LYONS TOWNSHIP HIGH SCHOOL

MATTERS OF PRIDE

2020-2021 Congressional Debate Students took to Zoom and participated in six virtual tournaments. There was plenty of concern about Zoom fatigue with both practices and tournaments being virtual, but students used the technology to engage with teammates and students across the state in many important social, economic, and political issues of today. By February, the team was practicing in person and on Zoom, which propelled us to one of our best finishes ever at state; six of the LT competitors advanced ACADEMICS to the semifinal rounds (or 10% of all semifinalists). By year’s end, we had received 13 speaking awards and seven presiding officer awards.

• Thirty-five National Merit Commended Students Cyberpatriots • Despite operating in full remote throughout a • Ten National Merit Semifinalists significantly modified season, CyberPatriots fielded two • Ten National Merit Finalists competition squads. In the equivalent of this year’s • One hundred ninety-eight LT seniors State Round, the Platinum Tier-qualifying team posted a were named State Scholars for 5th place finish, while the Gold Tier-qualifiers managed outstanding academic a 14th place finish among Illinois high schools. achievement. • Two team members were named Scholars in the 2021 National Cyber Scholarship Competition. They were each awarded a $2,500 scholarship for a college of their choice and free access to this summer’s Cyber Art Foundations Academy. • Four student-artists captured honors in the annual Chicago Area 4 X 5 Art Exhibit, with one 1st place winner and three Honorable Mentions. Family, Career & Community • Thirty-eight pieces of artwork created by student- Leaders of America artists were recognized in the Scholastic Art Awards Although the regional competition did not take competition. Eleven advanced to the national place, members were active remotely throughout competition, where two national silver medalists were the year. FCCLA members planned and coordinated named. meetings and participated in a wide variety of activities, including hands-on demonstrations for each meeting from culinary to pastry arts and even friendly Business Professionals of competitions in plating, food art and a bake-off.

