Spring 2003 - Fenwick High School

Secrets of Success
Student Congress
A special off-shoot of forensics is “Student Congress,” where participants
research and develop legislation on real-world topics such as declaring war
on Iraq, protecting the environment, etc.. At mock-Congressional sessions,
they introduce the legislation, which then must go to committee, come out
of committee, and be debated on “the floor.” Fenwick’s eight-member team
competed in the IHSA State Congressional Debate Tournament in March
and four debators – Tess Feldman, Kevin McGurk, Ed McGuinnis, and
Trevor Skelly – rose to the semi-final session in which the top 16 debators
(out of an initial 200) competed. Trevor Skelly placed 12th in state and, at
a session leading up to state, won the “Best Legislation” award.
The Student Congress coach is Judith Speer, also Fenwick’s forensics
coach. She is president of the Chicago Catholic Forensics League and a
diamond speech coach. To reach the “diamond” designation, coaches
accumulate at least 1500 points by earning 1/10 of the points their students
win in speech competition.
Standing, left to right: Kevin McGurk ’05, Greg Hart ’06,
Mike Stark ’05, Coach Judith Speer, Ed McGuinnis ’04,
Chris Sullivan ’05, Meera Venu ’04, and
Tess Feldman ’04. Seated: Trevor Skelly ’03
The Math Team, coached by Roger Finnell ’59,
practices in a room lined with plaques and trophies won in math competition
through the years. This year, they won first place in the Chicago
Archdiocesan Math Contest for the tenth year in a row. The team members
who helped Fenwick win top prize in this contest were Ryan Kiefer ’04,
Damian Kozbur ’04, Natasha Krol ’03, Steve Kurtz ’03, and Patrick
Lange ’04.
The 34-member Fenwick Math Team also placed first in the state math
contest regionals held Saturday, February 22, at Northeastern Illinois
University. Fenwick qualified its entire team for state competition and
placed 3rd in state on April 26.
Coach Roger Finnell and the Math Team
Congress, Joe wrote a letter to Chicago
newspaper columnist Mike Royko asking
what ordinary people felt about the space
program. Three months later he received a
large bundle of replies which he was able to
sort into two piles.
‘There were the pragmatists, who wrote that
although it was probably a good thing to
advance knowledge, they thought there were
other more pressing priorities,” Joe explains.
“The other pile was the dreamers, those
whose imaginations were caught up in the
possibility of leaving the planet and looking
back to see life on Earth in a whole new perspective.”
Most astronauts, he believes, and
many other Americans are still dreamers.
Earlier this year, Joe shared those dreams
and his knowledge about the space program
with Rev. Richard LaPata, ’50 O.P.,
Fenwick President, and Bob Dixon,
Director of Development, who had traveled
to Texas to meet with alums living in that
part of the country. Less than a week later,
the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated
on re-entry. Joe believes the program will be
able to fix what when wrong and continue
its quest for knowledge. “There are practical
reasons for continuing the program. One of
those is that having eyes and ears in space
makes our country stronger. And besides,”
he says, “America is still one of the very few
places where a young boy or girl can
imagine going to space and actually have
the chance to do it.”
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FENWICK