Awards and Accomplishments
Click through the tabs below to view some of the recent honors, awards and accomplishments that were earned by students and staff from Hinsdale South.
Individual Students
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Hinsdale South students Olivia Fulton, Kaitlyn Wong and Rebecca Williams earned top awards for the work they submitted for the annual Write-On writing competition that was hosted by the Indian Prairie Public Library. Olivia took first place in the poetry category, while Kaitlyn and Rebecca took first and second place respectively in the short stories category. Write-On is a series of writing events and activities for kids and teens that is sponsored by the Gift of Carl Foundation. The foundation was formed in memory of Carl Vuillaume, a student from Hinsdale South who drowned in 2005 at the age of 16.
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Students from Hinsdale South earned the top three scores on the examinations that were administered in conjunction with the American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) for individuals in grades 10 and below and 12 and below. Eli Carder, Adolph Galinski and Rishikesh Joshi took the top spots on the AMC 10 A test, while Anastasia Galinski, Henry Joyce and Eva Maria Louis took the top spots on the AMC 12 A test. The competitions, which are organized by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), provide an opportunity for high school students to "develop positive attitudes towards analytical thinking and mathematics that can assist in future careers." You can learn more about them by visiting https://www.maa.org/math-competitions/amc-1012.
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Students from Hinsdale South have earned All District selections for band, chorus, jazz band and orchestra from the Illinois Music Education Association (ILMEA). You can use this link to access the names of the students who received this honor.
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Lanie Chen from Hinsdale South will be Red Devils at the state swimming and diving tournament after finishing third in the 100-yard freestyle at sectionals.
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During events held last week, Hinsdale South recognized the students who earned the following awards from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation and the College Board:
- National Merit Semifinalist
- National Merit Commended Student
- National African American Recognition Award
- National Hispanic Recognition Award
You can access the list of South students who were honored by visiting https://bit.ly/3zK36Qq.
- Junior Layan Al-Khaled from Hinsdale South earned the designation of Outstanding Delegate for her role on the NASA Post-Challenger committee that was part of the CSMUN (Carl Sandburg Model United Nations) XIII conference held on Oct. 15. You can learn more about the conference by visiting https://www.csmun.org/ and more about the committee by visiting https://bit.ly/3z0BZAg.
- Dimitrije Gujanicic has been named a semifinalist in the 68th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. He is among the more than 16,000 students from across the country who were selected as semifinalists from the 1.5 million individuals who took the qualifying exam last year. He will now have the opportunity to compete for the 7,250 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $28 million that will be offered in the spring.
- Six students from Hinsdale South are among the 62,000 individuals from across the country who earned academic honors from the College Board's National Recognition Program. These honors include the National African American Recognition Award (NAARA) and National Hispanic Recognition Award (NHRA). Zayn Arroyo, Ciara Hall and Duyen Millon earned the NAARA award. Juliana Clemens, Elena Garcia and Sophia Yen earned the NHRA award.
- Edward Thomas was accepted into the U.S. Department of State’s National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) program, which is part of a U.S. government initiative that seeks to foster international cooperation by ensuring that Americans have the necessary linguistic skills and cultural knowledge to effectively communicate globally.
- Mitchell Hanson, Elijah John and Eva Maria Louis earned a perfect composite score of 36 on the ACT.
- Mitchell Hanson, Elijah John and Andrew Metzger were named candidates for the 2022 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program.
- Mia Yen was selected for the College Board's National Hispanic Recognition Program.
- Fouzaan Amjad and Jenny Pantoni were recognized for their outstanding leadership as school citizens at the annual Student Recognition Breakfast hosted by the Illinois Principals Association.
- Hunter Long and Gracie Wilcox received the American Legion Student Award, which embodies the organization's values of scholarship, courage, leadership and service.
- Billy Gneiser took first place at the conference tournament for boys golf. He also came in fourth place at state, which was South's best finish ever at the tournament.
- Chase Metcalf took third place at the sectional tournament and seventh place at state for girls tennis.
