The Pioneer March 2013

ioneer March 21, 2013Maine East High School

Park Ridge, Illinois@mehspioneer

The

Senior Colleen Scholz competes at the U.S. Speedskating Short Track Nation-al Finals in Nebraska; she finished 6th in the country in her age division.

ICY SPEED

Blue Demons Place 2nd at Financial Literacy Bowl

Members of the successful Financial Literacy Bowl team pose with Mr. DiPrizio and Dr. Pressler.

The Pioneer reports on news, entertainment, and sports events for Maine East High School and the surrounding community. The Pioneer is distributed to students, staff, and a limited mailing list. Submit sto-ry suggestions, photos, letters to the editor, or comments to sponsor Matt Miller or assistant sponsor Dave Hessert via email: [email protected]; [email protected]. The Pioneer does not ac-cept outside advertising.

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Kevin Gau

Maine East High School Park Ridge, Illinois

March 21, 2013

The PioneerREPORTERS &

PHOTOGRAPHERS

ASSOCIATE EDITORS Lenny DitkowskyAlexis Trebukoff

Sandra Rzeczyca

Brittney Mangurali

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Ashley Etienne

Six Maine East students fin-ished Spring Coming Week with a victory plaque and a $750 college scholarship.

On Friday, March 15, seniors Brandy Rubin, Christine Lam, Lakulish Gandhi, Hiral Tailor, Teodora Ivanova, and Kevin Gau won 2nd place in the 2nd Annual Financial Literacy Bowl Scholar-ship Competition at the University of Illinois in Chicago.

The competition was spon-sored by the Illinois College Ad-vising Corps, an organization established in 2008 that supports schools with college resources and also provides guidance and oppor-tunities to students. Here at Maine East, our ICAC representative is Ms. Heng, who collaborates with our Career Counselor, Ms. Stearns, in the Career Resource Center.

The Financial Literacy Bowl

hosted a total of 18 city and subur-ban schools and was organized into three rounds, with each round con-sisting of two schools with six se-nior student members competing.

By Kevin Gau A moderator asks each team 15 general questions. After the regular questions, the teams were given a Jeopardy-style free re-sponse question in which teams

could wager any points they had. All questions were based on

the financial material taught by the each schools’ ICAC representative weeks in advance.

Ms. Teresa Cipolletta and Ms. Snjezana Salamon in the Social Science Department at Maine East have both been nominated for the Golden Apple Award for Excel-lence in Teaching.

After being nominated, teach-ers must complete a detailed appli-cation, including essay responses and provide three letters of rec-ommendation. From hundreds of

nominees, only 30 teachers are selected each year as finalists.

Finalists and their col-leagues, administrators, parents, students and former students are interviewed, and each finalist is observed in the classroom before the 10 Golden Apple Award re-cipients are chosen.

Good luck to Ms. Salamon and Ms. Cipolletta!

Maine East Social Science teachers nominated for

Golden Apple Award

Coach Hughes named league’s gymnastics

Coach of the YearCongratulations to

first year varsity head coach Angie Hughes on being selected as gymnastics Coach of the Year in the Central Suburban League. This award was determined by a vote of the head coaches in the CSL.

2 | THE PIONEER | March 21, 2013

atre productions, said Festival sponsor and organizer Mrs. Sal-amon.

The Cherry Pie Festival sold 325 tickets; even former principals, Mr. Isoye and Mr. Barker, were in attendance. The Cherry Pie Festival began in 1929. “The fact that we’re

The line to enter the cafe-teria stretched beyond the gym offices, and took up half of the hallway. Almost everyone was speaking to a friend and laugh-ing and having a decent wait.

Then the doors opened and the crowd began to move.

Before long, the cafe was nearly filled, all of its denizens holding a cup of vanilla ice cream in one hand and a slice of cherry pie in the other.

The cafe went dead silent for a moment, as an air of re-spect drifted through the room.

David Hiller, a Maine East graduate who went on to study at Harvard University and be-

come CEO of the McCormick Foundation, discussed his life briefly before focusing on his feelings of preparedness for college and his time at Maine East.

