The Seward Rotary Club officially welcomed the 2022-2023 SHS International Students to Seward at their September 28, 2022 Rotary Club noon luncheon meeting at the Seward Jones Bank Auditorium.  There are two international students enrolled at Seward High this school year-June Legaz Carrasco of Pamploma, Spain and Magdalena “Maggie” Rappold from Kundl, Austria. 

“It is most appropriate we follow up and make sure that this two student ambassadors feel welcomed by the entire community,” stated Rotarian Jon Kruse, a Past President of the Seward Rotary Club.  “Rotary has a major influence worldwide, and our club wanted to offer an “official” welcome from the community to our international guests. We are excited to help them expand their views on our country and people and hope that they enjoy their visit to Seward and Nebraska.”

The girls are enrolled full time and enjoying many of the extracurricular activities as well. 

June is the daughter of Belen and Inigo Carrasco and has one sister.  Her host parents in Seward are April and Josh Craig of Seward. She plans to stay the entire year.

Magdalena “Maggie” is the daughter of Martin and Brigitte Rappold of Kundl, Austria.  She has an 18 year old brother.  Her host family are Seward Rotarians,  Dr. Russ and Rhonda Souchek of Seward. Her plans call for only a half year visit, and she will return home to Austria at the first of the year.

The girls were introduced by Rotarian Bonnie Kruse and welcomed by Rotary President Elect Ben Spirks.  The girls were presented gift bags with mementoes of Seward from the Seward Rotary Club and invited to return to the club with a report, once they had experienced life in the USA and Seward for a while. 

The special gift bags included a bag of Seward’s famous Kettle Corn Popcorn, a Seward coffee mug, a Seward Tee Shirt, Nebraska Chocolates from Greenwood, NE, printed information on Seward and Nebraska and an American Flag.  

Each girl was presented a special Seward Rotary Club banner to share with a Rotary Club in their country and invited to return to visit again.   

The Seward Rotary is a member of Rotary International, which has 1.4 million members in 39,000 clubs worldwide-in over 160 countries, which stresses a strong global presence.  This is the 117^th year of Rotary International, with a motto of “Service Above Self!”

Seward High Senior, Rachel Runyan was selected to be the September Seward Rotary Club’s Youth Rotarian and was recognized and honored on Wednesday, September 21^st at the Seward Rotary Club meeting.  The noon luncheon meeting was held at the auditorium of the Jones Bank.  Rachel was introduced and thanked for being a role model as an outstanding student and leader at SHS.  She is the daughter of Pat and Kathleen Runyan of Seward.  

Rachel’s values her education at Seward High and enjoys a 3.90 GPA, is a leader in the career tSHS National Honor Society and been on the SHS Honor Roll ten times during her high school to date.  She has won and been recognized with numerous P.R.I.D.E. awards and serves as one of the “go to” student leaders in the school.

Her passion is music and performance and has been a member of the SHS Marching Band since 2019 as a Percussion Section leader and the current Drum Major for the band.  Rachel has been a member of the Symphonic Band since 2019 and participated in numerous Concordia University Musical Arts Day events and was selected for the Conference Honor Band as well.  She is also in the Wind Ensemble and participated in many District Music Contests –receiving high honors.

Rachel has been a member of the SHS Show Choir and the SHS Select Choir since 2019 and also involved-and participated in the SHS musicals.  She is a leader in the SHS Play Production/One Act Play program and was named “Outstanding Actress” twice in 2020 and 2021.  She participated in speech and this year she plans to be part of the SHS Speech Team again.  

She has been a very active member of the Goehner Centennial Players Mellerdrama offerings over the years and a longtime volunteer for their programs and as an Olde Glory Theater Volunteer as well.

Rachel currently serves as the STATE President of the Nebraska SKILLS USA program, having also served as the STATE Reporter in 2021.  She is a strong leader in the local SHS SKILLS USA Chapter-having represented the Seward and Nebraska SKILLS USA in Prepared Speech at Nationals – placing 5^th overall.  She also was on the “Opening and Closing” team for SHS and placed 6^th at Nationals! On the state level, she placed First in the competition for First Aid/CPR!

Her area of “Service Above Self” centers around her volunteer efforts with the Goehner Centennial Players program over a period of many years and the many, many community campaigns sponsored by the local SHS Skills USA –such as the community food drives, blood drives and honoring the teachers and local educators.  

She participated in Dance for seven years and is in her eleventh year with piano lessons and has become an accomplished pianist.  

Rachel is currently employed at the historic Rivoli Theater on week-ends and after school and also enjoys serving as Life Guard at the Dowding Memorial Swimming Pool in Seward each summer.  

She was confirmed and a member of the Seward United Methodist Church and a voice of youth for that congregation.  

She has not decided on her school for next year as of yet, but she does plan to obtain a degree or profession in the areas of Nursing and/or Performing Arts.  

Rachel was introduced, honored and thanked for being a role model at Seward High and was presented with a packet of mementos, Rotary and Seward information and an official Rotary Banner, along with a special “Book Scholarship” for her college days in the future.  She will again be recognized at the SHS Honors Night in the spring and her name will now be placed in consideration for the Youth Rotarian of the Year award.  

The Seward Rotary Club honors one Youth Rotarian every month of the school year and applications are available at the SHS school counselor’s office.  

The Seward Rotary Club believes that we have a shared responsibility to take action on our world’s most persistent issues. The 46,000 + clubs worldwide work together to: Promote peace, Fight disease, Provide Clean Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Save Mothers and Children, Support Education, Grow Local Economies and Protect the Environment.  The mission of Rotary is to provide service to others, promote integrity and advance world understanding, goodwill and peace through the fellowship of business, professional and community leaders.  The vision of Rotary is that “Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change – across the globe, in our communities and in ourselves.”

