Thursday, April 5, 2018

April 5 News

Upcoming Calendar Events:


April 6 - Orchesis Concert 7:30 PM - 9 PM
April 7 - D207 International Celebration at Maine West 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
April 10 - SAT Test (Juniors only in attendance)
April 12 - Vaping/E-cigarettes presentation 6:30 PM
April 13 - Jazz Dinner Concert 7 PM - 8:30 PM
April 23 - Orchestra Gala 7 PM - 9 PM
April 27 - Finale Band & Choir Concert 7 PM - 9 PM

DISTRICT 207'S BEST:

District 207's Best for April - Technology Leader - Akash Magnadia
"Akash Magnadia has earned a reputation for being insightful, analytical, self-motivated, meticulous, tenacious, thoughtful, kind, and reliable. Having worked with him on my Leadership Team for the past three years, I have the highest regard for Akash Magnadia as a student, leader, and as a decent and kind human being. With his natural curiosity and his stick-to-it attitude, I am confident he will be successful in his future pursuits. It gives my great pleasure to recognize him as one of District 207’s Best!"

VAPE/DRUG PRESENTATION:

Please save the date!  Your are invited to attend a presentation hosted by Dr. Teri Collins (MCYAF) and School Resource Officer, Kevin Ryan (Park Ridge Police), discussing current trends regarding "VAPING" (electronic cigarettes) and Drugs in American High Schools.  The event will take place at Maine East High School on Thursday, April 12th at 6:30 p.m. in Room 230.

CHERRY PIE FESTIVAL:

Maine Historical Society held its annual Cherry Pie Festival on February 27, 2018.  Two hundred and thirty students were in attendance along with faculty and staff. Mr. Hussain Bhanpuri, a graduate of Maine East in 2000, was the guest speaker. Upon his high school graduation, Mr. Bhanpuri went to University of IL at Urbana/Champaign and graduated with a degree in Economics. He went on to join Americorps working with the nonprofit group, Chicago Community Ventures. Here, Mr. Bhanpuri helped create and manage a small business development course for entrepreneurs and existing business owners wanting to gain a few more insights on running a business.
As part of his role, he helped develop the Small Business Borrowers’ Bill of Rights that is now part of the Responsible Business Lending Coalition. Several lenders, brokers, and small business advocates have signed on to this, which provides for protection for small business borrowers against predatory and irresponsible lending practices. From there, Mr. Bhanpuri made the leap into the for-profit world, and currently serves as a Relationship Manager at CIBC US. In this role within the bank’s Community Development group, he helps ensure the bank provides investments and works with organizations and businesses located in low or moderate income communities and businesses that are under served.
 

Keeping with the tradition of this celebration, Mr. Bhanpuri shared the story of his immigrant father from Pakistan and what following the American dream has meant to his entire family.  He encouraged students to work hard and to set their goals high. Mr. Bhanpuri talked about George Washington and his legacy, concluding that his principals then were the same as ours are today; anything is possible if one is willing to fight for it. A number of students stayed and spoke to Mr. Bhanpuri after the presentation. They were interested in internship opportunities with his organization because many of them plan to pursue this line of work.  It was a rewarding exchange for Mr. Bhanpuri and the Maine East students alike.

MEHS POETRY SLAM:


On March 13, four members of the MEHS Poetry Slam team - Bella Principe, Michael Zoeller, Mya Pierson, and Ash Golebiewska - performed on “Windy City Live” on ABC7.  They recited their group piece entitled “A Critique of the Curriculum.” A clip of the performance can be found here.

The Slam Team did very well this year, placing second at the quarterfinals of Louder Than A Bomb on Tuesday 3/7 at Columbia College.  That showing earned the team a spot at the semifinals, held 3/11 at The Metro in Wrigleyville. At the semi-final bout, the team came in 3rd place, ending their great run.  

At the Louder Than A Bomb final event on March 18, Ash Golebiewska was honored with the Greyson Telander Brave Space Award, a prize given to the poet who has demonstrated great courage in tackling an important issue. Congratulations to Ash on this wonderful honor! At the event, Ash performed “Transgender Means I Have to Explain Myself.”

Congratulations to the Poetry Slam team and its coaches, Eric Coval and Nicole Beyers, for a great year!  Bravo.

POETRY OUT LOUD COMPETITION:

WORDWRIGHT CONTEST:

In the February contest of Wordwright, a national literary analysis competition, a team of Maine East students won high honors, as well as nine individual students.  Overall, more than 65,000 students from 48 states participated in the contest, which challenges students with nuanced comprehension questions about literary texts.

At the junior level, Maine East’s eleventh grade students placed 11th in the nation among a pool of 647 teams! Fantastic!  Congratulations to our junior entrants as well as their teachers: Bob Brown, Kate Lee-Chin, and Greg Lundberg. In terms of individuals, we had standouts at every level.  Sophomore Rebekah Choi earned a perfect score, which puts her in a group of just 12 students nationwide!

Other students who achieved great results include freshmen Alexia Kando, Ashutosh Kumar, Adisa Music, and Bella Piekut; junior Claudia Poptile; and seniors Myrrh Gobenciong, Christine Pae, and Rachel Vaidya. Congratulations to these nine students as well as their teachers: Greg Lundberg, Wendy Reitz, Don MIller, Kate Lee-Chin, and Maria Garvy.
ATHLETICS:
Registration for Summer Sport Camps begins on April 3rd, and is done on the East 8to18 website. Go to http://il.8to18.com/maineeast, and click on Registration. 


SCIENCE:


Maine East Students Engage in Research Through Argonne Program: Maine East students have been blazing trails in materials science research this year as part of a program called the Exemplary Student Research Program (ESRP.)  This program, sponsored by Argonne National Laboratory, allows participating high school students to engage in a real-world research experiment in conjunction with scientists at Argonne.  

Last Fall, students chose to study the properties of ferrofluids (iron nanoparticle-containing fluids that are used both commercially and in demonstrations of their unusual behavior in the presence of magnetic fields.)  Students wrote a research proposal in which they proposed an experiment that could reveal what was happening at the microscopic level in these fluids. After meeting with Argonne scientists, they designed and built several apparatuses to test their samples using the high-intensity x-rays generated by Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source (APS) facility.  On March 17, students conducted their experiment at the lab. Preliminary results provide evidence for as-yet-unexplained ordering effects in the ferrofluid. Students are currently working to analyze these results. They are also preparing a poster to present at the May, APS Users Meeting.

This collaboration is facilitated by Maine East Science teacher Dr. David Schultz, who worked for four years at the APS as an assistant research professor.  The following students are involved in this project: Isaac Banes, William Cashen, Kacper Cebula, Erion Duro, Kristjan Gudmunsson, Cassidy Hicks, Nidhi Kadiwala, Akash Magnadia, Harshitha Padiyar, Richard Phan and Aleksandra Typkheeva.

Pictured from left to right: (Front row) Harshitha Padiyar, Nidhi Kadiwala, Erion Duro, and Kamila Wiadarek.  (Back row) William Cashen, Isaac Banes and Akash Magnadia.





Images show samples of the x-ray scattering data that students obtained in their experiment.  The image on the left shows the “ring” pattern of x-rays scattering through their sample. The image on the right shows how the intensities of one of these rings (far right) is “bumpy,” providing evidence for nanoparticle ordering.