2015 High School Winners

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Amundsen
Language Arts
Hispanic Heritage Garden
Students in our school's Spanish language classes will design and build a Hispanic Heritage Garden to highlight the importance of the Crops and Flowers from Mexico and Latin America.
James Doyiakos - Elvia Lopez, Sonia Barillas, Dora Soberanis

Amundsen
Science
Time Sculptures
Students in our physic's classes will design and build sculptures to be placed in our school garden to measure time using the sun and the stars.
James Doyiakos - Thomas Kinkus

Amundsen
Fine Arts
Art For Art Festival 3
Students create the third annual Art for Art Festival where visitors can experience and experiment with a variety of methods for creating art.
Denise Barba

Amundsen
Fine Arts
Let's Bench It!
Amundsen students use imagery to create cut out benches that represent inspirational, uplifting, comforting and relaxing moments. The benches will provide welcoming sanctuaries around the school.
Denise Barba - Camille Johnson

Bowen
Life Skills
Shopping Extravaganza
Students with disabilities will learn the essential life skills needed to independently shop at a grocery store.
Emily Barnowsky - Kimberly Mellenthin, Linda White

Brooks College Prep
Physical Education
Spartan Race Brooks Style
Students in the diverse learning community will train and participate in a modified version of the Spartan race in physical education class as preparation for the Special Olympics competition.
Matt Barrett

Brooks College Prep
Performing Arts
Laugh, Cry, Learn Arts Festival
Students from the Film Study and Chorus classes will come together to collaborate on a film produced in the film class with a score done by the chorus.
Eugene Hazzard - Carrie Seavoy

Brooks College Prep
Language Arts
Silent Films
In a collaboration between film studies and general music classes, students will write and direct a silent film, accompanied by an original score written by students.
Carrie Seavoy - Eugene Hazzard

Chicago HS / Arts
Performing Arts
Jazz Recording Project
Students in our vocal jazz group will cut a professional sound recording at our school in the Spring. This would be the first time we have attempted this on our own.
Gaye Klopack

Curie Metro
Performing Arts
ELF-The Musical
Curie students will experience the complexity of all art forms through a collaborative performance where students and faculty create a fully connected piece of art through musical theater. All students will work together to present and perform in "ELF- The Musical."
Melinda Wilson - Dawn Pavloski

Curie Metro
Service Learning
Growing Inside and Out
U.S. History and World Geography students will mentor diverse learners by helping them learn how to use public transportation through studying climate and vegetation patterns of the US. This will also be a service learning project.
Mary Beth Bell - Maria Prado, Brian Luecht

Curie Metro
Fine Arts
Exquisite Garden
Students will create concrete mosaic sculptures for Curie's courtyard/sculpture garden. The collaborative project will be based on the Surrealist game "Exquisite Corpse" and will be assembled on site.
Colin Ewald

Hancock
Fine Arts
SoBu Artist Project
Exploring the idea of positive peer pressure, students will replicate the Grameen model of strong, collaborative groups who create social businesses while cultivating supportive peer networks. Hancock students will create furniture, t-shirts and up cycled jewelry for sale.
Jeanne Walker

Jefferson Alternative
Gardening
Karma Garden
The Karma Garden is a May to October garden where incarcerated CPS youth bond with each other and nature as they harvest and produce crops that are donated to soup kitchens on the south and west sides.
Regina Hanks - Jennifer Johnson

Jefferson Alternative
Language Arts
Free When I'm Writing
Free Write promotes literacy and creative self-expression for incarcerated youth. We are widening publishing and digital media opportunities for youth by expanding our print anthology and websites that feature student work. Published works are featured at the Summer gallery event at the Chicago Art Department in Pilsen.
Ryan Keesling

Kelly
Publications
Our Voices. Our Stories.
Students will use publishing skills to write a book and develop a gallery exhibit to challenge stereotypes and tell the "real stories" of their neighborhoods, communities and cultures.
Amy Schwartzbach

