GA_081717

10 | August 17, 2017 | The glencoe anchor school
glencoeanchor.com
Three LA grads earn Fulbright scholarships
Submitted by Loyola Academy
Loyola graduates Bridget
Galassini, Madeline Hahn
and Mary Kate Vanecko have
recently been awarded Fulbright
Scholarships and the opportunity
to teach English abroad. The Fulbright
Program was established
in 1946 and operates in more
than 160 countries worldwide.
Galassini, a Class of 2012
graduate, was awarded a Fulbright
English Teaching Assistantship
Grant for the 2016–17
academic year and is currently
living and working in Alcala de
Henares, a suburb east of Madrid,
as an English teacher at a
bilingual high school.
“I’ve made many international
friends and adapted to the lifestyle
here,” she said. “I’ve come
to truly love everything from the
late dinner times — 9-11 p.m. —
to the relaxed ‘no pasa nada’ attitude.”
Galassini is most proud of
teaching Global Classrooms,
or Model UN, as it’s called in
the United States. The program
has an educational component
wherein students are exposed
to global issues and academic
skills, such as speech writing,
and debate vocabulary in preparation
for local and international
debate competitions.
“For months, we learned
about the UN debate structure
and world issues, like gender
equality and juvenile violence,”
she said. “I think it’s an invaluable
experience for children.”
Galassini has also lived in
Washington, D.C.; Santiago,
Chile; and Dublin, Ireland,
where she is also a citizen.
Even before she was living
and working in cities around the
world, Galassini went on a summer
service trip to Guatemala
through Loyola’s Campus Ministry
Department.
“That service experience is
the reason I started asking questions
about justice, that I became
interested in economics, that I
started falling in love with people’s
stories,” she said. “Baier
Galassini Hahn Vanecko
chaperoned the Guatemala trip,
and I learned from him about
service philosophies, reflection,
justice and so much more. Justice
Seminar with Hooker built
further on these roots. Honestly,
it changed my entire life perspective
from being inwardly
focused to being outwardly focused.”
Galassini pursued these interests
at the University of Notre
Dame, where she studied international
economics and took on
a minor in peace studies, journalism,
ethics and democracy.
Galassini and fellow Fulbright
awardee Madeline Hahn, another
Class of 2012 graduate, attended
Notre Dame together and
remain close friends today.
When she returned from Madrid
in July, Galassini began a
government consulting job in
Washington, D.C. She hopes to
pursue a career in government,
public policy or journalism.
Hahn first started thinking
about issues of inequality, society
and politics in Hooker’s
social justice class during her
senior year at Loyola Academy.
“The course made me question
everything about our society,
and how its systems and
institutions continue to create
inequalities,” she said. “The
more I learned, the more I felt
inspired to work toward changing
these systems so that we can
build a better society. To me,
being a woman or man for others
means putting the needs of
others before your own and using
your talents and resources to
contribute to a better world for
all.”
This led Hahn to pursue a degree
in sociology and Spanish,
as well as a minor in education,
schooling and society, at the University
of Notre Dame, where
she was classmates with Galassini
and developed a passion for
education and its power to foster
equality.
“I hope that by pursuing a career
in education, I can contribute
in a small way to the fight for
social justice,” she said.
Hahn was awarded a Fulbright
English Teaching Assistantship
Grant to Madrid, Spain, for the
2017-18 academic year, where
she will work as an English
teacher at a local high school. In
addition to teaching courses like
history, geography and science
in English, Hahn also will prepare
students for local and international
debate competitions
through the Global Classrooms
Program.
Mary Kate Vanecko, a Class
of 2013 graduate, also earned a
Fulbright Scholarship.
Vanecko is preparing to set
out for South Africa in the fall,
where she will assist students
with English and give presentations
on American culture. She
intends to dedicate part of her
time to coaching through Box-
Girls South Africa, an organization
that uses the sport of boxing
as a catalyst for social change.
Having studied political science
with a concentration in
women’s gender and sexuality
at the College of the Holy Cross,
where she was also a Division I
lacrosse player, Vanecko is suited
to teaching girls in the classroom
and coach them in the ring.
At Loyola, Vanecko spent
three years on the varsity girls
lacrosse team and was involved
in student council, ministry and
the Pax Christi program — experiences
she calls formative in
her passion for social justice,
her interest in politics and government,
and her competitive
nature.
“An important lesson I learned
at Loyola is to stay awake and
passionately motivated to make
a difference in a world in which
it is easy to be numb to the struggle
of others,” she said. “Life is
not meant to be lived passively.”
After her Fulbright, Vanecko
plans to start a career in public
service.
school news
Depaul University
Deveny named to dean’s list
for winter, spring quarters
Glencoe resident Colin Deveny’s
academic record for
winter and spring quarters
2016-2017 earned him spots on
the dean’s list.
Knox College
Glencoe students on spring
dean’s list
High-achieving students
were named to the Knox College
dean’s list for the 2017
spring term. To be named to
the dean’s list, a student must
have earned at least 2.5 credits
in the term, with a grade point
average of 3.6 or better (on a
4.0 scale). Students named to
the spring 2017 dean’s list at
Knox College include: Glencoe’s
Claire Cody and William
Parkinson.
North Shore Country Day School
Deveny selected to study in
New York
Kamryn Deveny, of Glencoe,
has been selected to study
in New York for the fall semester.
The program, CITYterm, is
a school within a school at the
Masters School in Dobbs Ferry
New York. Deveny will be one
of 30 students from across the
United States to be participating
in this form of learning.
Rochester Institute of Technology
Hill makes the dean’s list
Brian Hill, of Glencoe, who
is studying software engineering,
made the dean’s list for the
2017 spring semester at Rochester
Institute of Technology.
Union College
Harrison named to dean’s list
Thomas Harrison, of Glencoe,
was named to the 2017
dean’s list at Union College.
Harrison is a member of the
Class of 2020, majoring in liberal
arts.
School News is compiled by Editor
Megan Bernard at megan@
glencoeanchor.com.