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| Volume #6 Issue #6 Date: June 2020
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| COVID-19 FINANCIAL AID CHALLENGE
HAS RAISED $345,000 FOR FENWICK!
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Launched one month ago with a matching challenge of $235,000 from several generous donors, nearly $110,000 more has been donated so far to the COVID-19 Financial Aid Challenge! However, we are still $125,000 short of our goal of doubling the matching-gift offer. This money will help to ensure needed financial assistance for Fenwick students! Please consider donating if you are able. Thank you.
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| FRIARS ROCK:
Online Concert This Thursday, June 4
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Friar Dad and former Fenwick teacher/soccer coach Matt Scharpf is hosting a Friars Rock Concert this Thursday, June 4, at 7 p.m. -- live from La Barra in Riverside, IL. He will be joined on stage by several Fenwick students.
This concert will raise funds for tuition assistance via the COVID-19 Financial Aid Challenge. Catch it live on Fenwick's Facebook page or click on the button below:
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| Welcome, Class of '20, to the
Fenwick Alumni Community!
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The latest edition of the Friar Reporter magazine pays tribute to the Fenwick Class of 2020: our newest alumni! To save money on printing and postage, the Spring issue, which was emailed on May 29, is presented in a digital-only format.
Click the button below to read about Friars eLearning during the pandemic, an alumnus who works at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab and what some seniors have to say about their unusual final semester.
Please let us know of any classmates who are not receiving electronic communications from Fenwick: We need their e-mail addresses!
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| COLLEGIATE FRIARS: Catching up with
Keshaun Smith '14 and Laura Kelly '19
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Recent college graduate Keshaun Smith '14 with his son, Kam (left), and sophomore-to-be Laura Kelly '19 (in NYC).
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KESHAUN SMITH
Fenwick Graduation: 2014
Hometown: Maywood, IL
Grade School: Irving Elementary
College: Illinois State University (Normal, IL)
Major: Recreational Management
Internship: Crossfit Iron Flag and Athletic Performance
Career aspirations: To train children and teenagers to become drastically better at whatever sport they are playing. Eventually, I will begin coaching football or basketball. Now that I’ve graduated from college [last month], I am taking over my dad’s furniture-moving business (Smith Furniture Service).
Fenwick achievements/activities: three-year varsity basketball starter; two-year varsity football starter. Read more.
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LAURA KELLY
Fenwick Graduation: 2019
Hometown: Western Springs, IL
Grade School: St. John of the Cross
Current School: Fordham University (New York City)
Major: Digital Technology & Emerging Media with minors in Italian and Theatre Performance
Summer internship: Unfortunately, my opportunity to be a counselor at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in northern Michigan for the entire summer was postponed. However, I just accepted a position as the Arts Administration Apprentice at BAM Theatre in Hinsdale. I have worked at this program for several years as an intern and assistant director, but now that arts education is occurring in a virtual format, I am able to take on a new position and can explore how teaching and performing can still happen remotely!
Career aspirations: In eighth grade, I was voted “Most Likely to be a Teacher,” but I never really understood why … until I came to Fenwick and met Ms. Lamoureux and Ms. Hennessey. At some point in my life, I would love to be a secondary educator and theatre director so I can work with young people and shape their lives just as my favorite teachers have shaped mine. Using the major I am pursuing at Fordham, I am also very interested in working in media management for entertainment companies like Netflix or Spotify.
Read more.
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Also, click on the image below to read about the three alumnae Lombard
sisters sharing high-speed Internet -- and Fenwick connections:
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| Teachers Reflect on Why They Stay at Fenwick
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English Dept. Chair John Schoeph is a 1995 alumnus of Fenwick.
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"One of the things for which I’m most grateful is that I work in an environment that fosters scholarship," says English Dept. Chair John Schoeph '95. " I can recall from Dr. Lordan’s class the importance of scholasticism as a facet of Thomism, as an important component to Dominicans’ approach to education. That approach continued when I attended a Dominican university. I feel blessed to work in, of all Catholic environments, a Dominican one that prizes scholarship.
"We don’t try to keep up with teaching trends," Mr. Schoeph continues. "We aim to be innovative within fields our teachers know well and continue to advance in. English teachers here don’t ‘kind of’ know English; they know it. Continued learning in our fields is important to us. So a personnel of scholars has tended to abound here, and I love being in that company and in a place that embraces that."
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"In the spring of 2011, on the verge of graduation from my MFA poetry program, I applied for every high school English and Spanish opening in Chicagoland, from Waukegan to Wheaton to Orland Park," says English Teacher Laura (Dixon) Gallinari. "I grew up in south Oak Park, and my husband and I had just purchased a house here. On a lark, I submitted my resume to Fenwick, even though no job was posted. So, why am I here? To start with, I figured it would be cool to live seven blocks from school.
