NOTICE · No Yoga class this Wednesday · See you in the Fall!!

US Final Exams June 5 & 6

Wednesday, June 6
· Great America trip Middle School
· Last day of school for Lower School

Thursday, June 7
· Last day of Middle and Upper School
8:30 am · Senior Breakfast
9:45 am · 8th grade graduation practice (& optional late start for MS)
10:30 am · Senior graduation practice
11:00 am - 12:30 pm · Middle School P3 Expo
1:30 pm - 3:00 pm · Middle & Upper School Awards Ceremony

Friday, June 8
10:00 am · Middle School National Junior Honor Society Induction Ceremony
11:00 am · 8th Grade Moving Up Ceremony / Graduation
4:00 pm · 12th Grade Commencement

Sunday, June 17
RACE AGAINST HATE- Roycemore will again be participating in the YWCA's Race Against Hate. There are four different race options to choose from: a timed 5K and 10k, a 5K walk, and a Youth/Family 1 Mile. To join the Roycemore Team, click here: Race Against Hate Team Roycemore. For more information, click here Race Against Hate or contact team captains: Annette O'Donnell [email protected] or Darcy Aksamitowski [email protected].

By: Adrianne Finley Odell

Each year an alumnus of the school is selected to be recognized as a Distinguished Alumnus and serves as the guest speaker at Graduation and to join the senior class for breakfast the day before graduation. This year’s Distinguished Alumnus is Christopher Deutsch from the class of 1993. I first met Chris last fall in downtown Chicago at 1871 in the Merchandise Mart. 1871 is Chicago’s Center for Technology and Entrepreneurship. It serves as the home of more than 400 early-stage, high-growth digital startups. It was an appropriate place to meet Chris because he is both an entrepreneur and investor in start-ups. It is the perfect career match for an individual who possesses endless energy, passion, drive and determination. Chris is certainly a Griffin trailblazer. While a student at Roycemore he participated in something like sixteen different clubs and activities while also doing his school work. He credits his experience doing this at Roycemore to his ability to continue to balance a full load of coursework in Economics at Vassar College with other activities— where he wasn’t satisfied with playing ONE varsity sport, so he participated in THREE— lacrosse, basketball and rugby!  

Chris has leveraged his education and experience to serve as the founder, co-founder or founding team member of numerous angel and VC-backed ventures where his responsibilities have included marketing, product development, fundraising, business development and M&A. One of the companies he founded is WeCasa, which enables people to share their spare rooms and couches with friends for the benefit of nonprofits they care about— think Air BnB, but with a social responsibility aspect. Prior to WeCasa, Chris spent four years working with Loft Development Corporation, his family’s Chicago-based commercial real estate business, comprised of six office buildings and two self/wine storage facilities under the Strongbox brand. Loft Development’s real estate holdings were sold in 2016. Chris is also the principal of Lofty Ventures, which focuses on early stage startups in Chicago. The portfolio of 20 companies includes Turbo Appeal (acquired), teaBOT (Y Combinator), Popular Pays (Y Combinator), Cubii, Blitsy (acquired), L Street Collaborative, Crowdfind, 4Degrees (Techstars) & Paladin (Techstars).  Chris is also co-founder of Worlds Collide, an LP in social venture fund Impact Engine (IV), a partner of Social Venture Partners, on the board of 501c3 organization Outreach With Lacrosse & Schools and was a founding board member of 100+ Who Care Chicago. He has been a mentor for various accelerators, universities and graduate programs including Kellogg School of Management, Pritzker Law School, Thunderbird School of Global Management, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Arizona State University, Impact Engine, National Association of Realtors’ REach program, and Techstars.  

You’ve got to move fast to keep up with Chris! We are certainly proud of his achievements and pleased to recognize him as this year’s Roycemore Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient.

As one of 120 US participants selected for this prestigious program, Gabriel received a full scholarship to participate. He is currently in Brazil participating in this program that runs from June 2nd - 21st where he is meeting with other high school students and adult mentors from 26 countries across the Western Hemisphere. A program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the US Department of State in partnership with US Embassies and World Learning, the program aims to develop a cadre of young adults who have a strong sense of civic responsibility, a commitment to their communities, and awareness of current and global issues, and strong interpersonal leadership skills. The program also aims to promote mutual understanding, respect, and collaboration between people in the United States and other countries of the Western Hemisphere. Through the program participants will enhance foreign language skills and cross cultural competencies, develop leadership and critical thinking skills, improve understanding of a democracy in action, and improve skills for working effectively with diverse groups. Participants will engage in volunteerism and design and implement follow-on activities that promote positive social change. Congratulations Gabe!

We still have room for some summer program offerings. Summer programs at Roycemore are offered for students as young as three and as old as 18. Dates run from June 11th - August 10th. As you are planning your student’s summer activities, be sure to check out the options at Roycemore.

We’re pretty excited to let you know that float building is beginning this week— spearheaded by “First Spouse” Rich Odell. We are seeking a few volunteers to help with painting as well as some volunteers to ride on the float and walk with the float on July 4th! The parade starts at 2:00 pm on July 4th and is over around 4:00 pm, when we will relocate to Roycemore for a community picnic / barbeque. Following the picnic / barbeque, a group will walk down to the waterfront to enjoy the Palatine Band followed by fireworks. Please email Adrianne Finley Odell to let her know if you want to participate in float building, participate in the parade, and/ or participate in the picnic/ barbeque at Roycemore following the parade.

We are happy to share with you that this year we will welcome Guatemalan students to campus through the Faces and Our Cultures Program. These young participants spend nearly two months living with a host family while attending classes and participating in extracurricular activities at school. The program has led to wonderful friendships and provides our students and our Guatemalan guests with valuable cultural experiences.
In order to participate in the Faces Program, Guatemalan students apply to be Cultural Ambassadors of their country and are carefully selected by the Faces & Our Cultures Team. They go through a preparation process during the year and also prepare cultural projects to share with their host family and school.
This fall, our young cultural ambassadors will arrive October 16th, stay with their host families and join our school community for the following 7.5 weeks, and depart December 9th.

If you are interested in hosting a student, and participate in this life enriching experience, you can contact Adrianne Finley Odell at [email protected] or contact Gaby Padilla, State Coordinator, at [email protected].

US host students also have the opportunity to participate in a Cultural Exchange Experience in Guatemala during the summer (optional program). This experience can be customized from 2 up to 4 weeks.

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