Features

A Teacher to be Thankful For

Teacher Spotlight on Mrs. Pennebaker

Geraldine Figueroa and Conan Rae • November 22, 2024

Dinuba High School is filled with amazing and loving teachers. Each teacher tries their best to impact the students at Dinuba High School and teach them positive and helpful ways to get through their future and achieve success.

This segment is to appreciate those teachers that our students love and feel the impact they’re making. Whether it’s by making their classroom leave the students feel like they’re safe, or even just being there to listen and help out whenever they need it. And for this month we’d like to announce Mrs. Pennebaker as our spotlight.

Mrs. Pennebaker is one of the science teachers here on campus, she has been teaching here at DHS since 2007. Along with that, she teaches Medical Health Career and AP Environmental Science.

When it comes to helping out with Dinuba’s HOSA and MED academy, Pennebaker said, “Going and seeing different colleges while the students giving the tour are from either Med or HOSA has been my favorite thing to do with my students. Last year we had a student go to UCLA and he showed us around UCLA.”

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Mrs. Pennebaker also stated that she is excited to see future students who may join the medical academy at Dinuba and the ones who may be joining HOSA. There are many events and conferences for students joining either program.

We’d like to thank Mrs. Pennebaker for everything she has done both around campus and outside of Dinuba High School. Not only does she help out around the school, but she also managed to help out a former student who was in need of a kidney transplant. When Dinuba High School alumni, Alissa Ortiz, was in need of a kidney transplant following severe illness from COVID, Mrs. Pennebaker organized a Be the Match sign-up drive and did all she could to spread the word to help Alissa find a match. Ironically, Mrs. Pennebaker herself turned out to be a match. She did not hesitate to give one of her kidneys to her former student, saving the girl’s life.

Once again, thank you Mrs. Pennebaker for the impact you’ve made and continue to make for our students and community.

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About the Contributors

Geraldine Figueroa, Staff Writer

Hi my name is Geraldine Figueroa, I am a senior at Dinuba High School. I am currently in the Creative Writing class at the highschool.

Conan Rae, Reporter

Hi! my name is Conan Rae! I am currently a Junior at Dinuba High school and I do honestly plan on trying my best to make sure that the stories that I submit onto our school newspaper are interesting enough for you as the reader to want more of and find interest in! A few things about me: I am really into Poetry, I find myself seeking inspiration by Edgar Allen Poe and Emily Dickinson. Their poems and other little sonnets that they have written really do inspire me to write my own even if they aren't for the public to read. I am also a huge writer, my main inspiration for writing stories has been Stephen King and dare I say a few Dark Romance writers who I will not name because I cannot remember either of their names. I find myself enjoying an early morning sunrise or even the sunset in the field near my house, Oftentimes I will go with friends or even my sister to stargaze in that same field. A second to last thing about me is that my favorite animal is a Penguin, but I secretly find myself liking Panda's way more than I probably should. Finally, my favorite flowers are tulips, personally, I like the pink ones and I even have some growing in my backyard along with a few sunflowers that my eldest sister planted.