Latest news with #MaristHighSchool
Chicago Tribune
a day ago
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Marist entrepreneurs win $10K toward their new OmniShake business
A team of five juniors at Marist High School in Chicago will receive up to $10,000 toward developing the product they pitched recently in their Innovative Design for Entrepreneurial Applications honors course. The young men came up with OmniShake – a leak-proof container designed to smoothly mix drinks, such as those that use protein powder. And they've already discussed how to use the prize money. 'We plan to spend the $10K on our first order, which will be about 1,500,' said team member Colin Vucko. 'That's going to leave us with some change to play around with. We might spend some on targeted ads, website development, but the first thing is getting some cups.' The money is provided by Marist, but it comes with stipulations, explained Tim Mulcahey, a 1993 Marist alum who has taught the IDEA class for two years after a 25-year career in software startups. 'We don't just give the kids a check for $10,000. They communicate any legitimate business expenses up to $10,000, and Marist will pay. So these guys are working with a supplier and an attorney,' he said. 'We give them full license – we don't guide them. They will make their own decisions, but they have to be legitimate business expenses.' Second-place team VitaBomb, which provides a fizzy way for children to take daily vitamins, received $5,000. They are seniors Eva Dawczak, Kate Donegan, Maddie Berry, Michael Fortner and Rorey Donnelly. Rise Button is a smart wake-up device that aims to get users to move before they hit the snooze button. Juniors Joey Hughes, Ryan Lawlor, Jacklyn Pigatto and Sara Winters and senior Lily Yocum received a third-place prize of $2,500. OmniShake team member Sean Carroll was surprised after the final pitch night presentations. 'They put Rise Button at third and it made me nervous because I thought the best ones were us and Vita Bomb. It made me kind of nervous,' he shared. 'They said Vita Bomb was second and OmniShake was first, so I was low-key shocked.' All 10 teams in the yearlong IDEAS class made pitches to a panel of four judges, who chose five teams for the finals. On the final pitch night, the judges were Footsteps2Brilliance founder and CEO Eugene Narciso, Bank of America Senior Vice President Alex Belan and Marist alum Kevin O'Finn, founder of Headphones+, who won the inaugural pitch night when he was a senior. O'Finn won in 2017 'and within 13 months of winning and taking first place at pitch night, he had his product for sale on Amazon and Walmart,' Mulcahey said. 'He won and then went on to Marquette (University). As a freshman, he was a guest speaker for the MBA program.' The judges made an impression on the students. 'I thought it was really cool we had actual CEOs and CFOs for our final judges,' shared Sameer Tadros of OmniShake. 'They all gave us really good advice at the end of it, and their words of encouragement really helped us see as a team what could make us grow as a business into something major instead of starting small.' OmniShake member Devin Feliciano said his favorite part about pitch night was being on stage with his team. 'We were able to communicate well up there and make our slides flow pretty well,' he said, despite a malfunctioning clicker and the mic cutting out. 'We sounded more confident because we had to talk loudly. I think it benefited our presentation.' Each has a favorite aspect of the product, with Carroll appreciating it being leakproof, so it keeps everything in a backpack dry. Feliciano explained that the bottle has a funnel inside the cap that's made of rubber, which helps prevent leaking. 'It goes around the mouthpiece and it goes around the inside.' Colin Vucko likes the measurement markings laser-engraved inside. 'I like to know how much liquid I'm putting into my drink,' he said. Tadros praised its stainless steel. 'It's more bio-friendly and safe for someone to drink out of,' he said. 'There's no microplastics from the stainless steel container.' Danny Kelly said the best thing is its removable sifter. 'Once you put the sifter in and put whatever powdered supplement and shake it, there's no clumps and a smooth drink.' Winning pitch night is not the end of the line for the team. 'In the future, we'd like to try and partner with a CFS Gym because they're local and only in Illinois. We also want to use TikTok and Instagram to market our company,' Kelly shared. 'We also recently made a Shopify account so people can buy online.' Preorders will be taken soon on the website, as the team works to create enough product to sell. Students in the class are helped by mentors such as Jason Berta, who began teaching math at Marist four years ago after practicing patent, trademark and copyright law for 12 years. 'When most people hear the word 'patents,' they think that if they come up with a new idea that it's theirs and it can be patented. It's not that simple. Patents don't protect ideas but rather new and useful inventions, and there's a lot of details that go into whether, and to what extent, an invention can be patented,' Berta said. 'Also, patents are only one area of intellectual property that might impact our students' innovations. I introduced them to trademarks, which cover branding issues, copyrights, which might apply to artistic, musical, and written works, and trade secrets.' Other mentors also made an impression. 'We had the (CFO) of Tuthill, Anthony Belmonte, come in and teach us about finance,' Kelly shared. 'He helped us guide our (company). We also had Mr. Berta. … He told us the different patents we could use and how to start a patent.' 'It's neat to have that subject matter expert in the building,' Mulcahey said. 'I use the framework of starting a business to help (students) develop soft skills,' he said of the IDEAS class, such as teamwork being persuasive, public speaking and 'the ability to receive criticism, the ability to offer feedback.' Mulcahey said he was proud of OmniShake and all the teams. 'I asked them at the beginning of the year to treat this class not as a class but as if they were going to work. I thought everyone did a great job with that.' He added that 'Omnishake (the judges) thought was the team that would be the fastest team to get revenue,' and 'two of the three judges asked if they could purchase or help fund OmniShake.' Mulcahey provides judges with a rubric, 'but ultimately what I ask the final judges to evaluate is the validity of the business idea and the effectiveness of the presentation,' he shared. 'All five that presented on final pitch night were fabulous. … Last year, eight out of 10 teams (presented) an app, and this year only one team was an app.' He explained that when the new class starts, he asks students to think of a problem to solve instead of trying to think of an amazing product. 'I think the things the teams found bugged them had more to do with the physical work than an app. That is my guess.' The course is one students will remember. 'The overall experience of the class was amazing,' Vucko said. 'I'm beyond grateful for the opportunity itself, and thank you to Mr. Mulcahey – he's a great mentor.'
