\'oluine 26. issae 2 September 15, 198V
Southwor
Maine South High School
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Inside this issue Names of National Merit Scholar Governmental art critics? Semifinalists to be announced today -Commentary, page 2 Maine South teaciier becomes Oxford student -Features, page 4 Denmark welcomes two MS students through AFS -Features, page 5 Some important dates for upcoming college tests -News, page 6 'it went away, but now It's back-~Coed PE class -Sports, page 8
Today the name of the National Merit Semifinalists will be released, ending the year-long process of selecting the best academic students from around the country. They all took the 1988 PSAT/NMSQTas juniors last year, and out of the more than one million students who took it, only fifteen thousand students were selected. That figure represents only one-half of one percent of the senior class! To make it as semifinalists, the students must have had a total score of aboutl95 or above on the PS AT, which is two times the verbal score plus the math score. The semifinalists at Maine South, the number of which usually stays around four orfive,are all recognized by the National Merit Scholarship Program. The names of the semifinalist are sent to four-year U.S. universities and colleges which helps to expand the educational opportunities for the semifinalists. However, before the semifinalists can be considered for any scholarships from the Merit Program, they will receive an application stating the requirements needed to make it asfinalists.The names of thefinalistsare released in February, and all of them will receive a Certificate of Merit.
Of the ninety percent of the semifinalists who make it to finalists about forty percent of the them will receive some kind of scholarship from the National Merit Scholarship Program and their sponsors. The finalists must send in a self-description and a list of academic and extracurricular accomplishments. Along with that, the scholarships will be offered on a state representational basis. That is, the Program will see what percent of the country's PSAT's were taken in Illinois and will award scholarships in Illinois accordingly. The scholarships come in many different forms, one of which is the $2000 National Merit Scholarship which will be considered for about 1,800 of the finalists. The other scholarships are in the form of corporatesponsored scholarships or scholarships provided by colleges and universities. The students may only be offered one of the different scholarships, and all money received must be used on undergraduate educational expenses in a United States college or university. All in all, over twenty-three million dollars worth of scholarships will be offered to the potential college students.
LLC.A. comes to Maine South As one walks down the back hallway and C-129 comes into view, the initials L.l.C.A.popup.L.I.C.A.? Yes, L.I.C.A. It stands for Low Incidence Cooperative Agreement and is a cooperative which is under contract to the Northern Suburban Special Education District, and provides the Regional Hearing Impau-ed Program for all children within the forty-eight districts it encompasses. Incidentally, L.I.C.A, a federally funded program which provides classes for hearing impaired youths, is not an employee of the district, so they must rent the rooms at Maine South. The headquarters of L.I.C.A., which have been stationed at Maine West for ^hree years, have just recently moved into Pv^aine South and will begin testing heanng impaired youths very soon. The L.I.C.A. offices contain two rooms of equipment which the two audiologists use to test how badly a student's hearing is impaired. If a
heiiring aid could be helpful, the audiologists recommend one, and later on they check to see how well the hearing aids are working. The audiologists also test how the students hear sounds because many times the input a hearing impaired student hears is garbled. Also working in the L.I.C.A. offices are psychologists and social workers. These people, all of whom know how to use sign language, work with the hearing impaired students, hoping to help the students with any problems they may encounter. Afterfindingout that a student is hearing impaired, the workers test to see if the child needs special classes, otherwise they can stay in their regular classes. If a student can function in a regular class, they may be allowed to lake the regular classes while an interpreter, provided free of charge by the state, interprets whatever is being said in the class, and interprets any of the student's questions for the teachers. However, if any of the
children can not productively work in a normal class with an interpreter, they are placed in special classes for the hearing impaired. However, only about one student in a thousand needs to take these special classes, giving the name Low Incidence Cooperative Agreement to this public service. The classes for the hearing impaired, placed in schools in Highland Park, Mt. Prospect, and Arlington Heights, cover the basic subjects but are taught in a way that makes it a lot easier for the students to understand what is being discussed. The classes, which consist of no more than two hundred children, are taught by teachers who are trained in teaching hearing impaired youths. These classes, taught by about thirty teachers, emphasize speech and language skills while teaching the students their normal subjects. Therefore, while the name L.I.C.A. is not commonly recognized throughout this district, they provide essential services for many students.