Katie Rutt is a 12-year-old 7th grade student at Hinkletown Mennonite School. She has a sister named Joy who also attends HMS.  Her parents’ names are Rick and Michelle Rutt. She also has two cats. She goes to Landisville Mennonite Church and lives in Ephrata, PA. Her hobbies include scrap booking, reading, crafts, soccer, babysitting, her church’s Jr. High and music. Katie has many musical abilities that will take her far in her lifetime.

    Katie’s musical abilities include playing the piano and singing. She has been playing piano for 6 years. She takes piano lessons from Lorena Gockley. In church she plays the piano for the offertory. 

    Katie plays piano for her school’s worship team. Though she doesn’t take lessons anymore, she plays the flute for HMS’s band. She stopped taking lessons for the flute from HMS’s music teacher, Mrs. Landis, last year. She is also in HMS’s select choir.  She was in her church’s musical, “Simon Says,” which is the trial of Simon Peter, with a funny twist on it. The character she was portraying was a kid. 

    When Katie graduates from HMS, she will go to either Ephrata High School or Lancaster Mennonite High School. Katie is a very intelligent girl and musical girl who will go very far with her musical abilities.

    Rosena Kay Martin is the daughter of Silvanus and Kay Martin. She is in 8th grade at Hinkletown Mennonite School. She goes to Village Chapel Mennonite Church and has one older sister, named Kamarie. She is a very active person and involved in many activities ranging from student council to acting.

    Rosena is in student council at HMS. In student council, she helps plan school events along with seven other students. “Student council is fun because you get to tell other people what to do,” Rosena said.

    Rosena loves acting and thinks it is a possible career. “I like the play because its fun and you get to be with friends,” said Rosena. She liked acting ever since she watched a play and it looked fun. “Acting is fun and you get to express yourself,” said Rosena. In sixth grade, she was Nellie Olson in the Hinkletown Mennonite School’s annual play Little House on the Prairie: Patchwork. She was Jasper in last year’s play The Five Little Peppers, and will play the cat Snowbell in this February’s production of The Adventures of Stuart Little.

    Rosena Martin is an active person capable of doing many things and has a very bright future.

    Sarah Stout, daughter of Ted and Tammy Stout, attends Hinkletown Mennonite School, is in 7th grade, and is twelve years old. She attends Washington Ave. Bible Church and lives in Stevens. Her favorite thing to do is to watch children.

    Sarah loves working with children, and it seems only fit that she helps in her community by babysitting. Sarah is also very energetic, which helps while babysitting because children can take a lot out of a person. Sarah said, “Helping children learn is the best reward.” Sarah said that in the future she would love to open a day care center because “no child should be left alone while their parent is at work.” Sarah said that if she could not open a daycare center she would love to be a chef like her uncle because she also loves food.

    Even though Sarah has only been at Hinkletown for a short time, her classmates know Sarah will excel at anything she puts her mind to. It doesn’t matter if she is a chef or a babysitter, she will succeed at anything she tries. Sarah will always do what she loves and will never stop trying.

   Ellie Jean Mulvenna is the daughter of Bonita and James Mulvenna. Ellie has four older sisters and one older brother. She is fourteen years old and attends Petra Christian Fellowship. Ellie enjoys performing arts and is in select choir and school plays.

   In her spare time Ellie likes to sing, play guitar and write songs. Ellie has always loved singing, even when she was younger. She started singing at the age of five years old and has loved it since! Ellie participated in many singing events and competitions, such as singing with her sisters at family events, and at Ephrata Community Days she won third place for karaoke. Also she used to sing on the worship team at her church. Ellie also loves acting and was in two plays at her school, including The Little House on the Prairie and The Five Little Peppers and did an excellent job in both! As she moves on to high school, Ellie would like to continue to be in choir and drama club. She also wants to go to college for performing arts but is not sure where yet.

   Ellie says she loves the stage and hopes to start a career as a singer one day. She is an amazing singer and she will be very successful in anything she does.

    Anna Rose Hurst of New Holland has a dream; her dream is to be a herpe-tologist who is also a veterinarian. Anna is an intel-ligent thirteen-year-old. She currently attends Hinkle-town Mennonite School and is in eighth grade. She is the daughter of Regina Deel and has two stepsisters, Emily and Cecilia. Anna loves school, her friends and learning new things.

    Anna’s favorite subject in school is science. “The best part about science is chemistry. I enjoy chemistry because it is challenging.  It is like finding small pieces to a puzzle and figuring out the big picture,” Anna said.  Anna’s eighth grade science teacher agrees that that Anna would do a good job studying herpetology. “Science plays a big part in being a veterinarian or a herpetologist. Anna participates in class and she enjoys science very much. She always takes part in-group discussions and she brings things from home in to class to share with her peers. I think that her love for science will take her in life,” science teacher Mr. Boll said. 

    Anna hopes to be a herpetologist but also a veterinarian. Anna has interest in this occupation “because you can rarely find a herpetologist who is also a veterinarian. Also, because I love animals and I like to help animals in need.”

    This  summer Anna  attended veterinarian camp. Anna said that she had a great time and that she learned a lot, such as how to fill out an evaluation sheet for patients, bandage wounds, and take their temperatures. Anna said she would definitely recommend veterinarian camp to other students not only because she learned many things and had a chance to experience new situations, but because she met and got to know new people. She hopes that this experience will help her in the future.

     Whenever anyone has a math, science or computer question, they just ask Joel for help. Joel Hoover is 13 years old and is in the eighth grade at Hinkletown Mennonite School. He attends Metzler’s Menno-nite Church with his family; his parents Roy and Joy Hoover of New Holland, and his three sisters; Rachel, 16, Rebecca, 9, and Julia, 4. He enjoys school and does very well in his classes. He enjoys math, science and working with computers.

    His interest in computers came from his father, Roy Hoover, who works with computer networking, so computers and electronics have surrounded Joel ever since he was young. He aspires to be like his father some day.

    Joel says he enjoys working with computers because, "If you do it right, it will do what you want it to do." In his spare time, Joel can usually be found at his computer designing some sort of computer program. He learned that it is easier to break down the computer program into smaller parts when creating it.

    After attending Hinkletown, Joel plans to attend Garden Spot High School in New Holland. Following high school, Joel aspires to attend college. In college, Joel would be interested in studying computer engineering.

    Joel is an intelligent person and is hopefully looking forward to an excellent career in science or computer engineering. Joel is a very clever person and will do well at whatever he puts his mind to.