Alumni Achievement Awards
District 128 Foundation for Learning Alumni Achievement Awards, established in 2014, are presented annually to individuals who graduated from a District 128 high school at least five years prior to nomination, and who have made significant contributions, and demonstrated leadership and character in their field and to their community. Nominations are accepted on an ongoing basis and remain active for three years. The Foundation for Learning Board of Trustees comprise the selection committee.
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2023 Honorees
Foundation names Rachel Jacoby and Patrick Slade as their 10th Annual Alumni Achievement Award Recipients
The District 128 Foundation for Learning is proud to announce the recipients of its 10th Annual Alumni Achievement Awards: Rachel Jacoby (Vernon Hills High School ‘14) and Patrick Slade (Libertyville High School ‘13). Jacoby and Slade were honored at the Foundation’s annual fundraiser, THE BIG EVENT, on Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023 at Mickey Finn’s in Libertyville.
Rachel Jacoby is a proud graduate of Vernon Hills High School, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Previously an organizer with March For Our Lives, Rachel is currently a Gun Violence Prevention Specialist at the Lake County State's Attorney's Office. She has organized in Illinois, Massachusetts, and Washington DC in support of gun violence prevention legislation. Most significantly, she helped lead the grassroots organizing effort in support of the Protect Illinois Communities Act, which passed in early 2023, making Illinois the 9th state in the country to ban assault weapons. Rachel previously served as the Finance Manager for Giffords, a national nonprofit committed to ending gun violence and spent a year living and working as an English teacher in rural Malaysia on a Fulbright grant. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rachel founded the nonprofit, Feed the Front Line, to support small businesses, frontline workers, and food insecure populations in the Chicago area. In her free time, Rachel works to increase political representation for Gen Z in elected office and is trying to perfect her chocolate chip cookie recipe.
Rachel was nominated for the award by VHHS CTE Teacher Kristin Schwarz.
Patrick Slade is an Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at Harvard University. He graduated from LHS in 2013 before completing his bachelor's at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and MSc, PhD, and postdoctoral studies in Mechanical Engineering and Bioengineering at Stanford University. He directs the Harvard Ability Lab which combines robotics, biomechanics, and human-centered AI to build intelligent health models and assistive devices. His work explores how to safely and effectively design and integrate human-robot systems so people can live healthier, more independent lives. His work focuses on solutions that are open-source and low-cost to make care accessible for underserved populations. Patrick was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow, named a Forbes 30 under 30 in healthcare, and has published in journals including Nature and Science Robotics.
Patrick was nominated for the honor by LHS Mathematics and Computer Science Teacher Teresa Elmore and LHS CTE Teacher Andrew Thomson.