Mr. Hiller, to this day, pledges money to the Student Health Center, and attends the-

By Lenny Ditkowsky

Successful M.E. graduate addresses Cherry Pie Festivalstill doing the festival in 2013 is pretty darn amazing,” said Mrs. Salamon.

Sophomore speedskater competes at Nationals

Sophomore Colleen Scholz (far left and skating above right) has traveled to Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Nebraska this winter to compete in prestigious national junior events. Recently she earned a 6th Place (out of hundreds of competitors) in her age division at the Short Track Nationals. In February,

Scholz placed 2nd in the Long Track Junior Nationals. She hopes to make the Junior World Cup team and compete in international events next year.

March 21, 2013 | THE PIONEER | 3

Springcoming 2013 Pep Assembly


Mr. Demon Pageant

Senior Nick Taylor was declared the winner of the Mr. Demon Pageant 2013.

Maine East was the first high school in Illinois and one of the first in the nation to stage the 2008 Tony Award Winning Best Musical, In The Heights!, which tells the universal story of a vibrant commu-nity in New York’s Washington Heights neighborhood on the brink of change, full of hopes, dreams and pressures, where the biggest struggles are deciding which traditions you take with you and which ones you leave behind. In The Heights! won the 2008 Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Score, Best Choreography, and Best Orchestra-tions. “It was awesome,” said junior Christina Peter, who played the role of Nina Rosario. “It was the best musical to be a part of!”


Busy tech month at Maine East

By Kevin Gau

Over the past month & a half, everybody at Maine East has gotten a little taste of technology, from chrome-books to National Teen Tech week in the LRC.

In February Maine East participated in the Students Involved with Technolo-gy Conference at Stevenson High School. This yearly conference has presentations by students from grade levels 3 - 12 on various tech topics like Ubuntu, Online Safety, Minecraft, and so much more!

In March the District 207 Board of Education decided that all freshman and soph-omore students would by chromebooks during the 2013 - 2014 school year and carry a smaller load of textbooks (see Dr. Wallace’s letter to District 207 parents in sidebar).

Now this doesn’t mean that all books will be elimi-nated, but using virtual text-books would save students hundreds of dollars and the school district even more. Earlier this year the Pio-neer published a report on Chromebooks showing that these laptops are internet based and they can run offline when needed.

The first wave of chrome-books will be distributed to all the freshman & sophomore students at the three Maine Schools during book sales in August. You may wonder if

we have the internet capabili-ties for this.

The answer to this ques-tion comes from an interview done with Dr. Hank Thiele, the Head of Technology of District 207. Dr. Thiele states “Yes, each school has the ca-pability to hold 6,000 wire-less devices (est. 2 devices per person) from the massive improvements done in the summer of 2012.”

Some students here at Maine East are already giv-en chromebooks or netbooks (linux or windows) to use during class for instruction and at home for school work. After a period of evaluation and the evolution of these programs it was decided that chromebooks would be cho-sen from future students.

Finally libraries across the nation celebrated Teen Tech Week, March 11 - March 15. During this time the LRC held their annual Wednesday Tech Toolbox to help students fine tune their search ideas and get better results through Google, Yahoo, Bing, and so much more! Another event was a questionnaire about technology of today and his-tory; a sample question is below. Soon students will be able to see all the different technologies Maine East has during a future Tech Petting Zoo ~ Hope to see you there! Time & Place: TBA!

1. Who invented the Mouse Interface?A. Microsoft Corp. C. Apple, Inc. B. Xerox Corp. D. IBM

2. Who Founded Microsoft Corporation? A. Bill Gates C. Mark ZuckerbergB. Steve Jobs D. Albert Einstein

3. When was the first computer introduced to the public?A. 1919 B. 1822 C. 1951 D. 1776

MARCH TECH QUIZ

Dear Current and Future Par-ents of District 207 Students:

On February 4, 2013 the Board of Education approved a plan for next year that will prepare our students for an increasingly digital world of resources and information. Instead of filling their back-packs with expensive, heavy, print textbooks, freshman and sophomore students will in-stead purchase a lightweight Chromebook computer along with electronic books for se-lect courses. This shift will save families hundreds of dollars during the four years of high school, while provid-ing access to the digital world of esources.

