Upper Perk HS Gives Back This Holiday Season

By Rachel Blackburn ‘16

Upper Perkiomen high school students and faculty members have gotten into the holiday spirit by giving back to the community.

One of the ways UPHS is helping the community is by running a food drive for the Open Link through the National Honors Society. From November 10 to December 17, NHS members have visited every homeroom in the school to collect items for the drive.

The food drive collected cans and boxes of non-perishable items from students and staff to donate to the Open Link. Along with the food, the students also raised money to give to the Open Link so they could buy any supplies needed that they did not receive through donation.

The holiday season is the busiest time of year for organizations like the Open Link, as they want to try their best to provide less fortunate families with a nice Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner that everyone deserves this time of year.

Along with the food drive, NHS students also try to make the holidays more enjoyable for families by participating in the Adopt-A-Family program. Each member brings in five dollars to go towards purchasing gifts for a family in need, collecting $155 to be used to buy gifts for the family.

While the NHS participates in the Adopt-A-Family program, members of the high school math department also spend time and money sponsoring a family through the Open Link rather than buying gifts for each other.

NHS and Leo’s Club members also participate in the Salvation Army Red Kettle campaign, where students ring bells outside of Walmart with donation jars to collect money for the organization. This allows the Salvation Army to provide food, clothes and toys to families in need during the holiday season.

“This year for the Salvation Army bell ringing, we had a lot more Leos sign up to participate than in other years,” said Leos Club president Heather Bower. “The Leos really stepped up for this event, which is awesome, especially for the cause.”

Band “FlintFace” Comes to UP to Tell Students to “Take Back Your Voice”

Last month, the band Flintface made a stop at Upper Perkiomen High School as part of their Take Back Your Voice tour to educate students about anti-bullying, depression and suicide prevention.

The members of the band have run assemblies preaching awareness about bullying, suicide and depression in schools all across the eastern United States. According to the National Mental Health Association, “Flintface and its members have been extremely proactive in trying to educate their fans about mental health, particularly about depression among youth.”

The assembly was put together by the Action Committee, run by teachers and staff members. Mrs. Angela Traub, the school’s new guidance counselor, recommended Flintface after seeing them perform at her old school .

“It’s very tough to find quality and our group wants impacting programs,” said Mr. Frank Mercon, a member of the Action Committee. “We as a group were struggling to find an assembly this year and when Mrs. Traub came forward with the idea we jumped on it.”

The goal of the band’s Take Back Your Voice tour is to teach students to be comfortable with who they are and to build self-confidence, as well as promote mental health.

Prior to entering the show, students were given pieces of paper to write their favorite pieces of inspiration on that they think would help encourage others. Flintface collects these papers from every performance and carries them with them.

Sophomore Jamie Hovanec opened for the band by performing “Fix You” by Coldplay. She was followed by the Women’s Choir, which performed an acapella version of Miley Cyrus’ “The Climb”.

During their performance, Flintface explained that by involving music in their assembly, they give students an example of a way they can express and be themselves instead of becoming introverted and destructive.

While the band discusses many serious topics, including drunk driving, smoking, drugs, suicide, depression, and physical, mental, and verbal abuse, their performance at the high school focused on bullying and learning to love yourself, as those are serious issues many high school students have.

“It was about bullying, and the message was in the lyrics,” said Mr. Mercon on the success of the assembly. “Unfortunately, the acoustics in the gym prevented the vocals from being clear and audible to receive the full message.”

At the end of the performance,while singing their closing songs, an acoustic guitar and several sharpies were passed around the student audience for people to sign their names, another keepsake that the band members like to take with them.

Despite some sound problems, the Action Committee is pleased with how the concert went.

 “I know it impacted some based on the post concert students that interacted with the band and had a lot of questions,” said Mr. Mercon. “Being able to help a few is a good accomplishment.”

Pacific Trip Video

Watch the Video Here!

