Best & Brightest

• Elizabeth Ham of Hanover Park, a student at Millikin University, Decatur, was selected for the Millikin Chamber Chorale for the 2007-08 academic year. Ham is a music performance-voice major, and a graduate of Bartlett High School.

The Chamber Chorale is a select mixed choir of 40 voices dedicated to the study, performance and recording from the standard choral repertoire. The Chamber Chorale performed in the Fall Choral Concert Oct. 28 at St. Patrick Church in Decatur.

• Denise Ruth Schichner of Streamwood earned a master of arts teaching degree in special education in December from National-Louis University's National College of Education in Chicago.

• Nicole Godzicki, daughter of Wayne and Linda Godzicki of Hanover Park, received the Eastern Illinois University Ruth Carmen Scholarship Award. The award is presented to a junior or senior majoring in foreign language who has demonstrated academic excellence, interest in the chosen foreign language, enthusiasm for the culture of the chosen foreign language, and a promise of contribution in the field of the chosen foreign language.

Godzicki is a senior majoring in foreign language secondary education and a 2004 graduate of Hoffman Estates High School.

• Kevin McNelly of Bartlett helped produce public service announcements for getting out the vote for play on Millikin University's student operated radio station WJMU-FM. This was part of a project in the critical Writing Reading and Research and University Seminar courses. Students worked in groups to create the ads, did research on their demographic audience, researched their subject matter and submitted a paper on what they learned from their research, the process of writing and the process of working in a group dynamic. The students produced announcements encouraging 18-24 year olds to vote by discussing the issues and candidates in the 2008 presidential elections.

McNelly is a freshman physics major and a graduate of Bartlett High School.

• Bill Wendt, son of Bill and Sue Wendt of Bartlett, was named to the Dean's list for the fall 2007 semester at the University of Illinois in Champaign where he is a third year economics major.

• Samantha Mattingly, daughter of Greg and Nancy Mattingly of Bartlett, completed the first semester of her sophomore year at Illinois State University, Normal, with a 4.0 grade-point average. Mattingly also earned a 4.0 GPA in the second semester of her freshman year at ISU. Based her academic performance, she has been invited to join Illinois State's Honors program. Mattingly is a 2006 graduate of Bartlett High School.