AT, Honor & AP Teachers and Students Recognized Congratulations to all of the students and teachers involved in District 308’s elementary and Jr. High Academically Talented (AT) program, Honors and Advanced Placement courses. On Thursday, April 23rd, over 150 were recognized by PACE for their dedication and commitment to accelerated learning. The purpose of this annual event is threefold: To publicly recognize AT/Honors/AP teachers who inspire students to strive for excellence and develop a love of lifelong learning; To recognize and encourage AT/Honors and AP students to develop a sense of group identity with pride in their accomplishments; To give AT/Honors/AP students and their families an opportunity to learn from inspiring presenters about real world and fun application of math and/or scientific concepts. PACE members believe that support for accelerated academic programs and encouragement of high educational goals and achievements are good not only for these individual students, but for our community as a whole. Honored guests at the event this year included: Village President, Brian LeClercq, and Village Trustee, Judy Solinger, who presented a Proclamation of “Parents and Community for Excellence Week” to PACE leader, Jill Ko; David Liesse, of the Oswego Optimists Club who generously awarded six student summer enrichment scholarships, and Andrea Schweda, District 308 School Board Member. Highlights of the latter part of the evening included two guest speakers -- Don Lincoln, Ph.D, FermiLab senior research physicist, who explained how astonishingly small particles make up our entire universe and what it takes to become a physicist; and Mary “Kaboom!: Hawthorne, docent at FermiLab and lead educator at SciTech Hands-On Museum who gave a physics-in-action demonstration, complete with explosions, fire and an auditorium size cloud of water vapor! Special thanks to our community sponsors for this event, including: McDonald’s Restaurant in Plainfield, Roy Sanchez, Manager; FedEx Office on Ogden Avenue, Naperville, Oswego Walmart, Brandi Edwards; to District leaders, Craig Watson, Asst. Principal OHS, Patti Marcinko and Amy Rux, Directors of Student Services (OHS/OEHS); and to our PACE parent volunteers, without whom this event could not take place: Lisa Glueck, Tom Griffin, Jill Ko, Jeanne Matthews, Pam Nagel, Katrina Perez, and Beth Zbylut. If your AT/Honors or AP student attended but did not receive a recognition certificate, send us an e-mail.