September 12, 2019

Alumni:

We’ve had a great start to the 2019-2020 school year! It is truly an honor and a privilege to be the principal at Conant High School. The students, staff, alumni and community make our school a very special place.

The 2019 Homecoming theme is “The Wonderful World of Disney” and the Homecoming game will be held on Friday, October 18 against Fremd. The JV football team will play at 4:45 p.m., followed by the Varsity game at 7:30 p.m. The annual alumni reception tent will be set up for all alumni to meet and greet friends and faculty. We encourage you to come early and enjoy both games!

If you know of any classmates who have not yet joined the Alumni Club, please encourage them to do so. Alumni Club membership and involvement keeps you in touch with classmates and it also keeps you up-to-date on events occurring at your alma mater. As you know, “Once a Cougar, Always a Cougar.”

We will be presenting the seventh “Distinguished Alumni Award” this year at Honors Convocation on Thursday, April 30, 2020. Nominees will be considered from any field for their contributions, achievements or community involvement. A nomination form is attached and should be mailed to Mark Langer at Conant High School or emailed to mlanger@d211.org. You may also click on this link which will bring you to an electronic application.

We hope you will be able to attend Homecoming 2019!

Sincerely,

Julie C. Nowak Principal

Distinguished Alumni Award Nomination (Click above for online application)

Nomination submitted by:

Name____________________________________________

Address__________________________________________

Phone___________________________________________

E-mail__________________________________________

I would like to nominate:

Name___________________________________________ Class___________________

Home Address___________________________________________________________

City_________________________State________________ Zip____________________

Phone_______________________ E-mail______________________________________

or

Business Address__________________________________ Phone__________________

City_________________________ State_______________ Zip____________________

Current Occupation________________________________________________________

Please include:

*Career related achievements

*Community Service

*Justification for nomination

*Letter of Recommendation

Please return to:

Mark Langer

Conant High School

700 East Cougar Trail

Hoffman Estates, IL 60169

Or send email to: mlanger@d211.org

DEADLINE: JANUARY 31, 2020

CONANT NEWS UPDATE – 2019

The 2019-2020 enrollment is: Freshmen 601 Sophomores 616 Juniors 571 Seniors 597

2385 Cougars

Last year we had an enrollment of 2360.

Don’t forget to use your LCAP volunteer experience on resumes and applications. Please continue to let us know of any address changes and/or exciting news so that we may include that in next year’s issue. Suggestions and comments are always welcome.

“CONANT ALUMNI CLUB” Conant High School 700 E. Cougar Trail

Hoffman Estates, IL 60169 (If you are married, please include maiden name—ladies only.)

email to jshoro@d211.org

If you wish to join or continue to receive this newsletter after your initial two years are up, send $1.00 and your current name and address, and your year of graduation to the address above. A lifetime “Cyber” membership is available for that same $1.00, if you send along your email address. Subsequent notification of email address changes are needed to assure continued delivery. Either method will guarantee you more fun-filled and socially acceptable issues.

Class of 1999 celebrated their 20th year reunion on September 21st at Main Event. They toured the school during the day.

Class of 1969 will celebrate their 50th year reunion on October 4th – October 6th at the Holiday Inn and Classic Car Show.

Go to: www.chs.d211.org to visit Conant’s web page

Over the past year, Conant continues to update its facilities. New carpeting has started

to go down in areas throughout the building giving the hallways a fresh look. The baseball

and softball fields are nearing completion. With new netting, dugouts, underground

drainage, irrigation, and a paved path that surrounds the field, Conant’s facilities will be second to none when they are ready for play next spring.

Welcome Little Cougars!

Jack Andrew Mikrut Andrew (Social Studies) & Jennifer (Special Education) Mikrut

Brayden Louis Hilgendorf Maren Hilgendorf (Business) & Ben

Aurora Rose Pieper Lauren Pieper (Science) & Chris

Max Gibb Wozniak Amber Wozniak (World Language) & J.R.

Stella Carin Rosslein Maggie Rosslein (Student Services) & Kent

Finley Rose Guilde Andrew Guilde (English) & Kelly

Gael Antonio Escudero Luis Escudero (Maintenance) & Sandy

Congratulations to our

Newlyweds!

