Inspirational Eagles Named for 2021-2022 School Year On March 8, 2022, Leyden celebrated twelve of our finest students for the Seventh Annual Inspirational Eagle Awards. These Awards go out to students for accomplishments in improving or maintaining academic excellence, attendance, behavior and overall citizenship. They are nominated by faculty, and are chosen for their incredible stories of triumph over adversity. Mia De Leon Mia De Leon has a passion for Theater, Art and History. She has excelled in all areas academically, reaching the AP level. Theater, in particular, allowed Mia to “put herself out there”. She has played Dahlia in Teatro Leyden’s World Premiere of Wave, The Girl in Blood Wedding, and Gilbert in Powerline.
Sierra Gibson
Sierra Gibson holds the award for the most faculty and staff nominations. 5 separate nominations were submitted in support of Sierra. There were many comments regarding her positivity as well as her willingness to help others.
Sierra has always loved athletics. For the past eleven years, she has played basketball and softball. Her older brother would coach her on the weekends and ensure she was at the top of her game. At Leyden, Sierra continued her athletic career. While mainly focusing on basketball and softball, she also tried volleyball and gymnastics. More recently Sierra made varsity in both basketball and softball, achieving the prestigious “all-conference” recognition in both sports! Additionally, Sierra currently has three different offers to play both basketball and softball at the collegiate level.
Xander Kieffer
Xander Kieffer has grown as a person in the last few years. Xander struggled with his mental health. With therapy, Xander saw firsthand the good that psychiatrists can do. Additionally, Xander has fought internally to accept his identity and love himself unapologetically. Recently Xander came out as a transgender person and couldn't be happier.
Xander has a love for poetry. He presented a poem to a room full of teachers at the IDEA conference about his journey sharing with the world being transgender and the harsh realities for transgender people. The room of teachers were crying and were also empowered to talk about their own experiences after listening to this young person’s unique lived experience.
Valentina Ly
Valentina Ly has maintained straight-As while at East Leyden while taking rigorous Advanced Placement courses. She has great attendance. However, Valentina struggled coming out of her shell. Valentina moved a lot when she was younger. She originally grew up in Melrose Park before moving to Arizona, then to Schiller Park, and Florida, before returning to Franklin Park where she lives now. The frequent moves on top of Valentina's shyness made it difficult to create and maintain friendships.
At East Leyden, Valentina learned to take initiative. Valentina really found her calling as a mentor to a Freshman Advisory. Twice a week Valentina gets to assist her teacher, Ms. Hernandez, in teaching lessons around community building, postsecondary planning, and essential skills.
Guise Salas
Guise Salas has had a fantastic high school career. As you will see, he takes pride in his academics. He has been able to take rigorous coursework including 6 college-level AP courses all while maintaining an impressive 4.2 GPA.
He has also been connected to the school community by being involved in clubs like the National Honor Society, Class of 2022, Spanish Club, and Blue Crew. What is really impressive is that Guise has found the time to give back to the Leyden community. He has served as an Advisory Mentor to younger students, he has coached youth basketball, and has helped tutor students.
Grace Wardisiani
Before Leyden, Grace Wardisiani was not the best test taker. Unfortunately, this became a barrier for her and limited her class choices. That is something that stuck with her and became a worry as she transitioned to high school.
Taking this leap and betting on herself, Grace was opened up to a new world in AP Government and Politics. She learned to challenge herself more than she thought she was capable of. And while that did come with a moment of “freaking out” that these courses were too much, Grace always found what she needed to succeed.
Between her Advanced Placement Courses, Dual Credit, and Dual Enrollment Grace will be graduating high school with 21 college credits! What a fantastic example of believing in yourself!
Patrick Gadocha
Having parents that immigrated from Poland really shaped Patrick Gadocha’s future aspirations. In middle school, he was picked on. He was called annoying, accused of asking too many questions and talking too much. While that stung at times to hear this from his peers, Patrick learned to persevere, to be himself, and to not be so fixated on others’ opinions.
At West, Patrick learned to take advantage of the opportunities available. As an AP student, Patrick was invited to an AP summer camp where students learned about what it was like in college-level classes and also visited several University campuses. With the support of his teachers, Patrick feels like he is ready for life after high school. Patrick plans on earning a law degree and serving as an immigration attorney to help people like his parents.