For the past seven years, we have been preparing our-selves for this new way of teaching and learning. We are excited at the possibilities that this presents for our stu-dents. The Chromebook will be purchased from the district at booksales as a single pur-chase or through an option of four equal payments spread over the school year. The sav-ings by shifting from select print textbooks to less expen-sive digital books will offset the cost of the Chromebook over time. We have posted a video on the website http://tinyurl.com/207chromebooks which explains why we made this decision, how it is cost effective, information about the Chromebook, and how this program will work. Other information will be posted as it becomes available.

We are looking forward to this challenge for us to create better opportunities for all of our students.

Sincerely,Dr. Kenneth WallaceSuperintendent of Schools

District 207 to provide

students with Chromebooks

Answers on page 8


The Maine East boys track and field team is off to a prom-ising start this year. The fresh-man took 4th place overall at the indoor invitational conference against district rivals Maine West and Highland Park. The varsi-ty has at least six starters who should compete for All-Confer-ence Honors: Jalen Lewis, Saul Lopez, Shewtag Patel, Aayush Shah, Gabe Corey and Mike Kuzbski. Underclassman Chris-tian Lopez, Javad Lukovic, and Nick Pavlovic should also com-pete for All-Conference as well.

Jalen Lewis holds the cur-

rent school record in the 50 yd hur-dles, and Javed Lukovic and Nick Pavlovic hold the school record in the shot put.

“The season is going very well so far, said head coach Scott Schultes, “We have a nice fresh-man class out who just performed very well in our indoor conference invitational. I am looking forward to seeing how our guys step up this Friday at our varsity indoor confer-ence meet.”

“We subject our athletes to very demanding and intense train-ing everyday in order to prepare them to compete at their full po-tential.”

Head girls track coach Nancy Lirette hopes to get off to a running start this season with her pack of talented Demon athletes. Elan-ta Slowek holds the Indoor triple Jump record at 33' 9.25, as well as the outdoor record too at 33' 5.5". She set both last year.

Besides record holder Slowek, Krystyna shows promise. “She really has her heart set on running a 60 second 400 meter dash,” said Lirette, “and she has put in a lot of work in the off season to help her achieve that goal.”

Veronica Malesinski is top in 100 and 200 dasher and key mem-

ber of the sprint relays, Ramina Yousef in the shot put and discus, Liesel Schalk and Jessica Cuevas in the distance events. Sopho-more Julia Skrzyzpek is doing well in both hurdle races (100 and 300 m.) and is the lead-off runner for our 4x100 m. relay team and a solid leg in our 4x400m.

Coach Lirette hopes for a fourth place or better finish at the outdoor conference meet, and several All-Conference Athletes and even some Sectional Cham-pions and State qualifiers.

Come cheer the Maine East track and field team at the Dis-trict 207 Meet April 4th at Maine South.

Last season the boys tennis team made Maine East history with an 18-match winning streak and the team only suffered five losses. The Demons also finished first place at the prestigious Hoffman Estates Invitational.

Danny Choi, then a sophomore, made it to the Conference Finals.

“The current goal for this season is to have a twenty-one win streak,” said Coach John Schwan. “That’s what we’re shooting for.”

After last season, the team is confi-dent that it can have an even better 2013 campaign. Along with several returning players, the team has added some youth.

“This year we have a strong group of returning seniors,” said Coach Schwan. “They are confident about im-proving from last year.”

Robert Lazar, a rising freshman star who is already playing for the varsity squad, brings the Demons even closer to making their season goals realistic.

The team’s biggest challenge so far has been the miserable March weather. Hopefully the weather will clear soon and the boys can get outside for practice and matches.

By Alexis Trebukoff

Track teams transition from winter to spring seasonBy Alexis Trebukoff

By Sandra Rzeczyca

Boys tennis team hoping for even stronger 2013 season

Soccer player Rami Dajani signs letter of intent to play at Alabama-Birmingham

Senior Rami Dajani signs his National Letter of Intent as Athletic Director Mr. Bender looks on (top); Dajani poses with the signed letter and his mom (above left); Coach Vic DiPrizio presents a UAB t-shirt to Dajani. Coach DiPrizio called Dajani “a tireless worker and a true leader who is an inspiration to his teammates.”

