Accomplishments

• Allison Quatrini, an international public affairs student at the University of Wisconsin - Madison from Downers Grove, has been awarded a Fulbright scholarship and will be studying in China for 14 months. She also won the Critical Language Enhancement Award, a new part of the Fulbright program to increase the number of Americans learning needed languages. The Fulbright program is administered by the Institute of International Education and sends more than 1,000 students and professionals abroad every year.

Allison will spend the first four months in Harbin in Heilongjiang Province in northeastern China where she will take two introductory courses in newspaper reading and classical Chinese. She will then go on to Beijing to study at Peking University’s Chinese Local Government and Local Administration Research Center.

Allison previously won a Foreign Language and Area Studies Graduate Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education. She used it to complete an intensive language studies program at Wisconsin’s Beloit College, where she studied Mandarin Chinese. Allison’s goal is to pursue a Ph.D. in political science and Asian studies.

• Colleen Marie Williams, a 2003 graduate of Downers Grove South High School, received a Bachelor of Science in Special Education from Illinois State University in May. She recently accepted a special education teacher position in the Kendall County Special Education Cooperative in Yorkville. She will be teaching at the kindergarten/first grade level.

• Kathryn Ann Williams, a 2001 graduate of Downers Grove South High School, received a Master of Arts in Higher Education from the University of Arizona in May. She recently accepted an Assistant Director position in the Office of Residence Life at Saint Xavier University in Chicago.

• Mary Williams, mother of Colleen and Kathryn, received a Master of Science in Disability and Human Development from the University of Illinois at Chicago in May.

She will continue her employment as a Physical Therapist with the La Grange Area Department of Special Education and recently accepted a part-time position in Marianjoy's Applied Rehabilitation Department as a wheelchair mobility specialist.  

• Alexander Gallan, of Downers Grove, has made the Dean’s list at the University of Chicago for the second year in a row. He has also been on the baseball team for the last two years. Now heading into his junior year, Alexander is majoring in biology with specialization in cellular and molecular biology. He intends to go to medical school.

Dean’s List

• University of Chicago
Downers Grove: John Anderson and Alexander Gallan

• Michigan State University, spring semester
Downers Grove: James Quatrini

• College of DuPage, spring academic honors list
Downers Grove: Rachel Kruty