Margaurete Comes (ESL) &

Bosko Nedovic

Zia Nathan (English) &

Mary Zia

Jeff Melone (Math) &

Christina Schweinebraten (Math)

Jeff Robinson (Applied Tech) &

Laura Torpe

Ashley Langley (Student Services) &

Brian Krajack

World Language

Chinese Speech Contests

“We had multiple students who participated in Valparaiso University’s Chinese contests. Amiera Dandona received 3rd place in speaking. Vivian Zhao received 3rd place in speaking and 2nd place in Chinese talent show. Avril Fielle Mauro received 3rd place in speaking and 2nd place in Chinese talent show. Labdhi Jain received 3rd place in speaking and 2nd place in writing.

We also had two students participate in the MCTA (Midwest Chinese Teacher Alliance) Chinese speech contest. Parveen Mundi won a gold medal; Avril Fielle Mauro also won a gold medal.”

AP German

The AP German students competed at the University of Illinois Chicago’s German Day. Students competed in various categories of poetry, environmental essays and spelling bee. It was a wonderful day of culture and language exchange. The German students also participated in their exchange with our partner school in Munich, Germany; Gymnasium München Moosach this summer. Students hosted German students and stayed with their families in Munich. They attended German school as well as visited cultural landmarks in Munich and around Bavaria. The exchange was a success.

CHS Travel

Last summer, 20 students (10 French and 10 Spanish) from our CHS French and Spanish classes traveled to Paris and Madrid. Chaperoned by Vicki Chriske-Hines (French Teacher; CHS), we visited 2 countries in 9 days. From May 30 – June 7, we visited the capital cities of Paris and Madrid with individually guided tours. We saw and experienced the Mona Lisa, the Eiffel Tower, Versailles, castles in the Loire Valley, authentic food, Toledo, works of art in the Prado Museum, famous soccer stadiums rich in history and many cathedrals. We even saw the home of the FIFA Woman’s World Cup 2019 in Paris while the tournament was being played.

Students in the Paris Subway Students at the Bernabeu football stadium in Madrid

Students at the Château of Versailles Students on a guided tour of art in Spain

Students at the Eiffel Tower Students at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris

English

NEW: Advanced Topics in Literature: Sports Literature

In this new elective class, the units will be split into four major focal points: Sports and Culture, Sports and Politics, Sports and the Arts/Individual, and Sports around the World. Students will work to read a variety of texts that focus around different sports in order to understand how an author works to create rhetorical and literary appeals within a given text. We will be reading a variety of smaller articles in which students will work to formulate opinions on controversial sporting topics and will facilitate respectful and thought-provoking discussions. Students will be writing on a wide variety on sporting topics in which they will analyze and synthesize texts for purpose and bias.

Conant Theatre

Conant Theatre is proud to present its 2019 fall musical, Once Upon a Mattress. The classic musical focuses on a kingdom ruled over by a talkative queen and a mute king that has an opening for a princess. Without a princess to marry the prince, the citizens are doomed to live a marriageless life according the queen’s law. Fortunately for them, a chivalric knight, Sir Harry, seeks out a maid of the marshland who may just be the answer to the kingdom’s dilemma. Princess Winnifred is anything but shy in this golden age musical comedy that is an interesting spin on the classic tale of “The Princess and the Pea”. This classic tale is brought to life by a company of over 100 Conant High School students.

Performances are October 31st-November 2nd at 7 pm and November 2nd at 2 pm. Tickets are $10 and will be available online soon. Since we open on Halloween you are invited to join us in costumes that particular performance.

We also hope you will mark your calendars for our other productions: Front February 21st-22nd at 7 pm and February 22nd at 2 pm She Kills Monsters April 17th-18th at 7 pm and April 18th at 2 pm

Designed by Karissa Han

Family & Consumer Sciences

Family & Consumer Sciences is thrilled to welcome our new teacher Bridget Colleran to the team. She is teaching Culinary Arts 1 and Consumer Education and recently graduated from Illinois State University.

We are still loving our new commercial kitchen and preschool room! Cougar Perk, our student run bakery, is still going strong and catering to faculty on Friday mornings. Cougar Kids Preschool will be up and running this month with 12-15 new preschool students ready to learn from our high school students.

We have expanded our FCCLA competitors to include story-telling and lesson planning. This past year we competed in fashion construction (many different categories), interior design, story-telling and lesson planning. We are excited to see what this years’ group will do!