Alejandro Gonzalez
While last year was tough for a lot of people it was especially tough for Alejandro. Last year Alejandro’s cousin Miky was shot. A bullet from a gang-related drive-by hit Miky in the head. While he was fortunate to survive, it took him a while to re-learn how to walk and how to talk again. When he regained speech, one of the first things Miky reminded Alejandro was to keep working hard not to take anything for granted.
Like his cousin, Alejandro wants to become an engineer after high school. He is even taking some pre-engineering courses now. Learning how to 3D model and analyze structures. Alejandro has also really enjoyed Physics and Business Accounting. He has participated in Psychology Club and Fit Club. More recently Alejandro has been focused on his college applications. Alejandro was recently accepted to Elmhurst University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, DePaul University, and St. Xavier University.
Eveline Ibarra
One of the things that Eveline Ibarra struggled with the most was the ability to stay engaged in the online format. Eveline says she let herself down. While most students found remote education isolating, Eveline found it difficult to concentrate.Often her family would overload their Internet causing the whole family to be booted from their meetings at the same time. Luckily we have been able to return to in-person education and Eveline has found her peace and quiet.
Eveline is a member of the Service Club. As the name would suggest the purpose of this club is to volunteer and give back. Eveline has volunteered with Make a Difference Day, she has helped decorate Northlake Public Library, and assisted in a local 5K. Eveline plans on Attending Dominican University where she will study Criminology.
Azul Rios
Azul Rios began her high school career at Proviso Math and Science Academy where she found the coursework challenging. At the same time, Azul's Mother and Father were going through a divorce. This allowed Azul the opportunity to move with her mother to Melrose Park and attend West Leyden as a Sophomore. This allowed for a fresh start although it felt short lived. Due to the pandemic, classes became fully remote. Creating new friendships and connections was very hard through a computer screen.
Azul survived and entered Junior in-person. She began playing Tennis and found connections to
the school community through teachers and coaches. Today Azul is giving back to the community. As a regular volunteer with the Interfaith Outreach food pantry, and as a Mentor to freshmen as part of Leyden’s advisory program.
Alondra Rodriguez
Alondra Rodriguez was born into a family where her parent's documentation status has created challenges growing up. These challenges have appeared and affected her life in several ways that many take for granted. Her mother a cake decorator, and her dad, a construction worker, she has seen the way her parents have navigated their life by working hard and accomplishing the seemingly impossible despite their grand disadvantages.
The medical field had always intrigued Alondra who has carried an innate desire to help others. She tore her ACL playing basketball during the COVID pandemic which became an eye-opening experience to the recovery process and Orthopedics. This experience coupled with a newfound love for Physics and Math (Thank you Dr. Veltman) may have changed Alondra’s trajectory to study biomedical engineering. Alondra also hopes that in pursuing this career, she could empower other Latina women like herself, who are hesitant to enter the often intimidating world of STEM.
Rodolfo Torres
Although born in the United States, Rodolfo Torres was raised in Mexico City. His parents wanted to expose him to the language and the culture of Mexico. At the age of seven, Rodolfo returned to Illinois and was placed into bilingual classes to help him communicate and learn English at the same level as his peers. The process of learning a new language and culture was challenging. As one can imagine, it can be both isolating and mentally exhausting to leave what one has known to be their home and relocate somewhere foreign and assimilate an entirely different culture, but Rodolfo persisted.
At Leyden, Rodolfo was able to participate in the world premiere of the play “Wave”, although this achievement did not come easily. Rodolfo auditioned for a spot in the play when it was originally planned three years ago and originated the role of "Tio", the play became a radio broadcast and he finally debuted his role in person this Fall. For three years, Rodolfo persisted in an action lawsuit to the Supreme Court that fights for the abolishment of ICE detention facilities.until his goals became a reality and developed a sense of individuality and commitment. This has allowed him to showcase his skills as a well-spoken bilingual, intellectually-gifted student, and a well-developed actor. After Leyden, Rodolfo plans on becoming a lawyer, taking a
Alerts Sign-up