Libertyville High School Class of 2021

Graduates in the Class of 2021: 458

Senior Class Board: Claire Marie Arnold, Rania Hayder Bahrani, Benjamin James DeAcetis, Caitlin Elissa McCarty, Katherine Ann Recker, Hannah Cecilia Sanchez and Mia Marie Zaccaro.

Student Council Executive Board Seniors: Amal Hasan, Grant Friel, Rowan Hornsey, Vir Trevedi, Mallory Carney, Clara Beauchamp, Brendan Lawless and Jane Arnold.

National Merit Finalists: Andrew J. Clark, Leah G. Kline, Jamie V. Nicholson, Desigamoorthy Shanmuganathan Nainar, Matthew B. Shinnick, Mary-Kate L. Stone, Liam E. Tucker, John Valassis Wilcox and Jonathan S. Zhang.

Extracurricular achievements:

• Academic Decathlon team finished 5th in state competition held online.

• Science Olympiad qualified for state competition after placing at the Lake County Regional competition.

• The LHS Mathematics Team placed second in the ICTM Regional meet and fourth overall in the state.

• Liam Tucker wrote a perfect paper at the fourth NSML (North Suburban Mathematics League) competition this year on the topic of Vectors. In addition, he scored 100% on three (out of six) Illinois Mathematics League contests this year. Liam was Regional Champion in the Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics written Pre-Calculus contest, and he led the "Eight Person" team to a first-place finish. He placed sixth in state, individually, at the ICTM State contest in Pre-Calculus.

Athletic achievements:

• Boys cross country team qualified for state for the first time in 28 years

• Girls badminton team won the first sectional championship in school history

• Girls bowling team won the NSC Championship

• Girls basketball team won the NSC regular season and tournament championship

• Boys basketball team won the NSC tournament championship

• Girls volleyball team won the NSC Championship

• Cheerleading team qualified for the state championship and placed 12th as a team.

• Dance team qualified for the state championship and placed 5th as a team

• Boys Gymnastics State Qualifiers: Robert Cartwright - All-around, floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars, and high bar; Grady Georgia - Floor, rings, and parallel bars; Cooper Tobiaski - Rings

• 32 seniors committed to continuing their athletic career next year at the collegiate level: Brady Wells, Western Illinois University, baseball; Connor Lockwood, Valparaiso University, baseball; Gavin Bennett, University of Illinois, baseball; Matt Robertson, Illinois Wesleyan University, baseball; Conner Lutes, Northern Illinois University, baseball; Lauren Huber, College of the Holy Cross, basketball; Marianna Morrissey, Carthage College, basketball; Ashley O'Shea, Lindenwood University, cheerleading; Annalese Chudy, Illinois Wesleyan University, Cross county/track & field; Quinn Murphy, Bowling Green State University, dance; Blake Ellingson, Drake University, football; Robert Cartwright, Northern Illinois University, gymnastics; Matthew Brenner, Jacksonville University, lacrosse; Matthew Marshall, St. Bonaventure, lacrosse; Megan Feeney, University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse, lacrosse; Domenic Tarello, Lewis University, lacrosse; Charlotte Lynch, University of Oklahoma, rowing; Faith Roberts, Carthage College, soccer; Jack Brennan, DePaul University, soccer; Landon Johnson, North Park University, soccer; Payton Nolan,

University of Northern Iowa, soccer; Betsey Bates, Illinois College, swimming; Colin McKibben, Illinois Wesleyan University, swimming; Ethan Richter, Auburn University, track & field; Marc Michelotti, University of Chicago, track & field; Andrew Douthat, Lake Forest College, track & field; Aly Lichter, North Park University, volleyball; Kaylie Stuteville, Colorado College, volleyball; Peyton O'Brien, Syracuse University, volleyball; Kellie Hopper, Colorado College, volleyball; Chase Baczek, Wabash College, wrestling; Patrick Boyle, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, wrestling.

Theater productions:

• A Love Letter (drive-through Drama)

• Too Much Zoom Makes the Baby Go BOOM (virtual play)

• It's a Wonderful Life (Radio Play)

• Shrek the Musical (full production ... streamed to video)

• One Acts (Student Directed One Act)

What traditional events were adapted for the pandemic and how?

Virtually every tradition at Libertyville High School was either adapted or tabled since the CCOVID-19 pandemic. The Class of 2024 was welcomed to LHS very differently than in the past. Traditionally, the freshman class of nearly 500 students would gather together for a special assembly with their Link Crew peer mentor. Instead, freshman orientation included small groups of students who rotated through various stations to pick up supplies, meet their mentors and get ready for a new school year. The 2021 Homecoming, typically a weeklong event, was designed to bring small opportunities for engagement all month long. The Libertyville Homecoming parade, a fan favorite in the LHS community, was referred to as a reverse parade. Parading and gathering along Milwaukee Road was not an option, so LHS student groups, clubs, band, athletic teams lined the perimeter of the LHS campus and the community was invited to drive through. Spirit week was an opportunity for students to "dress up" and post their spirited pictures on social media. A drive-in movie held in the parking lot for our seniors was a homecoming activity that replaced a traditional dance. Window painting on downtown businesses still occurred with smaller groups and social distancing. Students were also invited to decorate the campus with paint and chalk on the sidewalks. The homecoming assembly was deconstructed and elements of a traditional assembly were filmed and shared with the school community in a virtual platform. The fine arts department creatively executed an outdoor drive-through play called Love Letters. Vehicles drove through a maze of mini-performances to watch our students act. Our annual gift-giving program called Wildcats Initiative for Sharing at the Holidays (WISH) and the annual Student Council canned food drive was smaller in scope. Rather than an entire school initiative, extracurricular groups and teams participated in addition to some academic classes. All volunteered to provide gifts to families in need at the holidays and food items for the Libertyville Township Food Pantry. December traditionally featured Hot Cocoa Fridays in our cafeteria, a cherished Friday event that students loved. Instead of students coming into the LHS cafeteria to get complimentary hot chocolate, bundled up staff poured and served hot chocolate and doughnuts to cars in a drive-through format weekly.

What were the most significant challenges faced by the Class of 2021 and how did they overcome them?

Clearly, the most significant challenge faced by the Class of 2021 was the need to constantly adapt to the changing learning environment that the COVID-19 pandemic created. Since March 2020, these students experienced several different bell schedules, constantly evolving school rules and expectations, and most importantly, these students were the first in LHS history to have to conduct all of their learning online via video conferencing. Adapting to fully online instruction, and then to in-person instruction with COVID-19 health mitigations, was a massive challenge that our students took on and were successful with. Our District 128 Mission indicates that we are trying to create "Nimble" students and the Class of 2021 not only showed why this is an important trait to have, but they also showed our community just how nimble they already are!

Principal's reflections on the Class of 2021:

I have a special bond with the Class of 2021 because we both started at LHS during the same year. In 2017-18, we were all freshmen together. Over the past four years, I have watched these students unify as a class and absorb the values of our school community. The Class of 2021 is one of the most spirited and dedicated classes to ever walk the halls of LHS. The students in the Class of 2021 love this school, they are proud to be Wildcats, and they have taken all the adversity that the pandemic has brought and used it as an opportunity to show our community that they can continue to learn, grow, and thrive even under the most difficult of circumstances.

- Principal Tom Koulentes