Chicago Tribune
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Evergreen Park student overcomes dyslexia, brings home state writing award
When Brooklyn Reyna, of Evergreen Park, discovered she'd earned top honors in the writing competition Letters about Literature, her first thought wasn't the $200 prize or statewide recognition. Rather, it was recognition of the obstacles she had overcome. 'I was super surprised and I was really excited,' said Reyna, a sophomore at Marist High School in Chicago. 'It means a lot to me winning it because I've struggled with dyslexia and reading my whole life.' Reyna, who was diagnosed with dyslexia when she was in second grade, said reading is a challenge for her. 'Winning this competition showed me that if I really want something, I can put my mind to it and overcome my struggles.' She collected her $200 cash prize and plaque from Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias for winning the Level III state competition May 21 at a ceremony in Springfield. English teacher John Gonczy and her parents, Tyrone and Katie Reyna, were there to cheer her on. Gonczy was awarded a certificate as well, and the Marist library received $100. Reyna and the state winners in the Level I and Level II were invited to read their letters aloud. 'My mom and my dad were really proud of me. My mom cried. She knew how much it meant to me,' Reyna shared. 'My siblings are super proud of me too – we had a dinner.' Her teacher Gonczy is proud, too, saying he was 'absolutely floored' she took the state's top honor. 'I was so pleased when I got the phone call' from the contest representative in Springfield, he said. 'Never in a million years did I think she was calling me to tell us one of our students won. It was a marvelous, marvelous surprise.' The award is a recognition of Reyna's hard work, he said. 'I think that this is going to go a long way to reminding her that she is an extremely capable person, and it will motivate her to continue to do excellently in the future,' Gonczy shared. 'And I'm happy with the rest of the school because they see that one of their own can do this.' Reyna's submission was one of 503 essays entered by students in ninth to 12th grades in the Letters About Literature contest, which invites youths to write a letter to the author of a book that has changed their view of themselves of the world. It's sponsored by the Illinois secretary of state and the state librarian, as well as the Illinois Center for the Book. She chose to reflect on the graphic memoir 'Numb to This' by Kendra Nelly, which took her four days to read. 'In my letter, I wrote about my own experiences with gun violence and how these connect to the main character, Kendra,' Reyna shared. 'It's inspiring how she overcame her struggles, the aftermath of the trauma she went through, even though she wasn't in danger anymore.' The book's not an easy one, Gonczy said. 'This was an assignment that was a tough thing to read because it's about a school shooting, and she was able to connect it to personal experience, which breaks my heart,' he said. 'And my two finalists, they also did a really good job with connecting something they read with something personal. These are not easy things to write about.' Other Marist students earning finalist recognition in the competition were sophomores Melanie Martinez and Kallen Spalliero. Honorable mentions went to sophomores Jaiden Burden, Elizabeth Casey, Briggs Corona, Michael Cushing, Moira Daly, Davy Gray, Caroline Gutrich, Mae Parisi, Fabian Peralta, Marqui Steel and Leah Treacy and juniors Ronan Carmody, Hannah Noonan and Mariano Angel. Gonczy, who's been teaching for 30 years, has students in his classes write letters for the competition as an assignment, and he chooses which to submit to the contest. 'We've been doing this for years. We've fared very well but never had a (state) winner before.' Receiving outside validation really helps students, he said. 'I can tell you that when these kids receive these certificates at any level, it says to them, to the world, that this student was able to read this and write intelligently about the literature and was recognized by the state government,' Gonczy shared. 'It's concrete evidence that they did a good job reading and internalizing. I can give them good grades, but when an outside entity recognizes them… It's just awesome. It's very gratifying.' Marist librarian Kristy Rademacher also aids with the assignment, providing a list of books on the Abraham Lincoln book list for young people. Gonczy includes the assignment every year as a way to combat the many screens that vie for students' attention. 'I think it's increasingly important that we present kids with opportunities to read longer works because the digital age is definitely affecting their attention spans. It's really vital, especially because we're a college prep school, and we know when they go to college they need to sustain their attention,' he said. 'I want students to have the stamina to read and reflect intelligently on what they read.' The ability to read and comprehend is essential, he said. 