Senior Ty DeVito says he has a passion for volunteerism and community service and at the same time he successfully carries out an advanced course curriculum splitting his day between Sycamore High School and Kishwaukee College.  DeVito is ranked first in his class.  His college credit level courses are in math and physics.  He is looking at West Point, MIT, and University of Illinois Champaign as options for college.

 

DeVito has been active in various extracurricular activities and with several different non-profit groups.  Among them is Rotary Interact in which he has a participated throughout his school years and is currently president.  DeVito is chair of the Community Foundation’s Youth Engaged in Philanthropy group,  a member of the National Honor Society, and a volunteer with the Turning Back Time Car Show Committee.  He also enjoys theatre and was seen sporting bright yellow hair while playing the lead in the high school musical “Sponge Bob”.  DeVito will donate his $100 Rotary check to CASA, the Court Appointed Special Advocate organization assisting youth facing issues in the court system.

Career technical education and alternative education offerings are available to area high school students thanks to the Kishwaukee Education Consortium explained Executive Director Tom Crouch at this week’s Rotary meeting.  Crouch said the consortium is made up of students from Sycamore, DeKalb, Genoa, Hiawatha, and Rochelle High Schools.  He said there is record enrollment this year with about 500 youth in some type of trade or technical training program and another approximately 125 youth in their alternative education program (replacing a traditional school learning environment).  The programs lead to certifications and/or college credits.

 

There are multiple sites for the Consortium’s training according to Crouch.  Their main building is on the campus of Kishwaukee College, but Crouch says they have links with as many as 900 satellite sites for up to 21 different types of training.  He said “barbering” is a recently added certification with high interest.  Other programs with traditionally high interest are EMT training, nursing, and criminal justice training.  Their welding program recently relocated to expanded space provided by Innovative Growers Company in Sycamore.  Another program related to building trades is relocating to the same industrial complex and students will be constructing a so-called “Tiny House”.  In previous years, they built a traditional house but this limited some of the types of work the students could undertake.

 

Crouch said graduation rates remain high, mainly because of the special career interest their programs offer.  Funding comes from state and federal sources and per student reimbursements from the participating school districts.  He added that they are always looking for skilled instructors to meet the growing demand for trade and certificated job career paths.  

September 6, 1757 – Marquis de Lafayette is born in France.  He came to America in 1777 to volunteer in the American Revolution; became a key military leader in defeating the British; and established a life-long friendship with George Washington.

 

September 6, 1860 – Pioneering social worker and 1931 Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams is born in Cedarville, Illinois (near Freeport).

 

September 7, 1533 – The future Queen Elizabeth I is born in England, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.

 

September 9, 1828 – Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy (Anna Karenina, War and Peace) is born in Yasnaya Polyana, Russia.

September 6, 1995 – Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken, Jr. plays in his 2,131^st consecutive game, breaking the record held for 56 years by “Iron Horse” Lou Gehrig.  Ripken went on to play 2,632 games in a row before voluntarily removing himself from a game on September 19, 1998.

 

September 7, 1940 – The German Luftwaffe began its Blitz bombing campaign against London during World War II.

 

September 8, 1900 – A hurricane with winds of 120 miles per hour struck Galveston, Texas, killing over 8,000 people, making it the worst natural disaster in U. S. History.  The hurricane and tidal wave that followed destroyed 2,500 buildings.

                                                 

September 9, 1776 – The United States officially came into existence as the Continental Congress voted to change the name of the new American nation which was previously known as the United Colonies.