(Erie, Pennsylvania) McDowell High School senior, Samantha Moore, placed first at the National Catholic Forensic League (N.C.F.L.) Grand National Championship Tournament in Chicago, Illinois. Over 500 teams and 2,300 students competed for team and individual National Championships. Samantha Moore became Northwestern Pennsylvania’s first Speech National Champion and had one of the best cumulative scores in the last thirty years of the N.C.F.L!

Millcreek Superintendent Dr. Dean Maynard, said, “We are so proud of Samantha. She is a role model for each and every one of us. Samantha and her teammates are outstanding representatives of the Millcreek Township School District.”

The Forensics team representing McDowell High School included freshman Robert Mingey; juniors Matt Mingey and Andrea Ortiz; and Seniors Andrew Natalo, Brandon Herring, Camille Gajewski, and Megan Manganaro.

“This is an absolutely unbelievable accomplishment,” said McDowell Forensics coach Will Caugherty. “I’m incredibly proud of every student on the team that they are brave enough to stand up and do something like this, let alone be the best in the country.”

Coach Caugherty described the flow of the competition as follows. In the event of Original Oratory, over 225 of the top orators in the entire country began the tournament dreaming of being National Champion. At the end of the first day and four tough preliminary elimination rounds, 48 students remained. At the end "octo-finals," just 24 students still stood. By the conclusion of the "quarter-finals," only 12 students remained. Six of those of those semi-finalists advanced to the National Finals. Only one of those students would be National Champion. And that student was McDowell senior Samantha Moore!

McDowell High School Speech and Debate Statistics:
P.H.S.S.L State Finalists: 2003, ‘05, ‘06
P.H.S.S.L Individual Events Runners-Up: 2005, ‘06
N.C.F.L. National Qualifiers: 2001, ‘02, ‘03, ‘04, ‘05, ‘06
N.C.F.L. National Semi-Finalists: 2003, ‘06
N.C.F.L. National Oratory Champion: 2006
National Forensics League National Qualifiers: 2004, ‘05, ‘06

Junior and senior communication students at McDowell High School are once again airing live newscasts from the television studio at MIHS. “Good Morning Millcreek” airs on Channel 16 live at 10:15 a.m. on May 24, 26, 31, and June 2. Each show is 15 minutes long.

The shows are written and produced entirely by the students in the communications 3 and 4 classes. The live newscasts feature McDowell and Millcreek-oriented news and sports, allowing for fresh, up-to-date news pieces. The students write the stories and obtain video to go along with them.

When it comes to production, students select the jobs they feel most comfortable performing. Jobs include producer, director, talent, weathercaster, camera operator, computer graphics operator, technical director, audio director, set designer, reporter, or editor. In previous communications classes, the students had the opportunity to try each job. The live shows allow the students to specialize in one specific job and showcase their talents.

“To my knowledge, no other high school in Pennsylvania airs live student-produced news to the community,” remarked Dr. Dean Maynard, Superintendent of Schools. “Many of the students involved in the live newscasts will be majoring in communications in college. The experience they receive in the television studio at MIHS gives them a great foundation on which to build.”

The high school’s communication classes also produce three other shows which air on Channel 16.

The students are under the direction of Mr. James Strobel, communications teacher at MIHS and McDowell. A sample tape of a Good Morning Millcreek production or a tour of the communications studio at MIHS are available.