Lynn Janik, an eighth-grade English language arts teacher at L.J. Hauser Junior High in Riverside has been awarded a summer institute grant from the National endowment for the Humanities to study the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham, Alabama, for three weeks in July.
“The eighth-grade advanced English language arts classes study the Civil Rights Movement, so I’m very much looking forward to supplementing the curriculum with what I learn this summer,” said Janik in an email.
The program runs from July 7 to 27 and includes 30 teachers from across the country who will take part in an interactive field study on Alabama’s role in the modern Civil Rights Movement.
IN addition to hearing lectures by scholars, the participants will interact with the leaders and foot soldiers of the movement, travel to key sites and review archival footage and other primary source documents.
This isn’t the first time Janik has earned a prestigious grant to further her education. In 2011, she was selected to participate in a Fulbright-Hays Seminar Abroad for a month in Mexico, studying social and cultural diversity in 21stcentury there.
She spent the 2016-17 school year in Scandinavia after winning a Fulbright scholarship to study in Norway.
Well done!
L.J. Hauser Junior High School music teacher James Colombo was one of six teachers receiving a Chicagoland Outstanding Music Educator Award. Colombo was nominated by one or more of his peers and selected by a committee of previous winners.
Colombo will receive the award at a presentation ceremony in June in Burr Ridge.
Weitzel to make keynote address
Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel was the keynote speaker at the 2019 Campus Security and Life Safety Summit in Alsip on May 7.
The Campus Security Summit is a one-day event for security and education officials to learn about new solutions and technologies for campus security, emergency response and management and public and life safety.
Weitzel was invited to speak because of his mandated directive to his sworn and non-sworn personnel to read the complete 300-page after-action report issued by the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida. Weitzel convened a departmental meeting to discuss the outcomes.
“I wanted to discuss what we could learn from this incident to improve Riverside’s response to schools, purchase the appropriate equipment, train our officers in the correct way and ensure we have proper personnel assigned to schools who will take action if an event like this unfolds,” Weitzel said in a press release.
Welcome aboard
Six new members have joined the Riverside Township Lions Club. Susan Storcel and Jean Zajac were inducted at the club’s February meeting; Jason Hinsley and Harold and Joanne Tram at the March meeting; and Keri Nekovar, the April meeting.
Storcel is sponsored by JoAnne Kosey; Hinsley by Alex Gallegos; Zajac and the Trams by Olga Sylvester. Nekovar was sponsored by the late Lou Heine.
The Riverside Township Lions Club was founded in 1948 and meets monthly. Involved in civic activities in Riverside and North Riverside, the club also provides annual financial support to charities and community organizations.
On campus
Adam Martinson, of Riverside, has received a Bachelor of Science degree summa cum laude in psychology from Alma (Michigan) College.
Erin Engstrom, a Brookfield resident and junior at Ripon (Wisconsin) College delivered an applied innovation presentation during Catalyst Day on April 24, which served as a capstone event for student completing a seminar in applied innovation.
North Riverside resident Camilla Davila (pre-medicine), Riverside residents Moira Dunn (vocal music performance) and DiAngelo Gonzalez (biology) and Brookfield residents Christina Rossetti (English education) and Evan St. Paul (applied mathematics) were all named to the 2018-19 winter term dean’s list at Augustana College in Rock Island for attaining grade-point averages of at least 3.5 on a 4-point scale.
Elijah Ourth, of Riverside, a junior at Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin, has been named to the dean’s list for outstanding academic performance during the winter 2018-19 term for attaining a GPA of at least 3.5.
Nico Herrera, of Brookfield, is one of 24 Lyons Township High School students heading to the Science Olympiad state tournament. Herrera, an alternate, competed at the regional tournament, which was a hands-on event encompassing all areas of science combined with engineering and technology.
