Student, teacher earn recognition :::

LTHS bilingual student wins award
Lyons Township High School senior P. Sanchez, was recently awarded second place in this year’s ESL Student Writing Contest for Grades 6-12. The contest was sponsored by the Illinois TESOL/BE (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages/Bilingual Education) Board. Students were required to write about an area of their culture; Pablo wrote about one of his greatest high school challenges - staying in school despite family pressures work full-time. According to the judges, “ There were many exceptional entries this year, and Pablo’s was among the very best.” Sanchez will be awarded $100 and a certificate of merit at the state convention in February. His English teacher Francisco Gamboa will receive a one-year complimentary membership to Illinois TESOL/BE.

LTHS teacher earns recognition from Stanford University
Lyons Township High School Social Studies teacher Jessica Drogos was named among the winners of Stanford University’s Teacher Tribute Initiative Award. All incoming freshmen at Stanford University were given the opportunity to acknowledge a former teacher or mentor who had played a significant role in their intellectual, academic, social, and personal development. LT Class of 2010 graduate and former student of Drogos, P. Moriarty wrote, “Throughout all my years in high school, one teacher, Ms. Drogos, stands out in my mind as the best educator I have known. Ms. Drogos always managed to make the material interesting and fun while making sure that we were not just memorizing facts, but instead actually understanding the information. Both inside and outside the classroom, Ms. Drogos was always willing to go the extra mile for her students. She always made the effort to get to know her students in order to help them succeed.”

Drogos began her teaching career at LTHS in 1999. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction: reading both from Loyola University, Chicago. She serves as a Hall of Fame committee member and has been an assistant coach for cheerleading for the past 12 years.