Althoff Catholic High School - Crusader Yearbook (Belleville, IL)

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Maite Luengo spends year with an Althoff family. My name is Maite Luengo, and I am 18 years old. I am from Madrid which is the capital of Spain. I have a large family. My parents are separated, and I live with my mom and my three sisters. My mom is 39 years old and she works as a fashion designer. One year ago, I decided to come to the United States to study for 10 months. I talked about it with a friend of mine who studied in San Diego for one year when he was 19. He gave me information about different agencies that handle foreign exchange students. I chose an agency and they found Alicia Sierra ' s family for me. I left Spain on the 17th of August and spent 4 days in New York City before coming to Belleville. I lived in college dorms with students from all over the world and I had a great time. It was sad when everyone left for different states like Utah, Ohio and Colorado. When I arrived here, everything seemed so different to me. I come from a city almost as big as New York. Everybody lives in apartments and the streets are always full of people. Sometimes it was difficult living with the adjustment. People also stay out later than they do here; they wake up later, too. When I told my friends I was leaving, most of them said I was crazy and that I ' d die, but I am happy with my experience. Learning English has been great, but knowing a lot of the people here has been the greatest experience. I can ' t wait to go home and see everybody again, but I will miss my friends here and it will be hard to say good-bye. I hope to see them again someday. I ' m leaving for Spain on June 17th. Hopefully, I will get to see some of New York City again on my way out. I love big cities like New York, Chicago and Washington D.C. I spent Easter in Washington with a friend of mine. I really enjoyed it. This experience will definitely help me in the future because I hope to become a journalist and travel a lot. I would like to learn many languages — the more, the better. Learning about a different culture has been so interesting — meeting new people, seeing new places and living a new lifestyle. Next year, Stephanie Nelle (Class of 1987) is going to study in France for 5 months. I hope she has a great experience, too, and I am sure she will agree that being a foreign exchange student is one of the best forms of education. The best way to learn a language is to live it. The closing of St. Paul ' s brings new students to Althoff These are all the new sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

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Japan sends lightning shortstop Kenji Enomoto visits America Mr. Foppe and Mr. Webb learned as much from Kenji as he did from them. I like Althoff and all of America except for TESTS. But don ' t ask me, Do you like America better than Japan? If I could speak English better, I ' ll say yes . However, I like the USA because people are funny (in other words: weird or crazy). I was a crazy kind of person in Japan (some people know it). My bud¬ dies and I aren ' t the usual Japanese — we ' re just crazy. By the way, I went to a private Christian high school in Japan. The name is Meiji Gakuin Higashimurayama H.S. . It ' s lo¬ cated in Tokyo. We usually go to school by bus or train, because in Japan, the driving age is 18. — (The drinking age is supposed to be 20!) I went to school by train with a lot of my idiot friends. In the train, we were always troublesome to the other passengers. At 8:40 a.m., my school started with mass everyday. Mass only took 20 minutes. It was a good time to sleep — (I hope the teach¬ ers don ' t read this!) In the morning we had 4 classes. After lunch, we had 2 classes. We didn ' t have anything like 4L or 5E. Class time was 45 minutes, rest time was 10 minutes, lunch time was 40 minutes. In most of the classes I slept — Some teachers used to beat me in the classroom be¬ cause I was too pert. But those schedules are for Mon. thru Fri. IN JAPAN, WE HAVE SCHOOL ON SATURDAY!!! But Saturday is a halfday. Althoff has only one schedule, but we have a different schedule for each day. It means we had to study more than 10 different subjects for final exams. At three o ' clock, we got out of school, and I went to baseball practice. That ' s the most popular sport in Japan. Prac¬ tice was over at about 8:30 p.m. After that we went to eat. It was my favorite time. I miss these things: Japanese food (es¬ pecially SUSHI), my idiot buddies, SAKE (If you don ' t know what it is, ask Mr. Foppe), and my GIRLFRIEND. I would stay here. Perhaps I ' ll go to an American college. But I don ' t know if I can go or not. I have to ask my father. If you ever come to Tokyo, shout Kenji , and I ' ll be there soon. I hope I can meet you somewhere. Thank You Very Much (arigatoh) and See You Later (matane)!!! Kenji In the last part of the first semester of the 1986-87 school year, the students of St. Paul ' s High School of Highland, Illinois received a great shock. They were told that it would be the last year the school would be open. The initial reaction was one of total disbelief fol¬ lowed quickly by a subtle mixture of an¬ ger and sorrow for most. Staff and stu¬ dents alike clung together weeping while others went off by themselves to think. Over the next few weeks nothing was the same. The teachers seemed sorrow¬ ful but still dedicated and for the most part did not have to heart to punish stu¬ dents. The students seemed unusually complacent, not causing any real trou¬ ble in class, just drudging through the days. After about a month, things seemed to return to normal. In fact, at this point only two things stuck in my mind that were not normal. The first was a rash of thefts that were occurring. Several members of the student body attempt¬ ed to collect souvenirs of the now dying St. Paul ' s. Second was a friend of mine who now also attends Althoff, not want¬ ing to hear the Beach Boys ' Gradu¬ ation Day on his tape, in fact, he flatly avoided it. When the year ended, we had to choose a new school to attend, and more than a few chose Althoff. From what I know of the others who came here from St. Paul ' s, we arrived with mixed feelings — but those did not last long. Unknown faces wished us hello in the halls. Others guided us to classrooms we had never before visited. All in all, the students here accepted us as we were and were willing to help us. When we first arrived, I ' m quite sure there were some who did not like the school, myself included, but over the course of the next few weeks and months, we came to like it here. I cannot say whether we like it here more or less than our own St. Paul ' s, but I can say that although St. Paul ' s will always hold a special place in our hearts, we will nev¬ er forget Althoff. And, for those of us who transferred in as Seniors, I especial¬ ly wish to thank you for making our first and last year here at Althoff unforgetta¬ ble. Thanks. — Dax Sprinot Althoff Class of 1987!

