If you have walked into the west entrance of Sears Hall lately you may have noticed a new plaque along the sidewalk. The plaque, which reads "In honor of John McDonald and the Bosworth Family whose generosity made possible enhanced learning environments and opportunities for Elgin Academy students" honors Elgin Academy alum John McDonald. Mr. McDonald and the Bosworth family have long been supporters of Elgin Academy. In May 2016, John McDonald's son Nelson returned to campus to present a planned gift of $400,000 to Elgin Academy. A portion of that donation was utilized to establish The John McDonald Idea Lab in Sears Hall. This unique learning environment offers a variety of opportunities for teachers and students to use the room interactively.

Hannah Gallee '13 shares that she is working as a Case Management Intern at Center on Halsted. Center on Halsted is the Midwest's most comprehensive community center dedicated to advancing community and securing the health and well-being of the LGBTQ  community. In her internship, she is gaining a deep understanding of workforce development programs while learning the relationship between direct service and policy, facilitating small group work and weekly engagement with each cohort, and researching related policy and local programs. Hannah is a candidate for MSW and MA in Women's and Gender Studies at Loyola University.  

Congratulations to Roma Hameed '16! Roma is the recipient of the Asian American Coalition of Chicago (AACC) 2019 Youth Award, and she represents the Pakistani community. Roma is a junior business management major at DePaul University’s Driehaus School of Business. At DePaul, she is a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and the National Society of Leadership and Success. Way to go, Roma! 

Genevieve DiPaolo '13, a chemist with the international chemical company BASF, recently started working as a Lab Tech in the company's automotive division. More specifically, her work relates to the coating process for the top coat of paint on automobiles.

Morgan Lanier '10 writes that she is a content contributor at The HOTH, a white label search engine optimization (SEO) service built specifically for agencies, in-house SEOs, and affiliates.

Kristin Cella '09 shares that she is a Senior Project Manager at Rightpoint, a marketing and advertising company headquartered in Chicago that offers technology solutions for its clients. 

James White, from the class of 1962, writes that he is a retired United Methodist Pastor, and also a trained pastoral counselor/psychotherapist and addictions counselor with a doctorate (D.Min.) from Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, IL. He continues to do mission work in Liberia West Africa and teaches addiction counseling there in the wake of the horrible civil war that began in 1980 and ending around 2003.

Terron Edmonds and Sandra Edmonds are proud to announce the birth of their second daughter, Sofia Mae Edmonds, born December 29, 2018. Momma and baby are doing amazing!

Mustafa Alimumal '15 graduated from Northwestern University at the end of the Fall 2018 term. He is working as a Strategy Analyst with Accenture in the Chicago office. Mustafa reports that he is excited about entering consulting, and he hopes to work on projects related to renewable energy, blockchain, and financial services.

Cassie is currently a senior at Smith College where she is majoring in biology. She is part of a group study at Smith that is researching forebrain development in zebrafish, specifically investigating the role of slit proteins and their robo receptors in the formation of the post optic commissure. (Zebrafish are a popular model for studying genetics and developmental biology.) Cassie tries to simplify this for us by explaining that basically, she is “looking at attractant and repellant proteins that direct axon growth to cross the brain at a specific location during neural development.” Her senior honors thesis will examine Slit proteins and their role in axon guidance during forebrain development using the zebrafish model system.