsals. We have hob¬ bies, jobs, responsibilities. We have a parking spot in North, a class in South, and a locker we still haven't located. It's the early morning swim practices. It's the notorious Bulkamatic project. It's working late at Five Guys. It's waking up early on Saturdays for Speech and Debate. It'S the extra effort we put in that makes everything worth it. It's looking out into a student section full of rainbow Biddy Ball jerseys. It's hearing our favorite songs during passing periods. It's logging onto Facebook and seeing an anonymous compliment. It's bringing back the Mustang Mascot in a time when we needed positivity more than ever. It's reaching our goals, and it's having friends by our sides when hard times hit. It's high school. It's average, it's boring, it's ordinary. But it's our ambition, our attitude and our pride that keep us from being anythinq short of extraordinary #1 fans| Sporting their homemade “D-A- N-N-Y” t-shirts, seniors Tania Cordova, Aam- ina Khan, Maya Portillo, Nathan Kondam- uri, and Rachel Corradin cheer on their friend, Daniel Riggs, senior, at the first round of the Boys’ Soccer Regional game. “We would always go to the home soccer games to see him play,” Rachel said. “We thought that it would be cool to surprise him with t-shirts, so we painted let¬ ters to spell out his name, and we put 16’s on the back because that was his number. He to¬ tally didn’t see it coming,” behind the lens I Laying in the grass during Media Arts, Pam Muangmingsuk, junior, focuses her camera on Chelsea Eickleberry. sophomore. 'Shooting outside felt a lot more real because the pictures weren’t posed,” Pam said. “I saw Chelsea laying in the grass, and I was like, 'Wait, stay like that!’ I thought the picture turned out really well because instead of being posed, Chelsea was just being herself' love Shoves | As he takes his place on the starting squad, a Spanish ex¬ change student. Yago Perala, junior, gets a playful push from his team¬ mate Demitri Georgalas, junior. “When I first got to America (from Spain), I couldn't say anything because my English was so bad," Yago said. "I tried out for the (soccer) team because I really loved to play it in Spain, and it was good for me because I got to meet my friends from playing on the team.” nautical Or nice | Unable to take herself seri¬ ously. Emma Hong, senior, giggles as she sits in class in a blonde wig and sailor costume on Random Costume Day. “My friend, Elite (Dorn, sophomore), pulled out this weird sailor outfit and wig, and I tried it on for everyone, and I was just like ‘No, there is no way I can wear this!”* Emma said. “But then I thought, ‘Why not?! What else would I wear for Random Costume Day?"* dance hard, play hard | Taking a break between running their number, seniors Jessica Ivetich and Shelin- da Jones jump around and laugh with the rest of the girls on the dance team. “Our team was just full of goofy girls." Jessica said. “We all love to dance, but it was the special, little moments in between that made us love being on dance so much.” crack of dawn as the sun begins to rise, students kick off their daily routines before the first hour bell rings early one-onone While most students are eating breakfast or still sleeping, Mark Montella, freshman, steps into Mrs. Audrey Fuhs, Spanish teacher’s, classroom during contact time to receive extra help. Contact time served as a way for students to obtain more time with their teachers and understand any confusing material. “I had to wake up earlier, but I thought it (extra help) was worth it,” Mark said. “It helped me out a lot, and it gave me one-on-one time with the teacher.” waking up to tunes With the melodies of violins and cellos awakening her each morn¬ ing, Revati Kalluri, sophomore, attended orchestra class every day during zero hour. “I liked playing in a group and it was fun to hear everybody play together,” Revati said. “But it was hard having to wake up early in the morning every day.” Although students had to wake up early to attend orchestra class, the early time allowed them to partici¬ pate in more classes during the day. “I was able to get it (orchestra) out of the way,” Revati said. “It was nice because it didn’t take up a class during the day.” runnin'on dunkin At 7:05 a.m., seniors AJ Gauthier, Kelan Harish, Jack Heiniger and Nathan Kondamuri, and Alex Wisniewski, sophomore, pull into the parking lot with one thing in mind: Breakfast. The group often went to Dunkin Donuts before school for a quick bite to kick start their morn¬ ing with a nutritious breakfast and time with friends. “I liked to spend time with friends and start my day off with a nice cqffee,” AJ said. “I always got some sort of coffee, either iced or hot, and hash browns.” cold feet Still half asleep at 5:15 a.m., Mary Beth Blocher, junior, stands on the edge of the pool about to begin morning swim practice, willing herself to jump into the 55 degree Fahrenheit water that lies before her. “The sooner you get in, girls, the sooner you’ll get out!” she hears Coach Matt Pavlovich, physical education teacher, shout from the deck. Mary Beth adjusts her goggles and braces herself for the freezing water about to wake her up.“You stand and look at the pool and think about how warm you are,” Mary Beth said. “And then you look at the water and think about how freezing cold it’s going to be, but you just have to suck it up and jump in.” Mary Beth and the rest of the Girls’ Swim Team woke up early to attend morning practice six days a week. between the bells ■ ■ ■ breaking from traditional classroom setting, the Munster school day includes a variety of unconventional activities the way the cookie crumbles AP Statistics begins, and Ms. Alyssa Rodriguez, math teacher, posts an outline of a hand on the board. The question posed to the class: Which math teacher stole the cookie from the cookie jar? Using sta¬ tistical calculations and measurements, they were able to find out the answer. This “cookie activity” and others like it were a unique approach to learning, according to Mary Kujawski, senior. “In a way, those activi¬ ties helped me understand and preview the chapter,” Mary said. sweet success At any given passing period, Megan Sellberg, senior, can be seen swinging a white cardboard box of chocolate with a line of student customers trailing behind her. Megan had to raise $100 minimum for NWI Youth Sympathy Orchestra for music and instrument costs. After the goal was met, any extra money could be put towards group trips. Megan raised over $325 in over three to four months. “I definitely wanted to save up for the trips we could take,” Megan said. “I ended up going to St. Louis and Cleveland, and I could have gone to Germany or Austria.” getting connected A couple of years ago, it would have been hard to imagine walk¬ ing into a room and seeing the entire class hunched over laptops. This scene, however, became a reality as teachers furthered their efforts to implement technology into the classroom. “Having the laptops prevented us from carrying lots of heavy books and it made turning in homework easier,” Heather Born, freshman, said. “I used the laptops for studying, doing homework, and doing projects. The laptops were helpful and make school easier on us.” a head start While most students head back to class, Charlie Prucha, senior, heads for the doors. Charlie decided to pursue his interest in welding at the Area Career Center in Hammond, which he attends daily. “I took Area Career Center because I really wanted to learn how to weld and I knew they had a welding class,” Charlie said. Juniors and seniors had the opportunity to learn about something that interested them with hands-on work at the Hammond Area Career Center. Classes ranged from Cosmotology and Culinary Arts, to Dentistry and Digital Design. “I think it was the greatest thing ever because it gave a lot of opportuni¬ ties to kids right out of high school to get them a job,” Charlie said. pumpkin compassion | During school lunch, juniors Allison Wisnewski and Melissa Tepperman sell pumpkins to raise money and awareness for Cystic Fibrosis. “I was helping sell them because I felt good con-