“Here we present to you, the results of the efforts and talents of the class of 2018.” With those words, Principal Jim French welcomed the crowd of proud parents, family, and friends who had come to see what their senior had achieved during their four years of high school at Portage Northern.

Several awards were given by the emotional teachers who reminisced precious moments with the soon-graduating students on the evening of Thursday, May 3rd. The night kicked off with the Accounting award, which Accounting teacher Amy Meyer gave to Taylor Benedict, who also received the Scott Hammond Education Scholarship. Then Family and Consumer Sciences teacher Emily Anthony awarded Brianna Barnes with the FACS award. Other awards that come from elective classes included the Physical Education award given to Hayden Taverna and the Psychology award given to Joseph Bierlein. Social Studies teacher Kellie Pittman was full of emotion as she gave the awards for History and Student Senate to our staff’s own Feature Editor, Issra Said, and Lauren Michelli respectively. Amber Dixon, another Social Studies teacher, gave the Daughters of the American Revolution to Quinlan Lewis. The Theory of Knowledge award, able to be given to only IB Diploma Candidates, was awarded to Sarah Price by English teacher Nancy Nott who also taught the class.

The English award was given to Deborah Torres, and the Journalism award was given to The Northern Light´s  Editor In Chief, Lily Antor. Antor also received the PN Communication Scholarship along with Lexi Gavlas, another NL staff member, and Bharat Goel. Goel took home other awards, like the Mathematics award given to him by Math teacher Dan Stevens, and an AP Scholar award. Another AP Scholar with Distinction award was given to  students Lauren Park and Siddhant Pagariya. The other scholarships given to the seniors were the Robert P. Amrhein Memorial Scholarship given to Caitlyn Hose, the Chuck Evans Memorial Scholarship received by Madison Deboer, and Greg Pezzoli Memorial Scholarship given to Isabel Hack and Marco Pastrana. Pastrana received the scholarship as well as an Excellence in Education award. Other students who earned the Excellence in Education award were Ben Friedman, Camden Kalleward, Owen Langejans, Siddhant Pagariya, and Lauren Park. The Science award was given to Zachary Pierangeli by Science teacher Justin Olsen.

Ryan Daniel won the Forensic award, along with a Choir award. Other Theatre and Music awards included Jillian Bowe in Band, Elliot Hoinville in Theatre, and Jacob Zufall in Orchestra. Bowe was also awarded the PN Poetry Award in honor of soon to be retired English teacher Nancy Nott. The Language awards were French and Spanish presented Spanish Teacher Bryan Hill, and Latin presented by Latin teacher Jeanne Friedman. The French award was given to Alex Seybold, and the Spanish and Latin awards were both given to Erin Sexsmith.