The tradition of a Homecoming dance has been missing at Jeff High for over 20 years. The absence of such a dance has no specific reason, but some theorize budget issues or lack of interest. However, neither of these concerns has held JHS back, as for the first time in over 20 years the Red Devils will finally be having a Homecoming dance at 8 p.m. Saturday night at the Nachand Fieldhouse in Jeffersonville.
“The point is to bring all the students together.”
Senior and Student Council President Koy Ramer
Student Council presidents, seniors Madison Pritchard and Koy Ramer, started the idea to bring back this custom. They knew that past presidents had hoped to have a Homecoming dance, but the idea was always rejected due to issues with budgeting or lack of a defined idea. So when Ramer and Pritchard wanted to plan a dance for Homecoming, they knew they needed a good plan for principal Pam Hall. They worked with the Student Council and sponsors Natalie Woods and Chloe Merkle to create a dance that the school body could enjoy.
“We were in completely new territory,” Pritchard stated.
Given the lack of examples to examine, there was no direction to go in when planning the dance. So Pritchard and Ramer surveyed the student body.
There were many different ideas and opinions, some students wanted an upperclassmen-only Homecoming, while others wanted the venue to be outside or for different entertainment. The pair struggled with finding a way to appease everyone. They attempted to find fair compromises for all students, but some decisions were made, not due to what the students needed, but because of what they could afford.
Most of the money for the dance came out of Student Council funds. A priority was to keep the dance relatively inexpensive. This led to some trade-offs being made. For example, the dance was hoped to be outside originally, but the idea proved to be too expensive.
The Homecoming dance ended up being one of the least expensive dances when compared to other yearly events. The dance only cost over 1,000 dollars, around 500 being for the venue and entertainment and only about 100 for the decorations.
“We wanted to utilize the student body,” Woods stated. A large part of why the dance was able to keep the budget low was due to the fact that the student body was utilized for various parts.
The culinary classes provide the catering via cake pops and pretzel rods. The marketing class helped make the tickets and flyers, as well as providing the ability to use the old Jeff gym as the venue. The Nachand Fieldhouse was both a cheaper venue and a symbolic statement, given its connection to Jeff.
The Nachand Fieldhouse is one of the city’s most historic buildings. Standing on 601 E Court Ave, Jeffersonville, the old court was used as the JHS gym and held the basketball games until 1971.
Due to renovations in 2017, there is one rule given it is a basketball court: all heels or black soled shoes can not be worn on the court. Students can wear them to the dance if they wish, but they cannot walk on the court with them on.
Despite this, it was the perfect place to hold a dance that was meant to symbolize community and school pride.
“The point is to bring all the students together,” Ramer stated.
The concept of unity was a large part of the decision to have a homecoming dance. From the theme of “Light the Night on Fire” being a direct reference to Jeff High’s mascot of the devil, along with allowing all grades to attend, and no outside guests, the center of Homecoming was the students, and they were the strong incentive for planning the dance.
“Students’ excitement and making this happen for the students was our motivation,” Merkle stated; they wanted to provide something new for the students to look forward to.
But despite their best efforts, at the end of the day the continuing of the Homecoming dance is up to student participation.
The hope for participation is 200 students, to help show that the Homecoming dance has enough interest for the dance to continue for years to come as well as to make up for the funds that the Student Council put into the dance.
“You get what you put into it,” Pritchard said, and the sentiment was shared by all who planned the event. The need for student support is at the core of helping the dance be successful and improving it for future students.
The preparation of the dance was a long and hard process, but was achieved by the helpful individuals who planned it for the students. They all hope that students have a fun time, enjoy themselves, and hopefully future students will experience the same joy.
Retired Clark County police officer Chuck Adams fondly remembers his days working in law enforcement and now spends his days hanging out with grandkids, fishing, and talking with long-time friends.
Adams added that he had wanted to become a police officer since he was a boy. ”As a young man I liked the fact that they helped people and got people through rough times,” he stated.
“I just feel like I helped a lot of people in my career, and I can’t just think of one individual great accomplishment that stands out,” Adams continued to say about his career in law enforcement.
His daughter, Shannon Anderson, backed up this claim by stating, “I would just say he is honest, fair, motivated by doing the right thing and not the popular thing, but most importantly he treated everybody as a human being and not like a criminal, or not like the bad guys.”
Before joining the Clark County Police Department, Adams’s first jobs included pumping gas at the age of 14 at a truck stop, and working at McDonalds, Jeffboat, and Ford Motor Company. His service to the public had already begun at an early age.
Adams stated, “I have lived in Clark County my whole life, long time Clark County resident.”
Best known for his sense of humor, he is always ready to tell a joke or a tall tale to brighten someone’s day.
Anderson recalled two tall tales he told: ”How he wound the old Colgate clock and he hung the railroad lights by hand.”
Adams’ ex- wife, Faye Briley, described how she met him in 1983 on a blind date and has known him for 41 years.
Briley described how he is outgoing, friendly, kind of loud, and just a good person.
“I started dating him because I just thought he was the man I always wanted; he was the whole package. He was dependable, hard working, kind, and the fact that he was nice looking didn’t hurt,” Briley explained.
Briley and Anderson have both said very inspiring and nice things about their experience around Adams.
Briley said, “He has turned out to be a good ex-husband, a good dad, a good friend, and someone I can count on up until this day.”
Anderson described her father to be a very good person and stated, “Overall,I would just say that he is quite the unique individual, and if you have time on your hands it would be worthwhile to have a conversation with him if you have 2-3 hours of spare time.”
Adams retired from CCPD in 2013. He stated, “I was 58 years old and maxed out on my pension. I had enough years to retire and financially able to retire.”
Life is different now for Adams. He said, “It’s a lot different from when I was working — no set times or schedules like when I was working, unless I want to be there.”
His life advice for happiness is simple.
”Well, I think if you try to live your life and be a good person, work hard, good things will happen to you, and your life will be fulfilled.”
