People often associate biggest fears with things such as heights or spiders, but the biggest phobia among Americans is public speaking.
Even people who speak to large groups frequently as part of their profession often admit to experiencing this fear.
Lenape Regional High School District Superintendent Dr. Carol Birnbohm confirmed this before announcing she would have 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 to share their perspectives of life inside their respective schools.
Last week, Lenape and Shawnee gave their presentations. Seneca and Cherokee will be speaking at the March 16 meeting.
Lenape kicked off the report with seniors Megan Donahue and James Arcenas, who were 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 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 Duke University in the fall.
All four students exhibited great school pride as they shared a number of different highlights with the board.
They all 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 concur with Mr. Cattani, this is a very difficult task. There are so many wonderful things that happen in our schools, unfortunately we’re 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 it was 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.
