Prior to the School Board meeting on April 11, the Board of Education presented Ambassador for Excellence Awards to more than 100 students. Ambassador for Excellence Awards are presented to individuals who have received an award outside District 54 and by doing so brought recognition to themselves, their school and our district.
Infinitec Award
Astrid Colindres Flores, a fifth-grade student from Hoover, will receive an Outstanding Student Technology Award from the Infinitec North Assistive Technology Coalition on April 18. Astrid was nominated for this award by some of the individuals who support her, including assistive technology facilitator Jennifer Podgorski, vision teacher Maribeth Brown, fifth-grade teacher Sarah Prusko, paraprofessional Maria Meza, special education teacher Angela Ferreri, social worker Lisa Markowski and teacher Laura Davis.
National History Day
Several Mead Junior High School students qualified for the Illinois History Day, which will take place on April 24 in Springfield. Each year more than half a million students participate in this nationwide contest. Students choose a historical topic related to the theme. This year’s theme was Frontiers in History: People, Places and Ideas. Students can present their work as a research paper, an exhibit, a performance, a documentary or a website.
- Suvesha Praveen for her paper “A Pivotal Point in Women’s Labor Rights: The 1910 Garment
Workers Strike of Chicago”
- Emmett Gunsteen, Ethan McBurrows and Zoey Pajerski for their website “Unveiling Radium’s
Power: How the Discovery of Radium Impacted Radiation Laws and Medicine”
- Betselot Mussie, Aoto Horiguchi and Koyo Nielsen for their exhibit “The Haitian Revolution: A
Turning Point for Freedom”
- Dimitar Donev and Chase Reabe for their exhibit “One Blood Transfusion: A Whole World Saved”
- Hrishi Chauhan and Sreejay Veeramani for their documentary “Eradicating Epidemics: Edward
Jenner and the Birth of Vaccination”
- Sema Sofuoglu, Sophia Pellicci and Aubrey Wimmer for their documentary “A Bold Step Towards
Justice: The Transformative Legacy of the Seneca Falls Convention”
- Nitsa Shah, Lilah Miller and Nandini Unni for their documentary “Inactivated Polio Vaccine: The
Battle Against a Killer”
Sponsors of the Mead History Fair are Julie Morrison and Megan Tamulis.
Geography Bee
The following Mead students won the District 54 Geography Bee. The top four students from each junior high school geography bee qualified to compete at the district bee in March. To give you an example of the questions students were asked – The Hoover Dam is located on the Colorado River between Arizona and which state—Nevada or Idaho?
- 1st Place: Aditya Kashyap
- 2nd Place: Sree Jayant Veeramani
- 3rd Place: Ryan Ariunbold
Megan Tamulis is the Geography Bee Club Sponsor from Mead.
Chain Reaction
The following teams won the 2024 Chain Reaction Competition. Students were challenged to design a device that will perform a simple task in an indirect and incredibly overly complicated way. Teams were judged on things like design, teamwork, alignment to theme, and successful attempts. The theme was “Make a Goal.”
Elementary Division
- 1st Place: Collins, sponsored by Kristen Martin
- Jacob Jang
- George Synowiec
- Bianka Grzejdziak
- Gia Nikolov
- Reyansh Pasham
- Molly Strasser
- Nicole Kalendzhiev
- Alex Waidanz
- Maxwell Krueger
- Blake Wozny
- 2nd Place: Hoover, sponsored by Kyle Sustich
- Viren Shirol
- Andreea Stempovschi
- Raghav Krishna Saravanakumar
- Ryan Caldwell
- Chase Little
- Shardul Patil Dumbre
- Xavier Zhang
- Adam Moniuszko
- Yolanda Romero
- Dhruv Kumar
- 3rd Place: Nerge, sponsored by Shannon Kaplan
- Hubert Brociek
- Asher Danao
- Xavier Kochan
- Karyssa Patel
- Jayden Patel
- Shrey Patel
- Hasith Veeramalla
Junior High Division
- 1st Place: Mead, sponsored by Dan Hirshfeld
- Preet Parmar
- Millie Ger
- Nila Raj
- Abhinav Padmanabham
- Aarav Srivastava
- Arav Bhardwaj
- Jaival Trivedi
- Saath Parikh
- Ian Saldana
- Anthony Hajduga
- 2nd Place: Frost, sponsored by Beth Davis
- Mohammed Abdulhai
- Luqmaan Ali
- Brandon Hoopes
- Olivia Hwang
- Lucas Kim
- Casey Loar-BrandweinVaani Pinjwani
- Zinal Rokadia
- Jason Sanchir
- Viviana Strynkowski
- Sara Synowiec
- Anina Wilson
Junior High Math Competition
All seventh- and eighth-grade students were invited to join Math Olympiad Clubs at their junior high schools (and Lincoln Prairie) to help them prepare for this district competition. This culminated in a school competition, and the winner from each school advanced to the 3rd annual District 54 Junior High Math Competition. At the district event, teams collaborated on the 10 math problems presented and wrote their final answer on a white board. An example of a question asked is “Let N be the greatest five-digit number whose digits have a product of 120. What is the sum of the digits of N?” (Solution: 18)
- 1st – Mead, Pi-Thons
- Chase Reabe
- Betselot Mussie
- Vihaan Seth
- Aoto Horiguchi
- Kalki Vijay
Sponsored by Amy Varchmin
- 2nd – Addams, LW
- Tejas Konduru
- Yashvin Nayan
- Jusjit Singh
- Shlok Sriram
- Harshang Thakkar
Sponsored by Molly Guagenti
- 3rd – Frost, Sparty Squared
- Dhruv Dayaneni
- Micah Kim
- Aneesh Wagmere
- Lucas Kim
- Arjan Juneja
Sponsored by Chris Morris
Japanese Speech Contests
The 8th Annual Heritage Japanese Language Speech Contest was held on Feb. 4, 2024 at the ConsulateGeneral of Japan in Chicago. Two Dooley fourth-grade students received the JIC (Japan Information Center) Award.
