Ain’t Misbehavin’: Band Students Offer Service With Sound
Seniors Allen Beckwith and Kiran Mohan are the founders of Crescendo for a Cause, which seeks to “improve music education in underserved areas and to utilize music performance as a vehicle for advocacy and community service.” They spoke recently with the Daily Herald about their work.
The Honor Band members, who created the nonprofit last year, have set an ambitious agenda for the start of their final year of high school:
- They recently performed jazz standards for residents in the memory care program at Belmont Village Senior Living in Buffalo Grove, and plan to perform at other assisted-living facilities in the area. Kiran and Allen were joined by junior Sam Goldberg, 2019 graduate Chase Duvall and Crescendo’s director of music, Jon Raymond.
- They hope to perform and provide an educational experience this month for detained teens at the Illinois Youth Center in St. Charles.
- They also organized a fundraiser to support pediatric sarcoma research at the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and are more than halfway to their goal of donating $2,000. The pair hopes to arrange a performance for pediatric patients at the hospital this month and present their donation. September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
Kiran and Allen also are collecting instruments, music stands and lesson books to be donated to The People’s Music School in Chicago, which provides free music educational services to children.
More Than 130 Students Involved in Fall Musical
More than 130 students are involved in the production of Stevenson’s fall musical, “Chicago: High School Edition,” between cast, crew, pit orchestra and other support roles.
“Chicago” is set in the 1920s, and features the rivalry between two femme fatales, Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly, and their quest for fame, fortune and freedom. Junior Emmie Ginsberg earned the role of Hart, while senior Rachel Fischmar was selected to portray Kelly. Senior Tim Graves plays Hart’s hapless husband, Amos. Junior Sophia Fine was picked to be Matron “Mama” Morton, the corrupt leader of prisoners in Cook County Jail. Senior Tomasso Jozwiak is Billy Flynn, the flashy lawyer who defends Hart and Kelly. Click here to see all students involved in the production.
Joey Fitzpatrick will direct the musical. Alice Nuteson and Kirsten Snelten are the vocal directors. Maddie Plewacki is the choreographer, Aimee Evans is tech director, and Anthony Krempa is pit orchestra director.
“Chicago” will be performed Friday through Sunday, Nov. 16-18, in the Performing Arts Center.
Alumnus Honored for 40 Years at Half Day School
Stevenson graduate Mike Kriese (Class of 1982), who worked at Half Day School in Lincolnshire for 40 years, was honored with a retirement party last week. Kriese was honored at his childhood home, Prairie House Tavern in Buffalo Grove. His grandmother owned the former Jerry’s supper club, and Kriese and his family lived upstairs.
Click here for today’s athletic schedule
Wednesday’s Varsity Results
Girls Golf
Stevenson 152, Fremd 183: Senior Joyce Bai shot a 1-under-par 34 for the Patriots (4-0) at Crane’s Landing Golf Course to earn medalist honors by five strokes in the non-conference match. Joyce made two birdies, one bogey and six pars during her round. She has won or shared medalist honors in every dual this season. Junior Briana Fidman and freshman Allie Santos each recorded 39s, junior Faith Wang had a 40 and classmate Kelly Dong added a 42. Freshman Jessica Velent recorded a 46.
Girls Tennis
Stevenson 8, Highland Park 1: The visiting Patriots (4-1) captured all four singles matches and four of five doubles contests. Freshman Sonia Mehta was a 7-5, 6-1 winner at No. 1 singles, followed by classmate Ainika Hou at No. 2 (6-4, 7-5), sophomore Thea Surya at No. 3 (6-0, 6-2) and junior Emily Hu at No. 4 (6-0, 6-2). In doubles, sophomore Alaina Kolli and senior Athena Kolli earned a 6-4, 6-3 decision at No. 1. Seniors Ellen Ma and Maggie Gong prevailed at No. 2 (7-5, 7-6), senior Alexis Lee and junior Abby Schueneman triumphed at No. 3 (7-5, 6-3), and seniors Kelly Herlihy and Priya Rao won at No. 5 (6-3, 6-4).
