Mr. Esgar

Mr. Esgar grew up in Amboy, Illinois, a small farmland town on the outskirts of Rockford, Illinois. Throughout high school, Mr. Esgar was involved in several activities, including wrestling, scholastic bowl, National Honor Society, and football. During his childhood, he was always interested in the sciences, and academically motivated during school. Growing up in an environment surrounded by farmland provided him with a push into the living sciences. His exposure in spending summers working on farms to earn money was the key into finding the key of biology, which he would later come to enjoy the most amogst his other academic studies. He also spent some of his summers working in nursing homes. In the mornings, Mr. Esgar and his  fraternal twin brother took over a paper route by the time they were seven years old. Other areas of interest include Shakespeare’s poetry and English. Due to having several areas of interest, it was tough for Mr. Esgar to find a field in which he would settle, aside from farm fields. While attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he met a group of students and was eager to take part in a study group with them. To his dismay, the group of students refused to include him in their study group. Going full force, Mr. Esgar worked incredibly hard and was rewarded a perfect score on the final paper, taking away a grade-boosting curve for her peers.

If he could give any piece of advice to the graduating class of 2016, it would be to find out what you’re interested in, and follow your passions, from his own experience of switching from pre-med to teaching. Esgar notes that finding something you enjoy will make your life much happier than choosing a career based off of other expectations. Truly finding something you have a real interest in pursuing or doing, and immersing yourself in it, is one of the way to success.

Mrs. Esgar

Throughout high school, she was involved in the athletics, including badminton and volleyball. During her junior and senior year, she competed at the state level in badminton, and  continued on to play club badminton in college and joined a volleyball league in order to meet more people. Over the summer, when she wasn’t buried in a book or working as a camp counselor, she was waitressing in a country club. Some of Mrs Esgar’s favorite classes include chemistry, her senior physics class which was always fun, and her freshman algebra class and teacher, who was a great teacher and kind individual. Having the confidence and dedication she did in badminton was the key to her success in state, and placing in the top eight. After a test when she was turning in her tests, she would look at other people’s answers but never changed her answer because she always assumed she was right, feeling bad for the other person because they were wrong. It would never have occurred to her to change her answer, but she was curious to see how she did compared to others, bringing in a motivational, competitive edge. In everything she did, Mrs Esgar was always the hardest worker in everything she did, from taking two math classes at the same time to her efforts on the court. In her college calculus class, she and her classmates had a teacher who wasn’t doing his job as a teacher, and in order to help her peers understand the material, Mrs Esgar would hold class afterwards re-explaining the lessons, and filling in the substantially large gaps her professor had left the with. Being able to shape others learning was one of the defining moments in which she decided to become a math teacher.

If she could give any piece of advice to the graduating seniors of 2016, it would be to look for any opportunity to learn because you never know where or when your defining moment is going to happen. Don’t pass up an opportunity to a harder class because you may find, that is where you accel.

Mr Berger-White

Throughout high school, Mr Berger-White was involved in baseball, swimming, golf, and peer helping during his time at Glenbrook North. His summers were generally filled with swimming practices, baseball games, and spending time with his family and friends. In his senior year of high school he had a great European history teacher who greatly inspired him, and had a stronger emphasis on learning, rather than grades. After having most of his high school work seem meaningless due to non passionate teachers, seeing a purpose to the content created a stark contrast from him, impacting his attitude towards learning. After having the privilege of a taking a class with a passionate and dedicated teacher Mr Berger-White was inspired to become a teacher himself. Another one of his most memorable moments in high school was his senior year of swimming, when the team qualified for state. He was at a swim meet along with a set of twins competing a free relay which he anchored, in which the team performed extremely well earning third place in state. If Mr Berger-White had to give any piece of advice to the graduating class of 2016, it would be work from the inside to combat injustice, or something you may find to be unsettling.

Mrs Clark

Throughout her high school years at Maine South, Mrs Clark was involved in intramural volleyball and badminton. She often hung out with a group of friends who played volleyball over the summer, and had an annual trip to Ravinia, seeing Elton John live with this tight knit group, as well going to Six Flags. In the summer of 1967 and 1977, she was in the bleachers of Wrigley Field nearly everyday of the week cheering on the Cubs. Appearing in her own high school newspaper, Mrs Clark and her boyfriend won class couple of their graduating year, as they were very noticeable throughout their school. In college, her boyfriend was the cartoonist for the paper, and wrote in Mrs Clark’s name within the cartoon, making her famous on the Duke campus which the two of them attended. After taking two years of science in high school Mrs Clark decided she had enough after studying biology, and not enjoying chemistry. Although Mrs Clark never took physics in high school, she is convinced she would have been an engineer due to her love for math and being a part of a family of engineers. She enjoys being an ARC tutor and having the opportunity to work one on one with students.
If she had to give advice to the graduating class of 2016, it would be to remain open minded about the possibilities for their career. People often go to college with a certain path in mind, but there is always option to be open minded, because that may end up being the way you find a career you will enjoy and love to be a part of, and not just consider it to be work.