Did You Know?
Did you know that 2016 Super Bowl champion Jordan Norwood, wide receiver for the Denver Broncos, wasn't even known as a football player during his years as a Little Lion?
“My athletic career at State High was almost completely centered around basketball for the most part,” Norwood said. “I remember going to the guidance counselor and I needed my transcripts to get to Penn State as far as NCAA rules to gain admission, I told her I was playing football at Penn State and she said she didn’t know I played football at all.”
He went on to launch a successful career in football, first as a Nittany Lion then through several NFL camps before landing in Denver. And while his career on the football field looks promising for the unforseeable future, he is glad that he has his academic degree in advertising to fall back on, a passion for which started in SCASD.
“State High did a great job,” Norwood said. “They provided courses that really pointed me in the direction that I wanted to go. I took technical drawing courses and we had the auto CAD computer programs that got me interested at that time in engineering and architectural engineering. I also took computer graphics classes and classes that maybe another high school wouldn’t have offered.”
Or more like 500. While most students will spend their spring break relaxing at home or traveling on vacation, one decided to go in a different direction. State High senior Lewis Yeaple has his own plan. This spring break, Lewis plans to ride his bike 500 miles in only 5 days to raise money for the American Diabetes Association Inc. and to support the fight against juvenile diabetes.
The State College Area School District has graduated many successful alumni—doctors, lawyers, professional athletes, and even a Nobel prize winner. Justin Schmidt '65 shared the 2015 Ig Nobel Prize in Physiology and Entomology at a ceremony September 19, 2015 at Harvard University. The prize was awarded for “painstakingly creating the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, which rates the relative pain people feel when stung by various insects” (based on Justin’s personal research and testing). The Ig Nobels are awarded for science published in peer reviewed journals that “first makes you laugh, then makes you think”.