Wednesday, May 3, 2023

Fashion Show Steps Up Stevenson’s Style!

Everyone was dressed to the nines at last night’s 8th Annual Stevenson Styler Fashion Show.

The show featured the latest looks from local retailers as well as amazing student-designed looks made by students in the Clothing and Design classes.

Proceeds, which tallied $652, benefited Dress For Success, which is a not-for-profit organization that empowers women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire and the development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.

The show was produced by members of the Stevenson Styler Fashion Club and head producers Anjini Thomas and Bennett Thyren.

For a full gallery of photos from the event, please click here.

Photos: Joel Lerner.

Stevenson Gets A NATIONAL CHAMPION At BPA National Conference! More than 6,300 students from across the country competed last weekend in more than 60 events at the 2023 Business Professionals Of America National Leadership Conference in California at the Hilton Anaheim…and Stevenson was well-represented on the podium. In fact, a total of 18 students from Stevenson competed and the Financial Analyst Team of Ronit Lodd, Devdutta Sahoo and Sparsh Shah was named a NATIONAL CHAMPION while two students were named national runners-up: Logan Kim (Financial Math & Analysis Concepts) and Jason Mascarenhas (Management, Marketing & Human Resources). Meanwhile, Abby Ma earned a Top 10 finish in Financial Math & Analysis Concepts. Other Stevenson students who competed were: Saanvi Adusumalli, Aditi Boddi, Sharayu Dharrao, Jahnvi Jani, Sawani Khandekar, Lekha Kothapalli, Meghana Mandava, Praneetha Meraga, Amogha Ravishankar, Renee Tiwari, Daniel Xu and Audrey Yin.

Three Freshmen Take First Place At Business Pitch Symposium

The Startups In Business And Technology Club serves as Stevenson’s business startup incubator, helping students create startup businesses that solve problems, with the opportunity to pitch to investors and potentially raise capital.

At the Startups In Business And Technology Business Pitch Symposium last month, club members from Stevenson pitched startup companies to a panel of investors and three freshmen ~ Sahana Raja, Pranathi Boggavarapu and Chandana Kancharla ~ won top billing with their creation of Eclipse, an app that combines an educational platform with motivating and stress relieving features in one workspace.

Teams pitched to investors that included Patrick Tannous, President & Co-Founder of Tiesta Tea; Mukund Raghunath, Co-Founder and CEO at Acies Global; and Shawn Park, Founders Team Associate at P33 Chicago.

These judges scored and critiqued teams based on innovation, product-market fit, viability, growth potential and overall potential for investment. Six teams competed against each other in SBT’s in-house competition, each having seven minutes to present followed by five minutes of questioning.

Startup incubation will begin again next fall at club meetings on Fridays after school! Reach out to Lance Locker, Sohi Shah, Kashyap Rajesh, Sachet Verma, Samrudh Prasanna, or the sponsor Ms. Diaz for more information.

Others who competed in the Business Pitch Symposium included:

• Runner-Up: IntelliSpace, an interconnected platform that turns students to learning by encompassing management tools, organized integrated learning resources, and adaptive practice, founded by sophomores Sanjay Malisetty, Arjun Patel and Shrihan Reddy Tummala
• Runner-Up: HemoHealth, an app that provides a reliable, accessible and efficient method to measure anemia levels for those who do not have access to healthcare, founded by juniors Sujith Alla, Ansh Soni, Srikar Kovvuri, Charan Veeravalli and Joshua Kurien
• EcoVender, a vending machine that incentivizes consumers to recycle plastic in vending machines in hopes of a greener tomorrow, founded by sophomores Aarav Gupta, Atharva Tiwari, Dylan Patel, Karan Bhargava and Nidhi Dinendra
• Cafe Queues, an online ordering solution for the long lines at Jazzman’s, founded by sophomores Shipra Jha, Tanvi Singh, Shaivi Wankhede and Ranya Prasad
• susSTMable, a program that offers freemium courses that are accessible to students from multilingual backgrounds to encourage entrepreneurship and climate sustainability by building eco-friendly products, founded by sophomores Srinjana Chatterjee and Fazilet Kazkondu

Stevenson Gets 7 State Champs In FBLA!

Stevenson’s chapter of Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) attended the annual State Leadership Conference last month in Springfield at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. A total of 69 chapters from around the State of Illinois had members competing and Stevenson won the award for largest chapter membership.

Junior Darius Anta was inducted as the State Vice President of the Northern Area and was also named a state champion in International Business.