Having been chosen as an exchange student, people put high expectations on my adaptability, on my desires to open myself to people and be presentable to my fellow American neighborhood and people of other ethnicities.
It would be a lie to say that this adventure isn’t scary to me, to be all alone in a big English world, a world that isn’t mine nor made to be mine, but from the first time I took the flight to come here I should have known everything wouldn’t be easy.
After more than 24 hours of traveling with a connection to Belgium, in which I couldn’t rest because of the tumultuous plane that kept moving around (answer the call of Gotham was the best part of the trip, as having to binge three DC movies was so much fun). However, eating during the flight was a terrible idea — my stomach ache was my biggest misery of that adventure. But the real difficulty was to say bye to my family and friends.
This exchange isn’t about the school at any point, but if there was something I wasn’t ready for, it’s how American high schools really are.
American high school isn’t like in the movies, but it makes it even more authentic, even more realistic, even more loveable, and I cherish every minute I pass between JHS walls.
Exchange Student Sarah Baloucoune
Are American schools better than schooling in Senegal? Coming from a foreign country, the first thing that had me rolling on the floor was the reality of the American high schools, which are immensely different from how they are in the movies.
All over the world, an image is spread of the “perfect school” where everything is good and sweet with music, dances, and love stories. But in fact, it is much more complicated and different than that – and a lot more stressful, too. This makes it closer to my school in Senegal and the whole Senegalese education system than to the fantasy they want us to believe.
Senegal is a country within Africa that was marked by the colonization of the French empire. As a result, the school organization of that West African nation is inspired by the ancient French school system and modified to accommodate the Senegalese government’s desires, even if some of the lessons we are taught are more than unnecessary.
The differences between the American curriculum and overall coordination and the Senegalese school structure are multiple. One of them is that in America (or maybe just in the United States) the students have to walk through the hallways to get to their next classes. This was very weird and confusing at first because of this school’s immensity and the numerous rooms, making finding my way impossible without help or previous knowledge.
In contrast, in my home country, students are placed in the classroom with people based on their grade, and the teachers move each class period instead of the students. Teachers bring their material and teach their subject, sometimes with bags or nothing. It wouldn’t be a lie to say that the students prefer this format and take great pleasure in staying alone in the classroom when the educator is late or off duty.
Another academic divergence between the two schools is the usage of Chromebooks, which is revolutionary to a student used to writing on paper and can be seen as a blessing as much as a curse to everyone else. The positive side is that it minimizes the number of books and notebooks, and it makes rapport between the teachers and the students easier and the usage of the internet for research more practical than using books. This is pretty much better than the written notebooks, except that the computer needs to be charged to be useful.
To be honest, the usage of Chromebooks gives me “toxic boyfriend” vibes: I want to have it, it’s fancy, fast and looks so professional; however, when using it, I am much slower than with a pen. I need help to learn everything about it because there is nothing to make you understand it and without advice, you don’t learn anything. It’s just a mess to have to learn how to use a computer when people are teaching their subjects.
All those highlights of the not-so-important differences are here to show the actual gap between those two systems, being the whole organization of the schools. The biggest and most internationally known of them are the graduation system and the classes’ curriculum, those two being deeper problems covered by the Senegalese government and school accomplices.
In Senegal, to successfully graduate high school, you must pass an exam named Baccalaureate, just like in the French school system. The funny part is that to get into high school, you also have to do an exam called BFEM (brevet de fin d’étude moyenne); this time passing it or not doesn’t have a big impact on the high school experience but totally changes the university experience.
This exam was my nightmare because even before I started the ninth grade, people started putting pressure on me about it. Being constantly reminded of this left a bitter taste on my tongue, and the real preparation begins when there are 100 days left before the three days of suffering in the exam centers. It is more fierce and stressful than all of the middle school years. I succeeded in that exam, but I won’t forget how badly people put stress in my heart for an exam I was confident about for the whole school year.
The coordination of those national exams is pretty long but relatively simple since in most of the schools you don’t get to choose all your classes. As an example, in high school, you have to make one of the biggest choices of your life that will change your whole school experience, being the choice of the series. Students either choose the series S (in which you get to work more on the sciences and study the reality of the matters), or the series L (mostly turned to literature and philosophy or the study of human civilizations). Once students choose their series, most of the classes are already chosen for them.
I was placed in the scientific side but switched at the beginning of the 10th grade (first year of high school in Senegal); this was the best idea I had in a while. I may not be as good in mathematics as I would have been in series S, but my grades thank me greatly for that choice, and my mind and heart were still at ease by the end of the year. That change made me lose some school classes, but, hey, I did great that year, so that’s fine anyway (that’s also a reason why I am struggling in precalculus even if I had straight A’s my whole grade).
With all those realities, most Senegalese students fantasize about the so-called “main character high school” with all its dramas and romance, but even more because it got the reputation to be easier than in some other countries, not to say most of them. After all this intellectual talk, let me end this comparison with a little emotional note – there are a lot of more differences that I didn’t tell you about like the usage of the phones, which is forbidden in my school; the American cafeteria and its catalog of food that gives the students the choice of what to eat for lunch, which is totally different in most of my home country schools; and the freshmen who are still in middle school in the Senegalese organization.
I really am enjoying school in America, but I miss my home country school. I miss my friends and family even more, but I love this experience.
American high school isn’t like in the movies, but it makes it even more authentic, even more realistic, even more loveable, and I cherish every minute I pass between JHS walls. I will never forget the people I met here (big up to my sweet Senegalese friends all over the states and my incredible host family here).
Every year as the fall months come around, an annual and very special performance comes along with it.
This event is Gospelfest, performed in the JHS Auditorium this Tuesday, Sept. 24 at 7 p.m., with tickets ranging from 5-10 dollars.
“It’s a full on gospel experience, right here in Jeff.”
