Wheeling seniors named Golden Apple Scholars
Ÿ Jordan Clifford and Jaime Ropski, both Wheeling High School seniors, were selected as Golden Apple Scholars of Illinois, Class of 2011.
The Golden Apple Scholars of Illinois is a highly competitive program that seeks the best and brightest of Illinois youth interested in a teaching career. Students selected received advanced teacher preparation through summer institutes that give them early practice and exposure to the art of teaching and financial assistance for college.
More than 1,600 nominations were received this year and only 110 students were chosen.
Ÿ Takako Mino of Schaumburg, a student at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif., received an award of $10,000 from the first Napier Awards for Creative Leadership.
The award will help fund Mino's plans to return to Uganda and Kenya, where last year she implemented a successful public debating pilot project among hundreds of teachers and students on behalf of the Forum for African Women Educationalists. She hopes to not only expand the debate program in those two countries, but to also introduce it into Rwanda and Tanzania.
The Napier Awards for Creative Leadership celebrate the outstanding leadership of senior college students, who are involved in the areas of global peace, racial justice and care of the Earth.
Mino is a 2007 graduate of Schaumburg High School.
Ÿ Fremd High School's girls gymnastics coach Jim Guest announced his retirement from coaching. Guest has coached gymnastics for 34 years and is stepping down from the Vikings' head girls position after three state championships, as well as a host of other individual and team accomplishments.
Under Guest's direction (2005-2011), the Vikings' girls gymnastics program finished among the state's top six teams in all seven of his years coaching, including winning state championships in 2005, 2007 and 2008, and a second-place finish in 2006. He was also named IHSA Girls Gymnastics Coach of the Year in 2006.
Ÿ Linda Traina, Des Park District's assistant superintendent of recreation, was promoted to superintendent of recreation services, Des Plaines Park District. She replaces Gayle Mountcastle, who was appointed the executive director of the Park Ridge Park District.
Traina, who has 24 years with the Des Plaines Park District, has served as Community Center supervisor, recreation supervisor, and recreation manager before assuming the position of assistant superintendent.
She is active in Des Plaines community organizations, including having served as the president of the Des Plaines Arts Council for the past seven years. Traina has also served on the Healthy Community Partnership, the Des Plaines Youth Commission and the Taste of Des Plaines committee.
She currently chairs the Des Plaines Park District's Green Team, and has been on both the master plan and the safety committees.