Six other Stevenson students were named state champions as well: Yuliia Kornilova (Advertising), Smriti Kumar (Business Calculations), Surya Chandrakasan (Introduction To Information Technology), Brian Hu (Business Ethics), Audrey Yin (Hospitality And Event Management) and Karan Bhargave (Computer Applications).

Click here for a full list of results.

There were more than 70 competitive events at the conference, including objective tests covering a wide variety of business topics from Accounting to Cyber Security to Personal Finance to Securities and Investments. There were also role play events with case studies such as Marketing, Help Desk, and Hospitality Management, and computer-skills testing such as Spreadsheet Application and Word Processing.

Speaking and interview events included Public and Impromptu Speaking, Job Interview, and Future Business Leader (FBL). Pre-made projects with live presentations included Community Service, Digital Animation, Website Design, and Introduction to Business Presentation, and there were individual presentation events such as Sales Presentation and Business Ethics.

Stevenson students will now be preparing for the National Leadership Conference in Atlanta from June 29 to July 2.

Statesman Recognized Again In Journalism Contest

Stevenson’s student news source, the Statesman, was recently recognized as the third best overall paper in the state of Illinois in the Illinois Journalism Educators Association Newspaper and Digital Media Contest

The Statesman also got a second place for Best Website.

Individual winners included: 

First Place

• Senior Shannon Moser ~ First Place in Best Alternative StoryTelling for her design “On the Safe Side”
• Junior Fiona Jin and sophomore Eshaam Bhattad ~ First Place in Best Audio Journalism for their “Statesman Soundwave: Figure Skating”
• Junior Nicole Yao ~ First Place for her cartoon “In Affirmation” in Best Editorial Cartoon
• Seniors Sarah Zhang and Helen Oriatti-Bruns ~ First Place in Best Humorous Commentary for their article “To the Ends of the Earth”
• Junior Elizabeth Yuan ~ First Place for Best Illustration for “Challenging the Court of Law”
• Junior Jennifer Huang ~ First Place for Best Infographic for “Beyond Beliefs”
• Juniors Fiona Jin, Yuman Ali-Khan, and Camden Wright and sophomore Ansh Aggarwal ~ First Place for Best Photo Gallery for coverage of StreetFest
• Senior Lance Locker and junior Elizabeth Yuan ~ First Place in Best Serious Commentary for “Paying the Price”
• Sophomore Ansh Aggarwal ~ First Place for Best Sports Photo for “Patriots Scout a win against Lake Forest”
• Seniors Sarah Zhang and Helen Oriatti-Bruns and sophomore Rajan Sukhatme ~ First Place in Best Humorous Commentary for their article “To the Ends of the Earth”

Second Place

• Senior Kelly Liu, juniors Sam Lerner and Kyla Smith ~ Second Place for Best Multimedia Package with “Community Features” Taiwanese Club”
• Seniors Collin Fan, Anika Krishnaswamy, Kelly Liu, Aayushi Wadhawan, Surya Sethia and Shannon Moser and junior Jennifer Huang ~ Second Place for Best Overall Design for our “Handle with Care” issue
• Seniors Collin Fan and Lance Locker ~ Second Place for “Breaking Down Food Waste” in Best Single-Page Story Package

Third Place

• Senior Lance Locker ~ Third Place for Best Photo Story for his “Caught on Guard” piece
• Senior Shannon Moser and junior Jennifer Huang ~ Third Place for their “Handle with Cover” cover in Best Front Page Design
• Sophomore Ansh Aggarwal ~ Third Place for Best Video Story for his feature “Stevenson Drumline”

Honorable Mention

• Seniors Collin Fan and Katya Dubinin and sophomore Timothy Bui ~ Honorable Mention in Best Centerspread Story Package for “Coaching Off Court”
• Senior Gaurish Lakhanpal and sophomore Brayden Caldwell ~ Honorable Mention for Best Headline with “All About that Bass”
• Junior Sam Lerner and sophomore Lillian Zhou ~ Honorable Mention for Best Sports Commentary for “Club Sports? Pain or Gain”
• Seniors Collin Fan and Lance Locker and junior Ava Winber ~ Honorable Mention for Best Sports Feature Story for “On the Line”

More Writing Awards For Stevenson

Stevenson also flexed its muscles in two other writing contests recently.

There were 360 students from across the nation nominated to participate in the 2023 NCTE Achievement Awards in Writing Contest, including a handful from Stevenson.

National judges evaluated each piece of writing for expression of ideas, language use, and unique perspective and voice. There are four distinctions for winners: First Class, Superior, Excellent and Merit.