America At the State Leadership Conference, six students placed Fishing Club among the top in their individual events and one The Club is having an outstanding season. Two students team placed in the top five, qualifying for the National qualified for the Illinois Bass Fishing Coaches Association Leadership Conference. There were three multiple (IBFCA) Illinois Coaches and Students State Tournament winners, who will compete in multiple categories at the (ICASST) in the Illinois Bass Nation State series. national level. French Class Board ‘23 • Forty students won medals with an additional 57 The 2023 Class Board collected more than 40 bags of students earning honorable mention in the 2021 AATF clothes and outerwear - enough to completely fill an National French Contest Grand Concours. One student 8-passenger van! - to donate to The Salvation Army was named a Platinum winner, the highest award in the in Oakbrook Terrace. Many thanks to the generous LT Le Grand Concours, earning the top score in the nation community. in the level/division. • Three LT French students attended the annual AATF “Journée Intensive en Français” Day sponsored by the University of Chicago via Zoom. • One senior won the AATF trivia contest during National French Week. Interact Club Menagerie Club members wrote letters to teachers to welcome The 2020 edition of Menagerie earned its first Pacemaker them back to school. Halloween cards were created Award from the National Scholastic Press Association - the for service people through the "A Million Thanks" most prestigious award for a literary-art magazine in the program. A food drive was held, with items picked up country. from porches and delivered to a Westchester food 2020 Menagerie also earned the following awards: pantry. A virtual recipe exchange was created and • Most Outstanding High School General Magazine the proceeds were used to sponsor one child in our - American Scholastic Press Association area. Students contributed to "Project Love Letter" and became pandemic pen pals with senior citizens. • First Place with Special Merit - American Scholastic Press Association Investment Club • Silver Crown - Columbia Scholastic Press Association Investment Club hosted guest speakers from investment • Gold Medal - Columbia Scholastic Press Association companies and corporations. Members competed in a • All-American with Five Marks of Distinction - National global investment competition for the first time. After the Scholastic Press Association wild market volatility during the first half of 2020, students positioned their virtual portfolios of $100,000 to grow as • Superior - National Council of Teachers of English, the market reached new highs. A virtual partnership REALM with high school clubs across the country broadened members’ exposure to speakers and information. Music • Twenty-eight students were selected for the ILMEA Latin District Ensembles in band, orchestra, choir, jazz band and jazz choir. Of the 28 students selected at the district Latin Club Certamen Teams - Latin 1, Latin 2 and Latin level, 6 LT students were named All-State musicians. 3/4 - all finished in 3rd place in the South Region. • Over the past year, the band, choir, orchestra, jazz band and marching band programs have given seven Lion virtual recorded concerts and 15 in-person concert • Lion staffers netted more than one dozen awards performances. from the Illinois Journalism Education Association print and online contests, including four 1st place wins, four 2nd place awards, six 3rd place finishes and four Honorable Mentions. • At the Northern Illinois School Press Association annual contest, Lion earned Silver Certificates for the overall website and newspaper. In individual contests, print staffers earned three Blue Ribbons and one Honorable Mention, while the online/web contests resulted in two Blue Ribbons. LTTV MODEL UNITED The LTTV staff digitized hundreds of archival programs, including sports, music concerts, school events and NATIONS other original programs from the 1980s to the early 2000s. They have gradually been uploading these • Model UN attended 10 virtual conferences. The programs to YouTube and to Google Drive and sharing team placed 1st three times and 2nd twice. LT had these memories with alumni and the community. 81 individual award winners with 44 1st places, 19 2nd places, and 18 3rd places. Math Team • MUN hosted its own virtual conference, • Math Team competed in five virtual meets second LYMUN VII. More than 500 students from semester. The Frosh-Soph 8-person team placed 1st at 32 schools participated, including Regional and automatically qualified for State. one from Lyon, France. • Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior teams each placed 2nd at Regionals and the overall Math Team placed 2nd out of nine teams at the Regional Meet. • A total of 174 Students were admitted to Mu Alpha Theta, the National Math Honor Society. National Honor Society Members logged 4,511 hours of service from April 2020-March 2021 and four Presidential Service Award winners were named: • 3 Bronze Awards for volunteering between 100-174 service hours for the year • 1 Silver Awards for volunteering between 175-249 service hours for the year NHS will induct 362 new members, including 352 juniors and 10 seniors. RECYCLING CLUB Peaceable School Initiative • PSI hosted two virtual forums where students and staff communicated about LT and shared ideas and The Recycling Club shifted from in-building pa- solutions. per and plastic recycling to collecting house- • During the PSI Study Break, more than 60 students hold items to be recycled. In January, students virtually prepared for finals by either studying with a collected 15 large bags of holiday lights, in teacher or their peers or relaxed and learned stress March, collected and packaged 800 pounds relief techniques. of used batteries, and in May, collected • More than 300 holiday baskets were assembled by electrical cords. All three drives were so PSI volunteers with donations from the LT community for popular in the community that the the Off the Streets Club. club plans on making these annual events. • During two days in March, more than 200 students virtually attended the PSI PEP Fair, featuring a virtual calming room and student-run sessions with topics ranging from laughter to leadership. Robotics Five teams, comprised of 28 students, both remote • PSI Week in April encouraged students and staff to and in person, participated in three tournaments. Four be thankful, meet new people and participate in acts teams earned spots at the Illinois State Championship. of kindness, gratitude, and compliments. The Baby Drivers Team won a regular season tourna- ment championship, a skills championship and earned an Excellence Award. They were also crowned Peer Leadership State Champions and received an Amaze Award. Baby • Club members collected and donated more than Drivers also earned a Top 10 World Skills ranking. 100 “laundry kits” for BEDS Plus, a local homeless shelter. The kits consisted of laundry pods, dryer sheets, and money for the washer and dryer. SAVE • Peer Leaders collected and donated food for the St. • The SAVE Promise Club (Students Against Violence Barbara’s Food Pantry. Everywhere) was reimagined virtually this year. Through • Students wrote more than 75 Valentine’s Day cards a variety of virtual platforms, the club was able to bring for the children at St. Jude’s Research Hospital. awareness about the Sandy Hook Promise Know the Signs youth violence prevention program to LT students. • Lyons Township elementary and junior high school students were tutored in person at The Leadershop, • The club promoted the Start With Hello program, thanks to Peer Leaders. which trains students how to combat social isolation, and the Say Something program, which encourages • The Club collected supplies to create comfort youth to say something to a trusted adult if they see or packages for troops through Operation Support Our hear a threat, especially on social media. Troops.

