School News

Troy High School recently inducted 53 new members into the National Honor Society. 

This year’s inductees are: juniors Holden Chesko, Cooper Dues, Yancarlo Fuentes, Josh Hardin, Day’onna Harris, Ava Harvey, Kiley Kitta, Logan Overmyer and Evelynn Turnbull; sophomores Megan Alexander, Hannah Beck, Myah Bitemo, Cortney Bonar, Isabella Brewer, Abraham Cherian, Bradyn Dillow, Reagan Duff, Liam Evilsizor, Kade Flora , Chloe Gillig, Julia Good, Matthew Hempker, Kayla Huber, Adam King, Christopher King, Lauren Koesters, Owen Liening, Annabelle Ludy, Bridgette Marcum, Matthew Martz, Christa Mary, Yasashi Masunaga, Morgan Maxwell, Nathan Miller, Madison Moore, Leila Overholser, Hannah Robinson, Addisyn Russell, Harmeera Sandhu, Aidan Scott, Alexander Sentman, Cooper Sexton, Jeffrey Smith, Kylee Snider, Kaylee Strayer, Nick Stringer, Natalie Tremblay, Justin Vaughn, Creighton Verceles, Paige Vitangeli, Alaina Welbaum, Isabel Westerheide, Avery Woodruff and Noah Zink.

New members must have a cumulative grade point average of 3.55 or higher, based on a 4 point weighted grading scale. New members must have been involved in at least three service projects that take place beyond the actual school day and benefit others besides the student. All new members have been involved in two or more extra-curricular school organizations or involved in one or more extra-curricular school organizations and have held at least one elected office. 

The character of the student is a composite of integrity, positive behavior, cooperation, and ethics.   A student can have no recorded incidents of cheating or intentional dishonesty and no record of knowingly violating school regulations or of civil offenses within the community.  The student must be cooperative; willing to assist others, etc. Ethical conduct also is a factor.

All Kalen Ulmes wants for her daughter Jayli is the same opportunities other children her age have. 

Sometimes, however, that’s difficult for Jayli Williams, a kindergarten student at Hook Elementary School. Williams has cerebellar hypoplasia, a neurological condition in which the cerebellum – the part of the brain that coordinates movement –  is smaller than usual or not completely developed. 

As a result, Jayli has to use a walker or wheelchair to get around and wasn’t able to ride a bike like her classmates. 

“For years now, I’ve been trying to get her to ride a bike,” Ulmes said. “And she’s always wanted to know when she could have a bike. Just last night, I think she caught on a little bit to what was going on. She said, ‘How old do I have to be to get a bike? Do I have to be a teenager?’ And I was like, ‘Well, maybe we’ll see …’”

“We’ll see” became “we will” Wednesday afternoon, as Jayli received a special tricycle, adaptive to her needs, through Miamibucs - a local chapter of a national organization called AmBucs. The members of Miamibucs do fundraisers and have donors, which allows the organization to give the trikes away, at no cost, to youngsters with different abilities who cannot safely ride a standard bicycle. 

Miami County Commissioner and local business Wade Westfall and his wife Susan donated Jayli’s bike. Family and friends were on hand after school to present a surprised Jayli with her bike. She immediately hopped on and began riding around the Hook gymnasium. 

“It just means so much, because she can fit in with everybody else without having to look any different or be any different and she can just be her own person and be able to do the same things that typical kids are able to do,” said Ulmes, who was overcome with emotion watching her daughter ride around the gym. 

Jayli was too busy riding to stop and talk, but the smile on her face told the whole story. 

“It’s going to be amazing,” Ulmes said. “We’re going to be able to go for longer walks and she’s not going to get as tired using her walker. She’s not going to be pushed in a wheelchair. She’s going to be independent and go on her own. I think she’s going to love it. And she just got a new puppy, so she’ll be able to ride her bike now when we go on walks. We’re going to be able to have a lot of fun with it this summer.” 

Ulmes said she was incredibly grateful to the generosity that has been shown to her daughter, and others with special needs, by the Troy community over the years.

“It’s fantastic, and I would like to see more and more of it,” she said. “People don’t realize the amount of support you need until you are in the special needs community and have a special

needs member in your family. And just the support we’ve had from within the school, outside the school and within the community in general has been amazing.”

The members of the Troy Junior High School Student Council have big dreams for improving their school not only for their peers, but for the generations of students who will follow them. 

The Troy Foundation is helping to make those dreams come true. 

Representatives from the Troy Foundation stopped by a recent student council meeting to present a pair of grants, the first of which will help fund high quality and durable outdoor tables in a currently unused area outside the Troy Junior High School cafeteria. The second grant will help fund a Troy Junior High School Mental Health Wellness Day for students. 

Student council members applied for the first grant, and the Troy Foundation awarded $3,600 to go toward the purchase of the outdoor tables. The students cited a number of benefits the tables could provide, including positive impacts on student socialization, increased academic performance and positive mental health benefits.

