The Decision and Dedication Day kicked off on April 28 with the seniors and their parents taking pictures in the gym wearing their college swag and holding their college pendants, courtesy of the college counselor, Mr. Robert. The whole school gathered in the MPR to honor faculty who have dedicated years to working here at Roycemore. Several teachers were honored, including Erin Kelly Gaines, Katie Hilton, Dr. John Trowbridge for 5 years of service, Stephanie Rivera for 10 years of service, and most impressively, Karen Byrnes, for 30 entire years of service.

Two special awards were also given. The Patti Goldstein Volunteer of the Year was awarded to 6th grade parent, Christo Sedgewick and the Thomas J. Ellis Community Service Award was given to 7th grader Lyra R. and  11th grader Alex Murphy.

The Roycemore sports team ended this year with a bang. On May 25, the school gathered to celebrate Roycemore’s longest tradition, Palio. Ms. Wunder celebrated 50 years of teaching tumbling! Middle and Upper schoolers carried the class banners and performed scenes from The Lion King. The Middle School Track and Field teams competed in two meets against other middle schools from all over the area. Roycemore had athletes finish in the top 5 of every event. The MS (he/they) competed in two nail-biting double headers against Elm middle school. Early childhood Palio took place on May 31, and the spectators enjoyed watching the kids perform. Overall, the Roycemore athletics wrapped up with a triumphant ending.

On Friday, May 26, 2023, Roycemore held its annual Upper School Awards Ceremony. This ceremony honors all the hard work Upper School students have achieved this year, and awards are given to deserving students. We honored the Eisner Scholars, Honor and Star Honor Roll, Achievement and Excellence, AP, and Thatcher awards. The list is as follows:

Eisner Distinguished Scholars:

Lias Rosenkrantz '27

Pema Yankey '26

Keira Kim '25

Hamza Keshk '25

Kees Keiper '25

Marko Maruszewski '25

Sierra Stark '24

Maya Nyima '24

Honor Roll:

Balber, Ashley

Birnbaum, Lucy

Bottum, Henry

Chambers, Willow

Cherevyk, Oleksandr

Choi, Youngnim

Condurat, Dave 

Duffield, Sophie

Ebels-Duggan, Cora

Garcia, Aydan

Goldberg, Isabella

Gorski, Jackie

Huston, Theo

Iannelli, Andrew

Ijian, Nico 

Iosevich, Aaron 

Keiper, Kees 

Keshk, Hamza 

Liu, Jack

Moose, Otto

Murphy, Alex

Nguyen, James

Nyima, Maya

O’Brien, Colton 

Penn, Mollie

Prendergast, Tomás  

Rabenhorst, Alexander

Rehman, Ryyan

Rosenbaum, Leah 

Trotter, Ryan

Stark, Sierra

Wolfinger, Sophia

Yao, Alex

Yousefzai, Samuel

Zeller, James

Zhang, Henry

Star Honor Roll:

An, Michael

Black, Jacob

Condurat, Lisa

Goldstein, Aidan 

Kaplan-Block, Benji

Kim, Keira 

Maruszewski, Marko 

McGuire, Ronan

Scheidt, Aidan 

Scheidt, Conor

Trowbridge, Alastair

Wilson, Alec

Wu, Ellie

Xie, Jackson

Students who undertook college-level work:

Henry Bottum

Oleksandr Cherevyk

Youngnim Choi

Elisabeth Condurat

Cora Ebels Duggan

Theodore Huston

Andrew Iannelli

Aaron Iosevich

Hamza Keshk

Benjamin Kaplan-Block

Keira Kim

Jack Liu

Marko Maruszewski

Ronan McGuire

Alexandra Murphy

Khang Nguyen

Tenzin Nyima

Mollie Penn

Tomás Prendergast

Alexander Rabenhorst

Ryyan Rehman

Aidan Scheidt

Conor Scheidt

Sierra Stark

Alastair Trowbridge

Alec Wilson

Sophia Wolfinger

Ellie Wu

Jackson Xie

Alex Yao

Samuel Yousefzai

James Zeller

Henry Zhang

AP Scholar

Jackson Xie

AP Scholar with Distinction

Alec Wilson

AP Scholar with Honor

Lisa Condurat

AP Scholar with Honor

Henry Zhang 

Commended Student for outstanding performance on the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test 

Alec Wilson

President’s Award for Educational Achievement:

Ashley Balber

Theo Huston

Aaron Iosevich

Benji Kaplan-Block

Mollie Penn

Alexander Rabenhorst

President's Awards for Educational Excellence:

Lisa Condurat

Jack Liu

Tomás Prendergast

Alec Wilson

Ellie Wu 

Henry Zhang

Illinois State Scholar 

Alec Wilson

Outstanding AP Psychology award

Lisa Condurat and Alec Wilson.

Harvard Book Prize

Ronan McGuire

Gayle London Memorial Award

Aidan Goldstein

Lee Cambata Award

Kees Keiper

Laura Gertzfeld Award

Nico Ipjian

Anita Hillin Award

Tomas Prendergast

Thatcher Award for Overall Academic Achievement

Alec Wilson 

Drama Thatcher Award

Lisa Condurat

Art Thatcher Award

Tomás Prendergast  

Music Thatcher Award

Henry Bottom

Science Thatcher Award

Lisa Condurat

Math Thatcher Award

Alec Wilson

English Thatcher Award

Theo Huston

French Thatcher Award

Alec Wilson

Spanish Thatcher Award

Ronan McGuire and Tomás Prendergast

Mandarin Thatcher Award

Aaron Iosevich

Social Studies Thatcher Award

Andrew Iannelli 

Griffin Trailblazer Award

Alec Wilson

Head of School Award 

Lisa Condurat

The theme for the 2023 Roycemore Auction was Rock n’ Roll and featured Students, Alumni, and Parents rocking out on stage. This year's auction was attended by 171 people and raised 156,000 dollars for scholarships. The auction was emceed by Roycemore's parent Marc Grapey, with an appearance also made by senior Lisa Condurat. The auction was made possible by student, parent, and faculty volunteers. Thanks to all who came and Rocked!