Stevenson’s winners were: 
Sara Cao (First Class)
Abra Giddings (First Class)
Angela Guo (Superior)
Veronika Upart (Superior)
Hailey Rockoff (Superior)
Vivian Zhu (Superior).

The Illinois Association of Teachers of English (IATE), headquartered at Millikin University in Decatur, recently announce the results of its annual student writing contest for grades 6 through 12.

IATE sponsors the annual contest for students as a way to recognize exceptional student work and to encourage students to pursue the pleasures and challenges of writing. 

Students from Stevenson whose work was recognized include:
Taeyeon Kim: Honorable Mention for “Descendents of Victims” (prose)
Valerie Panich: Print for “Yellow Teeth” (prose)
Katherine Herlihy: Participation for “I Don’t Remember” (poetry)
Katherine Herlihy: Print for “In City Lights” (poetry)
Katherine Herlihy: Participation for “Sea Star Syndrome” (poetry)
Katherine Herlihy: Participation for “The Antiquities of a Secondhand Bookshop” (poetry)
Claire Lyman: Print for “Maiden Name” (poetry)
Claire Lyman: Participation for “Sickly Sweet Stain” (poetry)
Rifu Matsumoto: Print for “A Final Reunion” (prose)
Akil Dougherty: Runner-up for “I’ll Be Back” (prose)
Matthew Lewis: Runner-up for “Memento Mori” (prose)
Cecilia McDonough: Participation for “Is It?” (poetry)

THANK YOU, TEACHERS!
It’s Teacher Appreciation Week At Stevenson!

Today, students made goodie bags and personally delivered them to their teachers. 

TOMORROW’S TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK ACTIVITY: At lunch, students will be able to make cards for their teachers and personally deliver them

Take Some Time For YOU As Busy School Year Comes To An End

As the end of the semester approaches, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with your school work. Life is all about balance and it is important to take care of yourself!

Here are some helpful tips: Make a weekly to-do list. Crossing things off of it will feel great!

Break large tasks down into smaller parts. Don’t save all of your work for the night before!

Avoid perfectionism. You are incredible and your grades don’t define you!

Reward yourself. When you finish an assignment, take a break and do some self care!

You are in the home stretch! You have made it this far and you can finish out the rest of the year strong! But to do this most effectively, you have to take care of yourself. Get the appropriate hours of sleep, do some self care, fuel your body with nutritional foods, and believe in yourself!

Get Comfortable With Public Speaking/Improv At Workshop! Want to make friends, play games and get more comfortable speaking in front of people? Come to the Failed Presidential Candidates Improv Workshop from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on THURSDAY in Room 5128. No experience is necessary! In the workshop, you will learn classic improv games and warm-ups that will help you develop as a public speaker, actor, comedian and friend!

Allies For Allied Celebration Is Next Week!
Sign Up Now To Donate Food For The Big Day!

The Sophomore Class Board will be hosting its “Allies For Allied Celebration” next Saturday (May 13) in the Stadium with an after-party in the Sportscenter.

There will be free food, music, games, and LOTS OF FUN!!!!

Everyone is invited to come and cheer on the Allied Soccer Team as it hosts its tournament with three other Allied teams on May 13 beginning at 9 a.m. in the Stadium!! When the event is over, all four teams and everyone supporting in the stands are invited to the Sportscenter to celebrate these amazing athletes! 

To donate food items for the celebration, please click here.

For questions, contact Jane Caballero at jcaballero@d125.org.

ACADEMICS
TODAY THROUGH MAY 12 ~ AP Exams: Advanced Placement Exams run all week, through Friday, May 5 and then continue the following week through May 12. For more Advanced Placement information, click here. For the 2023 Advanced Placement Exam Schedule, click here.

MAY 15 ~ Odyssey App/Rec Forms Due:  Applications and recommendations for Odyssey 2024. Students, faculty and staff may use the Odyssey Form to suggest artists and submit workshop ideas for Odyssey.

NOW THROUGH JUNE 30: Apply for these post-secondary scholarships with deadlines ranging from now through June 30.

CLUBS
NOW THROUGH END OF SCHOOL YEAR ~ Shoe Donations: The Green Team and SWALCO (Solid Waste Agency of Lake County) have partnered to keep unwanted footwear out of landfills. The Green Team will take shoes in ANY condition, whether they are for athletics, formalwear, etc. A donation box is at the Point.