Choir Director Kyle Broady
The very first production occurred 20 years ago, roughly back in the 2000’s. Contrary to what may be believed, the first Gospelfest was put on at New Albany. JHS was able to join in on this blossoming tradition due to both former choir directors being longtime friends.
Gospelfest is an all choir concert, which is entirely composed of African American gospel music, picked and conducted by a special guest who specializes in Black Gospel and jazz, Dr. Roosevelt Escalante.
“It’s a full on gospel experience, right here in Jeff,” choir director Kyle Broady stated.
And an experience it shall be. The choir consists of 150+ students. In addition to the JHS choir, Borden High School will be performing with the Southern Indiana Children’s Choir. A live band will accompany the singers, while the sound system will be used in full in order to project the combining music towards the audience while in a full concert layout.
“This group, in particular, is going to make it pretty special,” added senior Luna Guyse, currently in her seventh year in a choir.
Gospelfest may be a once-a-year performance, but it has touched many hearts.
The choir director at Borden is a JHS alumnus, joining the Gospelfest last year due to how much she enjoyed it in her high school years. Yet she is not the only one with a connection to past Gospelfests, for the choir director of the Southern Indiana Children’s Choir had previously retired from being JHS’s choir director.
Many can’t wait for the performance, including current choir students.
“We have a really good set coming up. We have a mix of good people returning, and a lot of good people coming in, it’s just great,” said senior Ella Motluck, currently in her seventh year in choir.
The excitement isn’t just felt in one student, for the others are just as enthused.
“I’m really excited! Dr. Escalante picked out some really good songs this year,” said senior Sylvana Sandoval Camacho, who currently is in her sixth year of a choir.
There are many challenges that can come with events like this. “I’m not even sure I remembered everything,” Broady joked when showing off a checklist of preparations. And there are the challenges of keeping everyone on the same page when there is not constant contact.
Yet through that all, the choir pushes through it together, motivated by the knowledge of community that their performances bloom. For one of the most enjoyable parts of being in choir is, as Guyse put it, “Doing something you love, with people who love it just as much as you.”
As a new school year begins, new rules and legislation kick in with it. The beginning of the 2024-25 year school marks the becoming of a phoneless JHS school day.
On July 1, 2024, the official “No Phone Law” was put into effect, affecting JHS and all other Indiana public schools.
The official law “Requires each school corporation and charter school to:
(1) adopt and implement a wireless communication device policy that governs student use of a wireless communication device; and
(2) publish the policy on the school corporation’s or charter school’s website. “
According to Harvard University, “the presence of electronic devices in the classroom is not, in and of itself, the problem. Rather, it’s the way we incorporate electronic devices into situations in which we are already inclined to pay attention to too many things.”
Research from thePew Research Center shows that about seven in ten (72%) teachers say that high school students being distracted by phones in the classroom is a significant problem. So now with the policy in place, JHS hopes to reverse any potential poor effects devices in school could have caused.
Although the legislation may seem redundant or unnecessary to many students, some teachers, including English teacher Allison Clary, implemented their own “no phone rule” prior to the state-wide ban.
“At the end of the year two years ago I was ready to quit. I was ready to throw in the towel…I’m going to be honest, I couldn’t stand to look at those kids anymore at the end of the year, but what I realized, it wasn’t really the kids; it was the phones,” Clary said.
But when Clary started implementing her own rule and seeing results, she contacted principal Pam Hall to ask if she could share her findings with the school staff.
Clary addressed the whole faculty and told them “just how important it was” and “how it had saved everything for me, and that if we are all on board with this it’s going to work a lot better.”
She said that even her students have seen the benefits of limited phone usage.
“I had so many students say… that even though they didn’t like it at first, it was something that they grew to love, that they appreciated that if all their teachers had done it, they’d have straight A’s across the board because they were so much more engaged.”
Hall said that she thinks that the policy will help improve classroom settings as all teachers use the same strategy.
“The feedback that we’ve got from teachers is that students aren’t really pushing back,” Hall stated when asked how teachers and students have responded. “They come into the classroom and they know the routine and the procedures. There’s attendance, they put their phones up and they get started with the lesson. I think it’s really been a pleasant surprise for our teachers.”
The law is straightforward on what the state of Indiana wants to be done for its education, but it gives freedom of how each school may put it into practice.
Hall and leaders of other schools in the area communicated and received their opinions on what they were planning to do in their schools to adhere to the new law.
As stated by Hall, GCCS leaders tried to find “common pieces” as they implemented the new law, but “each school is able to implement what works best for them.” There is “not one consistent message.”
But already, our school is finding that the absence of phones has made visible improvement compared to previous years with staff receiving adequate feedback from teachers and students on how this has and will benefit the classroom and learning across the board.
“I mean, I’m very proud of our students here because you know, we’ve had very few cell phone disciplines where we’ve had to send kids to ISS on there and I’m just very thankful for them being a partner with us,” said Hall.
Late September brings college-related activities that should interest seniors and college-bound students, including next week’s College Go Week.
Health academy Counselor Amy Colangelo stated, “College Go Week is a week to get students excited and in the know of college.”
It’s a time where colleges may waive fees on applications and have scholarships available.
Colangelo said, “It’s an important introduction to college. And it’s an easy way to apply to multiple colleges at once.”
JHS will offer the following opportunities for college-bound students and their families:
Thursday, Sept. 19: JHS offers College Info Night in the JHS Commons from 6-8 p.m.
According to the Counseling Department, the College Info Night will include 25-minute breakout sessions on:
Scholarships
Transcript Requests / Parchment – how to request transcripts be sent to colleges and to receive a copy
Applying for College – Common App and more
Ivy Tech Jeff Promise Scholarship
INvestEd – Financial Aid & FAFSA 10 1
Friday, Sept. 20: A FSA ID creation event in the JHS Media Center from 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
Seniors and parents can sign up for 30-minute time slots to create their FSA ID. This is the first step in filing the FAFSA, which is required for seniors to fill out.