Kennedy
Fine Arts
A Midsummer Night's Dream
The Drama Club, collaborating with the IB Theatre Arts classes, will be producing Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" where students will be involved in all aspects of production.
Kathleen Parent - Renae Stone, Annette Olszewski

Kenwood
Physical Education
Yoga Fit
Students enrolled in a dance elective will participate in learning the ancient mind-body practice of yoga in order to become more aware of their physical and emotional well-being.
Edward Bogdanic

Lane Technical
Performing Arts
The Lane Play Festival
Lane students will create a unifying community of writers, directors, designers and actors who will learn to work together as they take ownership and pride in putting on their own one act plays.
Kirsten Hanson - Kate Laroche, Molly Meacham, Brian Telles, Monico Yadao

Lincoln Park
Language Arts
Veteran Narratives
Students will learn about the lasting effects of conflicts by interviewing veterans and developing both written and visual narratives that share the veterans' stories.
Didi Grimm - Jesse Marquez

Lincoln Park
Publications
Lion's Pause Literary Mag
Students create a literary magazine that showcases the many literary and fine arts talents among our amazing students at Lincoln Park High school and provides a venue to share their work in creative ways.
Barton Hanson - Ahoo Kosari

Madero
Fine Arts
Environment: Culture & Nature
Students will create a mosaic mural project through a study of cultural groups who promote the environment through their beliefs and traditions, through a study of the environment and a connection between cultures that embrace nature.
Rita Marquez

Manley
Fine Arts
Illuminating History
The purpose of this project is to foster a sense of community as students work in design teams to develop their vision and create their stained glass windows based on historic African American Quilts.
Linda Comminos

Morgan Park
Performing Arts
Sound Ways of Knowing
Color guard students will create choreography of one work for the band repertoire using the facts model for interdisciplinary arts education. Color guard and band will perform together in recital.
Shemeka Nash - Yafah Levy

N Lawndale - Christiana
Fine Arts
Promoting Peace Murals
Art students will work together to conceptualize, design and create a large mosaic mural panel. They will study the nonviolence policy of Dr. Martin Luther King and create the murals to promote peace in our school culture. Murals will be unveiled at a Peace Celebration.
Rachel Mason

Noble St - UIC
Gardening
Community Urban Garden
We aim to increase student awareness of healthy living, sustainability, science and community giving through construction and maintenance of our school’s very first urban garden.
Theresa Nguyen - Kristen Engle

Peace & Education
Fine Arts
The Peaceable Kingdom
After studying African, French and U.S. animal welfare laws as well as French Impressionism, students will create a Peaceable Kingdom mural illustrating how humans and animals can live in peace.
Anne Maclaren - Nancy Salas

Prosser
Gardening
Prosser Garden Expansion
Prosser students are building and expanding the wildly successful teaching/community garden on our north property. We will make a new entrance and install the pollinator garden this year.
Marnie Ware - Marcia Dorfman, Dave Kulasik, Barbara Kanakaraj, Dan Gawne, Frank Lagodny, Noah Lederach, Jimmy Diloernzo

Raby
Science
STEM Featuring Aquaponics
Students will work in groups to design and build their own aquaponic systems. Students will explore first hand how energy and chemicals flow between organisms in an ecosystem.
Michael Kosko

Schurz
Fine Arts
Montage Micheaux
Photography and Digital Media students will learn about Director- Producer Oscar Micheaux and the Silent Film Era, while creating, editing, digitizing and screening their own vintage Super8mm movies.
Mark Nelson

Schurz
Gardening
Journey of the Monarch
Students will learn about the migration of monarch butterflies throughout Spanish & French-speaking areas of North America. They will create a “butterfly garden” and present in Spanish and French the life-cycle of the butterfly and the endangerment of the monarch butterfly.
Samantha Godden - Valerie Wadycki, Christine Salerno, Vania Lopez

Senn
Performing Arts
Senn Arts Spring Season
Continuing its student productions of highly ambitious plays, Senn artists will produce two plays, "The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity by Kristoffer Diaz" and "I & You" by Lauren Gunderson, as part of our 2015 theatrical season. These will be the first high school productions of these plays.
Joel Ewing