Pom Pon Science Olympiad Varsity poms placed third at the Illinois High School Science Olympians had another great season placing Association Competitive Dance virtual sectionals, 4th in state in the A Division and garnering three state qualifying for the virtual state competition. Varsity poms championships. also qualified for Illinois Drill Team Association virtual state competition and placed second in Lyrical. Junior varsity poms qualified pom, jazz and lyrical routines for the Illinois Drill Team Association state competition and placed 1st in Jazz, 2nd in Lyrical, and 4th in Pom. Social Action Club Theatre Board Members participated in Project Love Letters and wrote Theatre Board ventured into the realm of virtual theatre Valentine’s cards for children at Lurie Children’s Hospi- with original works, scripted plays, improvisational tal. The Club helped run a Thanksgiving food drive for comedy, and a musical revue all performed and local food pantries and raised money and shopped for presented digitally. holiday gifts for students at PAEC Alternative Elementary School. Students also helped clean up at Beamis Woods Forest Preserve and are in the process of setting up an- WLTL other food drive for St. Cletus Food Pantry. • WLTL was named Best High School Radio Station in the Nation at the 2020 John Drury High School Radio Awards. This is the seventh time WLTL has received the Speech Team top honor since the awards inception in 2003. Speech Team members earned four team placements and several individual medals throughout the season, • WLTL won five 1st place trophies in individual placing 5th overall at Regionals and advancing eight categories at the ceremony, including Best News events to the sectional level. Feature, Best Promo, Best Specialty Music Program, Best Social Media Campaign and Best Website. • At the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System Awards, Student Council WLTL Student Managers were named Best in the Nation. • Sponsored Project Love Letter during the month of A senior was named Best Student Station Manager as February, which resulted in more than 3,000 anonymous well as Best High School On-Air Personality; another letters being sent to various care facilities throughout senior was named Best Sports Director; and a junior Chicagoland. staffer was named for Best Production Direction. • Secret Santa program “adopted” 172 area children. An additional $6,625 in donations was received, which is the equivalent of an additional 53 adoptions. Athletics • The All-School Assembly tradition continued Fall despite the pandemic, as Student Council combined Boys' Soccer – West Suburban Conference Champions performances from some of this year’s activities with Boys' Cross Country – IHSA Regional Champions footage from previous years’ assemblies and posted two nights of video on YouTube. Go to the district Boys' – IHSA Regional Champions website and check the Student Council page at Winter https://www.lths.net/Domain/130. Girls' – West Suburban Conference Champions Pom Pon – 19th in IHSA State Spring (As of late-May several teams were still competing) Boys’ : West Suburban Conference Champs and State Champions Boys’ Water Polo: Sectional Champs, State Qualifiers Girls’ Water Polo: Sectional Champs, State Qualifiers

TABULAE College Athletes • To date, 25 student athletes signed letters of intent to play college athletics. • One student was named to the IHSA All-State The 2020 edition of Tabulae Academic Team and another was named to the won the following awards: Honorable Mention All-State Academic Team. • 1st Place – American Scholastic Press Association • First Class – National Scholastic Press Association • Gold Medal – Columbia Scholastic Press Association Lyons Township High School Non-Profit Organization 100 South Brainard Avenue US Postage LaGrange, Illinois 60525 PAID LaGrange, IL 60525 www.lths.net Permit No. 86

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MATTERS OF PRIDE LYONS TOWNSHIP HIGH SCHOOL 2020-2021 Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, countless Zoom meetings, altered schedules, and social distancing, Lyons Townshhip High School clubs and activities managed to re-imagine events, participate and compete remotely and contribute and donate in impressive numbers. This year called for creativity, ingenuity and positive attitudes, and our student body delivered! Everyone at LTHS - teacher, custodian, secretary, administrator, paraeducator - contributes to the success of students. We realize none of these accomplishments could be achieved without the help of our parents, volunteers and community members. This publication was inspired to remind all of us of our combined achievements. Matters of Pride is designed to highlight our achievements as a District. Team and club accomplishments and several state and national honors are also underscored. Please take a few moments to review our accolades and be sure to pat a student, staff member and yourself on the back for a job well done.