Alaina McGrogan Adds Another Award to Her
Repertoire with Her Indiana Academic All-Star Selection

Carmen Thomas
onwardtrojans.com

CHS senior Alaina McGrogan has no shortage of awards:
National Merit Commended Student, AP Scholar with
Distinction, and National German Exam bronze medalist, to name a few. But the most prestigious—and
recent—one was still unexpected.
On April 24, McGrogan was named an Indiana Academic All-Star, placing her in the top 40 students in the state of Indiana.
The process began all the way back in the fall of 2024,
when each high school in Indiana has the chance to
nominate a student for the award. Once McGrogan was
nominated, she had to fill out an extensive application.
“It was more involved. I had to put down my
extracurriculars. I don’t think I had to write any essays,”
she said. “But my counselor, Mr. (James) Moore, was able to upload transcripts, SAT, and AP score reports…I just had to explain the stuff I’ve done outside of just school. I think it was like six pages.”
And her list of extracurriculars was quite long:
Academic Spell Bowl, Academic Super Bowl, team. captain of the Speech and Debate team, team captain of the Science Olympiad team, team captain of the cross country team, track and field member, Natural Helpers,
hospital volunteer, Sending Sunshine chapter leader,
and Indiana Youth Advisory Council for District 4.
McGrogan also had to write an essay explaining why she chose Katie Mueller, a CHS science teacher, as her
Influential Educator.
“I wasn’t sure if my application was strong enough,”
McGrogan said. “I was thrilled. I did not expect it. I really didn’t.”
According to McGrogan, though, the process was a bit
more chaotic than it should have been.
“They accidentally addressed [the email] to the wrong
person. The first email I received was a follow-up, saying, ‘Hey, you need to RSVP ASAP to this ballroom luncheon.’ I didn’t even know I was selected! That’s one way to say congratulations,” she laughed.
McGrogan travelled to Indianapolis with her mom,
Mueller, and CHS principal Brent Martinson. She received a plaque with her face on it, and a plaque to give to Mueller, too. Mueller’s plaque was printed with the essay McGrogan wrote about why Mueller, her science teacher and Science Olympiad coach, was so influential.
“She’s been my teacher for two years and my coach for
three. She taught me in Anatomy and Physiology last
year, and AP Biology this year. She’s just a really positive
person and makes me excited about learning. Whenever I see her, I just know she’s going to bring some cool science stories to talk about with us,” McGrogan said. “She’s someone who is not only interested in what they teach but also interested in sharing that with others.”
One of McGrogan’s strongest extracurriculars is
something Mueller encouraged her to do.
“Volunteering at Franciscan Health, I’ve been doing for
about a year and a half, maybe two years now,” she said. “I go every Sunday and volunteer in their ER in Michigan City.”
McGrogan stocks rooms, manages the warm blanket
machine, and also helps transport patients if the nurses
need it.
“I had a lot of hours under my belt,” she said. “I think
that volunteering helped show that I knew what I wanted to do in the future. I’d taken steps to get exposure to it, and also I was helping people in the process.”
For McGrogan, volunteer work is more than just a bullet point on her resume: it’s shown her what she wants to do in the future.
McGrogan will be attending the University of Chicago in
the fall and is majoring in Biology.