- Kelsey Pettry advanced to the state finals for girls bowling in the wheelchair division.
- Griffin Carr, Manny Wallace and Alec Miller qualified for the state tournament for boys wrestling.
- Amelia Lavorato earned an honorable mention from the Daily Herald in conjunction with the naming of its 2021-2022 DuPage County All-Area Girls Basketball Team.
- Garrett Bolte was selected by the Daily Herald for its 2021-2022 DuPage County All-Area Boys Basketball Team. Bolte was also recognized by the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association in conjunction with the selections for its 2022 All-State Teams. He was named to the third team for the boys at the Class 3A level.
- Jay Yang and his sister Judy, who is an alum of Hinsdale South, were members of the first badminton team that the United States sent to compete at the Deaflympics in Brazil. The Deaflympics is an international multi-sport event that is organized by the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf.
- Charlie Nilles took second place in the 500-yard freestyle and third place in the 200-yard individual medley and 4x50-yard medley relay at the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games.
- Sophia Yen was among the 40 finalists from 19 states who were selected to participate in the Songbook Academy's summer intensive, which is a youth music program that is focused on the standards of jazz, pop, Broadway and Hollywood.
Faculty & Staff
- Stephen Moore, who is an English teacher at Hinsdale South, has earned the Outstanding Educator Award from the University of Chicago. For more than three decades, first-year students entering the university have nominated individuals for this award who have helped them "along the path toward intellectual growth." Moore is among the educators who are being recognized this year for the significant role they play in their students' education, and the positive impact they have on the lives of those they teach.
- Hinsdale South head baseball coach Paul Hoel notched his 500th career victory on May 20, 2022 thanks to the Hornets' 6-5 victory over Leyden.
- Lexi Miuccio was named an Outstanding Activity Advisor by the Illinois Directors of Student Activities (IDSA).
- Kristin Marks Pascavage, who is the director of special education for Hinsdale South, and Heather Stomberg, who is the assistant director of special education for Hinsdale South, presented about culturally responsive practices in IEP meetings during the 2021 TASH Conference.
- Hinsdale South teacher Rick Cazzato presented during the Virtual Conference of Workshops hosted by the Metropolitan Mathematics Club of Chicago on Feb. 12. His session was focused on some of the activities that he has used and/or created via an application called Desmos to help teach key concepts in geometry, statistics and precalculus.
School
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The Latin Clubs participated in their first Certamen gathering of the year with their peers from Lyons Township and Benet Academy. Despite being undermanned going into the event, the pairing of Aasrith Poola and Sami Khalil took first place at the novice (Latin I) level, while Philemon Rassi, who competed solo against three- and four-person teams, finished third at the upper level.
- The varsity boys and girls cross country teams from Hinsdale South turned in outstanding performances at their post-season tournaments. The boys team took third place at regionals behind top 20 finishes by Dziugas Meiliulis (10th place), Adam Fournier (12th place) and Andrew Petersen (16th place), while Abby Petersen's fifth place finish helped the girls team take fourth at its tournament. At the state tournament, Abby Petersen, who beat her seeding for her race by 79 places (was seeded 157th and finished 78th).
- The varsity girls tennis team from Hinsdale South had a strong showing in the postseason. The Hornets' skill and tenacity on the court earned them their second consecutive second place finish in the conference tournament. Hinsdale South's Chloe Goins joined her peers from Central at state after taking second place in singles at the sectional tournament. She went for 3-2 in her matches at state.
- The golf teams from Hinsdale South had strong finishes at the conference, regional, sectional and state championships. The boys varsity golf teams took third behind a second place finish by Tommy Gneiser, and second at the junior varsity level thanks to a first place finish by Ryan Salverredy. Although the varsity boys team from Hinsdale South didn't finish regionals how it hoped (took seventh place overall), Tommy Gneiser advanced through to the state tournament and finished 30th in state at the 2A level.
- Hinsdale South fared well in the 2022 high school rankings issued by U.S. News & World Report. The school was ranked 71st (up 11 spots from last year). In addition, it was named a U.S. News Best High School for being ranked in the top 40% in the country (South was 1,490 out of nearly 18,000 schools and moved up 449 spots at the national level).