Save the Date: Career Expo

My name is Kristen Fitzgerald, and I am the Career Advisor at Conant High School. I am recruiting professionals for the D211 Career Expo on February 27 (4:30-6:30 pm) at Fremd. The goal of the Expo is to make it easy for students to learn about many different careers in one place. It is an informal event with no presentation required- just a willingness to answer questions, discuss career paths and offer helpful advice to inquiring students. I am hoping that you will consider participating, because who better to motivate and inspire students with their success stories than our own Conant Alumns? Please reach out to me at kfitzgerald@d211.org or register at

https://tinyurl.com/2020CareerExp oRegistration if you can spare an evening to help our students. Your participation will really make a difference. Go Cougars!

(P.S.) If you cannot attend the event, but would like to help in some other way, like hosting a career trek or summer internship, let me know. We are always looking for career exposure opportunities for our students!

Junior Class Council

The Junior Class Council sponsors for the 2019-2020 school year are Kevin Garvey, Jennifer Stearns and Jodie Weintraub. Our 2020 Prom will be held at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare on Saturday, May 2nd.

Robotics Club

Conant Robotics Club sponsored by Eric LeBlanc ’94 and also Chris Bruce from

4thScience made its appearance in the Robot Rumble. All three robots performed well in the competition and we had our best finish of 5th place with our Varity Robot. All robots were intact and ready to fight another round. Fight…fight never die Cougars!

Auto Club

Joe Tullo’s (’05) Auto club won the Challenge USA Midwest Supermileage competition for the second year in a row beating 25 other teams from Illinois and surrounding states. They will also be hosting a car show October 5th in a joint effort with the Conant class of 1969’s reunion committee in the main lot from 11-2. All are welcome.

Conant Crier

The Conant Crier is led by three editors: Sabah Lokhandwala (sr.), Vinaya Pillai (sr.)., and Diya Thomas (jr.). These three lead teams totaling more than 30 student journalists, many of whom have joined Crier for the first time!

Visit Conant’s news site at www.ConantCrier.com, and follow Crier on Twitter @ConantCrier and Instagram @Humans.Of.Conant.

David Gwizdala continues to be the Crier adviser, and Katie Sall is the assistant adviser.

Yearbook

Yearbook would like you to know that most CHS yearbooks from past years are available for purchase. Please contact Camille Lutz at clutz@d211.org for information and pricing.

HOSA

HOSA, Health Occupations Students of America, sponsored by Erik Hauser and Sharon McCoy, took over 60 students to the state competition held this past March in Springfield, IL. Students competed in various events including Teamwork events, Health Professionals events, Leadership events and Emergency Preparedness events.

Boys Swimming and Diving

“The Boys Swimming and Diving Team had a great season this past year finishing with a 4-3 regular season record and finishing 3rd at the Varsity Conference Meet! At the Conference Meet, they were led by 2nd place finishes by Caleb Savoy (Diving), and Justin Lim (100 Fly), a 3rd place finish by the 200 Medley Relay team of Spencer Urban, Dylan Pokorny, Justin Lim and Michael Bland, and 4th Place finishes by Kyle Jones (Diving) and Dylan Pokorny (100 Breaststroke).

At the IHSA Sectional Meet they finished the meet with 3 state qualifiers, Kyle Jones (2nd Diving), Justin Lim (3rd 100 Fly) and Caleb Savoy (4th Diving). Kyle’s score (425.70) moved him to the 3rd best score in Conant history and Caleb’s score (417.35) moved him to the 5th best score in Conant history. At the IHSA State Meet Justin Lim dropped another half second and finished with the 2nd fastest time in Conant History (51.54).”

Coach Brian Drenth ‘96 invites all past swim team alums back for the 15th Annual Alumni meet to be held on December 21st beginning at 10:00. Show up early, talk to some past alumni and get signed up for your favorite events. We‘d also love to see everyone back to cheer on the Varsity team at the 31st Annual Cougar Classic on January 25th!"

WELCOME TO THE COUGAR FAMILY the following:

Bridget Colleran ─ Family & Consumer Science Natalie Crivolio ─ Math Grace Gibbs ─ English Ann Henning ─ World Language Benjamin Jones ─ ESL James Lundquist ─ Social Studies Kelly Pecka ─ Business Vince Salas ─ Math Gabriella Stacy ─ Science Andrea Storey ─ World Language Sara Wojtasik ─ English

And Goodbye to the following

Cougars…

Mary Kay Albamonte ─ English Denice Astrouski ─ Support Staff Victoria Anzalone ─ Support Staff Ken Havlicek ─ Maintenance Joanne Kaszynski ─ Support Staff Frank Kernats ─ Social Studies Cynthia King ─ Support Staff Jennifer Lange ─ Special Education Joe Lombardi ─ Maintenance Mary Jo McElwain ─ Support Staff Ann Metaxatos ─ English Marge Mueller ─ Support Staff Terry Ptak ─ Support Staff Cindy Taylor ─ Support Staff