Senn
Fine Arts
Mapping Ourselves
Students will use their community as a point of departure to create and inform large-scale portraits that map their personal, school and neighborhood communities. There will be a formal gallery show.
Jesse Wyss

Senn
Fine Arts
Color Me with Kindness
Students will create “anti-coloring books” using digital vector drawings, cartoons and stylized text and will deliver these interactive compositions to children in local hospitals and shelters.
Amy Moore

Simpson
Fine Arts
Digital Photography Gala
Students will be learning about digital photography as an art form. Themes such as identity, community, famous artists and our digital society will be explored using smart phones and other technology.
Shirley Tang

Social Justice
Fine Arts
Marching Drum Corps
Students will learn to read music notation, marching technique and choreography and audition to participate in a marching drum corps. As members of the corps, they will perform cadences while marching and they will participate in a Chicago parade.
Andrea Malek

Solorio
Performing Arts
Solorio Music Initiative
The Solorio Music Initiative is a program designed to promote student involvement in the performing arts, focusing on developing an after school club that teaches guitar and mandolin skills.
Francis Carey

South Shore International
Life Skills
On Our Own 2015
The Life Skills Center will provide necessary vocational training, social skills training and independent living for students with mild to moderate disabilities. Students will learn skills such as preparing a bed and simple meals, washing dishes, clerical skills and hosting events.
Lisa Ousley - Jordan Rice, Kathryn Dippold

Sullivan HS
Performing Arts
New Rock
Thirty Sullivan students are moving from traditional music classes to starting the first ever Sullivan rock band. After 2 months of practice, the band will perform for its peers, students at Kilmer Elementary and at a nursing home.
Erik Dace - Andrew McGuire

Urban Prep Aca
Performing Arts
West African Drumming!
Students will play and learn about the djembe drum and the cultures from which it emanates, including history, language, geography and historical/modern culture of this area of West Africa.
Phil Radke

Vaughn Occupational
Service Learning
Assisting Senior Citizens
Teachers and special education students will assist seniors with seasonal landscaping chores. Students and seniors will work together to plant annuals and perennials in our school garden.
Gerard Slania - Patricia Bonness

Vaughn Occupational
Life Skills
Totes for Toting Produce
Vaughn students will create and donate reusable tote bags to Warren Park Mobile Food Pantry to use in food distribution to clients.
Patricia Bonness - Debra Yarovsky

Von Steuben
Fine Arts
eNews
Students will learn to report, edit and publish news stories via an online newspaper. Students will gain broadcasting and multimedia production skills by packaging content for multiple platforms.
Juan Carlos Zayas - Larry Waites, Montgomery Gabor, John Wallace, Johnnie Walker, Christopher Picinich

Von Steuben
Science
Robot Day
Von Steuben students will host a robot competition for Peterson Elementary students. The competition will be designed by the Von Steuben students who will serve as mentors on the competition day.
Jennifer Roden

York
Language Arts
Project Atlas
Project Atlas is a publication written, edited and designed by student authors attending York Alternative from inside the Cook County Jail. Project Atlas is shared with at-risk Chicago youth.
John Boggs - April Clark

York
Publications
Day-Dreams
York students in the Cook County Day Reporting Center will use the writing process and experiences from present and past to write poetry and prose in an effort to end recidivism and improve writing.
Jennifer Gabby - Daniel Cieslik, Angelita Ballesteros, Monica Murray, Loretta Fields

Young Magnet
Science
Lilypad Turn Signal
Students wanted to create a safe and inexpensive invention to help with the sudden influx of bikers on the Chicago roads. They will create an LED jacket that will allow bikers to signal a left or right turn when in traffic, increasing visibility and thus reducing car accidents.
Lynne Muhammad

Young Magnet
Science
SNAP Voltage
Students learn how energy spikes and lows result in energy waste in the home. Students learn how to control the energy flow as they design a more energy efficient home system.
Lynne Muhammad