Jen Culbertson, Beth Schuck and Krysta Schoenbeck, three teachers and ROAR sponsors from West Chicago Community High School, were given the outstanding activity advisors award on Thursday, April 13, by the Illinois Directors of Student Activities (IDSA).

Nick Kempski, an AVID teacher at West Chicago Community High School, nominated the three advisors due to all the hard work and diligence they have put into the ROAR program at West Chicago.

“It was a complete surprise when Mr. Kempski told me that he nominated us. We are so blessed,” Culbertson said.

Every year, a banquet is held by IDSA to honor educational staff who emulate strong and innovative leadership skills. There are six categories that professionals can be represented in, and WEGO’s own were honored in the “activity director” realm.

To accept their awards, the three ROAR sponsors attended a banquet in Mount Prospect, Illinois.

“We celebrated with an Illinois Directors of Student Activities awards banquet on Thursday night where other activities sponsors and activities directors were recognized. It was an evening filled with dinner, a vendor fair, and activities for us to learn about and bring back to our school,” Schoenbeck said.

ROAR, the activity run by the three award winners, is a program that creates an experience for students to meet with other leaders, engage in teambuilding activities, and interact with motivational speakers. Every quarter of the school year, 200 students are invited to ROAR; with so many ROARs every school year, each student is invited to attend at least once in their high school career.

Several students also serve as ROAR mentors, leading sessions and activities at the event under the guidance of Culbertson, Schuck and Schoenbeck.

As Kempski put it in the writeup he wrote for the advisers’ nomination: “These three women deserved to be honored for changing the culture of our school and helping every student feel loved and welcomed.”

The award is a long-time coming.

“We have been running ROAR since the spring of 2015. One of our former counselors told us about a program called TALK at Oswego East. We visited TALK and really thought it was something that WEGO needed. We trial-ran it here that spring, except Wildcats don’t TALK, they ROAR! And the rest is history!” Schuck said.