MAY 10 AND MAY 11 ~General Dance Auditions: Mélange and Repertory Dance Company general auditions will be held on Wednesday, May 10 and Thursday, May 11 from 3:45 p.m. to 6 p.m. in Room 2112. To sign up for the auditions, please click here. General auditions assure placement within the companies as a whole. This is an AUDITION for current company members and any new students interested in joining the companies. In the beginning of the new school year, there will be placement auditions with these students to place them specifically into Mélange or Repertory. These placements will be Tuesday, Aug. 22 and Wednesday, Aug. 23. For more details, please click here.

EVENTS
TODAY ~ Deadline To Register A Team For Spring Fling: Sign up for Spring Fling, an end-of-the-school-year celebration on May 19. Captains forms need to be submitted by TODAY at 11:59 p.m. 

NOW THROUGH MAY 12 ~ Patriot School Store Sale: To close out the school year, the Patriot School Store is having a 25 percent off sale, running through May 12. The Patriot School Store is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sale prices apply in-store only and exclude letterman jackets, Jalen Brunson gear, 2023 contest T-shirts and school supplies.
Questions: Megan Shahinian at 847.415.4126 or mshahinian@d125.org.

OPPORTUNITIES
TOMORROW ~ Deadline To Order Spirit Wear T-Shirt: The Spirit Wear T-Shirts, designed by junior Raiqa Ullah, can be pre-ordered via the webstore for $15.75 through TOMORROW. After Thursday, there will be a limited supply available for purchase in the Patriot School Store.

FRIDAY ~ Deadline To Order 2022-23 Yearbook: Click here to place your order.

ONGOING ~ Apply To Work At Camp Patriot: Camp Patriot is looking for staff for the summer! If you are a current sophomore and older, please stop by Student Activities or visit the PREP Page for more information.

ONGOING ~ Jobs, Jobs, Jobs: Stevenson has a vast array of job postings that is continuously updated with new listings. Check out the Student Career Connection page on the Stevenson website to learn more.

Seniors: Get out your calendars…you’re probably going to want to “save these dates” as these are the top “Senior Send-Off” events at Stevenson…and you won’t want to miss them! Also included are deadlines for permission slips, early-bird ticketing, etc. We will provide more detailed information here as it becomes available. Stay tuned! Note: The “Seniors: Class Of 2023” page on the Stevenson website will also be updated with all of this information as it becomes available.  Save-The-Dates! MAY 25 ~ Senior Class Party MAY 26 ~ Graduation Deadlines! NOW THROUGH THURSDAY ~ Party Time, Seniors…Buy Cruise Tickets: Tickets for “The Senior Class Party,” which is a two-hour boat cruise on Lake Michigan May 25, are available through THURSDAY. Tickets are $45 apiece. To complete the transaction, put your Student ID in the Promo Code.

Upcoming Sports Events

MAY 11 ~ Future Patriot Athletic Night: Mark your calendars, Future Patriots Athletic Night is rapidly approaching and the Athletic Department is encouraging all current sixth, seventh and eighth graders to participate. The event is from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on MAY 11. Register now via the Prep Catalog.

MAY 22 ~ Spring Sports Awards: Mark your calendars, Spring Sports Awards Night will be here before you know it! Dress to impress for the event, which is at 7 p.m. on Monday, May 22 in the Sportscenter.

Sports Results

Boys Gymnastics Headed To IHSA State Finals!

It has been eight years since the Stevenson boys gymnastics program has made a team state appearance.

But with last night’s performance, the Patriots (5-1) dominated the field winning the IHSA Sectional they hosted with a score of 152.45.

Interestingly, in 2015, the last time Stevenson qualified for State, coaches Dylan Kowatsch and Zach Hittie were competing for Prospect as high school gymnasts themselves. The coaching duo has come full circle qualifying its own team.

At the Sectional, Thor Mace led the way for the Patriots standing on the podium with a first place in the all-around (52.55), and also for all six events ~ fifth on the floor exercise (8.75), fourth on the pommel horse (8.30), third on the the still rings (8.55), fifth on the vault (8.80), second on the parallel bars (8.95), first on the high bar (9.20). Elliott Haskell also finished the with five medals including fifth in the all-around with a 49.45, third on the floor exercise (9.05), fifth on the pommel horse (7.75) and first on the vault (9.35). Eli Haskell also hit the podium three times, placing third on the pommel horse (8.60), fifth on the still rings (8.25), and fourth on the high bar (7.90). Santi Gonzalez rounded out the high scorers for Stevenson, placing first on the floor exercise with a 9.35. The IHSA State Finals will be held next Friday (May 12) and Saturday (May 13) at Hoffman Estates High School, starting at 5 p.m.


