Barrington library welcomes new director
Detlev Pansch has joined the Barrington Area Library as executive director. Pansch, who joins the library with 18 years of experience, has served as director of the Frankfort Public Library since 1998. A Chicago native, he is an avid reader and book collector and enjoys traveling and hiking with his family.
• Melissa Neff of Prospect Heights and Samantha Melinyshyn and Jonathan Nadel, both of Buffalo Grove, spent two weeks studying jazz at Birch Creek Music Performance Center in Door Country, Wis.
A student at John Hersey High School and daughter of David and Sharon Neff, Neff studies trumpet.
Melinyshyn, daughter of Lev and Delia Melinyshyn, studies trombone and attends Wheeling High School.
Nadel is the son of Ira and Audrey Nadel and studies bass. He attends Aldlai E. Stevenson High School.
The three young musicians were among 103 students from throughout the country selected to attend the Big Band Jazz session at the school, which provides intensive, performance-based instruction to musicians age 12-19 by immersing them in a professional, mentoring environment.
• Jane Wodarski, a senior at the University of Illinois, will teach dance for three weeks this summer in Guangzhou, Changsha and Shanghai, China.
Employed by the Universal Dance Association as an instructor, Wodarski spent the first part of her summer teaching at camps in Illinois and Wisconsin.
After years of dance lessons, serving as president of Fremd's Orchesis and being a member of the nationally competitive University of Illinois Dace Team, Wodarski is now able to share her talent and her love of dance with others.
• William Fremd High School senior and Girls Nation senator Elisabeth Mellado, daughter of Jim and Leanne Mellado, was appointed secretary of health and human services during the American Legion Auxiliary's weeklong youth government program, Girls Nation.
Mellado, along with 96 other teenage girls from 48 states, attended the annual Girls Nation program, which teaches democratic principles and federal government components. During the program, the girls organized political parties, submitted bills and resolutions and participated in senate sessions. They also toured the Pentagon, Arlington National Cemetery, the White House and meet with senators on Capitol Hill.
• Arlington Heights resident Ashley King attended Wall Street 101, a summer business camp, at Bentley College in Boston, Mass.
During the interactive program, King, a student at Buffalo Grove High School, and the other participants explored the stock market and learned about investing and portfolio management. They also developed leadership and teamwork skills while conducting simulated trading sessions in the college's state-of-the-art trading room.
• Send items for Neighbors in the News to Norrine Twohey at ntwohey@dailyherald.com.