"Having attended OPRF, I was minimally familiar with Fenwick, aware of it as the local Catholic school that went co-ed while I was in high school," Mrs. Gallinari continues. "Kathy Curtin called to set up an interview. At the time, one of my mom’s best friends, Kathy Miller, had a sister who taught at Fenwick and agreed to meet with me in the teacher cafe before my interview. So my introduction to Fenwick was coffee with the unforgettable Mariana Curtin, who charmed me with her sincerity, warmth, wisdom, humor and occasional curse words.
"To my great fortune, it turned out that Fenwick did have a need for one more English teacher, in a year that saw 17 new Fenwick teachers, several of them in the English department. I walked home from the interview, not quite a mile, and when Pete Groom called to say yes, it felt like providence."
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| FACULTY FOCUS:
Math Teacher and Coach Matt Barabasz
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A passion for geometry and a grandfather who was an educator are two motivators for this math teacher, who is heading into his fourth school year at Fenwick.
What is your educational background?
MB: I graduated in 2014 with a BS from Illinois State University in Secondary Mathematics with a Middle Level Education Endorsement. In 2019 I earned my MA from Concordia University (River Forest) in Educational Leadership Program. Right now, I am looking to begin a Doctorate Program in Educational Leadership; currently looking into Lewis University.
What did you do prior to becoming a teacher at Fenwick?
MB: Upon graduation from college I took my first teaching job at Saint Patrick High School. During my first year teaching, I also coached the sophomore football team and both varsity/JV track. The following year I was named the head sophomore football coach and head varsity track coach, which I continued to hold until I made my move to Fenwick.
Read more.
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| Listen to a Student Music Video
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Enjoy the Fenwick Concert Band's virtual performance of "Havana:"
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| From the School Archives ...
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Throwback Thursdays on Fenwick "social-media channels:" Remember when rock was young ... back in '64? Click on the icons below to follow Fenwick on Twitter, Facebook and/or Instagram:
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| Introducing the Fenwick Business Directory
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Please use our new Fenwick Business Directory to support Friar-owned and operated businesses. To be added to the online directory free of charge, please send the name of the business, phone number and website to Alumni Relations Director Peter Durkin '03 at pdurkin@fenwickfriars.com.
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| '49ers Reminisce About Fenwick's Dominicans
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With extra time on their hands during the COVID-19 health crisis, 10 members from Fenwick’s Class of ’49 trade memories via e-mail:
“I keep looking for something more or less productive to do,” writes Fenwick alumnus Tom Morsch ’49. “While watching a Zoom presentation on Thomas Aquinas, I noticed that his treatise on the Gospel of John was translated from Latin to English by someone named Fabian Larcher, O.P. I said to myself, I know that guy; he taught me algebra. To be sure, I went online to check ‘Order of Preachers, Province of St. Albert the Great.’ There I found that this was, in fact, our Fr. Larcher (and lots of other interesting stuff).”
Classmate Bob Lee responded, “I had Fr. Larcher for algebra also. He was a clean-desk guy. Remember? The only book on your desk was the algebra book, all others below your desk. And he walked around the class every day and enforced the law. He was one of my best teachers at Fenwick. You always had to be prepared for his quick tests. I had the feeling he was interested that I got it.” Fr. Larcher went on to teach at St. Thomas College in St. Paul, MN, from 1949-53. He passed away in 1981 at age 77.
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| Class of 2020 Graduation
Sunday, August 9
Class of 1970 50th Reunion
Friday & Saturday, October 2 & 3
68th Annual Blackfriars Gala
Friday, November 20
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| Sign Up for "FriarsConnect"
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FriarsConnect recently went through an upgrade in its design! Log in or sign up today to check out Fenwick’s exclusive alumni platform. Nearly 1,000 members of the Friar Community have signed up for this service that keeps you connected to your fellow Friars.
FriarsConnect allows you to:
- Find jobs and opportunities where you can work with your fellow Friars
- Cultivate meaningful mentoring opportunities
- Connect with and organize the powerful relationships available via the
Fenwick community - And so much more!
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| PAVING THE WAY:
Purchase a Friar Courtyard Brick!
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Personalize a gift for the Friars in your life. Commemorative bricks can be purchased now for installation in the summer of 2020 in the ever more beautiful Fenwick Courtyard. (Orders are due by June 5, 2020). A brick makes the ideal birthday, Father’s Day and graduation gift!
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Have something to share with your fellow alumni? Please send all of your alumni news and happenings to Peter Durkin '03, Director of Alumni Relations (pdurkin@fenwickfriars.com).
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Fenwick High School is owned and sponsored by the Dominican Friars
of the Province of St. Albert the Great headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
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