College Go Week — Sept. 23-27:
Seniors will have the opportunity to work with Admissions professionals from IVY Tech and/or University of Evansville on Tuesday, Sept. 24 during lunch and IMPACT.
Sacred Heart Middle School teacher Lynne Evanczyk’s day is never truly over as she helps a student with homework after school hours while also planning school-wide events and creating lesson plans for the next day.
Science teacher Lynne Evanczyk grades papers in her classroom. Evanczyk, a junior high teacher at Sacred Heart in Jeffersonville, is a JHS graduate and has taught at Sacred Heart for over 40 years. Photo by Austin Bainbridge.
Evanczyk attended JHS and graduated in 1977 in a class with around 800 students. She then went on to attend Hanover College for her bachelor’s degree and went on to Indiana University Southeast for her master’s degree. She went on the job hunt and was preparing to take a job in Texas, but her connections from JHS got her local job.
“I’m very thankful that my connections in the public education system helped me to get a job closer to home,” Evanczyk said.
Evanczyk is a very hard-working teacher. She works every Sacred Heart event possible. She also usually helps to plan every event. She leads most committees and always finds time to help students, no matter the hour.
“She puts in a lot more time and work than the other teachers at Sacred Heart; she’s always willing to help,” said seventh grader Adeline Bainbridge.
Evanczyk taught in the public school system for two years and has been teaching private school for 41 years. She likes to think that she combines elements of the style of teaching used in both settings that other teachers cannot.
“I believe in bringing a mixture of the love of learning and discipline into the classroom,” she said.
Evanczyk started out teaching second grade. She then was offered a position as a seventh-grade science teacher. She loved the position and has worked in the Sacred Heart Middle School ever since.
“If I had to say one thing, my favorite part about teaching is seeing the look in a kid’s eye when they realize they mastered a topic.”
Sacred Heart Teacher Lynne Evanczyk
“I fell in love with doing middle school science. I always enjoyed using microscopes and dissecting frogs. That’s stuff you just can’t do with second graders,” she stated.
She also likes to get to know her students and create a positive learning environment. She said that if she knows her students it’s much easier to teach them.
Bainbridge said, “When I enter her room I feel welcome and accepted, like I can still get things wrong but not feel embarrassed.”
Evanczyk prides herself on making her lessons interesting while still being easy to learn. She often uses examples and takes extra time if a student needs it.
“She is very energetic and cares if we understand the topic. I never felt like I was on an island with her as my teacher,” said Trinity High School freshman Caleb Johnson.
Evanczyk’s students also enjoy her being their teacher for other reasons. They say that she is a great teacher for preparing them for high school. She likes to assign work at the rate high school teachers would and always likes to make sure her students go to a high school that’s a better fit for them.
“She really helped me prepare for high school like other teachers didn’t. She helped me prepare for a high school workload and style of learning,” said Johnson.
She says JHS greatly impacted her career. Her teachers at JHS are the people that made her want to teach. Without Jeff she couldn’t have been such an impactful teacher.
“My teachers at Jeff really influenced me, especially my science teacher. I felt how they all impacted me and I thought I want to be able to do that. I really am appreciative of all the teachers at Sacred Heart and Jeff that helped me become a better educator,” said Evanczyk.
Evanczyk loves teaching for many reasons, from interacting with kids to having fun events. She said that she has one favorite item about teaching:
“If I had to say one thing, my favorite part about teaching is seeing the look in a kid’s eye when they realize they mastered a topic. That really makes me feel very happy because they are so overjoyed to realize they know what was taught.”
Col. Robert Benning instructs his JROTC cadets during PT practice. Photo by Shelby Keesee.
Colonel Robert Benning walks around the classroom, detailing his freshmen on the captivating history of the earlier days of flight.
“John Montgomery’s 1911 glider was called The Evergreen…” begins Benning.
On a day at JHS, one may stumble upon Benning and pass by without a second thought. If not, they would most likely assume he’s just a typical bald man wearing military-like outfits.
However, this isn’t the case.
At first glance, no one would comprehend he’s not only spent 11 years at JHS teaching JROTC, served 25 years in the U.S. Air Force active duty, but has also majored in physics.
“They have a lasting impact because in some ways, we end up having friends for life.”
Colonel Robert Benning, JROTC Instructor
“I came into the Air Force and I had a four-year obligation. And so it was kind of, ‘I’ll do four years and get out.’ But it was about that eight or 10-year point where I kind of decided, ‘You know, I really like what I’m doing, I’m being successful, I think I’ll stay in.’ So, it was just always, always, wanting to serve my country,” stated Benning.
Benning’s first teaching opportunity was in the Air Force’s active duty.
“When I was in the Air Force, I got the opportunity in the Air Force on active duty to teach or instruct,” Benning stated. “I was in charge of training.”
Benning undeniably enjoys teaching and working with others.
“But this job, yeah, it’s teaching in the classroom. But to me, it’s so much about mentoring our youth,” said Benning. “And that’s what keeps me coming back each year. It’s being able to work with the high school students.”
Using team building exercises in the classroom, Benning attempts to increase mentorship within his students.
“My favorite thing about Colonel is he’s a mentor, he’s a life coach, he extends outside of ROTC, he helps you with every aspect of life,” stated Cadet Evan Cooper, a senior. “Academics, personally, just anything you ask him, he’ll be there for you.”
Cadets report Benning has improved their leadership skills.
“I’ve learned more leadership strategies through what he’s kind of like, taught and what he’s talked about with me over,” said Cadet Dylan Wibbels, a senior. “He seems like he likes to do right by the world, and he sticks to his moral compass.”
His students also report Benning having an impact on their daily lives, ranging from how his students go about their day, to a different, more positive view on how the world works.
“As a person, he is a big influence on my morality,” Cooper said.
Not only does Benning have a great influence on his students, but he is often described positively by them.
“I would describe him as calm, stern, collected and very intelligent,” said Cooper. “I think he’s a model example of what a man should be.”
Because of the mutual impact and likability between Benning and his students, after the students graduate, Benning keeps contact with them.
