News Around Woodlands

The classroom achievements and community service of science teacher Julia Dunn recently were recognized with the DePaul University College of Education’s inaugural Early Career Alumni Achievement Award. It honors recipients' early professional achievements and ongoing dedication to enhancing educational practices while promoting well-being within their communities.

Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart was represented by 15 students at this year’s Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics (ICTM) state competition held at Illinois State University in Normal on April 26. Individual event highlights include an eighth-place finish by junior Taraneh Ragerdi Kashani out of approximately 150 students in the Algebra 2 event. 

Three Woodlands Academy students scored the fourth-highest point total in their division at NASA’s 2025 Human Exploration Rover Challenge. Seniors Sara Bult and Zara Dimovski and junior Gabrielle Babinski were selected for this international event based on the 20-page design proposal they submitted. 

Woodlands Academy’s May Crowning Mass was held May 2 as a reminder that Mary’s example continues to endure 2,000 years after her Assumption. May Crowning is a traditional way within the Catholic Church to honor Mary, Mother of Jesus, by crowning her statue with a wreath of flowers. Senior Frances Rose Graziano was chosen for the honor of performing that task this year.

May Crowning Senior Court member Frances Rose Graziano '25 offered the following reflection at Woodlands' May Crowning Mass on May 2, 2025.

Members of Woodlands Academy’s Class of 2025 have had some difficult decisions to make – most had done so by May 1, the traditional national college decision day. In all, 158 college applications submitted by Woodlands’ 34 seniors were accepted by a total of 112 institutions in the U.S. and Europe. Scholarship awards include a prestigious Evans Scholarship to Dyana Santoyo.

Freshmen Saraliz Callejas and Isabella Patino, sophomores Jackie de la Fuente and Morgan Fitzgerald, juniors Paige Georgi and Ona Sodaitis, seniors Zara Dimovski and Kate Foster, and campus minister/theology teacher Damariz Posadas were honored as fourth-quarter Sacred Heart Award recipients for their efforts in living out Sacred Heart Goal 4 in a most visible way.

Woodlands’ musicians received top-tier honors at a recent WorldStrides Heritage Festiva in Nashville, Tennessee. The student-led Microscope and the Kaleidoscope choirs won Silver plaques while the school’s Symphony Orchestra brought home the Bronze. Individually, Senior Giuliana Popoff received the Ovation Award and Sophomore Madeleine Lillis earned a Maestro Award.

As part of the culturally enriching exchange program between Sacred Heart sister schools Woodlands Academy and Gymnasium Sacré Coeur Wien in Vienna, Austria, 12 Viennese students spent two weeks at the Lake Forest school in March. Just before departing, they taught Woodlands students some basic steps of the Viennese Waltz during an all-school assembly in the gym. 

Works by ceramicist Danielle Chutinthranond and filmmaker Lynn Loo were featured at Woodlands Academy as part of the 2025 Jamie Tuttle Women in the Arts festival, which also included presentations by each artist. This event has been a Woodlands tradition since 2005. In 2021, it was named in memory of a beloved member of the school’s arts faculty for three decades.