Featured Alumna - May 2019

Like most, my formative years at CCHS were the years that I decided the person I wanted to be. Thankfully, SCCS has a long legacy of incredible staff and faculty, including my late grandmother Joanne DeJong, to guide students through these important years. My father also attended CCHS, so I have multiple generations of CCHS influence in my life. I am incredibly grateful for the safe, supportive community I was surrounded by before, during, and after my time there. I graduated with the class of 2005, and several teachers we had that stand out in my mind include Mrs. Mary Medema, my soccer coach Mr. Veldboom, and the many faculty who I often still see today at Hope Church. When I wasn’t in class, most of my time in high school was spent playing sports, attending choir activities, and having some peripheral involvement with the theater and musical programs. So many of my life lessons were learned out on CCHS’s soccer field, such as the time I didn’t make the varsity team, but later that year went on to be the team’s high scorer, or being selected as soccer captain senior year, or when Wheaton clobbered us 1-13. I also think back fondly on the opportunities I was afforded to explore my passion for singing with the annual fine arts festival and the many arts and music classes available to us.

After high school, I attended Gordon College in Massachusetts for a few years before finishing my undergrad at DePaul University in Chicago with a Bachelor’s in Communications. I also went on to receive my Master’s in Public Administration from IIT’s Stuart School of Business, and I recently completed my senior certification in Human Resources (SHRM-CSP) earlier this year. I met my husband, James, playing recreational soccer in Chicago, and we now have two boys, Elliott (1) and Cole (4), and we’ve been living on the north side of Chicago. Soon after graduating from DePaul, and after a short stint performing music in Chicago’s night scene, I received a job at the Lincoln Park Zoo and have been there ever since. For the past 6 years I have been their Director of Volunteer Services and oversee a small but mighty team of staff, volunteers, and interns.

Before getting my job at the zoo, I was not sure what career I would have since most of my passions up until that point had been sports, music, and family. It turns out these passions, along with the loving, selfless, and supportive environment I grew up in and was surrounded by at CCHS, equipped me very well for working for a mission-based, non-profit organization. My belief in unconditional love has also taught me to lead with compassion and to search for, to understand, and to respond to the emotional needs of those around me. My hope is to one day run a non-profit organization and to lead an entire organization with this supportive approach. But no matter what I may continue on to achieve, the older I get, the more I believe my most authentic self is still that artsy athlete running around CCHS’s soccer field. I am so grateful for the staff and teachers at CCHS who created the safe and encouraging environment for me to find that inner self.