Unlike most other high schools, Roycemore only has one school dance. Roycemore Prom is open to every student from Ninth through Twelfth. The dance was held on a boat called The Spirit of Navy Pier this year. Students dressed up and enjoyed the view of Chicago’s evening skyline from Lake Michigan. At this year’s prom, many students danced the cupid shuffle all night while others sat up on top, watching and enjoying the lake air. 

The Roycemore Literary Magazine’s final 2022-2023 school year issue is out now! Edited by junior, Nico Ipjian, and featuring work by Upper and Middle School students, this final issue is worth a read! Take some time to check out student and teacher artwork, writing, poetry, and photography. The Roycemore LitMag will return next year with more pages of the Roycemore family’s creativity.

Throughout the year, via various babysitting events, Seventh and Eighth Grade students have been fundraising for their school trip to Washington, DC. Months of hard work were finally realized on May 16th when they embarked on a plane bound for the U.S. capital. While in D.C., the Seventh and Eighth Grade students visited museums such as the Air and Space Museum, the Museum of African-American History, and the National Archives Museum, the Library of Congress, which Miss Hilda thought was absolutely amazing. The students also visited the Capitol Building, where they met on the steps with Representative Jan Schakowsky. The highlight of the trip was when the group took a tour of the White House. 



Although the students were about as rowdy as a group of young teens can be expected to be, kids and chaperones alike were able to enjoy the trip and reflect on the history of our nation.

On May 12th, the annual Middle School Dance was held. This year's theme was: Celebrating Different Cultures Around the World! Students brought foods from their cultures to share with their peers and embraced each other's different nationalities while playing cards and board games and dancing the night away. “The dance was really fun and entertaining because we got to hang out with friends and learn about other people's cultures,” said Lily Dalezman, an Eighth Grader. She shared that lots of planning went into this event, “The Fifth and Sixth Graders came up with the dance theme” she shared. A very special thanks go to the teachers who supervised the dance: Ms. Lambert, Profe Emma, Mr. Mahlan, Ms. Milner, Ms. Stoimenova, and last but not least, Ms. Wilson. Let's show some appreciation to these teachers for providing a night to remember for the Middle School. 

The Science fair was an exciting time for Middle School students as they had the chance to design their own projects and demonstrate the skills they learned during the school year. It allowed students to foster their excitement for scientific experiments. Overall, Science Fair was a good way for students to explore and experiment with the world around them. 

This year’s trip to Springfield, Illinois, our state capital, capped off the Fourth Graders’ 2022-23 school year and their lower school careers. The fourth-grade Springfield trip serves as an introduction to school travel and an experience that makes state government tangible for the first time.

On Friday, May 6th, 2023 the greatly anticipated, Lion King Musical, took the stage! During the school day, a dress rehearsal was held and was packed to the brim in the MPRith Early Childhood, First and Second  Graders, Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers. It was a nice end of the first Advanced Placement (AP) week for the High Schoolers and gave them a well-needed laugh. When dusk fell, the MPR became packed with proud parents. With smiles, on their faces, the eager parents were excited to see their children perform after hearing about it for months prior. Numerous musical numbers, including “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” and “Hakuna Matata” brought a sense of nostalgia to the older viewers. The songs lingered in their head for the rest of the day. R.J Gunarrt, who played Scar, stole the show. A fan favorite, "Who played scar?” was heard throughout the hallway but, he wasn't the only one who stole the show as each child embodied their character in an amazing way that kept the audience focused. This performance could not have been done without our wonderful Ms. Redmann, so let's give a special thanks to her, and mark our calendars for the performance she plans next year.

Wax Museum is a yearly event for Roycemore’s Lower School that involves students dressing up as famous and impactful people as well as creating a presentation of all of their accomplishments. Held in the Multi-Purpose Room on May 2nd, and open to all students and staff who wished to attend, it was a spectacular show of knowledge and creativity. Students dressed up as people like Jackie Robinson, Albert Einstein, Barack and Michelle Obama, Jane Goodall, Megan Rapinoe, and more! Those who attended the Wax Museum described it as “very informative and cute”, and remarked that the kids did a good job all around. With a positive experience so clear to see on every kid’s smiling face, the tradition is sure to continue into next year.

Join Kees K. as he enters the world of satire with his very own brand of truthiness, Kees on the Street.

After a successful finish to the Yearbook, the Yearbook and LitMag editing staff was rewarded by going out to lunch with none other than Erik Schnitger, AKA Edawg Eats, on Youtube. Edawg's goal is to review restaurants Chicago-style hot dogs and upload them to his youtube channel. For the yearbook celebration, Edawg Eats took the yearbook editing staff out to lunch at Gigios, where the team got to be featured on an Edawg Eats video, a highlight of Senior Editors Tomás Prendergast and Alec Wilson's yearbook career! Unfortunately, things got interesting when Sierra S. put ketchup on her hotdog, a crime in the Chicago-style hotdog world. Nonetheless, the staff had a fantastic time, and the overall rating for Gigios hot dog came out to an average of 8.5/10 sport peppers. Catch their episode here!