Connect with us

Illinois

Monticello High School recognizes Illinois State Scholars

Published

on

Monticello High School recognizes Illinois State Scholars


MONTICELLO – Monticello Excessive Faculty Principal, Travis Courson is happy to announce that 19 Monticello Excessive Faculty college students from the graduating class of 2023 have been acknowledged as Illinois State Students.

The Illinois Scholar Help Fee (ISAC), the state company dedicated to serving to make school accessible and reasonably priced for Illinois households, confers this prestigious recognition to prime Illinois highschool college students yearly. This 12 months, greater than 16,700 excellent honorees be part of the opposite prime college students who’ve been honored for his or her educational achievements because the designation was first launched in 1958.

Illinois State Students signify roughly the highest ten p.c of highschool seniors from 757 excessive colleges throughout the state. Illinois State Students possess robust educational potential and are chosen primarily based on a mix of exemplary ACT or SAT take a look at scores and sixth semester class rank.

Advertisement

“It is a nice honor for our college students right here at Monticello Excessive Faculty,” mentioned Courson. “The educational surroundings right here, created by each college students and workers, consists of excessive expectations and our college students work extraordinarily arduous at not solely assembly these expectations, however as a rule, exceeding them. This recognition is nicely earned by our college students, and I feel I can converse for the whole Monticello faculty neighborhood in stating how proud we’re of them. Congratulations to all recipients throughout the state.”

The next college students from Monticello Excessive Faculty Class of 2023 have been named Illinois State Students: Cameron Allender, son of Matt and Alison Allender – Monticello; Mabry Bruhn, daughter of Derrick and Lynne Bruhn – Monticello; Lydia Burger, daughter of Dustin and Denise Burger – Monticello; Logan Courchaine, son of Thomas and Melanie Courchaine – Monticello; Lauren Dunnett, daughter of Alastair and Shelley Dunnett – White Heath; Jenna Figor, daughter of Jay Kreibich and Debbie Fligor – Monticello; Sarah German, daughter of Fred German and Jamie Gerardi – White Heath; Slater Goebel, son of Nathan and Amber Goebel – Monticello; Taylor Herman, daughter of Jason and Shanelle Herman – Monticello; Ian King, son of James and Junsara King – Monticello; Megan LeJeune, daughter of Michael and Rachel LeJeune – Monticello; Haiden Mast, son of Benjamin and Angel Mast – White Heath; Jacqueline Maxey, daughter of Bruce and Jill Maxey – Monticello; Lucy Maxwell, daughter of James and Kim Maxwell – Monticello; Estella Miller, daughter of Matt Miller and Sarah Probst Miller- Monticello; Addison Schmidt, daughter of Gerald Schmidt and Kristi Roth – Monticello; Andrew Sheppard, son of Marc and Lisa Sheppard – Monticello; Rose Talbert, daughter of Matthew and Ann Talbert – Monticello; Cailey Wittig, daughter of Craig and Brandy Wittig – White Heath;

“On behalf of ISAC, congratulations to all the excellent college students chosen as 2023-24* Illinois State Students,” mentioned ISAC Govt Director Eric Zarnikow. “College students and households confronted quite a few challenges during the last two years with distant studying, amongst different monetary and private difficulties. As we proceed to get better from the pandemic, these educational achievements are a credit score to the arduous work and dedication of the coed students and their households, and to the help supplied by academics, mentors, counselors, and communities in serving to college students meet their objectives and discover success as they advance on their schooling and profession paths.”

The Illinois State Scholar designation is a non-monetary award. Every State Scholar will obtain a congratulatory letter and a Certificates of Achievement from ISAC. Moreover, awardees can obtain an official Illinois State Scholar Program badge to show on their on-line profiles, social media platforms, and share with their highschool counselors, faculties, employers, members of the family and others.

All college students, together with State Students, who plan to be enrolled in school subsequent fall are urged to finish their 2023-24 Free Utility for Federal Scholar Help (FAFSA) as quickly as potential with a view to decide eligibility for federal and state monetary assist. ISAC gives free monetary assist and school entry occasions to help college students and households with the college-going course of.

Advertisement

College students may also go to the ISAC Scholar Portal for faculty planning, monetary assist and monetary literacy info and free instruments, in addition to info on how one can contact the ISACorps, a bunch of latest school graduates who act as near-peer mentors, for one-on-one help and mentoring. College students may also get solutions to their college-going and monetary assist questions despatched on to their telephones by signing up for ISAC Faculty Q&A, isac.org/collegeqa, ISAC’s free textual content messaging service.

ISAC additionally gives help by the company name heart, 1-800-899-4722 (ISAC). Go to the ISAC Scholar Portal for extra info at www.studentportal.isac.org.

About ISAC

ISAC gives complete, goal, and well timed info on schooling and monetary assist for college kids and their households – giving them entry to the instruments they should make the academic selections which can be proper for them. Then, by the state scholarship and grant packages ISAC administers, ISAC may also help college students make these selections a actuality. Discover us at isac.org and comply with us on Fb (@ILStudentAssistance), Twitter and on Instagram @ISACfinaid.

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Illinois

Plano, 1st Illinois community to recognize Juneteenth as holiday, cancels 2025 events

Published

on

Plano, 1st Illinois community to recognize Juneteenth as holiday, cancels 2025 events


ByABC7 Chicago Digital Team

Wednesday, January 15, 2025 3:39PM

ABC7 Chicago 24/7 Stream

Live streaming newscasts, breaking news, weather & original, local programming.

PLANO, Ill. (WLS) — The first community to recognize Juneteenth as holiday in Illinois has canceled this year’s celebration.

ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch

Plano, Illinois recognized Juneteenth as a holiday in February 2021. That same year, it became a state and federal holiday.

