People often associate their biggest fears with things like heights or spiders, but the biggest phobia among all Americans is public speaking.
Even people who speak to large groups frequently as apart of their profession, often admit to experiencing this fear.
Lenape Regional High School District Superintendent Dr. Carol Birnbohm confirmed this notion before announcing she will be having a few lucky students give her superintendent’s report to the board.
“This is a great opportunity for our students to practice public speaking which I think is one of the most feared things to do by most people in the world,” Birnbohm said. “Not only will we get great insight of what’s going on in our schools but you’ll also be blown away by these young men and women who are here tonight to showcase what we do well.”
The principals from all of the four schools chose two exemplary students who are heavily involved with everything going to share their perspective of life inside their respective school.
Last week Lenape and Shawnee gave their presentations. Seneca and Cherokee will be speaking at next month’s meeting on March 16.
Lenape kicked off the report with seniors Megan Donahue and James Arcenas who were hand selected by Principal Tony Cattani to represent the Indians.
“Our two students had the daunting task of trying to recap some of the things that have happened at Lenape in the past six months or so,” Cattani said.
Donahue is the student council president and a cheerleader at Lenape who will be attending Alabama University in the Fall. Arcenas is the 2016 class president and will be attending Rutgers University after graduation.
Shawnee capped off the presentation with seniors Krista Hoffman and Eric Biehn who were chosen by Principal Matthew Campbell to represent the Renegades.
Hoffman is the student council president and a captain for the Shawnee field hockey team. She will be continuing her career at Princeton University next year while 2016 class president, Biehn, will be attending the University of Duke in the fall.
All four students exhibited great school pride as they shared a number of different highlights with the board.
They both began by speaking about how successful they feel the transition into the new four-day rotating schedule has been.
“I’ve seen students really learn to enjoy the new schedule,” Donahue said. “One thing I really enjoy about it is our senior courtyard at Lenape. When it’s nice out the seniors have somewhere to go to relax and eat lunch.”
“I’m glad I’m able to get a rest day from each class and I don’t have to repeat the same eight class schedule,” Arcenas said. “Also, since we don’t have homerooms, class office has the opportunity to accomplish tasks during lunch now.”
“Honestly the classes don’t feel that long compared to last year and we can fit a lot of new instruction time in during that period,” Biehn said. “I think it gets you better prepared for college.”
“We have less classes a day,” Hoffman said. “It’s less overwhelming because it’s less to focus on at one time.”
The students then went on to touch on all of the fun events, activities, programs, community service and awards their schools were able to capture in the past six months.
Campbell alluded to how hard an assignment this was with the vast variety of things they could have included in their presentation, especially after watching Lenape’s and realizing how much they have in common.
“I have to conquer with Mr. Cattani, this is a very difficult task. There are so many wonderful things that happen in our schools, unfortunately were not able to show them all to you, but hopefully you’ll get a real good idea of the great things that go on,” Campbell said.
The board was very impressed with all of the information and personal insight they were able to attain from each student.
“You guys did a great job. I hope you guys continue to be so involved and continue to do great things!” Birnbohm said.