“What other things that we do is after kids graduate, we try and keep touch. Especially those that go into the military. So anytime they’re in town, we’ll take them out to lunch or dinner, and I try and keep that correspondence with as many of my students as possible,” Benning stated.
Benning’s favorite part of his job is seeing the successes of his students after graduation when an enduring impact has been made on them. He deeply enjoys the connections that are shared between the students and himself.
“They have a lasting impact because in some ways, we end up having friends for life.”
“And then you’ve got your answer,” JHS algebra and geometry teacher Cory Densford said. The time was 2:30 p.m., and Densford had taken the time to stay after school in order to help his fellow students with their questions. Many students gathered around him, some of them not even from his class while others accompanied their friends.
“I knew I wanted a job where I could help people. I decided on teaching because I had good experiences in school and I had a lot of really good role models throughout my time as a kid,” explained Densford.
It’s his twelfth year of teaching at JHS, 11 of those years also sponsoring the school’s Game Club. After studying for a career in education at Indiana University Southeast, Densford began with primary teaching, until he decided kids were just not for him. Soon after, he came to teach here where he once attended as a student as well.
Math teacher Cory Densford presents a lesson to his geometry class. Photo by Viviana Gonzalez Chavez.
“It’s incredibly rewarding to be able to give back to the school that made me who I am,” he explained. “JHS also provides so much freedom in how you teach. It’s really easy to do what’s best for my students.”
Densford not only teaches six math classes a day but also stays after school almost everyday for homework help and to answer questions from students who’ve already gone home.
He spends a lot of time in person and online, guiding those who may struggle to keep up. From the moment he walks into the classroom to the second he walks out, students will always find him speaking with them and helping answer their questions.
“It’s one of my favorite things about his teaching style. I liked that he would put a problem and work it with us, if you had questions he would answer them and dive deeper. He was a very thorough teacher and never left me with more questions.” said sophomore Kaniyah Woodley, a former student of Densford’s.
Woodley also described times when she felt like Densford was more than just a teacher, when he was a friend, someone to have fun with. She recalls a time when cupcakes were brought in as a ‘goodbye’ party for their student teacher at the time, Garett Nash, stating, “It felt like he (Densford) was a student with us, having a good time, laughing and joking about simple things.”
She also goes into detail about times when class wasn’t so simple, when things were hard for her and her peers. Being a teacher during these times can be difficult, having to draw a line of professionalism as students begin to grow up and face harder challenges. Despite this, many classmates still felt that Densford was always uplifting.
“I have bad test anxiety and when it came to geometry tests, I was always really anxious. Mr. Densford always noticed and sometimes during the tests he would use encouraging words to help me feel less stressed about it,” she explained. “It was always very nice, especially because he never made us feel like anything less than the students we knew we could be. He never raised his voice and was always very respectful, sometimes even playful with our class.”
Having a job in which working alongside teenagers is essential, guiding them and helping them reach their goals can be demanding. He describes the struggles many teachers from all schools face: How do you motivate a kid who doesn’t want to learn?
Especially in the morning, when students are just waking up? Challenging as it may be, Densford harbors no ill feelings towards the job.
“Oh I love it… they’re all different. Day to day, period to period, kid to kid, it always keeps it interesting. It’s not the same exact thing, monotonous day in, day out, and that’s what I like about it.”
He also described the little moments in class that make it all worth it. He details prideful moments, where students triumph over their hurdles, the moment in which he succeeds as a teacher and allows students to problem-solve their way through conflicts.
“Favorite part is getting to hear kids explain something that they figured out on their own. I mean I lead them there, but they make the final conclusion. Seeing them put those pieces together and just seeing in their face like ‘Oh wow, this is so much bigger than I thought it could be,’ that’s a cool moment.”
As if to speak from experience, he also illustrates a similar incident from his very own teen years with JHS math teacher Shadd Clarke.
“I had him for two years; he’s the reason I became a teacher, it’s what made me pick teaching… It’s one of the things he’s the best at, is showing you, giving you the tools and getting you to that place. And that meant a lot to me as a kid because I had been handheld in other classes, just spoon-fed all of the material, all of the conclusions, and it never clicked why stuff worked.”
Similarly, Densford has also heavily influenced educators around him. Nash, his fellow geometry and algebra teacher, also speaks very highly of him.
In the second semester of the 2023-2024 school year Nash, through a program at IUS, was working as a student teacher with Densford for four months. Nash recalled the overall experience of working alongside Densford.
“It was fun, he shaped what I try to model my classroom around, and he helped me while I was student teaching. He gave me a lot of freedom if I wanted to try something new, experiment… he was just a good role model.”
Now his own teacher, he recognizes many similarities in the ways he teaches. Nash also details goals he has, things he’s seen happen with Densford that he, too, wishes to accomplish.
“I see kind of how the students respect him a lot, that’s kind of what I’m trying to strive for, what inspired me to become a better teacher.”
Having seen so many students grow up, it can be very nostalgic for a teacher to see them grow up into adults, seeing them achieve the things they worked so hard for. This comes as no surprise to someone like Densford, who left an uplifting impact on many of his students.
“It’s always cool seeing kids turn into the people you knew they could.”
Densford said shaping these future leaders is ultimately what his class is all about, guiding them into becoming people who can problem solve their way through any challenge.
“I want to make kids into thinkers. That’s what makes you successful in life, I think. People that can think their way through problems and not have to be handheld, it’s hard especially at first… that’s the impact I want to have on any of my kids, is that they can just pause, take a step back, look at the big picture and think about what’s going on.”
“I want to make kids into thinkers. That’s what makes you successful in life, I think.”
Math Teacher Cory Densford
by Ricky Cummins
Math teacher Cory Densford sits down, elbows on knees, helping two students with their math assignments. He also answers questions from other students about games, assignments, and sports. These activities in his daily life align with his life philosophy.
“My main goal is to help as many people as possible and be happy while doing it,” Densford said.
