Three Class of 2021 alumni of Homewood-Flossmoor High School who pursued teaching degrees in college were awarded scholarships by the Homewood-Flossmoor Education Organization (HFEO), the teachers and support staff union.
Jack Calomino will be a social sciences student teacher at Pontiac High School this semester; Ellery Homrich will be student teaching in a first-grade class in Rantoul; and Hannah Hunter, who graduated from North Carolina A&T University in December, has accepted a position as a second-grade teacher at a charter school in North Carolina.
They each received a $500 scholarship from HFEO when they graduated H-F. The HFEO initiated the scholarship in 2015 to support future teachers. It is funded by donations from current and former union members.
Dana Noble, president of HFEO, said the organization had cash on hand and decided to distribute $400 each to Calomino and Homrich to support them as they student teach, and in Hunter’s case as she enters the profession.
Calomino will be graduating with a bachelor’s degree in social sciences from Illinois State University in May with a certification in geography education. He’s been coaching youth hockey in Bloomington, Illinois, and would like to take on coaching responsibilities for a high school team.
Calomino is the son of Becki and Brian Calomino of Homewood. His mother teaches at Beecher High. Calomino said as a student at James Hart School teacher John Herron was a big influence on him, and at H-F his AP U.S. History teacher Laura Kelly “showed me the fun of history.”
Homrich is graduating with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana with a certification in early childhood education. She wants to be a first or second grade teacher and would like to return to the H-F area. She is the daughter of Kim and Brian Homrich of Homewood. Her mother is a teacher at Willow School in Homewood.
Hunter graduated from college in 3.5 years and was able to find a teaching job in Greensboro, North Carolina. Her parents, Fred and Artishia Hunter, are both educators, but her father said his daughter chose the teaching profession not through their influence, but rather after working at a summer camp with young children.