Once a Cougar…Always a Cougar

Former Cougars Currently Working @ CHS

FACULTY

Applied Technology

Shayna Adelman (Gerson) ‘06 Eric LeBlanc '94 Joe Tullo ‘05

Art

Justin Bickus '02 Jamie Peterson (Aulisa) '99

Business Education

Tony Miller ‘93

English

Heather Munao (Romanoff) '94

Mathematics

Allison Bauch ‘12 Aimee Barkalow (Naatz) '94 Natalie Crivolio ‘15 Mark Davies ‘04 Jeff Melone '01 Katherine Roberts (Hozian) ‘09 Christina Schweinebraten ‘08

Physical Education

John Powers '85 Amanda Schweinebraten ‘08

Science Lauren Pieper (Obermaier) ‘08 Jennifer Stanish (Pettyjohn) ‘99 Steven Riggs (frosh year only) John Shoro '82 Tracy Thornley (Schader) '96 David Torpe ‘03

Social Studies

John Braglia '81 Tim Harte ‘98 Eric Jacobsen '86 Tim Kirby ‘81 Denise Mitchell (Coniglio) (frosh year only) Jennifer Stearns (Meyer) '90

Special Education

Kalli Dalton ‘09 Josie Garcia '88 Danielle Johnson '88 Kevin Mogge '91 Jake Schlender '91 David Spizzirri '91 Todd Strauch ‘07 Matt Walsh ‘93

Student Services

Scott Altergott '89 Kelly Anderson ‘98 Dawna Smeltzer (Szymczak) ‘89

World Language

Heather Doan ‘85 Brian Drenth '96 Anthony Spizzirri '94 Andrea Storey ‘15 Carrie Halter (Werner) '97

Staff

Lisa Gentry (Rosselli) ‘83 Vivian Nordmeyer (Schwartz) ‘81 Karen Senne (Saunders) '74

Out of Building

Coaches/Assistants

Andee Hebda ‘71 Tim Heyse ‘96 Danielle Zyrkowski ‘04 Jennifer Crassweller

(Zyrkowski) ‘97 Julie Zyrkowski ‘06

Former CHS Student Nominated for a Grammy Award

Natsuki Kumagai ‘09 plays First Violin

Natsuki Kumagai ’09, a 2009 CHS, grad joined the Minnesota Orchestra second violin section in the 2017-18 season and won a position in the first violin section in 2019. Born and raised in Chicago, she has served in numerous concertmaster positions at orchestras including the New World Symphony, New York String Orchestra Seminar, and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, where she was awarded the Jules C. Reiner Violin Prize. She was also a member of the Verbier Festival Orchestra. She is an active chamber musician, winning prizes at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, Saint Paul Chamber Music Competition and Society of American Musicians Competition. She was a member of the New Fromm Players, the quartet-in-residence for contemporary music at the Tanglewood Institute, performing world and U.S. premieres of works by world-renowned composers Marc Neikrug and Joseph Phibbs.

Kumagai attended the New England Conservatory in Boston, where she studied with Boston Symphony Orchestra’s concertmaster Malcolm Lowe. Her previous teachers include Almita and Roland Vamos and Marko Dreher at the Music Institute of Chicago’s Academy program. She received her Master's degree at the Juilliard School studying with Ida Kavafian and was the recipient of the H. & E. Kivekas Scholarship and the Irene Diamond Graduate Fellowship.

She took one year off from CHS to home school and enter international competitions, perform solo with the Skokie Symhony, 1st prize Society of American Musicians, 3rd prize international Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, 2nd Prize St. Paul Chamber Music Competition, and Illinois Music Educators Association All-State Honors Orchestra. She is paying it back by now coaching the Minnesota All-State violin sections.

She and the Minnesota Orchestra have been nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Concert for their performance for their new release of Mahler Symphony #5.

Professional performance, especially in the US, is kind of like the Major Leagues.... all or nothing, paying subsistence at best, unless you make one of the major orchestras, (about a dozen of them in the US) which ironically actually pay the best in the world, drawing musicians to compete for any vacancies from all over the world and all ages, from conservatories as well as the major Asian and European Orchestras to compete for the lucrative wages.

Source: The Minnesota Orchestra Program Book and Joseph Malmquist (Former CHS Orchestra Teacher)