Baseball: The Patriots (19-6, 7-2) continued to have success at the plate with 15 hits in last night’s game against Zion-Benton, propelling them to a 15-1 victory. Colin Schmitke started the offense in the first inning with a solo home run. In the fourth inning, Stevenson notched 5 runs with Will Kersick, Joey Frankel and Ben Wegrzyn adding RBI. Chris Iannuzzi earned the victory on the mound for the Patriots going three innings, allowing 1 run on 3 hits, striking out six and walking zero. In addition to Schmitke, Iannuzzi and JR Nelson also tallied home runs on the night. Next up for Stevenson is a road game against Zion-Benton at 4:45 p.m. today.


Girls Soccer: The Patriots (10-4-1, 4-0-1) traveled to Zion-Benton and got a 6-0 victory. During the first half, Ellie Egeland crossed the ball to Sami An who finished for the first goal of the game. Minutes later, Egeland scored a goal of her own, assisted by An. During the second half, Bella Albrecht volleyed the ball for a goal off a corner kick taken by Emma Pop. Then, Nicole Tchorz scored two goals in a row, assisted by Haylie Popkey and Amira Chavez. The last goal was scored by Hailey Livesay, assisted by Molly Finnegan. The Patriots will continue conference play Thursday against Waukegan and honor their seven graduating seniors. Senior player walkouts will begin at 6 p.m. prior to the 6:30 p.m. kickoff in the Stadium. 


Boys Tennis: Stevenson (14-1, 6-0) hosted conference rival Libertyville and won convincingly, 7-0. Singles players Ashy Madhushankar (6-1, 6-0), Dustin Zhao (6-0, 6-0) and Akshay Maram (6-1, 6-0) all won their matches, dominating their all-around level of play. On the doubles side, the Patriots also won all of their matches with very impressive scores: Ervin Perkowski/Gautham Kappaganthula (6-1, 6-1), Jonathan Wang/ Nathan Ma (6-0, 6-3), Caden Zhao/Richard Xu (6-0, 6-1) and Ian Williams/Tejas Sheth (6-0, 6-1). Next up for the Patriots is the Deerfield Invite at 3 p.m. on Friday and at 8 a.m. on Saturday on the Deerfield Campus.

Allied Soccer: In addition to celebrating their Seniors, the Patriots hosted conference opponent Warren and won 6-1. The game was led by seniors Ryan Kieffer, John Falcon and Mark Brady. Next up for the Patriots is a tournament on Saturday, May 13 starting at 9 a.m. in the Stadium, which will finish out their season.

Softball: Stevenson (8-5-1, 4-4) hosted conference opponent Mundelein and lost 9-3. Samantha Gotscewski started pitching, striking out 3 batters in three innings. Aubrey Jepson finished the game, going four innings and striking out 4 batters. Michaela Duffy led the offense at the plate going 3-for-4 with 1 triple and 2 singles. Hailey Langer, Jepson and Sarah Saiki each tallied 1 hit for the day. Next up for the Patriots is a road game at Zion-Benton at 4:45 p.m. today.

Sports Reminders

MAY 10 ~ Sports Boosters FLASH SALE: The Sports Boosters is hosting a Flash Sale on WEDNESDAY, May 10 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. in front of the Hall of Fame Garden. Grab your Stevenson Gear! 

MAY 12 ~ Deadline For ESPPA Award Nominations: Spring Sports Awards Season is almost here, and the Athletic Department needs your nominations for the ESPPAs. Click HERE to enter your nominations for each ESPPA category. DEADLINE is FRIDAY, MAY 12!

ONGOING ~ Register for Summer Sports Camp: For freshmen through seniors. Summer Sports Camp brochure, which is also located on the athletics webpage. Register here for Summer Sports Camp. Register early to make sure you are cleared to participate on the first day of camp.

JULY 17 ~ Baseball Golf Outing: The Stevenson Baseball Team is hosting a Golf Outing on Monday, July 17 at the Buffalo Grove Golf Course, starting at 9 a.m. Tickets can be purchased HERE to play in a foursome or to sponsor a hole. All proceeds will go to the Stevenson Baseball Program.

Mark your calendars for these events and see the Stevenson Calendar for details on these and future programs. May 3-5: AP Exams May 2: Stevenson Styler Fashion Show May 4:  Stevenson Family Engagement Presents: What To Expect Junior Year May 5: Music Production Showcase May 5: Girls Water Polo Fundraiser ~ Frosty Friday May 5: Polish Fest May 8-12: AP Exams May 9: Choir Concert May 10: Band Concert May 10: Sports Boosters Meeting May 10:  Stevenson Family Engagement ~ I Can’t Believe I Have A SENIOR!