'I hope that everyone … will take away just how important it is that we encourage younger people to find books that are interesting to them, that resonate with them and read them from start to finish. To hang in there and do it because it's a skill that they desperately need to enjoy greater success in all walks of life.' The assignment has sparked something in Reyna. 'I want to continue to write and have a career that involves writing,' she shared. 'What initially sparked my interest in writing was when I joined journalism freshman year. What also made me very interested in reading and writing is my English teacher, Mr. Gonczy. He always makes his classes very enjoyable, and I look forward to going to his class every day.' Melinda Moore is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
Chicago Tribune
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Tinley Park family chalks up 3rd generation valedictorian
Tinley Park's Celia Lindokken was named valedictorian for the Class of 2025 at Marist High School. It's a family tradition. She joins her mother, Margy (maiden name Ortigara) who was a valedictorian in 1984 at Providence Catholic in New Lenox, and her grandmother, Cecilia (Tribbia) Ortigara, who was a valedictorian in 1945 at St. Louis Academy at 117th and South State streets in Chicago. Three generations. Three valedictorians. What are the odds? But there is another numerical wrinkle to this story. 'It's a funny coincidence because my mom was the youngest of five children and her mom was 38 years old when she had my mom,' Margy said. 'Celia is the youngest of five and I was actually 41 when I had her. It sounds kind of funny. It's kind of sweet. You just do your best and see how it all plays out.' There is one more chapter to the family history that would have math majors scratching their heads. All four of Celia's grandparents — Herbert and Edith Lindokken and Mario and Cecilia Ortigara — were born in the same year: 1927. And, yes, Celia was named for her late grandmother. 'They are both so much alike,' Margy said. Celia does have an impressive math background at Marist, in Chicago's Mount Greenwood neighborhood. She received the school's Michael Sullivan Family Foundation Senior Year Scholarship for Excellence in Mathematics covering full tuition and fees for her senior year at Marist. She was involved in a variety of academic and extracurricular activities, including Marist's band, jazz band, math team, National Honor Society, and the Italian National Honor Society. Mokena's Nathen Toth, who has made a name for himself in the sports pages as a volleyball star for the defending Illinois High School Association state champion RedHawks, was named salutatorian. He is a graduate of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin in Orland Hills and he will be heading to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for academics and volleyball. Both were pulled out of classes recently and summoned to principal Meg Dunnebak's office, where they received the good news. 'I knew I was in the running, but that's something you never assume,' Lindokken said of achieving the honor. Lindokken, who earned a perfect ACT score of 36, is a graduate of Central Middle School in Tinley Park and is heading to the University of Wisconsin. Despite the success her mom and grandmother enjoyed being at the top of their class, Lindokken said she did not feel pressure or put pressure on herself to achieve that lofty status at Marist. 'I never felt like I needed to do it,' she said. 'I didn't have to do it for my parents. I didn't need to do it for myself. 'I'm obviously very happy that it happened, but it wasn't something I was losing sleep over. I wasn't counting every little point just to try to get my As to be A-plusses.' She added that no matter what happened with the naming of a valedictorian, her mission was accomplished. 'I went to Marist to be academically challenged, and I feel like I definitely got that experience in my four years here,' she said. Lindokken also has attracted the attention of Village Hall in Tinley Park where she was recognized for her ACT accomplishment by Mayor Michael Glotz last June and earned one of the village's Reta Brudd Scholarships earlier this month. She is a third-generation valedictorian and in the next four years plans to be a fourth-generation graduate of Wisconsin, joining her father, Carl, his mother and grandfather. Carl added that he had two brothers, two sisters and several cousins attend the Madison school. Celia has a good idea of her future plans. She hopes to get a degree in food science. Then she wants to move back to the Chicago area and work in product development in the food industry. Her interest in that field was piqued at a young age. 'I really love cooking and baking,' Celia said. 'When I went to school, I realized I was good with this math and science thing, so I wanted to do something where those two skill sets could come together. 'Food science is the perfect marriage of the two.'