The Troy Foundation also awarded an unsolicited $500 grant to go toward a Mental Health Wellness Day student council plans on holding later this spring. All students will see speakers who will talk about things like how to handle stress, mental fitness, mindfulness and more. All students will also have a chance to visit 11 "fair" booths of their choosing, from the 30 that will be offered. These "fair" booths will feature healthy coping mechanisms such as yoga, bullet journaling, physical fitness and plant keeping, as well as many more. 

Please click HERE for the 2023 THS Graduation Guide. It has important information about our graduation as well as upcoming dates for our seniors and their families. 

We will be meeting with seniors on Wednesday, March 29 to go over some of this information. UVCC seniors will meet at 9 a.m. at UVCC. The UVCC meeting will take place in the Hartzell Lecture Hall. THS seniors will meet at 11 a.m. for those who eat B and D lunch and 12:30 p.m. for those who eat A and C lunch. THS meetings will take place in the THS Auditorium.

This is an exciting time for our seniors and we appreciate your continued support!

TROY – Troy High School seniors Savannah Swanson and Luke Huber have both been named National Merit Finalists by the National Merit Scholarship program. 

Last fall, both students were named National Merit Semifinalists after scoring in the top 1 percent of all students who took the PSAT test. Roughly 16,000 students in the United States were named semifinalists. 

After being recognized as Semifinalists last fall, Swanson and Huber fulfilled additional requirements, including completing an application, having a consistently very high academic record, writing an essay, being endorsed and recommended by a school official, and taking the SAT or ACT and earning a score that confirmed their PSAT/NMSQT performance. 

Both were pleasantly surprised when they found out they had been named a finalist. 

“It was a bigger surprise, because this one’s a lot tougher to get,” Huber said. “It was just a big surprise and a lot of excitement comes with it. I got to get out of class and call my mom and dad; it was just really exciting.”

Swanson agreed.

“I was super honored,” she said. “It’s such a big deal to have made that jump, and it was definitely not expected. I had no idea the results were coming out, so when I was called down to the office, I was kind of like, “Ok, this is happening again.’ But it’s really exciting and it’s such an incredible honor.”

Both are now eligible for one of the 7,250 National Merit Scholarships that will be awarded. They also said having this honor likely will help them as they apply for other scholarships, as well. 

“Obviously it helps with scholarships, because it’s something really big that I can put on applications, and I think it shows how I’ve done academically throughout the years,” Swanson said. “There are scholarships that come, literally because of it, but I also think it shows how much work I’ve done, and anyone who sees this can see how much work I’ve put in. It’s awesome to have something physical like this to show for it.”

Just by being a National Merit Finalist, Huber said, he’ll be in the running for scholarships at Liberty University, where he plans on matriculating in the fall.

“In terms of the future, it opens up more opportunities for college scholarships,” Huber said. “I know at Liberty (University) they honor the National Merit stuff, so it should bring me in more scholarships and more opportunities that will help me succeed more in the future.”

Huber is a member of National Honor Society, Key Club, Business Club, the Patriot Club and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He’s on both the golf and basketball teams for the Trojans. Huber also is active in his church youth group at Christian Life Center in Dayton.

He has been set on going to Liberty University for quite some time; he said he plans to major in mechanical engineering in college. He said he feels his time at Troy High School has him well-prepared for college and beyond.

“It’s meant a lot,” Huber said of his time at Troy. “All of my teachers have really helped me. They’ve helped me learn a lot about myself and to grow as a person. They’ve pushed me to be where I’m at today.”

Swanson has been a member of ASTRA, Latin Club, Culture Club, National Honor Society, Math Cub and Drama Club. She’s also been a member of the Troy High School tennis and softball teams, as well as the Trojan Thunder traveling softball team. She enjoys the theater, and has appeared in “Shakespeare in Love” and “High School Musical” at the Troy Civic Theater. She was in the Troy High School production of “The Puffs” in the fall and is a member of the THS musical “Seussical” this spring. She also has volunteered with Reading Buddies, Lunch Buddies, Hayner Art Camps and at the park district.

After looking at a number of schools, Swanson has been accepted into the Honors Tutorial (HTC) program in communications at Ohio University. She’ll work closely with professors during her four years of undergraduate studies before writing a senior thesis. 

“I’ll probably go to grad school,” she said. “I think I want to do something political; I really love argumentation. I’m not sure if that means being a lawyer or being a journalist.”

Like Huber, Swanson is appreciative of her Troy High School education. 

“Honestly, it’s been incredible to be at Troy High School,” she said. “I’m so glad I moved to Troy when I was in the eighth grade. I think there have been some teachers who have really helped me along the way. Mrs. Watson was my English teacher in 10th grade, and I genuinely don’t think I could have made it to this point, my writing ability has improved so much, and I honestly owe that all to her. But there’s tons of other teachers throughout the years, and there’s been so much support from faculty and students.”