Albanese, Barry are worthy all-state academic recipients
Meet two young ladies who put the student in student-athlete.
The Illinois High School Association awards thousands of medals to champion student-athletes every school year, none more significant than those recently draped about the necks of seniors Alex Albanese of Huntley and Therese "Tess" Barry of St. Edward.
Albanese, an 18-year from Algonquin who plays softball and competes on Huntley's speech and journalism teams, and Barry, an 18-year old volleyball and soccer player from Elgin, were among 26 students named to the IHSA 2008-09 All-State Academic team, sponsored by Caterpillar - arguably the toughest and most important all-state team to make.
The IHSA selected 26 students, 13 boys and 13 girls, from a list of over 500 nominees submitted by its member schools by the February deadline. Another 50 were named to the all-state honorable mention list, which this year included Brittany Boelter of South Elgin.
The qualifications are stringent, according to the IHSA Web site. Nominees must carry a minimum 3.50 grade point average on a 4.0 scale through their seventh semester while participating in a minimum of two IHSA-sponsored activities in each of the last two school years. Demonstrations of outstanding citizenship also factor into the decision.
A committee of principals, athletic directors and activities directors from around the state evaluated the candidates and chose one male and one female winner from each of the seven IHSA Board of Directors divisions. The final 12 spots were awarded to at-large candidates.
Albanese was nominated by Huntley athletic director Bruce Blumer; Barry by St. Edward academic advisor Kerry O'Brien. All candidates were required to fill out paperwork regarding their qualifications and compose an essay.
The honorees were feted last week at the All-State Academic team banquet at the Doubletree Hotel in Bloomington. The IHSA does a wonderful thing in recognizing these academic achievements and presented a first-class evening, according to both girls. "Dinner was delicious," joked Albanese. "I love food, so it was good. It was very nice and really well put together."
"I had no idea this banquet existed," Barry said "and I was surprised at how big it was. Even though we had to drive two and a half hours it was well worth it. And, yes, the food was delicious."
All 26 selectees taped a video interview about their classroom work and athletic participation in the weeks leading up to the banquet, snippets of which were replayed for the banquet crowd as each student-athlete was introduced and presented with his or her state medal. Each student was also presented a DVD of their interview and a commemorative booklet.
The already impressive resumes of both Albanese and Barry make you cheer for the future.
Albanese, who on Wednesday made a final decision to attend Northwestern University, carries a 4.752 GPA at Huntley, where she is ranked No. 2 in a class of approximately 390 students.
The aspiring neurologist will major in cognitive science within Northwestern's honors program in medical education. After three years of undergraduate work, she will head straight into the school's medical program. The inner workings of the brain have captivated Huntley's salutatorian ever since she read the book "Born on a Blue Day."
"It's about this autistic savant, who thinks completely different than how we think," Albanese said. "He can make landscapes out of numbers, can remember all these things and knew 80 different languages. Just the way that he thought made me want to know how everyone thinks. That's something you don't get a lot, what people are thinking in their head and how all that works. It really fascinated me.
"That's my interest: the brain and how everything fits together. That's why my psychology and biology classes fit together perfectly because that's exactly what I want to study."
In addition to AP psychology and AP biology, Albanese's classes this semester include human anatomy, AP statistics, AP language and composition and journalism. She credits her parents, Joe and Lisa, for providing an environment in which academics were valued highly.
"My parents have been amazing in the way they've encouraged me with school," she said. "Even when I was little my dad had this program called read a book, get a buck. I would do book reports for him to get money. It was just a way to turn school into something that I wanted to do and liked being good at."
Barry ranks third in the St. Edward senior class of approximately 110 and holds a 4.56 GPA. She will attend Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. Undecided as to a major, she is leaning toward studying nutrition over history or anthropology.
Barry said studying with friends always helped. She and soon-to-be St. Edward valedictorian, Tommasina Domel, are best friends and were teammates on the Green Wave volleyball team that took third in the state in Class 2A last fall.
Barry calls Domel her "bus buddy." They would study together on the way to and from matches, which helped Tess with a classload that includes honors physics, theology 4, honors government and economics, honors world literature, honors pre-calculus and AP psychology.
"We would do homework on the bench during the freshman games, too," Barry said. "It was a lot of fun to do homework and get it done, but still be around your friends and talk and have fun. That helps. School doesn't always have to be work - like you're pushing yourself all the time hard to get it done. It was fun for me to do it and be with friends, learn and talk about it. That made it enjoyable."
Like Albanese, encouragement from Barry's parents, Brian and Peggy, helped Tess excel in the classroom.
"They are amazed at how well I do," Barry said, "and they always tell me they're proud of me, which always makes me feel better. When I do well and I can see my parents are proud of me, it makes me want to do even better and strive even more. Once I realized I could do it, it made me want to get that much better."
Both young women have advice for students who find the balance between extracurricular activities and academics too challenging.
"A lot of times at practice people are stressed about the test they have the next day or the homework they have to do when they get home," Barry said. "But keep it separate. When you're at practice, worry about practice and have fun while you're there. Use it as an escape from all your work.
"When you get home just realize you have to get it done. It's never that bad. Just realize you can do it all, that it is possible. Don't be afraid to try. Just give it a shot and see what you can do."
Said Albanese: "Don't shy away from anything. You can get it done. It's possible. One of my phrases when I get really stressed out is: I have plenty of time to do all the things I need to do. Everything will get done.
"Like Tess said, when you're at an activity be at that activity. You can't be thinking about other things or worrying or stressing out because you'll lose focus and you're wasting your time at that activity. If you focus on every single thing on its own, all those things can come together really well."
jfitzpatrick@dailyherald.com