Lyons Township High School family and consumer sciences teacher Kate Ebner has been named Teacher of the Year by the Western Springs VFW Post 10778.
Ebner, who has a bachelor’s degree from Olivet University and a master’s degree from St. Xavier University, began teaching at LTHS in 2005. She teaches chefs, international foods and driver education classes, and has been instrumental in showcasing the business side of the culinary arts with her Gourmet to Go program, where students make and package affordable take-out dinners for faculty and staff once a month.
On stage
Charley Kennett, of Brookfield, will play the role of Kevin Magee in the comedy-drama Super Donuts, which opens March 21 at the Village Theatre Guild in Glen Ellyn.
The play, written by Tracy Letts, is set in a rundown doughnut shop in Chicago featuring a cast of colorful characters.
Friday and Saturday performances from March 21 through April 13 are at 8 p.m., with Sunday matinees at 3 p.m. Tickets are $18. Call 630-469-8230 or visit www.villagetheatreguild.org.
Brookfield residents Mardi Sramek and Juan Ortega, both students at Lyons Township High School, are in the cast of The Mousetrap, a play by Agatha Christie, which will be staged at the North Campus Reber Center, 100 S. Brainard Ave. in LaGrange on March 13-15 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 ($5 seniors, children) and may be purchased at the box office before each show.
Brookfield resident Adrian Murphy plays the part of Bob Simpson and Lisa Bernacchi, of Brookfield, is the master electrician for the Children’s Theatre of Western Springs’ production of Nancy Drew: Girl Detective, which continues through March 16 at the theater, 4384 Hampton Ave. in Western Springs.
Shows are on March 14 at 7:30 p.m., on March 15 at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. and on March 16 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 ($6 for students 18-under).Visit www.theatreofwesternsprings.com or call 708-246-3380 for info.
Congrats
North Riverside Fire Chief Brian Basek was recognized on March 3 at a meeting of the North Riverside Village Board by Mayor Hubert Hermanek Jr. for his 30 years of service to the village.
Basek was named fire chief by Hermanek in May 2013.
Brushing up
Riverside Police Officer-In-Charge Brian Greenenwald last months attended a two-week “Supervising Police Personnel” course provided by the Northwestern University Center for Public Safety at the Westmont Police Department.
The course features instruction from leaders in law enforcement across Illinois and Wisconsin.
On campus
Victoria Linares, of Riverside, received her Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Iowa following the fall 2013 semester at the school.
Sarah Johnson and Sequoia Rada, of Brookfield, and Sean McCoy, of North Riverside, were awarded degrees from Eastern Illinois Universityupon the completion of the 2013 fall semester.
Two Brookfield residents, Kevin Grund in the School of Business and Jennifer Freiberg in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, were named to the University of Kansas honor roll for the 2013 fall semester.
Benedictine University in Lisle announced last month that the following students were named to the dean’s list for the 2013 fall semester by attaining a grade-point average of at least 3.5 on a 4-point scale while carrying a full-time course load: from Brookfield, Tiana Baymon and Nicholas Mazil; from Riverside, Samantha Bien and Josephine Krajniak.
Meanwhile, Brookfield resident Ashley Kott was named to the dean’s recognized list for attaining a 3.5 GPA during the fall semester while attending as a part-time student.
Riverside resident Ashley Rayfield was named to the 2013 fall semester dean’s list at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She ranked in the top 20 percent of undergraduate students within her academic division.
Emily Andrulis, of Brookfield, is one of more than 120 Cornell College (Mt. Vernon, Iowa) taking part in the college’s annual Alternative Spring Break, a service trip celebrating its 10th year at the school. Students will travel to locations such as Philadelphia, Detroit, New Orleans, Chicago, Atlanta, Memphis, Jacksonville and El Paso. Andrulis will be traveling to Chicago.
Andrulis was also named to the Cornell College dean’s list for the 2013 fall semester by attaining a GPA of at least 3.6.
Ryan Fox, of Brookfield, part of the two-person team from the Lyons Township High School Car Care Club to place third in the Universal Technical Top Tech Challenge in February.
Fox, along with LaGrange resident Ben Huffman, competed against 21 others from across the state. Each student, both of whom are seniors, was awarded a $250 scholarship.
Brookfield resident Jakub Dziza was one of 10 Lyons Township High School constitutional law students to participate in a Supreme Court mock trial at the Chicago-Kent College of Law on March 7.
Professors and law students from Chicago-Kent and the Loyola University Chicago School of Law will help the LTHS students formulate their arguments on Town of Greece vs. Galloway, a case currently in front of the Supreme Court.
Two Brookfield residents were among the 15 Lyons Township High School students named all-state musicians by the Illinois Music Educators Association based upon preliminary auditions held in October at the district level.
Webb Dieter, a sophomore, was named to the all-state orchestra while junior Mitch Galgan was named to the honors orchestra. All 15 musicians, along with other top musicians in the state, performed at the IMEA conference in Peoria in January.
Ahmed Arif, of Brookfield, is one of four Lyons Township High School students who will be competing in state-level STAR culinary arts event sponsored by the Family Career and Community Leaders of America on March 19 at Kendall College.
The event, similar to Iron Chef, calls for each team to prepare menus given to them at the time of the event within a certain period of time and present the prepared items to evaluators.
Amehlia Krupowicz, of Brookfield, was one of 10 Lyons Township High School students to make it through to the finals of the IHSA Speech Team regional competition and advance to the sectional competition.
The senior placed fourth in the Extemporaneous Speaking category and helped lead LTHS’ team to fourth place overall, the first time an LTHS team has won a team award in the state series.