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Lehrter Attends IL Citizenship Experience The Illinois Citizenship Experience (ICE) is sponsored by var¬ ious teachers, school administrators, and politicians through¬ out the state. These men and women initiated ICE to help high school juniors and seniors become more knowledgeable and aware of their local and state government and to become better citizens. The group welcomed many speakers throughout the week. These men and women came to the Springfield Holidome in the mornings and shared with us their expertise about diverse topics such as power in politics, the role of elected officials, and the media. They also shared their personal opinions on Governor Thompson, his proposed budget, and whatever else they wanted to talk about. We heard many conflicting opinions and arguments which served to broaden our views about politics and policies. Moreover, we observed how much our elected and appointed officials care and enjoy their work. Each afternoon the crew of fifty students and seven staff members would crowd on an old bus and visit the highlights of Springfield. We visited the Department of Law Enforcement and became friends with a few State Policemen, just in case one of us might meet one of them again in the future. In addition, the group toured the Willard Ice Building (the De¬ partment of Revenue) the Department of Agriculture, the Capitol Building, Sangamon State University, and the Gover¬ nor ' s Mansion. We spoke with officials such as Robert Lein- inger, the Executive Assistant to the State Superintendent of Education, Roland Burris, the State Comptroller, and a few of us even got to meet our local representative and senator. Unfortunately, both of mine, Mr. Hale and Mrs. Young, were attending meetings. But I did accidentally meet with a senator from Chicago and get to talk with him about some issues. I enjoyed every minute of the entire week, from writing and lobbying my own bill, to having water gun fights with the other students. I met many important (and not so important) men and women and became great friends with fifty other people who are my own age and who share my own interests. Those six days were exhausting and hectic, but proved to be an invaluable and unforgettable experience. — Sally Lehrter Freedom Conference Attended In late February, Mrs. Rose Mansfield and I received awards from the area ' s district branch of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. For her years of involvement in and pro¬ motion of the VFW ' s Voice of Democra¬ cy program, Mrs. Mansfield received a beautiful plaque adorned with the Statue of Liberty. Voice of Democracy is a program in which high school students write a patri¬ otic speech and record it all at a local radio station. This year, largely as a result of my contin¬ ued involvement in the program, I was designated district Student of the Year and was presented with an official VFW flight jacket. For four days in mid-April, I was invited to attend the American Legion Auxiliary ' s National Youth Leadership Conference held at Freedoms Foundation, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. In addition to visit¬ ing historic Philadelphia, we toured Valley Forge National Historic Park, where I am shown in the picture sitting in the door¬ way of a reconstructed hut used by Washington ' s men during their winter en¬ campment. — John Lehman Summer Filled With New Ideas Last summer was a very busy one for me. June 6-8 I was a counselor at the Illinois HOBY Youth Conference because I represented Illinois at the HOBY International Conference last summer in Los Angeles. June 15-21 I went to Girls ' State, held at Eastern University. June 22-28 I went to Washington, D C. for a program called Washington Work¬ shops, held at Virginia Marymount University. I visited Price ' s and Si¬ mon ' s offices several times, and I got to have an extensive conver¬ sation with Mr. Mike Mansfield, Price ' s executive aide. About 250 of us listened to speakers on Cap¬ itol Hill everyday, and held a model Congress at night. I sat in on a Sen¬ ate hearing concerning the role that astronauts should play in making executive decisions, and I met a few of the astronauts. We visited the Pentagon, where I fell asleep during a talk given by a Gener¬ al, and the Forrestal Building where a Special Assistant to the President talked to us — to get in here, we were frisked. Because of the terrorism threat, security in D.C. was notably tighter. We held a joint session of Congress in order to present our bills to the model congress, using parliamentary procedure, that is not only complicated, but also you need a degree in diplomacy to use it. I might add that the best information comes not from tour guides, but from taxi drivers. In July I participated in the Midwest Yearbook Conference, along with Lori Cavataio and Maria Santos. We learned how to put together a yearbook. I ' ll let you decide if we did it right or not. In August I spent two of the best weeks of my life the Thomas More Collegiate Summer Program in New Hampshire. Twelve of us studied Philosophy, Political Science, Apologetics, and Literature. We got to be very close, and we learned a lot about ourselves and things we had never thought of before. Just as importantly, I learned to value a liberal arts education, and I vowed that I would never stop questioning the world around me. — Molly Polka