Plymouth High School is proud to announce this year’s valedictorian is Sydney Morris. Sydney is the daughter of Joseph and Lynn Morris. She holds a 4.192 GPA and is top of the senior class of 239 students.
Her course of study at PHS has included eight Advanced Placement courses; all together Sydney has earned 41 Ivy Tech college credits by excelling through dozens of dual credit courses.
For the past four years, Sydney has been a member of the SEED Club; the acronym stands for Students Engaged in Environmental Development. She was also a member of the Chinese Club for one year. Sydney has been a proud member of the PHS Spell Bowl team for three years. She says her proudest moment in high school involves her time in the Spell Bowl and is one she remembers vividly. “We were at the Spell Bowl Invitational, and I received a perfect score. I was extremely excited, and I hope to cherish this memory forever,” said Sydney.
During the summer of 2017, Sydney was named an AP Scholar with Distinction. She was awarded the Indiana University Honors Program in Foreign Languages (IUHPFL) Award of Excellence after participating in IUHPFL’s program abroad for Indiana high school students in China during the 2017 summer.
She placed 2nd in the speech portion and 1st in the writing portion at the Chinese Bridge Midwest Region High School Student Speech Contest at Valparaiso University last spring.
In November Sydney was chosen as a semifinalist for the prestigious National Merit Scholarship. In March she received the PHS Annual Academic Excellence Award for being in the top 5% of the class of 2018. The same month Sydney received a McGill University Major Entrance Scholarship. During the PHS Senior Awards Assembly, she received the Eugene and Florence Stanley Scholarship and the Richard F. and Betty J. Heiser Scholarship. During the month of April Also this year she was also inducted into the Plymouth High School Academic Hall of Fame by the Chinese department.
Sydney was also recognized this spring as a Regional Academic All-Star by the Indiana Association of School Principals. The same organization recognized her in 2017 as a Rising Star of Indiana for the Class of 2018.
Sydney plans on attending McGill University in Montreal, Canada this fall to study linguistics, where she would like to pursue minors in both Chinese and French. After earning her bachelor’s, she may pursue graduate studies in computational linguistics and then use that knowledge to work in the field of artificial intelligence.
McKenzie Scheetz has been selected as one of the two salutatorians of the Plymouth High School class of 2018. McKenzie is the daughter of Mike and Stacy Scheetz. She graduates with a cumulative weighted GPA of 4.16.
During McKenzie’s high school career, she has been active with several sports and clubs. For all four years, she has been a member of the PHS American Field Services Club, an organization of high school students seeking to promote the cause of understanding different cultures. In addition to acting as a social group, the club helps sponsor the foreign exchange students during their stay at Plymouth High School. Also for all four years, she has been a member of the Sunshine Society, Leaders Eliminating Alcohol and Drugs (LEAD), Student Council where she was Vice President her Senior Year, Art Club where she was President her Senior Year, and Pep Club. McKenzie also served for two years on the Executive Board for Riley Dance Marathon.
Her course of study while at Plymouth High School has earned her an impressive 22 dual college credits. For the past two years, McKenzie has been a member of the PHS National Honor Society.
McKenzie was a member of the PHS swim team her sophomore and junior years, and she was an athletic trainer this year as a senior. For all four years of high school she was a member of the varsity volleyball and tennis teams. Just this month, McKenzie and her doubles partner, Leah Smith, were both named to the Indiana Coaches of Girls Sports Association ICGSA North/South All Star Tennis Team, which is an honor bestowed on the top 24 seniors in the state.
Through hard work and determination, McKenzie accomplished many of the goals that she set for herself. She said two of her proudest moments were when she broke the school record for kills in volleyball this year and made it to state in tennis her sophomore year. Her goal was a major undertaking of getting an astounding 1,000 kills. Scheetz said, “When I was a freshman and I found out that I made varsity, I set this goal. My goal was to reach 1,000 kills by the end of my volleyball career. Not only that, but I also wanted to hold the school kill record.” McKenzie is proud of the fact that she met both of those goals this year.
This past March she received the PHS Annual Academic Excellence Award for being in the top 5% of the class of 2018. She is the proud recipient of the Kizer Award for the top female athlete, Plymouth Athletic Booster Club Monthly Scholar-Athlete Scholarship, the Eugene and Florence Stanley Scholarship, the Richard F. and Betty J. Heiser Scholarship, the Floyd and Maxine Mattix Scholarship, the Knights of Columbus Scholarship, the Kiwanis Vocational Scholarship, the Phillip S. Preston Memorial Scholarship, the Todd Edwards Scholarship, the St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center Plymouth Campus Health Career Scholarship, the Mary Ellen Winquist Franklin and Joe Franklin Scholarship, and the Marohn Scholarship.
This fall she will attend Butler University to major in health sciences and minor in math. Her dream is to become a Physician Assistant. McKenzie said she may even further her education after receiving a bachelor’s degree by going to medical school as well.
Leah Smith has been selected as one of the two salutatorians of Plymouth High School class of 2018. Leah is the daughter of Tim and Sarah Smith. She is graduating with a cumulative weighted GPA of 4.16. Leah has held the role as the class president throughout her entire four years at Plymouth High school. She was also the PHS chapter president of the Business Professionals of America club her senior year, and she was active in the club as member her junior, sophomore and freshman year.
For all four years, Leah was also a proud member of the Pep Club, American Field Services Club, and Key Club, where she served as the Key Club’s vice president her senior year.
Her course of study included six Advanced Placement courses and 17 dual credit courses that earned her 51 college credits while attending Plymouth High School. She has been a proud member of the PHS National Honors Society since being inducted in May of her sophomore year.
Leah is a three-sport varsity athlete who has competed for all four years in volleyball and tennis where she held the role on both teams as captain during her senior year. She was captain of the swim and dive team her senior year after competing on the team since she was in tenth grade.
During her senior year, she was selected as a member of the Indiana High School Volleyball Coaches Association Academic All-State team. During Leah’s junior year she was named as an NLC Honorable Mention All-Conference for her performance on the PHS Swim and Dive team. In tennis, Leah earned NLC All-Conference recognition by winning the NLC Conference Tournament both her junior and senior year. Just recently, Leah and her doubles partner, Mckenzie Scheetz, were named to the Indiana Coaches of Girls Sports Association ICGSA North/South All Star Tennis Team, which is an honor bestowed on the top 24 seniors in the state.
In March, Leah was recognized at the Annual Academic Excellence Recognition Dinner for academically being in the top 5% of the class of 2018. This year in May she was also inducted into the Plymouth High School Academic Hall of Fame for her superior academic involvement in the Weidner School of Inquiry @PHS Social Studies program. Recipients of this award must have taken classes in the respective department for a minimum of six semesters and have a minimum of an “A” average. This year Leah was a Plymouth Athletic Booster Club Scholar Athlete Scholarship monthly winner and in May at the PHS Senior Awards assembly, she received the Dr. J. Kent Guild Mental Attitude Award.
Leah will be majoring in global health and Spanish on a pre-medicine track at DePauw University this fall. She hopes to one day become a doctor.
