The Van Wert County Courthouse

Monday, Mar. 18, 2024

L’view students have out-of-class day

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The halls of Lincolnview High School were nearly deserted Tuesday afternoon as high school students were either out on career visits or doing community service projects.

Lincolnview High School seniors help out at a mobile food bank at Lifehouse Church on Tuesday. photos by Dave Mosier/Van Wert independent

Like Van Wert High School Principal Bob Priest a couple of weeks ago, Lincolnview Principal Brad Mendenhall used the day that sophomores took the Pre-ACT test and juniors took the state-mandated ACT (college entrance) test to provide out-of-class experiences for all Lincolnview high school students.

While VWHS gave seniors a chance to visit area businesses the day underclassmen were involved in testing, all LHS students were involved in one or more opportunities on Wednesday.

Mendenhall spent some time prior to the day setting up a number of tours, career opportunities, and community service projects for students to do on Wednesday. In addition, students also came up with some community service project ideas. Sydni Thatcher was one of those. Thatcher volunteers on Bingo Night at the Van Wert County Council on Aging’s Senior Center, so she asked Council on Aging Executive Director Kevin Matthews whether he had a community service project she and other students could do.

Matthews, who said had been looking for a way to organize some old files stored on the center’s second floor, jumped at the chance to have students do the project.

“We had a bunch of old files that were just in boxes that needed to be sorted and organized,” Matthews said, noting that other groups of Lincolnview students were involved in helping senior citizens with chores they needed done.

Other community projects included helping with mobile food banks at Lifehouse and Trinity Friends churches, as well as projects at the YWCA, the Van Wert County Humane Society’s shelter, Habitat for Humanity, the Van Wert Parks Department, and the Middle Point Ballpark.

Lincolnview students work on old files at the Van Wert County Council on Aging.

“The seniors will have a few choices…,” Mendenhall said prior to Wednesday. “They may take a college visit, college placement test, or participate in a community service project.”

Seniors provided their own transportation to and from service projects, but a teacher also accompanied each group to its project site.

Freshmen were also busy on Wednesday. The class was divided into two groups, with one group visiting the Delphos Career Connections Student Center, where they learned about a number of careers, and the other group toured Vanamatic and K&M Tire in Delphos. After lunch, the groups switched so all students could participate in both experiences.

After taking the pre-ACT test, sophomores boarded buses to tour Central Insurance Company and Braun Industries.

After completing the mandated ACT testing, juniors were bused to tours of Federal-Mogul Corporation and Vancrest Health Care Center.

While students said they liked having at least a partial day away from classes, most of those who spoke said they also enjoyed the chance to learn about area businesses and help others.

For Mendenhall, the Lincolnview student comments can likely be summed up in two words: mission accomplished.

POSTED: 03/21/18 at 8:20 am. FILED UNDER: News