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This year Whitewater senior Josie Ann Hintz, daughter of Carrie and David Hintz, was chosen as Whitewater High School’s Good Citizen.  She was chosen for this honor based on her Scholarship, Dependability, Leadership, and Service to her school and community.

Her leadership ability can be seen throughout her various school activities. She is in the French Honor Society where she has served as President, Secretary, Treasurer and Event Coordinator over the years.  Also, she has been French Club president as well as Co-President of Student Council.  Josie is the FBLA Event Coordinator and received her school’s “Jerry Award” for Outstanding Stage Management.  Her other activities include WHS Ringers, Soccer, Tennis, Volleyball, WHS Marching Band and National Honor Society. She has volunteered as a LEAD dog for the freshman class. One of her teachers said of Josie, “She works with diligence and grace whether on the tennis court or soccer field or as she leads meetings for the French Club.”

Academically, Josie is in the top 5% of her class and has taken Advance Placement courses in Calculus, English Language and English Literature. One of her teachers described Josie as, “organized and intelligent, focused and enthusiastic, and a team-player and leader.”

In school, Josie has volunteered for food drives and blood drives. She has volunteered for the Middle School musicals and as a backstage director for the plays at high school. Also she volunteers her time at her church.  She went on a mission trip to Michigan where she worked with Habitat for Humanity.  This summer she will be going to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana.

Josie’s immediate educational goal is to obtain a Bachelor’s degree in exercise science with minors in psychology and nutrition.  Her future plans include a doctoral degree in physical therapy and her life goal is to have an active life where she will continue to give back to the community.

Josie will be honored by the Fort Atkinson-Eli Pierce Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution along with the other area Good Citizens at a reception March 5^th at the Hoard Museum.  One of the seven area Good Citizens will be chosen in December to represent the Chapter at the State Good Citizen competition in January.

The WHS Computer Programming Team competed at the annual Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) Opportunity Conference Computer Programming Competition on Friday, November 22. Twelve students including Colin Chenoweth, Brian Apgar, Arno Crowley, Shawn Chan, Gwynne Sahyun, Morgan Stillwagon, Broderick Frye, Cody Rupke, Nikole Pelot, Andy Vo, Elijah Grall, and Reilly Aschenbrener were given 2.5 hours to solve 9 problems of varying difficulty using Java. Ten of the Whitewater participants have completed or are currently enrolled in AP Computer Science A; the other two participants are in their first semester of computer programming. The students enjoyed a new venue for the competition as MSOE has just opened a brand new computer science building, Diercks Hall, and the competition was held in the shadow of their new supercomputer, ROSIE.

The three Whitewater teams competed against 48 teams from 20 other schools from southeast Wisconsin and northern Illinois including Brookfield Central, Cary-Grove, Janesville Craig, Crystal Lake Central, Grafton, Homestead, Marquette, Menomenee Falls, Milton, Neuqua Valley, New Berlin West, New Berlin Eisenhower, Janesville Parker, Prairie Ridge, Rufus King, Shorewood, Stoughton, University School of Milwaukee, Waukesha County Home School, and Whitefish Bay. University School of Milwaukee came out on top with Neuqua Valley securing both second and third place. The top two Whitewater teams finished in 15^th and 26^th.

In late August, six Whitewater elementary school teachers and two Whitewater Middle School teachers launched into the world of FIRST LEGO League Robotics with 30 of their students forming three teams and following in the footsteps of Justin Stewart and Bennett Miles, who formed the original Lincoln Elementary Team in 2018. FIRST LEGO League is a program for students ages 9 – 14 with “theme-based challenges to engage children in research, problem solving, coding, and engineering. The foundation of the program is the FIRST Core Values, which emphasize teamwork, discovery, and innovation.” The 2019 theme was City Shapers, and teams worked to research a problem in the community and propose a solution as well as build a LEGO EV3 robot and program it to accomplish up to 13 missions on the game board.  

Valerie Troxel and Chris Nate from Washington, Lassity Sullivan and Lynn von Huben from Lincoln, and Sara Brautigam and Lisa Meincke from Lakeview each brought students together to form two elementary teams, Whitewater Brick Layers – Team White and Whitewater Brick Layers – Team Red. Joanne Kyle and Joanie McGowan worked together to oversee the middle school team. The elementary teams met on Monday and Wednesday nights at the middle school, and the middle school team, Cranium Crows, met on Wednesdays and Thursdays from mid-September through November 20. Members of the Whitewater High School FIRST Robotics Team Ferradermis assisted throughout the season. Reilly Aschenbrener and Shane Kinson worked with the middle school students, while Carson Ellenwood, Zuri Goldsmith, Colin Chenoweth, Elijah Grall, Rosie Aschenbrener, Kasey Heizman, and Rose Fosdal worked with the elementary students with Gwynne Sahyun providing some planning and guidance behind the scenes.

On Saturday, November 23, the teams packed up and headed to Mukwonago High School for a FIRST LEGO League Regional Tournament. Close to 40 teams from southern Wisconsin rotated through three sets of judging where the teams spent 10 minutes each with the robot/programming judges, the project judges, and the core values judges during the morning. In the core values judging room, the team was given three minutes to complete a problem solving activity while the judges observed teamwork and communication skills. The judges then asked the students many questions about their season including how they made decisions as a team. In the project judging room, the teams presented their chosen projects to the judges along with their display boards; the middle school team looked at changes to the dog park, and the elementary teams looked at changes to the busing for the schools and access to a grocery store in Whitewater.

After lunch and the opening ceremony, in which two students from each team raced through the gym in front of the large crowd as their team was introduced, the competition with the robots began. Each team competed three times over the course of the afternoon. A single match was timed at two minutes and thirty seconds, and teams could use that time to complete their chosen missions in any order.

Throughout the day, teams were able to schedule time on the practice tables to test their robots and make improvements and additions to their code. By their third match, all three Whitewater teams were able to accomplish more tasks with their robots than when they arrived in Mukwonago.

Middle school team members included Margaret Brown, Emerson Dunham, Danny Fuller, Jessica Ge, Henry Gehrenbeck, Jack Hartmann, Isaiah Hoefling, Ash Holmbo, Evan Humphrey, and Daniel Norman. The Middle School Cranium Crows’ robot was able to complete all of the 6 missions that they expected to complete. Mrs. Kyle commented, “As a newbie team we were proud of our accomplishments and learned a lot about the process and the event.” Whitewater Brick Layers – Team Red consisted of fourth and fifth graders Roy Aaron, Ian Agen, Malcolm Baker, Emilie Bruns, Ben Crone, Jacob McLaughlin, Xavier Ortiz, Austin Retzlaff, Davis Staller, and Zoe Zei. Whitewater Brick Layers – Team White was made up of fourth and fifth graders Althea Reichwald, Micaiah Cartwright, James Grabinski, Cooper Housel, Eli Kuzoff, Aidan Lefel , Payton Peacock, Hailey Peterson, Jesus Ramirez, and Autumn Robb. Ferradermis member Gwynne Sahyun and multiple Ferradermis mentors also enjoyed volunteering at the event.

The teams would like to thank their sponsors Generac, The Whitewater Community Foundation, and the Whitewater Unified School District. They are looking forward to the 2020 fall season!

The Whitewater Lions Club is selling FRESH Christmas Trees again this year at the Winchester True Value Hardware Store parking lot, located at 1415 West Main Street, Whitewater. The Whitewater Lions Club has been enduring the cold and snow, selling Christmas Trees for about 25 years. The profits they make are used to benefit the Whitewater community. Enjoy the holidays this year with a freshly cut tree knowing the proceeds will help fund the Lions Club’s programs.