- Haruaki Horii
- Julia Kennedy
Also, the 38th Annual Japanese Language Speech Contest was held on March 23, 2024 at the ConsulateGeneral of Japan in Chicago. The following Dooley students received awards.
- 1st Prize: Jaanvi Solanki (4th grade)
- 2nd Prize: Ivy Garland (3rd grade)
- 3rd Prize: Lila Dondzik (5th grade)
- 4th Prize: Adriana Atanasova (3rd grade)
- IATJ (Illinois Association of Teachers of Japanese) Award: Danzan Dashdemberel (3rd grade)
The club sponsors for both clubs are Ikumi Boyd, Reina VandeBogart and Ayako Abe.
PTA Reflections Winners
The following students from District 54 qualified for the state or national level for Reflections, a PTA writing and fine arts competition.
Advancing to Nationals (winners will be announced by PTA on May 1)
- Umang Sinha, grade 5 at Link School, in the literature category for Music Box
- Eva Tamhane, grade 8 at Mead Jr. High, in the music category for Tomorrow
- George Synowiec, grade 5 at Collins, in the photography category for Where Hope Grows. George also received an honorable mention in the literature category at the state level for Eco-Champion Cosmic Crown of Awesomeness.
- Nathan Jakobi, grade 6 at Hale, in the photography category for My Charlotte
From Aldrin Elementary School
- Leilany De La Cruz, grade 3, in the visual arts category for Happy Home
- Liam Seriruk, grade 3, in the film category for The Lotus
From Campanelli Elementary School
- Kavel Gupta, grade 5, in the music category for A Hopeful Future. Kavel also received an award of artistic distinction at the state level.
- Uma Kumarm, grade 5, in the literature and photography categories for Growing with Hopefulness. Uma also received an honorable mention at the state level.
- Rishaan Lillaney, grade 6, in the literature category for Untitled
- Mishka Patra, grade 3 in the visual arts category for Garden of Hope. Mishka also received an honorable mention at the state level.
- Ovee Salavi, grade 6 in the literature category for I’m Hopeful Because
From Churchill Elementary School
- Mahie Sibal, grade 5, in the dance category for Always Have High Hopes
From Collins Elementary School
- Eleanor Cho, grade 2, in the visual arts category for Best Friends
- Hetvi Vyas, grade 3, in the film category for Hope Makes Your Wish Come True. Hetvi also received an honorable mention at the state level.
- Yashvi Vyas, grade 6, in the photography category for Electric Cars Save the Air
From Dooley Elementary School
- Henry Muranaka, grade 6 in the film category for Hope Through Patience, in the photography category for Choosing a Great Day and in the visual arts category for Broken in Beautiful. Henry also received honorable mention at the state level in both categories.
- Caylin Takagi, grade 6, in the literature category for I Am Hopeful Because
- Lynne Whiteid, grade 5, in the literature category for HOPEFUL
From Hale Elementary School
- Gianna Guerrero, grade 4, in the visual arts category for Untitled. Gianna also received an award of artistic distinction at the state level.
From Hoover Math & Science Academy
- Norah Milfred, grade 5, in the music category for Reach for the Sky
- Annabel Morales, grade 4, in the dance category for I Can Get Through This
- Felix Yah, kindergarten, in the music category for You Best Try
From Lincoln Prairie School
- Manit Jain, grade 3, in the photography category for Nature is Precious
- Trisha Rai, grade 5, in the literature category for I Am Hopeful Because
From Link Elementary School
- Corey Copeland Jr., grade 3, in the dance category for Fire
- Devansh Jyoti, grade 6, in the music category for Climate Change
- Adrija Saha, grade 5, in the literature category for I am hopeful about human intelligence, perseverance and goodwill
From MacArthur International Spanish Academy
- Renaisha Chikhalia, grade 6, in the music category for Bright Future and in the photography category for Tranquil Beauty. Renaisha also received an honorable mention at the state level for Bright Future.
- Reyansh Chikhalia, grade 2, in the dance category for Ignite the Light
From Nerge Elementary School
- Chihiro Yoshii, grade 2, in the dance category for Japanese Dance and in the film category for How to Make a “Peek-a-boo” Puppet
- Ayumu Yoshii, grade 4, in the dance category for Boy Japanese Dance and in the film category for How to Make a Paper that Can Swim on Water
From Eisenhower Junior High School
- Robert Harvey, grade 8, in the photography category for Pride
From Keller Junior High School
- Ismah Farooqui, grade 8, in the visual arts category for Hope is Patience with the Lamp Lit. Ismah also received an honorable mention at the state level.
From Mead Junior High School
- Nadia Bratos, grade 7, in the visual arts category for The Shoe of Hope
- Nayan Gupta, grade 8, in the music category for Endless Dreams
- Aditya Kashyap, grade 7, in the music category for Calm After the Storm and Harmony in Diversity
- Sonia Krzepisz, grade 7, in the photography category for There is always a tomorrow
- Sema Sofuoglu, grade 7, in the literature category for Hope. Sema also received an award of artistic distinction at the state level.
