Tag Archives: Mukwonago

Mukwonago High SAVE working to inspire students, community

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Mukwonago student Hannah Filippo wrote this article.

Lake Country Now: SAVE (Students Against Violence Everywhere) is one club at Mukwonago High School that looks to not only inspire high-schoolers within the school, but in other elementary and middle schools and the community, as well.

SAVE started in 2006 with English teacher Sarah Dianich. She started the club after a principal with whom she had worked with at a high school in Cazenovia, Wisconsin, died after struggling to remove a handgun from a student.

“When I went to the funeral, held at Weston’s diminutive K-12 gym, I recalled a community much like our own — close-knit, rural, and typically violence-free. I realized that it only takes one moment to shake that feeling of safety to its core,” Dianich remembered. “My friends and past colleagues who were there when it happened will never be the same.”

After the incident, Dianich and other students together started the first SAVE chapter for MHS. SAVE promotes non-violence throughout the school and community, informs people about the consequences of violence and bullying, and works to create a safe environment for students to avoid poor decision-making.

Throughout the year, SAVE offers and creates various projects for the school. America’s Safe Schools Week advocates for non-violence through lunchroom competitions, pledge signing, Orange and Purple Day (SAVE’s colors), and more. SAVE runs the Penny Wars during the holiday season to donate money to the Women’s Center in Waukesha and encourages safe driving practices, too.

Outside of school, SAVE also visits with middle and elementary school students to support anti-bullying and demonstrate what SAVE does at the high school level.

In the upcoming weeks of February, SAVE members plan to take a field trip to Rolling Hills Elementary School. They will meet with their SAVE buddies for the first time since writing back and forth as pen-pals a few times.

Tess Adams, a freshman at MHS, said, “It’s important to teach kids at the elementary and middle schools about SAVE in order to prevent the bullying sooner.”

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Mukwonago weather balloon project a splashing success

Lake Country Now: Eagleville Elementary’s Nucleus Science Club launched a weather balloon of their own creation on June 2, in front of the Eagleville student body, parents and Mukwonago Area School District Superintendent Shawn McNulty.

Dan and Christine Pawlak, Eagleville parents and founders of the after school science activity club, worked with Eagleville students for months on preparing and planning this project. On that clear, sunny morning, the weather balloon rose quickly into the sky carrying several types of cameras and computer tracking cargo.

The balloon traveled at incredible speed, crossing over 75 miles of southeastern Wisconsin while reaching an astounding height of almost 100,000 feet, according to Eagleville teacher Cathy Selzer-Benavides. Eventually, the balloon burst and the device landed safely in Lake Michigan where it was retrieved by the Milwaukee Police Harbor Patrol.

“Eagleville’s Nucleus high altitude balloon project was an amazing success,” said the Pawlaks in a letter to Eagleville families. “We captured the entire flight on high definition video and portions of the flight on a student customized infrared camera. We also collected thousands of scientifically relevant bits of atmospheric data over the course of the flight that are sure to prove valuable for future educational projects at Eagleville.”

Dan and Christine Pawlak were able to present video footage from the weather balloon’s cameras to Eagleville’s students and families, as well as sharing with students attending Eagleville’s E3 summer school session.

“The video and data it brought back with is nothing short of breathtaking,” said Selzer-Benavides in an email.

Mukwonago High School students win WCTC auto repair contest

Lake Country Now: For the fourth time in recent history at Mukwonago High School, the school’s two-person team won the Waukesha County Technical College (WCTC) Automotive Repair Competition for high school students on April 13.

This year’s contest had a record number of contestants from both Waukesha and Milwaukee County high schools. Students competed as two person teams, being scored on a written test along with hands-on repair of vehicles at seven different stations.

The MHS team, made up of J.D. Murphy and Dawson Greenwald walked away with the championship, placing first out of 17 high school teams. Both students each received a Snap-on toolbox, valued at $780, for their efforts.

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