2017 Plymouth High School's Salutatorian Named

2017 Plymouth High School's Salutatorian Named

Travis Owen - Plymouth High School’s 2017 Salutatorian

PHS Salutatorian Travis Owen

The administration at Plymouth High School is equally honored to announce that senior Travis Owen is the salutatorian for the Class of 2017.

Owen is the son of Mark and Melissa Owen of Plymouth. He has a grade point average of 4.293 and is ranked second in the class of 271 graduating students. Owen has respectfully earned an Academic Honors Diploma.

This fall, Owen plans on studying Biochemistry at DePauw University in Greencastle. He is looking forward to exploring the possibilities of directing his study of focus in the future towards pre-medical or pre-pharmacy. 

This past spring, Owen was inducted into the Academic Hall of Fame for his involvement in both the Mathematics and Science departments within the Weidner School of Inquiry @ PHS, the Project Based Learning high school located within Plymouth High School.

Throughout his time at Plymouth High School, Owen is proud to say he was actively involved in planning and executing the PHS Dance Marathon, which supports Riley Hospital for Children. The event is a multi-hour, multi-faceted event that blends dancing, games, crafts, food, and fun into one philanthropic experience. Owen was the student president his senior year, the chair for dancer registration his junior year, the chair of athletic outreach his sophomore year, and when he was a freshman, he was an executive committee member.

Owen was actively involved in student government throughout the past four years as well. Both his freshman and sophomore years, he was the co-president of his class, and he held the rank of officer during his upperclassman years.

Last summer, Owen was nominated by Plymouth High School teachers to represent the senior class at Hoosier Boys State at Trine University in Angola. The program allows students engage in state government and actively work together in a hands-on way to win elections, propose laws, negotiate bills, and enforce the legislation and procedures established from the local up to the state level. While at the weeklong program, Owen said he was elected by his peers to hold the role of county clerk and city chairman. He said he was proud to be able to lead his city to be called an “Honor City.”

For all four years, Owen wore proudly the #30, as he was a forward for the Plymouth Pilgrims basketball team. At this year’s PHS Academic Awards Assembly in May, Owen received a recognition award for being a Top 10 NLC Academic All Conference Student Athlete. When he wasn’t playing on the court, he was busy planning events and activities to get his peers involved, as he was a member of the Pep Club for the past two years.

Owen also received the Academic Excellence Award this year for being in the elite Top 5% of the senior class of 2017. During his senior year, he received a Statewide Transfer General Education Core certificate from Ivy Tech Community College for successfully completing a minimum of 30 dual credit hour classes while attending PHS. The certificate can transfer and is equivalent to a college freshman year of tuition, room and board.

Outside the classroom, he enjoys volunteering his time at various organizations throughout Marshall County, including the United Way and the Plymouth Rotary Club.

Owen was awarded the Eugene and Florence Stanley Scholarship, the Richard F. and Betty J. Heiser Scholarship, the Beacon Credit Union Scholarship, the Martin's Supermarkets Dependent Scholarship, Tri Kappa Marjorie Giffen Carothers Memorial Scholarship, the Fred Morrow Memorial Scholarship, the Marshall County FOP Lodge 130, the Plymouth Firemen’s Memorial Scholarship, and the Comcast Leaders and Achievers Scholarship. Based on his high GPA and test scores, he also received both a Merit Scholarship and a Presidential Scholar Award from DePauw University.

The Plymouth Community School Corporation administration, along with the Plymouth High School faculty and staff would like to congratulate these two exceptional students on all of their hard work and accomplishments inside and outside of the classroom.