Dajani will play Division 1 college soccer next year at the University of Alabama-Birmingham.


“Do you...shower with it on?”

Senior Fatima Rogaria has heard many questions about her headscarf, called a hijab, since she began wear-ing it in sixth grade for reli-gious reasons. Some ques-tions are more, to say the least, strange than others, but Rogaria has never let social

pressures affect her decision to wear the covering.

She wears it proudly, stepping out onto the softball diamond as one of the few covered Muslim athletes.

A member of the girl's softball program throughout high school, Rogaria is cur-rently a catcher for the varsity team at Maine East. While the extra cloth may help to keep her warm during the early weeks of the season, the challenge grows greater as the temperature rises, and the scarf acts more as a sauna than a symbol of modesty.

“It gets really hot and irritating, almost falling off during games sometimes,” says Rogaria.. “It's a little em-barrassing to see pictures.”

The scarf has also evoked quite varied reac-tions among those Rogaria encounters during games. Once, an umpire confronted her about her scarf “interfer-ing” with the game, telling her that she couldn't have

a “doo rag” on. Fortunate-ly, positive reactions are far more common.

“A lot of people are shocked because of the diffi-culties of wearing it when it's hot or because of the position I play, where I have to wear a helmet the whole time, but they respect it.” After a game against Glenbrook North, Rogaria learned that one of the visiting team's specta-tors had called Mr. Bender

to praise her for wearing the hijab proudly.

“I think it is cool but dif-ferent, and there are specific rules I have to follow my-self,” said Rogaria about her unique situation. When asked if she'd ever thought about deciding not to wear the scarf anymore, she replied “Yea, heck yea, it would definitely be easier, but that's the fun part about it – knowing the challenges it poses but show-

ing people that even if there are complications to being in a sport, there are always ways around it. Don't let your restrictions keep you from playing the game.”

Rogaria returns to the Varsity team with fellow se-niors Klaudia Pajak, Bridget Murphy, Christine Lam, and Nicole McGrath. Their first game is scheduled for March 16th.

“Goaaaallllll” is what the fans of the Maine East Girl’s Soccer team will be saying at the first home game of the season against Northside College Prep on March 19! However, be-cause of a frozen field, the game was postponed.

The girls are coming in strong yet again for anoth-er great season. Returning Seniors Jasmina Basic and Sam Contreras are upset that it is their last year playing for the school, but are excited to start and end the season well.

“I love the work put into being on this program,” said Asra Mahmood, a first year Soccer player who was moved up to Varsity. “The

coaches and the team have made the start of the season great and I just cannot wait to play our first game, hope-fully the snow clears up and the ground is not too wet.”

Seniors Samantha Con-treras and Jasmina Basic are also excited for the season and grateful to have an atten-tive and driven team. They are very excited to be great role models and leaders for the Lady Demons.

While in the stands, make sure you are not con-fused by the Contreras sis-ters on the team! Sisters Sam and Jackie Contreras are both on the Varsity team once again, sharing the same sisterly bond that they have in the hallways.

“It’s actually a lot of

fun having a sister on the team,” said Sam. “You get to do the one thing you love with your loved ones. There may be times when there is that sister rivalry, but it’s always great knowing you have a teammate out there who knows you better than you may know yourself.”

Although the weather may require multiple layers of clothing, the first soccer game always deserves a first game rumble. Jasmina Basic adds “It’s actually really nice to have fans out there on the bleachers. When there are students and families sitting on the cold wet bleachers with their numb fingers cheering for the team it real-ly does change the outcome of the game.”

By Fatima Rogaria

By Jasmina Basic

Muslim softball player honors culture

Girls soccer team waits on weather

Rogaria says that her hajib does get a little hot under

all the catcher’s gear.

Fatima Rogaria poses with her softball teammates.

Lennyvision by Lenny Ditkowsky

ANSWERS TO TECH QUIZ FROM PAGE 6:1-B; 2-A; 3-B


The Pioneer March 2013

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