What's recently happened?
Lake Central’s (LC) N-Teens club transformed the Halls of St. George into a world of pearls and flappers for the 2024 Winter Formal dance on January 20. From gold and black balloons to beautiful feather centerpieces, the hall was decorated in true Roaring ‘20s fashion.
The next day, sophomores, juniors and seniors dressed up in their best attire and danced the night away with friends and teachers. It was truly a night to remember.
All 900 tickets were sold, and many teachers attended as chaperones. The DJ took requests from students all night as they sang along to each song. A photo booth as well as drinks and appetizers were available for students throughout the night. This was a great event to have fun and socialize with friends outside of the school.
At 8 p.m. the crowning of the Winter Formal King and Queen took place. Students swarmed the stage, eagerly chanting for their friends who were nominated.
After a short summary of each nominee was read by the Winter Formal Chairs Joley Rymarczyk and Amanda Todd, it was announced that Seniors Sabrina Lodise and Ahmad Hijaz had won the 2024 King and Queen and were immediately crowned.
The crowd went wild, and Lodise couldn’t wipe the smile off of her face.
“It felt surreal to win Queen. I am eternally grateful for all of my friends who voted for me. I’m so happy that I could run and win with Ahmad, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. My favorite part was when Ahmad and I both started chanting and everyone started doing it too,” Lodise said.
Hijaz embraced her in a hug as their friends cheered loudly. The two made their way down to the dance floor for their dance to “Young and Beautiful” by Lana Del Ray.
The student body circled around Lodise and Hijaz. They smiled as they danced together. Soon, couples and friends were dancing together with the King and Queen.
What's coming up?
Coming up on Monday, February 26, Teacher Ella Swinney will be taking her English 9 and 10 classes on a trip to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
Students will be attending a performance of “Romeo and Juliet.” This is a great experience for English students to see their classwork come to life.
The classes will be able to explore Navy Pier and get lunch after the play. Students are looking forward to a fun field trip to mix up their day to day activities.
Staff spotlight:
While her goal is to overcome the stigma of math, Math Teacher Keelie Gragido makes her classroom an environment where students can apply their classwork to real world situations.
Gragido was inspired by one of her own teachers in high school, which motivated her to pursue a career as a teacher. She wanted to be a teacher who pushed her students, even though math can be a challenging subject for some.
Gragido went to college for her undergrad at California State University, Long Beach in California after graduating from high school in Highland, Indiana. Once she returned to Indiana, she attended Ball State University to earn her master’s degree in secondary education.
“I knew growing up that I didn’t want to stay in Indiana. All my friends were going to Indiana University and Purdue, and I just wanted something different,” Gragido said.
Gragido said that it was the best decision she ever made.
“I always try to push students to go out into the world and do what they need to do to follow their dreams,” Gragido said.
She started as a student teacher at LC and now teaches Algebra I.
“Everybody has differing opinions on math, and it is a hard subject. I’ve always felt confidence in math, and I like trying to get students to feel that way as well,” Gragido said.
Gragido’s goal everyday in the classroom is to make students feel proud of themselves. However, outside of the classroom, Gragido values quality time with family and friends.
In addition to hanging out in the Region, she loves to travel. Gragido has been to 35 states as well as several different countries.
She keeps students engaged by connecting their math to things around them in the real world. Without teachers like Gragido, students would be lacking essential confidence in order to succeed.
Student spotlight:
LC is full of aspiring students who work hard everyday to do things for the overall student body. Amanda Todd, a motivated senior student at LC, worked closely with her friend Joley Rymarczyk to put together the Winter Formal dance. The two were nominated as the Winter Formal chairs for the 2024 dance.
Todd spends her days taking AP classes at LC and going straight to gymnastics practice after school.
In addition to all of her extracurriculars and involvement at the high school, Todd put in hours of work to create a great dance for the student body.
“I love to plan things, and I also love to do something that is beneficial for the school. My friend Joley and I discussed it, and we thought we would make a good team. We worked to provide a good Winter Formal for the student body this year,” Todd said.
Todd had certain responsibilities including running meetings during the season of Formal, bringing up tasks that need to be done, figuring out favors and decorations that were budget friendly, and decorating the Halls the night before. In addition to the list of tasks for Formal, Todd still had her own personal things to do as well.
“Balancing school with the role of planning a whole dance for the school as well was probably the hardest part. There’s a lot to planning, it looks fun at first but there’s a lot more that goes into it than you think” Todd said.
The dance went exactly as planned with no hiccups. This was everything that Todd hoped for.
Todd was even able to enjoy herself as she crowned the King and Queen.
“Crowning the King and Queen was my favorite part of the night. Both me and Joley were really nervous for our speeches, but crowning them and seeing their faces when they won was so exciting,” Todd said.
The strong dedication of Todd and her planning was a major component of the Winter Formal dance.