Cayleigh O'Hare, who is a senior at Hinsdale Central, has been invited to present her research at the Biomedical Engineering Society's (BMES) annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas Oct. 12-15. The title of her presentation is "3D-Biofabrication of a Novel Peripheral Nerve Conduit Using PLG and Graphite."

Cayleigh earned this opportunity in conjunction with the society's High School Poster Competition, which provides students with the chance to broaden their awareness in the field of biomedical engineering, attend cutting-edge keynote presentations and bolster their collegiate applications. She also received a travel award from the Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP) that will fund her trip to the event and participation in the competition.

This will not be the first time this year that Cayleigh will have the chance to showcase her work. She presented at the Illinois Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS) in March, where she took second place overall for her oral presentation and won a Department of Defense/National Science Teachers Association Scholarship. She also took part in the national JSHS event and BioGENEius Illinois competition in April.

Cayleigh's research is based on the work she did during the time she interned at Dimension Inx., which designs and develops therapeutic products that restore tissue and organ function.

We congratulate Cayleigh on this tremendous honor/opportunity, and wish her the best of luck with her presentation.

District 86 has produced and published the first installment of our "Inside the Classroom" video series for the 2022-23 school year. For those of you who are new to the district, we created this series in the fall of 2021 to help highlight the interesting and important work that our students and staff are engaged in on a daily basis.

In the video, which can be viewed by visiting https://youtu.be/A9SKwsmIJAQ, Kurt Vonnahme and Megan Parker talk about the role and responsibilities of the district's social and emotional learning (SEL) coaches. They also, with the help of students Grace Choi and Shay Doshi, highlight the impact and benefits of the monthly Red Devil Reflections and SouthPride Lessons, which are created in collaboration with the Student Voice Committee at each school and are focused on helping students build their SEL skills and competencies.

We want to thank Mr. Vonnahme, Mrs. Parker, Grace and Shay for teaching us about the purpose of the SEL lessons and the process for developing them.

If you would like to check out previous editions of our "Inside the Classroom" series, you can do so by visiting https://bit.ly/3Sl57cz.

Hinsdale Central English teacher Jared Friebel has been selected for the Chicago Area Writing Project’s Civic Engagement Fellowship for 2022-23. The Chicago Area Writing Project is among the sites that are connected to the National Writing Project and support its efforts to improve the teaching of writing and learning in schools and communities.

We congratulate Mr. Friebel on his selection.

The boys and girls golf teams from Hinsdale Central were dominant during the conference championships that were held last week. The varsity and junior varsity squads for both teams took first place in their respective tournaments, giving the Red Devils a clean sweep of the conference titles.

The boys teams from Hinsdale South also had strong showings at their conference championships. The Hornets took third at the varsity level behind a second place finish by Tommy Gneiser, and second at the junior varsity level thanks to a first place finish by Ryan Salverredy.

We congratulate both schools on their accomplishments, and wish them continued success in the postseason.

Hinsdale South's Amnesty International Club is holding a supply drive Sept. 26-28. All of the items that are donated will be delivered to the Chicago City Council Latino Caucus and benefit the asylum seekers who have arrived in the Chicago area in recent weeks.

You can access more information about the club's drive, including the list of supplies it is collecting for children and adults, by clicking the image on the right or visiting https://bit.ly/3qWKCaH. Individuals from the community who would like to help can drop their donations off at South's main entrance (7401 South Clarendon Hills Road) during regular school hours (8 a.m.-3 p.m.).

On Sept. 19, Hinsdale South's social studies department partnered with the League of Women Voters to register eligible students during their lunch periods.

You can register to vote or update/verify your existing registration by visiting https://www.dupagecounty.gov/Election/Voting/37059/ or https://www.vote411.org/.

District 86 will be administering the PSAT/NMSQT (Preliminary 

SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test) to all juniors on 

Wednesday, Oct. 12. For those of you who are not familiar with the PSAT/NMSQT, it is a practice version of the SAT that is also used by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation to identify top students who may be recognized and receive financial assistance through its scholarship programs.

You can access the information about the test that we sent to our juniors and their families by visiting https://conta.cc/3UhfNLn. You can also access the district’s assessment calendar for the 2022-23 school year by visiting https://bit.ly/3UuFHeC. 

Reminder - the next Community Conversation will be held on Oct. 19 from 1:30-2:30 p.m. in the auditorium at Hinsdale South. This session, which will be focused on the work of our Secondary Instructional Schedules committee, will feature updates about the efforts we are undertaking to determine if changes to our schedules, practices, etc. can improve or enhance the way we deliver instruction, foster the professional growth and development of our faculty and staff, and support student learning.

If you plan to attend the event on Oct. 19, we ask that you please use the form found at https://forms.gle/tjDq4BibejZcBNwC8 to RSVP. This will help ensure that we are able to accommodate those who wish to attend. We will also record this session for people who are unable to join us.

If you have questions or need more information about our Community Conversations, please contact Dr. Chris Covino at ccovino@hinsdale86.org.

If you missed the edition of Board Briefs for the board of education meeting on Sept. 22, please visit https://conta.cc/3R8qmgM.

Please visit https://bit.ly/3B4pHHk to access the latest COVID-19 data for our district, community and county. Below are the metrics we plan to update on a weekly basis.

Downers Grove South High School is hosting Options Fair 2022 on Oct. 17 from 6-8 p.m. This annual event, which is free and open to the public, was created to give students with special needs and their families an opportunity to meet with representatives from colleges and universities, as well as agencies that can provide services after high school. You can learn more about the fair by visiting http://www.optionsfair.org/.

William Stixrud and Ned Johnson will be the featured presenters for the first two events being held in conjunction with the 2022-23 Community Speaker Series.

During their sessions, which will take place Oct. 18 from 7-8:30 p.m. and Oct. 19 from 9:30-11 a.m., Stixrud and Johnson will provide information, advice, and tips that parents/guardians can use to improve the way they communicate with their children and handle challenging topics.

Both sessions are free and open to the public, and will be held in person at The Community House (415 W. Eighth Street in Hinsdale).

Please use the links below or visit http://www.d181foundation.org/ to register for the session you want to attend.