Best & Brightest

• Amanda P. Leibovitz of Long Grove was named to the dean's list for the 2007 spring semester at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus, for achieving a grade point average of 3.66 or higher.

• Carolyn Johnson of Buffalo Grove graduated summa cum laude from Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Mich., at the end of the May 2007 semester with a bachelor of business degree in advertising and a certificate in direct marketing.

• Samantha Melinyshyn, daughter of Lev and Delia Melinyshyn of Buffalo Grove, was among 103 young musicians selected from throughout the country to attend one of two Big Band Jazz sessions last summer studying jazz at Birch Creek Music Performance Center in Door County, Wis. Melinyshyn studies trombone privately with Molly Kelly.

• Theodore Dowie Ogilvie of Buffalo Grove, a student at Creighton University, Omaha, Neb., was named to the 2006-07 spring dean's honor roll for earning at least a 3.5 grade-point average on a 4.0 scale.

• Jennifer Graese, of Buffalo Grove and a member of the Millikin University Dance Team, recently participated in the Universal Dance Association Camp held earlier this year at Missouri State. The team received a first place in the home routine "open division" category at the camp.

• Dane Granat, of Buffalo Grove was named to the dean's list for the 2006-07 academic year at Lake Forest College. Granat is a graduate of Adlai E. Stevenson High School.

• Steven Cory Solomon of Buffalo Grove was given the Love of Learning award worth $500 by The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. He is one of the first 50 recipients nationwide to receive such an award.

Solomon was initiated into the Phi Kappa Phi chapter at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he earned a bachelor of science degree in zoology and biological aspects of conservation with a concentration in African studies in 2002.

• Ben Korecky of Wheeling was one of 46 Northern Illinois University business students honored Aug. 25 for winning a competition that covered all aspects of campus life among the residents of NIU's Business Careers House. Participants won points for activities such as making the dean's list, tutoring peers, attending professional development workshops, volunteering for charitable projects and participating in the College of Business' Ethics Day.

• Elmhurst College announced the following students were awarded bachelor's degrees at the May 27 commencement ceremony.

Buffalo Grove: Robert Goldblatt, management; and Alyssa Wright, magna cum laude, early childhood education.

Long Grove: Efthimia Zoubouridis, marketing, sociology.

• Eastern Illinois University in Charleston announced the following students were awarded bachelor's degrees at the end of the spring 2007 semester.

Buffalo Grove: Jaclyn Marie Cwick and Kristen Marie Declark.

Wheeling: Allen Jason Shusterman and Jennifer Lynn Siebeck.