- Mitchell Hanson, Elijah John and Andrew Metzger were named candidates for the 2022 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program.
- Hinsdale South students earned the top three scores on the examinations that were administered in conjunction with the American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) for individuals in grades 10 and below and 12 and below. Eva Louis, Eli Carder, and Parth Joshi took the top spots on the AMC 10 test. Meanwhile, Anastasia Galinski, Zeeshan Razzaq, and Nithin Reddy took the top spots on the AMC 12 test.
- The speech team won the regional tournament, took second place at the sectional tournament, and won the state championship behind first place finishes by Darrell Mondaine in the Original Comedy event and Cameron Chamberlain and Cate Cianci in the Dramatic Duet Acting event.
- The math team took first place at the 3AA regional tournament, and came in first or second in every individual event. At state, the Hornets took 16th overall in Division 3AA and had several top 20 finishes in their individual events.
- The Science Olympiad team qualified for the state tournament following an outstanding performance at regionals. The Hornets came in fifth overall, and took first place in two events, second place in two events and third place in three events. At state, South earned top 10 finishes in a few events, including a first place finish by Nikolas Giannakopoulos in the Trajectory event.
- The theatre program qualified for state after winning the championship in Contest Play at the sectional tournament. The program went on to take third place at the state tournament for its production of "Torch Song Trilogy," and won the Critics Choice award in the Musical Theatre Review event for its production of "Mean Girls." Students Cameron Chamberlain, Mitchell Hanson, Darrell Mondaine, Izzy O'Neill, Joseph Chen, and Henry Sullivan were named All-State Actors and Technicians. Chamberlain, O'Neill, Hanson and Mondaine were also named All-Sectional Actors.
- Vespa, which is Hinsdale South's yearbook, earned a rating of All-American from the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA). This means that NSPA ranked the publication among the top 5% in the nation.
- Student journalists from VESPA and the Stinger, which is Hinsdale South's newsmagazine, took third place at the sectional tournament. Several of them also qualified for state in their individual events. Of the students who qualified for state, six of them earned medals for finishing in the top six in their respective categories. Below are the results from sectionals and state.
- Noelle Waterman - tournament champion in the Advertising event at sectionals; fifth place at state
- Grace Choi - tournament champion in the Newspaper Design event at sectionals
- Jillian Marquardt - tournament champion in the Review Writing event and second place in the Editorial Writing event at sectionals; sixth place in the Review Writing event at state
- Fouzaan Amjad, Myla Anderson and Henry Sullivan - tournament champions in the Video News event at sectionals; sixth place at state
- Mia Yen - tournament champion in the Yearbook Copy Writing event at sectionals
- Ellen Mulgrew - second place in the Photo Story Telling event at sectionals
- Annika Nicol - second place in the Sports Writing event at sectionals
- Raneem Kholki and Haniya Muqtadar - third place in the Yearbook Theme Development event at sectionals
- The girls badminton team won its second straight sectional championship, and its 18th title in the past 20 years. The team also took the top two spots in singles (Maggie Chen was first; Megan Tai was second) and two of the top three spots in doubles (Gabrielle Alcantara and Rachele Cameli were first; Amelia Hoch and Savannah Morford were third). At state, South took fifth place overall.
- The competitive danceline team qualified for the state finals by winning its sectional tournament in Geneva. It was the team's second sectional championship in school history, and ninth consecutive trip to state.
- The boys gymnastics teams took fourth place at the sectional tournament.
- Griffin Carr, Manny Wallace and Alec Miller qualified for the state tournament for boys wrestling.
- Several Special Olympics track athletes from Hinsdale South earned gold medals and qualified for state during the regional competition.
- Bryce Giron - softball throw
- Jakira Johnson - 100-meter run
- Colin Nolan - 100-meter walk
- The girls tennis team took second place at its conference tournament and third place at its sectional tournament.
- The softball team won its regional championship.