According to this philosophy, Densford enjoys and takes pride in helping others.
“They talk about love languages, and acts of service are mine. That’s how I show people that I love them. So with teaching, it is effortless to do that because there is so much you can do for a student to help them.”
Densford even carries this philosophy into his daily life outside of school.
“At home, my wife and I take turns doing dishes and cleaning out the cabinets. I would even do her turn if she’s stressed out. I guess the result motivates me to keep doing stuff that feeds that cycle,” he said.
Using this technique, Densford can maximize his teaching capabilities and minimize his teaching mistakes.
“Teaching has helped me a lot with stress management. It’s all about compartmentalization. I only let myself worry about stuff that I can directly affect.”
Math teacher Garrett Nash mentioned that Densford played an important role in helping him become a better teacher.
“Last year when I was student teaching, I learned many good ways to make math more comprehensible,” Nash said. “He is also one of my role models when it comes to teaching.”
2024 graduate Draco Konno mentioned that the Games Club, which Densford runs, helped him de-stress.
“It’s a great way to relax and have fun. Densford manages it in a cool, chill way to create a relaxing atmosphere.”
Densford created a similar atmosphere in the classroom, which led to the inception of the Games Club.
“My very first year teaching, I had this group of kids playing Yu-Gi-Oh, so I brought Magic in, and they taught me Yu-Gi-Oh. I taught them Magic. So, I let them come back later that day, and that was the start of Games Club,” he said. “The next year we wrote our charter, got approval, and even received some funding to buy games, and that’s how we started.”
Densford’s realistic and motivational words are his specialty.
“As a teacher, you have to find out what your insecurities are and make them your armor. Low-hanging fruit is what kids are going to pick.”
Freshman English teacher David Kummer walks into his class welcoming and greeting his students as he asks about their day. Little do his students know that they will be learning about English from a published author’s point of view.
With six published written books and 5,000 copies sold, Kummer is thinking of setting himself a new goal for the upcoming summer to finish a Trilogy of books.
“I want to write another series, but there is one I’ve been working on since high school. I’ve written it and re-writing. It’s more like a personal goal,” said Kummer. “I want to make it the best I can.”
He talks about his personal struggles in high school and how writing was used as an outlet to help in many different ways with his mental health, depression and anxiety.-
“I used writing as an outlet. I used it to work on expressing myself. In some way it improved my self confidence. Saying I’m 16 and I published a book. It was a good way to connect with other people.”
Kummer talks about his experience as a young writer in high school helped him figure out his writing for advertising. He talks about what he has learned from his experiences.
“Publishing books in high school gave me a head start on most people and let me learn from trial-and-error, specifically when it came to promoting my books. I had to make a lot of mistakes to figure out what worked, so I used high school as a time to experiment with my writing and with my advertising,” he said.
Starting in elementary school, Kummer started writing. He said his dad and encouraged his success in writing.
“My dad encouraged me by always reading what I wrote, no matter how bad the writing was or how ugly my handwriting, as you know, and he even offered suggestions on what I could do better, but also pointed out what I did well. I really enjoyed that connection, and he still reads all of my books to this day,” he recalled.
Kummer said his favorite part of writing a book is that it unlocks new emotions for him.
“My favorite part of writing books is that usually when I start with something by the time I get to the end of it, it’s like a totally different story. It’s always fun when I get to that moment and it just clicks together. This is what this book is meant to be.”.
He says it’s a shocker to place all the puzzle pieces of his books together.
“It’s like an ‘aha’ moment. It shocks me when all the puzzle pieces come together. It can take a while to put all the puzzle pieces together,” said Kummer.
Kummer said his main focus is to write and not focus on being published.
“I think everyone can get something out of writing, whether it is self confidence or using it as an outlet. I like being able to see how books influence other people.”
English Teacher and Local Author David Kummer
“If you asked me four years ago I probably would’ve said that I wanted a publishing deal or to have a big publishing company. It would be cool to have a publishing deal but I’m not willing to spend a lot of time on it. I’m in it to write, not to be published,” Kummer said.
Kummer contributes being an author outside of school but he also aligns it with being an English teacher. He talks about the advantages of being an author and teaching it from his point of view.
“Having written books, I can see things from the author’s point of view, and I’m a little better at pointing out things and then we can talk about it in class. I can see it from the reading side and writer’s side.”
Kummer said being an author and teacher has helped him put himself out to the public and break out of his comfort zone.
“I think being an author and teacher helps me in both categories. When I was younger I was a very shy introverted person. I think being a teacher forces you to be less introverted. Also, when selling a book I put myself out there,” he nodded.
Though it can be a challenge, Kummer wants his classroom environment to feel stress free and exciting for his students on a daily basis. He reduces the stress of students by creating assignments that help with their engagement as well as being patient with them.
“My goal with teaching is that I want my classroom to feel like a space where kids are stress free. I want it to be a place where kids are excited to come to class. I try to create assignments that involve engagement that helps with their real life and person. I don’t want kids to worry about me screaming at them. I want them to know what’s going on right when they walk into my class.”
Sophomore Yanqi Liang proudly described Kummer as a teacher who can be trustworthy, unique, funny, and there for his students.
“He helped me all the time so I didn’t have to worry about failing that class. He broke down and explained projects individually. He’s an outgoing person and trustworthy at times. He participated in Spirit Week and he helped me with friendships. He’s unique because he tries to be friends with his students and cares about them. He is a role model to us,” said Liang.
Kummer focuses on being patient with his students whenever he talks about wanting his classroom to feel stressless, as well as trying to make it easier to learn and acknowledge the work of his students.
“If they don’t understand parts of speech, I can change the way I teach it and see if it works that time. It does get tricky but I have to keep in mind that almost every kid is doing the best that they can. Somedays their best might not be as good as other days. If something doesn’t stick one day it might be something we will have to come back to the next day and try again,” he said.
