Neighbors in the News
• Joan Huff of Arlington Heights was awarded Volunteer of the Year for her contribution of 495 hours of service in 2009, to the Arlington Heights Memorial Library.
One of founders of the Dunton Genealogical Society, Huff was instrumental in the development of the library's genealogy and local history collections. She has worked to compile books and binders on topics of local interest, including three volumes about the people of Arlington Heights and two volumes on the development of the village through its subdivisions, as well as compiling and indexing the records of the various churches in the community.
She began volunteering in at the library in the mid-1970s, where she assisted with the first computerization of library records. Huff soon moved from volunteer to employee, working in the library's Circulation and Technical Services departments. Discovering her love of libraries, she pursued a masters in library science at Rosary College and graduated in 1983. From 1983 to her retirement in 1998, Huff worked at the Vernon Area, Lake Zurich and Des Plaines public libraries in technical services and reference.
Huff was honored along with other library volunteers during a luncheon held Tuesday, May 11.
• Rolling Meadows High School college counselor Robert Yerkan was selected secretary of the Illinois Association for College Admission Counseling (IACAC), which has a membership of over 1,800 and is under the umbrella of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC).
Yerkan's career in education began as a social studies teacher, before he joined District 214 as a counselor of freshmen and sophomores in a pilot program at Rolling Meadows High School in 1993. He became the ESL counselor in 1995 and ultimately, a college counselor in 2001. He was the recipient of District 214's Outstanding Contributions to Education Award in both 2001 and 2010.
• Jill Izumikawa, Harper College International Student coordinator, will represent Harper College and the United States higher education system as the recipient of a Fulbright grant for International Education Administrators. Izumikawa, one of only four recipients nationally, will spend two weeks this summer in Korea visiting colleges and meeting with Korean university officials and government organizations in the capital city of Seoul and its outlying areas.
Her Fulbright application included a five-page personal statement, a two-page statement from Harper and three recommendations. Those materials were reviewed by the Council on International and Exchange Scholars in Washington, D.C., the Fulbright Korean-American Educational Foundation in Korea and, finally, the 12-member Presidentially appointed J. William Fulbright Scholarship Board.
She'll leave for Korea on June 12.
• The Wheeling Park District board of commissioners voted unanimously to have Commissioner Keith Pecka represent the board as president and Commissioner Brian Lichtenberger to represent the board as vice president. Both Commissioner Pecka and Commissioner Lichtenberger held these positions during the 2009-2010 board year.
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