The honors roll
Honors, awards and achievements have come hot and heavy over the past several weeks in local school districts.
For the first time in its nine years, three Glenbrook South students earned Best in Show honors March 13 at the ArtConnectED Northern Illinois Regional Art Exhibition.
More than 100 high schools were represented and more than 500 pieces of art up for awards at the Bridgeport Art Center in Chicago.
Glenbrook South artists earned the top honors in three of the seven categories.
Senior Alex Yunday-Raijer won best in show in photography, and senior Claire Stoddard won for mixed-media drawing.
Junior Olivia Fernandez-Geddes likewise won best in show in painting.
Glenbrook South's Stephanie Fuja is the teacher of both Stoddard and Fernandez-Geddes, with Amie Elliott helping guide Yunday-Raijer's work in photography.
In a team event, Glenbrook South students Chanmin Lee, Noah Smith and Kathleen Troung won their level in the Illinois Japan Bowl, held remotely on March 19.
Sponsored by the Japan America Society of Chicago, the competition tests Illinois high school Japanese language students on their knowledge of the language and their understanding of traditional and modern Japan.
Lee, Smith and Troung, all three of them sophomores, advanced to the 30th National Japan Bowl, presented by the Japan-America Society of Washington, D.C. For its third year as an online event, 200 of the country's top prep Japanese language students will compete over April 21-22.
A tad younger - yet still taking a high school class - Northbrook Junior High student Matthew Ciancanelli won a national math championship, said Terry Ryan of Northbrook School District 28.
A competition for deaf or hard of hearing students through the Rochester Institute of Technology, and sponsored by the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, it was held online over several days from March 14 until the final round on March 23.
Northbrook Junior High teacher Mary Claire Seeberg and Math Club sponsors Meghan Henry and Becky Heller helped prepare Ciancanelli for the tournament.
An eighth-grade student who takes Honors Algebra 2 at Glenbrook North, Ciancanelli breezed through the first two rounds, solving problems within about 15 of the allotted 45 minutes.
The competition got stiffer and the questions got harder. Coming down to a tiebreaker question, Ciancanelli took the title by solving an equation in about 30 seconds.
There were 1,600 competitors in the field.
For the second time in three years, Glenbrook North graduate Ellen Gilbert, a senior at Illinois Wesleyan University, was named College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) Student-Athlete of the Year for women's swimming.
A psychology major, Gilbert also was Illinois Wesleyan's female winner of the Jack Swartz Award for CCIW winter student-athletes with grade-point averages above 3.50. At the CCIW Championships in Wisconsin in February she won three individual races and swam on three winning relays. Gilbert finished her collegiate career with eight CCIW titles in individual events.
Wesleyan's program record-holder in the 100-yard butterfly, Gilbert earned All-American status with a sixth-place finish in the 200 fly at the Division III championships in March in Indianapolis. She was the sole CCIW woman to qualify for nationals.
Retiring Greenbriar School instructional assistant Nanette Adatto recently received the Illinois State Board of Education Meritorious Award in the "Those Who Excel" recognition program.
She's supported kindergarten students for 17 years in the classroom, just one application of her talents. She's been morning supervisor on the playground for Greenbriar kindergarten and first-grade students, and worked with third- through fifth-grade students on Student Council.
Adatto was nominated for the "Those Who Excel" honor by colleagues and Greenbriar families. She's one of 19 people in Cook County in her category to receive the award. She'll accept her award at a statewide ceremony this summer.