Counselors are meeting with students in lots of ways: visits to advisory Google Meets, grade level meetings via Google LiveStream, special workshops, and one-on-one Meets. These started in September and are ongoing. If a student need a refresher who their counselor is, please visit the Counseling Website. Students can also request a meeting with their counselor via email.

Dr. Kenner is soliciting questions for the Whitney Young Weekly. She will select and answer questions each week. Note: By submitting your question, you agree that the question and answer will be published and sent to the whole school community. Not all questions will be able to be answered and/or published. Due to the popularity of Kenner's Korner, questions may take at least four weeks to be published. If you have an immediate concern, please contact the Main Office during regular school hours at (773) 534-7500.

Submit your question or comment here.

October is Bullying Prevention Awareness Month. Students joined a Unity Day presentation on Oct 21 and were invited to sign a virtual pledge to create a world without bullying. If you haven't already signed the pledge, please do so today!

Ninth graders: Thanks for your participation in our ADAP lessons in your health classes. Next month the counseling department will be joining your health classes to present important information about Naviance, and help guide you through the resources that are available to you. We will also be taking the ADAP post-test in order to refresh your memory about our presentation. We are excited to meet with you all in November!

Halloween is a day to dress up and embrace the spooky. But there’s nothing scarier than a Halloween costume that hurts others. To keep the holiday fun and festive, follow our tips for choosing a costume:

1. Avoid costumes that stereotype a race or group.

Real cultures shouldn’t be used for dress up, and costumes like “Indian warrior”, “Geisha girl” or “Mexican amigo” rely on stereotypes that hurt real people.

2. If you dress up as someone with a darker skin tone than you, don’t darken your skin with makeup. Blackface has a long and offensive history of demeaning African Americans. Think of other ways to portray this person or character.

3. If it’s mean spirited, don’t wear it. Does your costume seem like it’s going to be hurtful or mock others? Avoid making fun of gender identity, disabilities, or body size when you dress up. When in doubt, choose something else - get creative instead of offensive with your costume.

For more information and tips, click here to visit the DEI Committee Site.

October is National Principal Appreciation Month! A big shout out to our amazing school leaders - Dr. Kenner, Mr. Swanson, Mr. Soto and Mr. Harris! On behalf of the Local School Council, Friends of Whitney Young, and all our students, parents, faculty and staff, we are grateful to you for your leadership, especially right now during this unusually challenging school year. Thanks for continuing to make Whitney Young an even better place every day! #PrincipalPrideChi

Junior Tova Kaplan: We Young People have been Devastated by Covid-19 (Chicago Sun-Times)

Student Council presents their second issue of the "Dolphin Dispatch"! Click here to read about virtual club fair, service opportunities, and check out the Student Council Q&A.

Join us for Stems for Smiles first meeting! We work to fundraise and donate to nonprofits as well as hospitals. This is a great way to connect with others and our community through these difficult times. All grades are welcome to join! We hope to see you there.

Please review this letter regarding the MTSS framework.

Are you a theater kid? A techie? A playwright? Someone looking for a fun artistic outlet? Join the Whitney Young Drama Club! At our biweekly meetings, we offer creative space in which thespians of all experience levels can learn about the theater arts, explore their artistic selves, and most importantly, be a part of a compassionate and accepting community. Our meetings feature improv classes, skills labs, historical deep-dives, and games that inspire a love of theater!

Join our Google Classroom with code 5vid4sq and join the fun every other Thursday from 3:30-4:30!

Yearbook is asking for your help to make this year's yearbook possible! Please use this form to submit your own photos of what you're doing in class, outside of class, in clubs, in sports, with your friends, etc.! We need everyone to submit photos for yearbook so we can accurately depict what everyone is doing this year. We still want your Spirit Week photos; they don't need to be taken during Spirit Week, you can pose for a picture right now!

Alternatively, you can use this form to request a yearbook photographer to take photos at events for you.

Also, please fill out this brief poll about academics, what language you're taking, what your favorite book was, what classes you're taking...

If you're a senior, make sure to nominate for senior superlatives and to send in your baby photo (both links are on the senior Google Classroom).

Thank you so much! If you have any questions or concerns, please contact wy.yearbook@gmail.com, and follow us on Instagram @wy.yearbook

Click here to review the Halloween costume guidelines.

Seniors, do you have any pressing questions you want to ask our principals? Are you interested in having meaningful conversations with them in a smaller environment? Fill out this form if you are interested in attending the session on Tuesday, October 27th at 11:00 am.

This past weekend, we launched our virtual Open House website and introduced the Chicagoland area to the Dolphin Community. If you haven't seen it yet, visit http://tinyurl.com/wyforever and share it with your friends, family, and prospective students.

To commemorate our event we're also offering shirts, for purchase. Show off your Dolphin pride and get your Whitney Young Forever shirt here.

The Secretary of State released accommodations for administering the permit exam remotely.

Written test accommodations: 1) An oral exam through Google Meets or 2) An online state exam monitored with GoGuardian.

Of the two options, option 1 would be the obvious choice for Whitney Young because we do not use the platform GoGuardian in option 2.

However, in order to administer a permit exam remotely, the Secretary of State mandated that the teacher must be a certified driver education instructor with the driver education accreditation on their teaching certificate.

CPS has never mandated that Physical Education teachers have the driver education accreditation to teach the classroom portion of the Graduated Driver Licensing program, Sports Administration is helping us in trying to find a certified instructor to assist us in administering the written exam.

So until that happens, at this point nothing has really changed for us. If you want to get your permit now you will have to go through a private driving school, otherwise you’ll have to wait until the CPS Ranges open up.

Questions? Please contact the PE Department Chair Mr. Timothy Franken at trfranken@cps.edu.

The Whitney Young Math Team has done it again! We competed in our first CPS competition on Saturday, October 17 and are currently in first place in the CCML (City of Chicago Math League). We are ahead of second place Payton by a score of 292 to 274.

Special recognition goes to the members of the team who earned perfect scores!

Freshmen: Anna Shao, Steven Song

Juniors: Harbin Li, Julian Shah, Daniel Zhang

The coaches Ms. Au, Mr. Kang, Dr. Mauer-Oats, Ms. Colon, and Mrs. Pierce would like to congratulate the team on a job well done!

If you have any questions about how to join the WY Math Team, please contact Ms. Au at jau@cps.edu.

At Connecting Chicago, we connect our enthusiastic volunteers with individuals who are seeking a helping hand as a result of the Coronavirus. Through virtual tutoring tutoring, we are bridging the gap during this period of isolation, so we remember that at our core, humans are connected. One call at a time, we aim to foster meaningful relationships and bring positivity to lives affected by social distancing and other safety precautions as we live in our new reality.

Sign up to be a tutor by October 30th! Service hours can be earned, and it is a great experience working with students! For more information, visit our website.

If you are interested in becoming a member of the WY Cheerleading Team please click here to join the Cheerleading Google Classroom Info page (class code ez6zull). We will meet on 11/9 for an informational meeting, and tryouts to follow 11/10 - 11/13.

If you have gymnastics, dance, or cheer experience come check us out! No experience is necessary or required though. We hope to see you there! If you have any questions please email Coach Stewart at kamcevoy@cps.edu. Note: Photo above is from the 2019 Season.