There were plenty of hugs, laughs and stories to tell when about 100 Homewood-Flossmoor High School students returned to Homewood’s James Hart School for a party saluting their successes.
Members of the Hart Class of 2013, graduating Sunday from H-F, were welcomed back on Thursday, May 25, for the second annual alumni gathering.
Monique Austin thanked physical education teacher Marci Breed for putting her through a tough regimen at Hart School. (Photos by Marilyn Thomas/H-F Chronicle)
There were plenty of hugs, laughs and stories to tell when about 100 Homewood-Flossmoor High School students returned to Homewood’s James Hart School for a party saluting their successes.
Jalyn Smith shows off the 2013 Hart School yearbook.
Members of the Hart Class of 2013, graduating Sunday from H-F, were welcomed back on Thursday, May 25, for the second annual alumni gathering.
The event, introduced last year, was met with great enthusiasm. Hart administrators decided to again invite graduates to return to the school to reflect on memories, speak with their former teachers and share future plans.
Monique Austin gave her former physical education teacher, Marci Breed, a hug. The two laughed about how Monique struggled every day when her teacher made her run a mile.
Payton Gallery visited with James Hart School industrial arts teacher Tom Jaminski.
“I said ‘One day you’re going to thank me’ and she did!” Breed said. “Yes, I’m thanking her,” Monique admitted. The Hart endurance program gave Monique the strength to win a spot on the H-F badminton team.
“I wanted to come back and see the school, see my old teachers,” said Abby Diemer, who will be attending the University of Dayton in the fall to study marketing and economics. Abby was a member of H-F’s National Honor Society and varsity soccer team. She played volleyball during her freshman and sophomore years at H-F.
Abby had the opportunity to catch up with Carole Smith, a Hart math teacher and her volleyball coach when Abby’s team won conference. They both agreed defeating Flossmoor’s Parker Junior High School volleyball team that year was a great memory.
Joshua Bellamy, left, and Amari Franks were happy to meet up with science teacher Jill Vagner.
Jane Wenckus, who will be attending Pepperdine University, said her favorite Hart memory was the Six Flags trip that culminated her eighth-grade year.
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Amari Franks, who will be attending the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to study film production, said his favorite memory was a spontaneous dance battle during half-time at a basketball game his eighth-grade year.
“It just happened,” Franks recalled. “It was a fun time.”
Hannah Johnson who will be studying fashion merchandising at the University of Nebraska and Juno Suzuki who will be studying neuroscience and cognitive science at the University of California, Los Angeles, both thought the Chicago trip was their favorite memory. Juno remembered the day-long outing included visits to Lincoln Park Zoo, Hull House and Second City.
Hart yearbooks were passed around and old photos capturing students and faculty were met with gasps and laughter.
Homewood-Flossmoor High graduating senior Abby Diemer met up with James Hart’s volleyball coach Carole Smith.
Students were also fascinated by the Rachel’s Challenge banner they had signed in 2013 which was still hanging proudly in the cafeteria. The Rachel’s Challenge program honors the memory of Rachel Scott, one of the victims of the Columbine High mass shooting in 1999. It is the emblem of a program design to end bullying and violence by encouraging kindness and respect.
“I remember it (Rachel’s Challenge) as a challenge for us to make a change,” said Troy Kates.
Payton Gallery had a chat with her old social studies teacher, Tom Jaminski. She told him she remembers the important role activities had on her years at Hart. She was a member of the Scholastic Bowl team and involved in theater. Payton got involved at H-F, and her senior year she was editor-in-chief of EDDA, the an award-winning art and literary magazine.
After getting to socialize with their peers and teachers, the H-F seniors lined up on choir risers in the cafeteria to reintroduce themselves after the four-year hiatus and announce their future plans.
Some District 153 graduates are heading straight into the workforce, others are joining the armed forces and most are continuing their studies at schools as close as Governors State University, or as far asthe School of Visual Arts in New York and the University of Southern California.
Senior Violet Buchtel-Devine will be an international student at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
“It’s a good group. They’re going places,” said Hart science teacher Rick Druse.
“We are incredibly proud of you,” Hart Principal Scott McAlister told them before wishing the former District 153 students the best of luck in all their future endeavors.
