Libertyville High School Seniors Maggie Evers and Thomas Pearson Named Good Citizen Award Winners

Libertyville High School senior Maggie Evers has been named the 2018-2019 Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Good Citizen Award winner, and fellow LHS senior Thomas Pearson has been named the 2018-2019 Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) Good Citizen Award winner. Both students embody the Community High School District 128 DARING Mission of being Dreamers and Doers, Aware, Resilient and Healthy, Inquisitive, Nimble and Global.

Maggie Evers

D: Dreamers and Doers

Maggie dreams of being a Communications or Journalism major and she has already started the "do" process as Sports Editor of LHS' school newspaper, Drops of Ink (DOI). Though she "initially found it intimidating to interview people, [she] loved how each interview turned into a learning opportunity." Maggie shared, "I just love talking to people and being able to help them promote their story to everyone else." Judy Neuberger, Maggie's counselor says, "[Maggie] has great communication skills and is always able to make her stories relatable. She shares the stats in a concise way but also adds details to help the reader connect with the story."

A: Aware

Maggie credits DOI with her open-mindedness and her ability to be a great journalist. She says, "One of the biggest impacts I value of DOI is it has forced me to see multiple sides of a story. Listening to my peers and their ideas, it requires me to not necessarily agree with the opposing side, but respect it and acknowledge that it exists."

Maggie brings a keen social awareness to the groups she engages with to motivate and lead them. DOI Advisor Michael Gluskin says, "Maggie brings an essential enthusiasm to our staff and is vocal in a way that does not draw attention to herself or take the spotlight away from her peers; she'd prefer to shine it on others, anyhow."

R: Resilient and Healthy

Greg Pedersen, Maggie's basketball coach, says, "In the summer, Maggie suffered a knee injury that required surgery and is causing her to miss most of, if not all, her senior basketball season. However, that did not deter Maggie from having a strong impact on our team. She is helping coach our freshmen and sophomores on the JV team, and she comes to every varsity game where she serves as team captain. Her enthusiasm is contagious and her vocal leadership has helped the varsity team to a 10-3 record. We could not ask for a better student-athlete in the basketball program than Maggie Evers."

In addition to basketball, Maggie has played volleyball for four years (two as a varsity player and captain both of those years) and has been a member of the varsity softball team for all four years. All of her coaches count her as crucial to their success as a team.

I: Inquisitive

Mr. Gluskin says, "she has wildly exceeded the heightened expectations set for her. While Maggie entered our publication staff as a solid writer, what immediately stood out to me was her desire to improve and learn from the feedback she received. Unlike many of her peers, she was not content to just accept the suggested edits and changes made to her articles on Google Docs. She would often ask me questions about why I was making certain edits and how she could continue to get better as a writer."

N: Nimble

Maggie has moved twice! She was born in Ohio, moved to Virginia and finally moved to Libertyville in 7th grade. Mrs. Neuberger says, "Moving is stressful and scary but Maggie has developed her people skills to such a high level, I believe she can handle any situation that comes up."

G: Global

Maggie participated in a school-sponsored trip to Spain last summer and note, "This trip pushed me outside of my comfort zone and allowed me to grow in such a short period of time. While it was a little scary being away from the security of my known surroundings and family, the journey promoted independence and required the vulnerability to try new things, along with making mistakes, in order to get the full experience of the culture. I'm so grateful for the trip not only because it was so much fun to experience a new country with my friends, but also because it helped me see part of the world in a new light which I will reference and feel the rest of my life."

In her free time, Maggie volunteers at St. Joseph's Church, Feed My Starving Children, and the Lake County Haven. As Mr. Pedersen says, "Maggie is a wonderful person and a model of leadership and selflessness."

Maggie is still deciding between University of Iowa or University of Missouri, Columbia, and will major in Communications/Journalism in the fall.

Thomas Pearson

D: Dreamers and Doers

As a varsity athlete since freshman year and the only freshman on the 2015 State Championship LHS Men's Soccer team, Thomas has shown his motivation for working to achieve his dream. As Kevin Thunholm, LHS' men's soccer coach says, "Thomas strives to improve in every aspect of what he inspires to become. Thomas is a DOER; he will forsake talk for action. He will wake up early, work late and sacrifice everything to keep going when he faces failures."

A: Aware

Thomas was the winner of the Veterans of Foreign Wars' Voice of Democracy Essay Contest at the local, district and state level. The prompt, "American History: Our Hope for the Future," demonstrates Thomas' interest in and knowledge of our nation. He is respected and beloved by the local VFW for his interest in participating in their contests; the bond he forged with their organization has made LHS proud he represents our school.

Thomas also is aware in group settings of taking a guiding role; every teacher contacted raved about Thomas' leadership in class.

R: Resilient and Healthy

Thomas' AP Chemistry teacher, Sherri Rukes, had this to say, "Beyond academics, Thomas displays the broad interests and strong moral character that I associate with any good student. He comes to the classroom with the right attitude and always has a smile on his face. He is well organized and knows what needs to get done due to his outside commitments and other classes. Thomas played soccer for a [U.S. Soccer Development Academy team] and demonstrated leadership abilities through his participation which carries over into the classroom."

I: Inquisitive

Mrs. Rukes also states, "Thomas has a scientific mind. A mind for trying to understand what is going on and wanting to figure out why things did not work out or what they do in the real world. During my class, we have had several design or open-ended challenges. There are even labs that have unknowns involved. Thomas is able to come up with ideas, listen to others and logically propose solutions to the question at hand. He has understood that when it comes to some problems, there could be many different answers that could be correct. Logically thinking and listening to all ideas, has made Thomas one of the role models in my classroom. Even when there is only one path to take in a lab, if the results did not seem to be correct, Thomas' inquisitive mind wants to try the experiment again to see if his partnerships can do better or if the results were truly correct."

N: Nimble

Thomas is lauded by Rick Brenner for "laugh[ing] at my jokes" and Mrs. Rukes for "getting [her] corny chemistry puns", but, seriously, he displays nimbleness by taking the initiative to get help when needed and, according to Michael Gluskin, his AP Seminar teacher, "One of the best things about having Thomas as a student is his positive attitude. He is ready to go each day and willing to work on whatever is assigned. In addition, in our class, the majority of the first-semester work was done in groups. While Thomas could have requested to work only with his friends on these tasks, he told me he was good working with anyone in the class. This flexibility and willingness to collaborate with any of his classmates is rare and truly distinguishes Thomas from his peers."

G: Global

Amy Holtsford, Thomas' AP Government teacher says it best, "Our world would be more kind, more empathetic, more caring if we all saw each other through Thomas' eyes. Lucky that we crossed paths, I'm certain he will make as big of an impact on our global community as he has on me."

Jeff Brown, Choir Director, says, "Thomas Pearson is one of the hardest working, polite, responsible, and intelligent young men that I have had the privilege of teaching. He is kind, caring, studious, thoughtful, and respectful. He is a leader in every sense of the word."

Thomas will study engineering at the United States Naval Academy and play D1 soccer for the Goats. He will graduate from the academy as an officer in the Navy and plans a long career leading men and women while serving our country.