The 25^th annual Literature Quiz Bowl for high schools in Nebraska was held on Wednesday, September 14, 2022 at the Seward Civic Center from 8:30 to 4:00 with 38 teams participating from across Nebraska.  The event is annually sponsored by the Nebraska English Language Arts Council (NELAC), the state Affiliate for the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).  The event is held in conjunction with the annual Concordia University’s Plum Creek Literacy Festival as a High School Literature Activity. 

The quiz bowl features teams of up to four high school students from a specific school and they are competing with another team and asked up to 80 questions in a round on a specific subject or general knowledge on Literature.  This Lit Quiz Bowl features questions developed around Literature –both national literature and international literature and grammar questions.   A round robin event is hosted in the morning for “warm-up “and to also place the student teams in the afternoon single elimination tourney.  

The teams were divided into three divisions-large schools, medium schools and small schools, based on the NSAA attendance-with each team competing for medals and trophies. 

SHS had two teams in the contest-coached by Melissa Pohl-SHS Language Arts Teacher.  The students participating included Ainsley Hotovy, Abigail Morre, Evelyn Theobald, Ava Slechta, Issac VanBeek, Sjoen Muck, Elianah Wunderlich, Kretyn Roth.  

The winners in the 2022 Lit Quiz Bowl included…

Large School-First Place: Norris High Team A-Coach Becca Pair, Second Place: Gretna Team A-Coach Rich Arch, Third Place: Elkhorn South Team A - Coach Abby Cleary, and Fourth was Elkhorn North Team A-Coach Melissa Peterson. 

Medium School-First Place: Cross County Team A-Coach Joanna Nielsen, Second Place: Central City Team A-Coach Brandon Wright, Third Place-Kearney Catholic Team A-Coached by Naomi Hastings, and Fourth Place: Central City Team B-Coached by Brandon Wright.

Small School-First Place: Nebraska Lutheran High Team A-Coached by Hannah Zabel, Second Place: Howell’s Dodge Team B-Coached by Traci Sindelar, Third Place: Osceola High Team A-Coached by Kim Baloun, and Fourth Place was Howells Dodge-Coached by Traci Sindelar.

Each First Place team won a trophy and individual team medals and the First Runner-up team won a trophy as well.

The volunteer readers for the program were Pat Ohlmann and Sue Imig of Seward, Jenni Erhardt and Debbie Anderson of Osceola, Kathy Wilcox of Crete, Melissa Pohl of Utica and Brandon Wright of Central City.  

Riley Nuttleman served as the Quiz Master and coordinated the placing and morning schedule.  He was assisted by Michael Kolterman and Jackson Hoins  with set up.  Clark Kolterman served as the event chair.  

Teams participating in the event were from Columbus Scotus, Cross County, Howells-Dodge, Shelby-Rising City, Exeter-Milligan, Grand Island Northwest, Hampton, Osceola, Elkhorn North, Elkhorn South, Elkhorn High, York, Seward, Central City, Oakland-Craig, Centennial, Heartland, Kearney Catholic, Fullerton, Gretna, Norris, and Nebraska Lutheran in Waco. 

For more information contact clark.kolterman@sewardschools.org or call him at 402-641-8522.  The next Quiz Bowl at the Civic Center  is the “Girls Only Quiz Bowl” on General Knowledge for area High School Girls on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022 and sponsored by the GFWC Nebraska Federation of Women’s Clubs. 

Photo: L-R Seward High Students in Lit Quiz Bowl 2022 in Seward on September 14^th L-R Front: Ainsley Hotovy, Abigail Morre, Evelyn Theobald, Ava Slechta, Issac VanBeek Back Row:  Sjoen Muck, Elianah Wunderlich, Kretyn Roth.  

“Seward not only had many, many entries-in both static and live competitions, but also many of the SHS participants did well in their respective contests,” noted Nathan Knott- SHS Art Teacher.  “This educational contest has a wide spectrum of wonderful offerings - both in “Static”and “Live” contests! For our school it is a fun way to open the school year. We appreciate the many hours work that Judi Harris and her volunteer crew at the Nebraska State Fair Educational Division do to organize and showcase these student’s work and we thank them for a job well done!”
“The Nebraska State Fair Education Division and the NEBRASKAland Foundation are very generous and make sure every student participant receive a free State Fair tee shirt and a free pass to the Ne State Fair, commented Melissa Pohl- SHS Language Arts teacher at Seward High. “Also, the student can win cash scholarships in each competition, along with plaques and rosettes. I see many of these State Fair awards on graduation tables in the Spring! 
“The contest also motivates students if they know their work may be selected for a competition, elaborated Nathan Knott- Art teacher at Seward High. “Plus it is a fun environment, you have a great day at the fair with friends and are recognized if your lucky! It is a win- win!”
Melissa Pohl- Language Arts and Nathan Knott- Art serve as volunteer coordinating teachers/ sponsors for the Seward State Fair Educational Division’s entries.
For more information on the program contact Judi Harper at the Ne State Fair office in Grand Island. 

Photo: L-R Front Row SHS freshmen unpack new Nebraska State Fair 2022 Top High School Grand Sweepstake Award delivered and presented to the Grand Champions - Seward High School students,.”  L-R Madelyn Larson, Ava Schlecta, Evie Theobald and Issac Van Beek proudly share the Sweepstake trophy from the Nebraska State Fair Education Division! Back Row- SHS educators Nathan Knott- Art and  Melissa Pohl- Language Arts!

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