Freshman Dana Romero eagerly agreed with Liang about Kummer being a trustworthy teacher and being a unique teacher.
“He gives me his honest opinion and makes me see past my thoughts. He listens and is patient. He doesn’t go around talking about other students’ problems. He can talk to you and not judge you; he’ll leave you with no remarks. He is an outgoing teacher and communicates and reaches out if you struggle in class. He tries to understand you instead of making assumptions. He’s an amazing teacher,” said Romero.
Kummer’s advice for current students is to let them know that it does get better being in high school. Though it can be hard at first, recalling moments back in high school can give you a good laughter.
“You don’t have to be perfect to get through high school. I want kids to understand that it does get better. It’s hard to say because you are in high school. It feels like you’re stock in a fog and you don’t know how to get it out, but it does get better. Stuff that seems impossible in high school ends up being kind of easy. You’ll look back to high school and can kind of laugh about it years down the road. You’ll surprise yourself with what you’re capable of.”
Teaching at JHS allowed him to interact with students with different life situations and accomplishments. However, he points out the thought of working in a public school and private school and describes the difference between them.
“I really like teaching at Jeff because I get to interact with kids who have been through a lot of stuff and who had really tough lives. Kids at Jeff need you in a way that they don’t need you at a private school. Just the amount of kids who say ‘hi’ to you or a ‘good morning’. That is an accomplishment,” he said.
Getting started in writing can be hard. He said that getting started in writing or reading can be hard to get past but it can be done. Especially kids in his Writing Club held at JHS.
“It’s really hard to get started. It’s true whether you are writing something or reading something. The first page of the book you’re reading or the first page you’re writing is super hard to get through. What I’m trying to tell the creative writing kids is to not worry about the first draft, just write something. Sometimes you don’t really know how you should start a story until you get to the end of it.”
Writing is held with challenges when getting started. Kummer believes that students can write and get something out of it, including the influence that books can create.
“I think everyone can get something out of writing, whether it is self confidence or using it as an outlet,” Kummer said. “I like being able to see how books influence other people.”
Having been chosen as an exchange student, people put high expectations on my adaptability, on my desires to open myself to people and be presentable to my fellow American neighborhood and people of other ethnicities.
It would be a lie to say that this adventure isn’t scary to me, to be all alone in a big English world, a world that isn’t mine nor made to be mine, but from the first time I took the flight to come here I should have known everything wouldn’t be easy.
After more than 24 hours of traveling with a connection to Belgium, in which I couldn’t rest because of the tumultuous plane that kept moving around (answer the call of Gotham was the best part of the trip, as having to binge three DC movies was so much fun). However, eating during the flight was a terrible idea — my stomach ache was my biggest misery of that adventure. But the real difficulty was to say bye to my family and friends.
This exchange isn’t about the school at any point, but if there was something I wasn’t ready for, it’s how American high schools really are.
American high school isn’t like in the movies, but it makes it even more authentic, even more realistic, even more loveable, and I cherish every minute I pass between JHS walls.
Exchange Student Sarah Baloucoune
Are American schools better than schooling in Senegal? Coming from a foreign country, the first thing that had me rolling on the floor was the reality of the American high schools, which are immensely different from how they are in the movies.
All over the world, an image is spread of the “perfect school” where everything is good and sweet with music, dances, and love stories. But in fact, it is much more complicated and different than that – and a lot more stressful, too. This makes it closer to my school in Senegal and the whole Senegalese education system than to the fantasy they want us to believe.
Senegal is a country within Africa that was marked by the colonization of the French empire. As a result, the school organization of that West African nation is inspired by the ancient French school system and modified to accommodate the Senegalese government’s desires, even if some of the lessons we are taught are more than unnecessary.
The differences between the American curriculum and overall coordination and the Senegalese school structure are multiple. One of them is that in America (or maybe just in the United States) the students have to walk through the hallways to get to their next classes. This was very weird and confusing at first because of this school’s immensity and the numerous rooms, making finding my way impossible without help or previous knowledge.
In contrast, in my home country, students are placed in the classroom with people based on their grade, and the teachers move each class period instead of the students. Teachers bring their material and teach their subject, sometimes with bags or nothing. It wouldn’t be a lie to say that the students prefer this format and take great pleasure in staying alone in the classroom when the educator is late or off duty.
Another academic divergence between the two schools is the usage of Chromebooks, which is revolutionary to a student used to writing on paper and can be seen as a blessing as much as a curse to everyone else. The positive side is that it minimizes the number of books and notebooks, and it makes rapport between the teachers and the students easier and the usage of the internet for research more practical than using books. This is pretty much better than the written notebooks, except that the computer needs to be charged to be useful.
To be honest, the usage of Chromebooks gives me “toxic boyfriend” vibes: I want to have it, it’s fancy, fast and looks so professional; however, when using it, I am much slower than with a pen. I need help to learn everything about it because there is nothing to make you understand it and without advice, you don’t learn anything. It’s just a mess to have to learn how to use a computer when people are teaching their subjects.
All those highlights of the not-so-important differences are here to show the actual gap between those two systems, being the whole organization of the schools. The biggest and most internationally known of them are the graduation system and the classes’ curriculum, those two being deeper problems covered by the Senegalese government and school accomplices.
In Senegal, to successfully graduate high school, you must pass an exam named Baccalaureate, just like in the French school system. The funny part is that to get into high school, you also have to do an exam called BFEM (brevet de fin d’étude moyenne); this time passing it or not doesn’t have a big impact on the high school experience but totally changes the university experience.
This exam was my nightmare because even before I started the ninth grade, people started putting pressure on me about it. Being constantly reminded of this left a bitter taste on my tongue, and the real preparation begins when there are 100 days left before the three days of suffering in the exam centers. It is more fierce and stressful than all of the middle school years. I succeeded in that exam, but I won’t forget how badly people put stress in my heart for an exam I was confident about for the whole school year.