Boys Cross Country
Stevenson at Lake County Invitational: Anthony Rodriguez finished fourth out of 132 runners, leading the Patriots to a fifth-place showing among 15 teams. The senior covered the 5,000-meter course at the Waukegan Sports Complex in 15:33.6. Senior Corey Pacernick was 11th (16:04.7). Other competitors for SHS included sophomore Tyler Roberts (16:42.7), juniors Tarun Kalyana Sundaram (16:55.0) and Wesley Park (17:07.2), and seniors Cameron Sprague (17:18.7) and Cameron Coffey (17:24.9). In the team standings, Stevenson had 128 points, behind Barrington (75), Warren (91), Deerfield (93) and Mundelein (102). – Official Results
Girls Cross Country
Stevenson at Lake County Invitational: The Patriots placed sixth among 14 schools at the Waukegan Sports Complex. Stevenson’s top runner was senior Caimin Xi, who finished 23rd (19:50.4) in the 5,000-meter race. She was followed by sophomore Alivia Alton (20:15.9), juniors Emily Fejes (20:18.5) and Emma Finnegan (20:30.1), freshman Lia Novak (21:05.0), senior Michelle Yu (21:09.5) and sophomore Natalie Dugaesescu (21:55.3). Vernon Hills won the team title with 50 points, followed by Lakes (93), Libertyville (97), Grant (110), Warren (137) and Stevenson (171). – Official Results
Boys Soccer
Stevenson 1, Rolling Meadows 1: At the 34th annual Jim Wolter Titan Invitational at Glenbrook South, senior Camron Mahdavian scored the lone goal for the Patriots (2-1-1 overall, 0-1-1 tournament). Camron’s goal, off an assist from junior Alem Duratovic, came in the 23rd minute of the first half and gave SHS a 1-0 lead. SHS outshot the Mustangs, 19-1. – Daily Herald
Girls Volleyball
Hersey d. Stevenson, 22-25, 25-12, 25-20: The host Patriots (4-3) dropped the non-conference match despite 27 assists, six digs, three kills, two service aces and two block assists from Grace Tully. The senior was 74-of-74 setting. Sophomore Amanda Holsen led SHS attackers with 13 kills, senior Lily Cozzi had eight and junior Makayla Uremovich added six. Junior Emerson Kouri made a team-high eight digs, with senior Abby Keevins contributing six. Abby also went 5-for-5 setting with two assists. Hersey improved to 2-0. – Daily Herald
STUDENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
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9/11 Remembrance Ceremony Next Week
Students Helping Soldiers will hold its annual 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony at 8 a.m. Wednesday in the Garden of Peace, Hope and Remembrance. All students are invited.
ATHLETICS
All student-athletes are required to attend one 30-minute meeting led by the athletic director during the 2019-20 school year. Meetings will be held on late-arrival days. The first opportunity is from 9:45-10:15 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 12 in the West Auditorium. Topics to be covered include: expectations of and leadership opportunities for student-athletes; the Co-Curricular Code of Conduct; sportsmanship; sports health and nutrition; and Stevenson Athletics’ awards program. Attendance will be taken by scanning student IDs.
Student-athletes being honored during Friday’s Night of Champions ceremony need to be in the southeast corner of the Stadium by 6:45 p.m. Athletes are asked to check in with their ID at the east or west admission gates to receive complimentary admission to the varsity football game. They will receive their Night of Champions T-shirt at 6:45.
ILLINOIS EDUCATION NEWS
The Chicago Teachers Union inched closer to a possible strike on Wednesday. The union’s House of Delegates set a strike authorization vote for Sept. 24-26. If at least 75% vote in favor, they could go on strike as soon as Oct. 7. Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s negotiating team has offered to end the outsourcing of nursing and other support staff jobs at Chicago Public Schools in an effort to seal a deal with union and avert a strike.
This year’s freshman class at Illinois State University is its largest in 33 years. The university has 3,860 freshmen for the 2019-2020 academic year. Total enrollment for this year is 20,878, a 1.2% increase over the previous school year.
Oak Park and River Forest High School plans to restructure its freshman curriculum to increase access to all students. The three-year rollout of the new curriculum is designed to remove institutional barriers that prevent students of color from reaching higher levels of achievement, officials said. The plan calls for the district to change to a single curriculum for freshman English, science, history and world language courses.
Hawthorn Elementary District 73 is moving into the second phase of master plan to ease crowding in its schools. The next major project in a voter-approved $48.7 million building program involves the addition of a full gym, two STEM laboratories, seven classrooms and a music room at Hawthorn Middle School North in Vernon Hills.
Waukegan District 60 will hire five new social workers, bringing its staffing nearly to the levels that existed before much criticized cuts in 2017. The school board unanimously approved the new social workers along with six other positions in the district’s special education department last week.
A former kindergarten teacher’s assistant who resigned earlier this year from his post at a school in Northfield was arrested and charged last week with possession of child pornography. George Gemeinhardt, 64, worked at Middlefork School from September 2018 to March 2019.
NATIONAL EDUCATION NEWS
Roughly 20 percent of college students took a math course they had already completed in high school even though their K-12 assessments suggested they could take a higher-level course, according to a new study published by The Journal of Higher Education.
Parents who criticize or trash talk their kids’ public high school coaches don’t have legal protection to make false claims, according to a groundbreaking ruling issued Wednesday by the Minnesota Supreme Court. The court’s decision said that public high school coaches are not public officials under the First Amendment.
Every year for the past two decades, at least one young man has died in connection with fraternity hazing. Recent deaths have increased pressure on fraternities to change, but change has been slow. Supporters and active members of fraternities say the deaths are isolated incidents that do not represent the whole of the Greek life experience.
Johns Hopkins University is launching a center to study the benefits of tripping. The university is launching a Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, believed to be the first of its kind in the U.S. The privately-funded center will focus on how psychedelic drugs affect the brain — looking specifically into brain function, behavior, learning and memory, the brain’s biology and mood.
Stevenson Daily Digest 