Art Classes Gain a Student Teacher

By Rachel Blackburn 2016

This semester, art teacher Mrs. Amy Lychock was mentoring Mr. Caleb Smith, a student from Kutztown university, to help him complete the required student teaching hours in order to get his degree.

Mr. Smith went to high school not far from Upper Perk, at  Lampeter-Strasburg, just outside of Lancaster.

He was at the high school to get more student teaching hours so he can get his masters in Art Education. He taught at the Upper Perkiomen middle school last year once a week, so he does have some familiar faces walking the halls, although he felt that forgetting student’s names was the most frustrating part of student teaching.

“I’m trying really hard to remember my student’s names but there are so many,” said Mr. Smith, “it’s really difficult.”

Having Mr. Smith here has helped Mrs. Lychock as well as her students, but being at Upper Perk also helped him grow as a teacher.

“I enjoyed having him here,” said Mrs. Lychock. “I think he grew a lot through his experience here.”

During his time at the high school, Mr. Smith took over the Greek and Roman unit in Mrs. Lychock’s  Art History classes for this semester. He felt that his knowledge of art during the Greek and Roman eras is beneficial to the students since he spent an entire semester away in Italy last year.

“I studied abroad in Rome, Italy in the fall of 2014. I was there for 3 ½ months,” said Mr. Smith, “I think I can give a bit more insight than just a textbook”.

For another part of his student teaching requirement, Mr. Smith is now in Puerto Rico, where he is teaching kids of all ages about basic art skills on a military base. He left Upper Perk to pursue this task on October 17th.

“I really miss him,” said Mrs. Lychock, “but I don’t think he misses us as much since he is in Puerto Rico!”

UPHS Students Travel Abroad

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For 14 days over the summer, students and teachers from Upper Perkiomen high school traveled abroad to England and France to discover new cultures and have an experience unlike any other.

The students flew out of Philadelphia International Airport on June 22 and returned on July 2. They had a six hour flight on Delta Airlines.

Upper Perk english teachers Mrs. Alicia Austin and Ms. Colby Phillips were in charge of the trip, as they have been in past years. Like the other trips abroad run through the school, the trip to England and France was organized through EF Tours.

Students started out in London, where they saw famous sights such as Big Ben and Buckingham Palace.

“Seeing London night life was the best part of England,” said student Travis Hunsberger. “I really liked St. Paul’s Cathedral and the London Eye”

From there, they traveled to Normandy…

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Pacific Trip

Art teacher Mrs. Amy Lychock is organizing a trip abroad like no other that Upper Perk has done before. This trip will be to areas in the Pacific, specifically Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand and would take place from July 4th to July 17th in the summer of 2017.

This is a very unique tour, and will cost around $5,390. While this price may sound like a lot of money, the costs of flying makes the tour cheaper than it would be to plan such a vacation independently.

Mrs. Lychock reports that on other travel websites, the costs are around “$8-10,00 just for one flight,” while the Pacific trip she offers includes four flights, as well as hotels, some attractions and full meals at a significantly lower price.

Although this trip is being sponsored by Mrs. Lychock, an Upper Perk teacher, the trip is not school sponsored. Students from Pennridge school district will be attending the trip as well as students from Upper Perk, and many alumni are planning to attend the trip as well.

The Pacific trip is being organized through EF Educational Tours, the same company that is used for the school sponsored Italy, Germany and Europe trips. Like the other trips abroad, the Pacific trip will offer students many educational opportunities.

“I think this is an excellent opportunity, to see the art and culture of other countries,” said Mrs. Lychock. “As an example, in Australia, we’ll be snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef with a marine biologist.”

Students will also be visiting a geothermal volcanic area in New Zealand. As well as having an Art Education degree, Mrs. Lychock also has a degree in Earth Sciences, enabling her to enrich the student’s learning experience even more.

“With my science degree, I am extremely excited,” said Mrs. Lychock.

The trip will start in New Zealand, and from there the students will go to Sydney and Cairns, Australia. They will then travel to Hawaii, where they will spend some time in Oahu at the USS Arizona memorial, and then they will travel back home.