The coordination of those national exams is pretty long but relatively simple since in most of the schools you don’t get to choose all your classes. As an example, in high school, you have to make one of the biggest choices of your life that will change your whole school experience, being the choice of the series. Students either choose the series S (in which you get to work more on the sciences and study the reality of the matters), or the series L (mostly turned to literature and philosophy or the study of human civilizations). Once students choose their series, most of the classes are already chosen for them.
I was placed in the scientific side but switched at the beginning of the 10th grade (first year of high school in Senegal); this was the best idea I had in a while. I may not be as good in mathematics as I would have been in series S, but my grades thank me greatly for that choice, and my mind and heart were still at ease by the end of the year. That change made me lose some school classes, but, hey, I did great that year, so that’s fine anyway (that’s also a reason why I am struggling in precalculus even if I had straight A’s my whole grade).
With all those realities, most Senegalese students fantasize about the so-called “main character high school” with all its dramas and romance, but even more because it got the reputation to be easier than in some other countries, not to say most of them. After all this intellectual talk, let me end this comparison with a little emotional note – there are a lot of more differences that I didn’t tell you about like the usage of the phones, which is forbidden in my school; the American cafeteria and its catalog of food that gives the students the choice of what to eat for lunch, which is totally different in most of my home country schools; and the freshmen who are still in middle school in the Senegalese organization.
I really am enjoying school in America, but I miss my home country school. I miss my friends and family even more, but I love this experience.
American high school isn’t like in the movies, but it makes it even more authentic, even more realistic, even more loveable, and I cherish every minute I pass between JHS walls. I will never forget the people I met here (big up to my sweet Senegalese friends all over the states and my incredible host family here).
With a new school year starting and seasons kicking off, many teams and coaches prepare for a year filled with hopeful achievements and golden medals. Through intense practice and hours of dedication that are put into these sports, student-athletes bring pride to JHS.
However, one must remember the coaches who built these players into the athletes they are today. A spotlight on several fall sport coaches reveals their backgrounds, interests, and goals for their Red Devil teams.
Girls’ Soccer Coach Julie Deuser
New girls’ soccer head coach Julie Deuser. Submitted photo.
Coach Deuser is a new addition to the JHS athletic team, taking over for former soccer coach Kallee Thornton. With big shoes to fill, Deuser has come in with a strong sense of determination. She has a long history of coaching at many different schools and playing for several more herself. For example, she coached at New Albany and led her team to the IHSAA Sectional Championship in 2012.
But now, she has big goals for the JHS girls’ soccer team.
“My biggest goal for this team is to see the girls grow and learn the game. I want this team to be competitive and respected in the area. We want girls to want to come to Jeffersonville to play soccer. The program is going to be transforming over the next few years. Long term, we want to win games and championships.”
“I think she’s going to take the soccer program in a positive direction,” senior and varsity player Jovie Golko. She has been playing soccer for all four years of high school and has vocalized her faith in her new coach’s ability to lead her and the rest of the team.
Head Co-ed Swim Coach Michael Pepa
Pepa is a face many students recognize from his teaching College and Careers for many freshman classes, but he is also the head coach for the JHS award-winning swim team.
Pepa had been a swimmer for many years before he was known for his coaching abilities. He started swimming in high school and he, like many, wasn’t the best when he first started. But after swimming through high school to college, he eventually became a record-holder in his sport.
With his 30 years of experience, Pepa passes wisdom onto his students. He pushes an idea of personal best, wanting each student to reach their potential.
“I love Pepa; He’s an amazing coach who built me into the swimmer I am today,” stated Romier Hunter-Lawrence, a senior swim team member.
JHS swimmers join principal Pam Hall and mayor Mike Moore for the new pool facility being built. Submitted photo.
But even after 30 years Pepa has more plans and hopes for the new year, from strong talent new and old, and the addition of a new pool in the coming months. There is much to look forward to for the swim team in the coming years.
Volleyball Coach Wesly Briscoe
Originally Briscoe had no plans for becoming the coach we all know him as today. He originally wanted to do more of a journalistic view of sports. He was the news and sports editor when he attended Floyd Central High School. He even did radio and TV. It was when he went off and became a student at UofL, sitting around one day, when his mother gave him an offer to coach volleyball.
JHS volleyball team. Submitted photo.
During the first few years of this new volleyball coaching career, Briscoe walked with a “chip on his shoulder.” He said he was coaching out of spite, but he learned to change his mentality.
His new values as a coach are that coaches should lead by example. They should strive for personal growth and push the students to be the best they can be.
“You could train like a tiger in the jungle or train like a tiger in the zoo” is one of Briscoe’s mantras about pushing himself and his students to train to be the best version.
This mantra is one any student should remember if they want to join the volleyball team in the near future. As Briscoe also shared, volleyball is not an easy sport to just pick up – it will take time and practice but the results will lead the athlete to find improvement and self-pride.
Assistant Wrestling Coach Evan Myers
Myers has been coaching at JHS his entire coaching career and similar to a past coach on the list, Myers didn’t originally plan on being a coach. He was interested in journalism, which led him to become an English teacher. Since he wrestled while in high school, along with a strong love for teaching, he took an opportunity to be a JHS wrestling coach when he heard that the position was available.
2024 IHSAA Sectional Wrestling Champions. Submitted photo.
Myers said that personal responsibility is a key part of wrestling.. Unlike many other sports where athletes are surrounded by teammates on a field or court, wrestling has only the athlete and the opponent on the mat. This means each wrestler must carry the win or loss on his or her shoulders.
He added that the sport requires a lot of tough training from the strength that is required to pin another wrestler, which adds physical stress to the body.
However, this training can pay off, for example, for JHS senior Ben Land, who competed at National Tournaments, as well as for other wrestlers on the team.
“Great pain comes with great reward,” Myers said, believing that the best way to succeed is to work for it, as many of his students have done and have received the benefits.
Myers’s love for teaching, his students, and the sport drive him every year to push and grow the team. He has much hope for the upcoming year and for all the talent new and old that are in the team.
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