Advertisement

However, event organizers announced on social media that the 2025 Juneteenth celebrations were canceled.

The cancellation came due to “community engagement and negative feedback,” according to organizers.

Among the canceled events were the Martin Luther King Candlelight Bowling Fundraiser, Black History Month scholarship contest and the June Celebration at Emily G John’s School.

“My hope is that this is temporary but if the cancelation is determined that it needs to extend to 2026 then that would be the will and pleasure of the community,” organizers said.

Copyright © 2025 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading

Illinois

Son of woman killed in domestic shooting helps pass Illinois law to protect victims, becomes advocate

Published

on

Son of woman killed in domestic shooting helps pass Illinois law to protect victims, becomes advocate


CHICAGO (CBS) — In July 2023, Manny Alvarez’s mother and sister were shot and killed, allegedly by his father.

Manny, now 20, usually is not comfortable with praise. But he now has something to be proud of—as he helped pass an Illinois state law that both honors his mom and helps future survivors of domestic violence.

“My life sort of ended there in terms of—that was it,” Alvarez said. “That’s kind of that chapter of my life, and I’ll never have a dad I can call again, I’ll never have a sister I can call again, and I’ll never have a mom I can call again.”

Manny Alvarez was just 18 when his dad picked up a gun and shot his sister, Daniela, and his mother, Karina Gonzalez, to death in their Little Village neighborhood apartment. Manny was shot too, but survived.

Advertisement

He said he did not think his father was capable of doing such a thing.

“I mean, it’s something that we knew of, and in terms of all the domestic violence, it was very prevalent,” Manny Alvarez said, “but you know, you never really think someone’s going to go to that measure of actually hurting someone, let alone killing them, and basically ending everyone’s life.”

The deadly shooting happened during a quarrel, and two weeks after Manny’s mom was granted an order of protection against her husband, Jose Alvarez. But her husband had not been served.

“It was the worst two weeks ever,” Manny said, “because, you know, we’re just kind of sitting there going, ‘OK, like he’s not supposed to be here.”

Manny, who calls his mom the hardest working person he’s ever known, went to live with relatives. At the same time, advocates were crafting a bill requiring that police remove all guns from people with domestic violence orders of protection against them.

Advertisement

The advocate asked Manny if they could name the legislation after his mom. Eventually, he said yes, and the fight to pass Karina’s Bill ramped up.

The bill passed the Illinois General Assembly on Tuesday, Jan. 7, and Manny helped with the effort. He met with lawmakers and appeared at news conferences.

It was Manny’s way of honoring his mother.

“I can’t give her a birthday gift. I can’t give her a Christmas gift anymore,” Manny said. “But I kind of see it as a way to give back to her for all that she did for me.”

Amanda Pyron, executive director of the anti-domestic violence organization The Network, said Manny’s advocacy for getting the bill passed was “critical.”

Advertisement

But Pyron said their work isn’t over—even after Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signs the bill into law.

“We absolutely will monitor accountability for survivors who go into a court and are granted an order of protection with this remedy, and don’t receive it,” Pyron said.

As for Manny, he does not like to call himself brave. But he does want to keep helping domestic violence survivors—any way he can.

“I’m all ears, and that’s kind of my calling, I guess,” he said. “If anyone comes up to me with that situation, it’s, OK, what can we do? You know, who can I put them in contact with?”

It is not clear when Gov. Pritzker plans to sign Karina’s Bill into law. But when it happens, Manny said he would like to be there.

Advertisement



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Illinois

Bill aims to increase age for Illinois seniors to retake driving exam from 79 to 87

Published

on

Bill aims to increase age for Illinois seniors to retake driving exam from 79 to 87


CHICAGO (WLS) — Currently, the law requires drivers 79 to 80 to take a road exam if their four-year license renewal is up.

For drivers aged 81 to 86, it is every two years, and for drivers 87 and older, it is yearly.

ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch

Organizations like AARP say that is discriminatory.

But unlike some, 82-year-old Rochelle McGee is not sure it is such a good idea to drop the road test requirements for some seniors when they get their driver’s licenses renewed.

Advertisement

“I’ve been driving since I was 15, and not a lot of accidents. I have a good driving record, but as I said, everyone is not the same. So, I still think there should be some accountability for citizens,” McGee said.

The octogenarian may be in the minority as Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias and a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduce legislation which would increase the age Illinois drivers have to take a behind-the-wheel test from 79 to 87.

Illinois is currently the only state in the U.S. with a mandatory road test for seniors.

“As secretary of state, my top priority is keeping Illinois roads safe and always making improvements to ensure the safety of everyone who shares them,” Giannoulias said.

House Bill 1226, or the Road Safety and Fairness Act, was introduced last week. Sponsors made a similar attempt to alter the law in 2024.

Advertisement

“This is the art of the possible. We have to get this through 177 other folks in the General Assembly,” said 70th District State Rep. Jeff Keicher, R-Sycamore.

The latest proposal still requires those drivers to renew their driver’s licenses in-person and take a vision test.

“The right to drive should be based on ability, not age,” said AARP Illinois State Director Phillippe Largent.

According to Chicago police crash data analyzed by the ABC7 data team, since 2018, people 65 years and older were involved in approximately 11.8% of crashes. That is slightly less than expected, given that people 65+ make up 16.3% of the Chicago driving-age population.

“This legislation is removing this archaic requirement and doing so in a very balanced way,” said 8th District State Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago.

Advertisement

The proposed law also allows for immediate relatives to report unsafe motorists regardless of age to the Secretary of State’s Office.

Credible claims of cognitive decline or medical issues could result in actions ranging from retesting to taking driving privileges away entirely.

The measure could be voted on late March or early April.

Copyright © 2025 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending