Latest news with #UniversityofIllinoisChicago
Business Wire
18 hours ago
- Business
- Business Wire
Ameresco Expands Long-Standing Collaboration with the University of Illinois Chicago Through $30 Million Phase 2 Energy Efficiency Project
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. & CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Ameresco, Inc., (NYSE: AMRC), a leading energy solutions provider dedicated to helping customers navigate the energy transition, today announced the launch of its $30 million Phase 2 project with the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). Building on a decade-long collaboration, this project focuses on advanced energy-efficient HVAC infrastructure upgrades across two critical campus buildings, aimed at reducing energy consumption and enhancing campus sustainability. The project includes the installation of 24 energy-efficient air handling units and the implementation of sophisticated heating and cooling smart controls in the University Hall, which houses administrative offices, and the Behavioral Science Building, which is the largest classroom building on UIC's campus. This initiative is expected to generate over $1 million in combined annual energy and operational savings for UIC. "Many universities face the challenge of aging infrastructure, and we're proud to support our long-term partner, the University of Illinois Chicago, in addressing these issues on their campus," said Lou Maltezos, President of Central & Western USA, Canada Regions at Ameresco. "By upgrading critical systems, this project not only tackles deferred maintenance but also demonstrates the transformative potential of modern energy efficiency solutions to reduce environmental impact, enhance functionality and create more comfortable spaces for students and staff." The project is expected to be completed in 18 months and projected to deliver significant environmental benefits in addition to addressing deferred maintenance of aged mechanical equipment. It is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those produced by driving ~5.5 million miles in an average gasoline-powered passenger vehicle or the carbon sequestration achieved by ~2,100 acres of U.S. forests in one year, resulting in annual CO2 savings of 2,100+ metric tons. UIC continues to solidify its position as a leader in sustainability within higher education with a new initiative that builds upon its strong reputation and legacy, established with the publication of the University's first Climate Action Plan in 2009. This project, which aligns with the Climate Commitment Action Plan (CCAP 2024)'s CN 1: Energy Efficiency Portfolio, which prioritizes energy efficiency in buildings and campus operations. Energy-efficient facilities use less energy to provide the same level of occupant comfort and produce the same building performance. This project is designed to implement extensive energy efficiency upgrades to core building HVAC systems. These upgrades aim to significantly reduce energy consumption, operational costs and carbon emissions in accordance with its five climate commitments. By upgrading critical systems, this project demonstrates the transformative potential of modern energy efficiency infrastructure solutions to reduce costs, enhance functionality and create more comfortable spaces for the university community to use. 'The University of Illinois Chicago is committed to creating a campus that embodies sustainability and innovation,' said John Coronado, vice chancellor for administrative services at UIC. 'These projects will reduce the university's energy footprint and also transform our facilities to better serve our students, faculty and staff.' For more information about Ameresco and its energy efficiency infrastructure solutions, visit About Ameresco, Inc. Founded in 2000, Ameresco, Inc. (NYSE: AMRC) is a leading energy solutions provider dedicated to helping customers reduce costs, enhance resilience, and decarbonize to net zero in the global energy transition. Our comprehensive portfolio includes implementing smart energy efficiency solutions, upgrading aging infrastructure, and developing, constructing, and operating distributed energy resources. As a trusted full-service partner, Ameresco shows the way by reducing energy use and delivering diversified generation solutions to Federal, state and local governments, utilities, educational and healthcare institutions, housing authorities, and commercial and industrial customers. Headquartered in Framingham, MA, Ameresco has more than 1,500 employees providing local expertise in North America and Europe. For more information, visit The announcement of a customer's entry into a project contract is not necessarily indicative of the timing or amount of revenue from such contract, of Ameresco's overall revenue for any particular period or of trends in Ameresco's overall total project backlog. This project was included in Ameresco's previously reported contracted backlog as of March 31, 2025.
Chicago Tribune
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Prison bars fashioned into sonic sculpture for musical performance at Gallery 400
Prison bars that were once used as instruments of confinement at the Cook County Jail will be repurposed as musical instruments as part of a performance Wednesday by Chicago-based artist Maria Gaspar. The performance, titled 'We Lit the Fire and Trusted the Heat (after Angela Davis),' aims to cultivate an environment where the US carceral system is undone, Gaspar said. At Gallery 400 of the University of Illinois Chicago, from which Gaspar graduated, the performance will use a sonic sculpture — made of glass rods cast from iron prison bars salvaged from the now-demolished Division I building, the oldest section of the jail — to express what liberation sounds like. Growing up in Little Village, Gaspar lived only a few blocks from the jail, and it taught her a lot about her community, she said. 'As a kid, for me, Little Village is a neighborhood about resiliency,' Gaspar said. 'It's about pride, cultural pride, it's about struggle and it's about carcerality.' Toward the end of her preteen years, Gaspar said, she was enrolled in a 'scared straight' type of program without her knowledge. She toured Division 1 of the jail for hours, she said, and seeing men behind bars was 'a disturbing experience.' She said she didn't have political awareness because she was so young. 'Now, as an adult with a critical lens and somebody who's a teacher and a mother,' Gaspar said, 'I think what was happening is a kind of fear tactic that was, in many ways, targeting a group of immigrant kids and making them feel like they were criminals.' She sees the experience as the pivotal moment that inspired her to evolve and learn more about politics. Having the jail as the backdrop of her childhood is not only symbolic of the performance, she said, but also how she got her start with the project. In 2021, when Division 1 was being torn down, Gaspar went to the street and recorded the demolition every day, from start to finish. The entire video came out to 60 hours and 20 minutes, and it is now used as a backdrop for the upcoming show. She had no plans for a performance until a judge came up to her one day while she was filming to talk to her. After a few moments, he left and came back to hand her a prison bar. 'That then led to scavenging more of the materials and then creating this sonic structure,' she said. The performance is in collaboration with Thaddeus Tukes, a vibraphonist from Chicago. The two had a connection and didn't know it prior to meeting about this show. Gaspar and Tukes both attended Whitney M. Young Magnet High School on the Near West Side, but at different times. Gaspar chose to collaborate with Tukes, she said, because he understands the ideas behind the project: mass incarceration and abolitionism. Gaspar said she and Tukes both have a history of working in juvenile detention. 'There were a lot of commonalities and I really love Thaddeus' spirit,' she said. 'He's really open. He enjoys improvisation. But he's also this incredible composer, and he's really great at working with people. And I think those are all really wonderful elements for collaboration.' At a time when people are being split up and society feels divided, Gaspar said, she hopes her performance can use sound as a tool to create meaning and a sense of connection. 'I'm really just enjoying this time of exploration and experimentation of thinking about how sound can be both this beautiful visceral experience, but also a very political one too,' she said. Following the free performance, Gaspar and Tukes will hold a conversation with Jimmy Soto, a paralegal and human rights activist.
Boston Globe
08-07-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
How the risks of drinking increase in older age
Advertisement Alcohol can present new problems in older age — particularly at 65 and older — for even light or occasional drinkers. Older adults tend to have less muscle mass and retain less water in their tissues compared with younger people, which can increase blood alcohol concentration, said Aaron White, a senior adviser at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. This means it takes fewer drinks for older people to feel intoxicated, and heightens the risk of severe injury from falls. According to Nixon's research, older people also show deficits in working memory at lower blood alcohol concentrations than younger drinkers. In another study Nixon worked on, some older adults in driving simulations showed signs of impairment after less than one drink. Drinking alcohol can increase the risk of developing chronic conditions such as dementia, diabetes, cancer, hypertension and heart disease. But it can also worsen outcomes for the majority of older adults already living with chronic disease, said Aryn Phillips, an assistant professor of health policy and administration at the University of Illinois Chicago who studies alcohol and aging. Advertisement Drug interactions also come into play. Mixing alcohol with prescription medicines that older adults commonly take, such as those for treating diabetes or hypertension, can make the medications less effective or cause harmful side effects, like ulcers or an irregular heart beat. Benzodiazepines, when combined with alcohol, can slow breathing and act as a powerful sedative. Even over-the-counter medication can be dangerous. Aspirin, which some older people take to reduce cardiovascular disease risk (despite the potential side effects), can lead to severe gastrointestinal bleeding, which older people are already at higher risk for, said Michael Wheeler, a professor of nutrition science at East Carolina University who researches alcohol-induced liver disease. Some older adults also contend that hangovers worsen with age. While there's no strong scientific evidence supporting this, the hangovers may seem worse because alcohol can exacerbate other symptoms of aging, like poor sleep, White said. How to Reduce Your Risk Experts said alcohol use among older adults appears to have risen in recent years, though national trends are difficult to track outside of self-reported surveys. A federal survey from 2023 found that 12% of adults 65 and older — about 7 million people — reported drinking at least four or five drinks in a sitting in the previous month. After decades of mixed messaging around alcohol's health harms and benefits, recent studies have made it clear that no amount of alcohol is good for you. Still, Sacco acknowledged that 'drinking has meaning for people,' and whether to moderate or quit altogether 'is a call that you have to make in consultation with your doctor and your loved ones.' Advertisement But what is a 'safe' amount of drinking for the older set? That's difficult to say. The available studies attempting to establish exactly how much alcohol it takes to drive up health risks in older populations use different benchmarks for moderate drinking, making it tricky to draw a consensus. 'Even as an expert in this field, I understand the confusion,' Wheeler said. Nixon advised that adults 65 and older should consume no more than one drink per day and no more than seven per week. (The NIAAA does not establish guidelines around alcohol consumption, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines moderate drinking for adults of all ages as two drinks or less per day for men, and one drink or less per day for women.) All the experts emphasized that older people should pay close attention to their bodies' response to alcohol, and to stop drinking or cut back if they feel like it's affecting them more physically or cognitively. 'If you're not currently drinking, don't start,' Phillips said. And if you do drink, be honest with your doctor about your consumption, and do it in a safe environment, knowing that your tolerance may not be what it used to be, she added. 'The answer doesn't have to be abstinence,' Nixon said. But healthy aging 'probably does not include multiple drinks a day for most people.' This article originally appeared in Advertisement
Chicago Tribune
06-07-2025
- Health
- Chicago Tribune
30 years after deadly Chicago heat wave, threats persist as climate change elevates risks
Howard Ehrman has seen his fair share of gruesome sights in his 56 years as a physician. But he'll never forget working at Cook County Hospital 30 years ago when a heat wave sweeping the country settled over northeast Illinois. 'That was the worst experience of our lives, all of us who were doctors, because we literally could step out the door … and we could see these trucks going by, and we knew what they were: refrigerator trucks filled with bodies going down the street on Harrison to the Cook County medical examiner,' he said. Between July 12 and 15, 1995, thousands of Chicagoans sought care at area hospitals. Not all of them made it home. 'We had lots of people who came into the emergency room who were too far gone to save,' said Ehrman, who worked at the hospital, now known as Stroger Hospital, for 17 years. Only many days after the start of the heat wave would the magnitude of the tragedy begin to sink in, as newspaper articles and nightly news reports tallied hundreds of deaths across Chicago. Ultimately, 739 people died, mostly elderly residents, people of color and those who lived alone and had no one to check in on them. The toll was catastrophic, making it the deadliest weather event in Illinois history and redefining the city's emergency response and disaster preparedness. As climate change increases the frequency and length of this kind of lingering, humid heat in the region, many scientists and health care workers are wrestling with the question: Could another extreme heat crisis arise in Chicago? 'If we take the exact same meteorological event we had in 1995 and plop it down in today's society, I don't think we'd have 700 premature deaths,' said Daniel Horton, a professor at Northwestern University and co-lead of a working group that is developing a heat vulnerability index for Chicago. 'Because AC is much more prevalent … and people are much more aware of the danger of heat.' Since 1995, messaging around the dangers of extreme heat has improved in Chicago, and air conditioning has become more common. But today, there are still numerous challenges to ensuring the public is protected during extreme weather. Among these: An assistant health commissioner for the city of Chicago under Mayor Harold Washington and later an assistant professor at the University of Illinois Chicago until 2022, Ehrman has in recent years taken on an activist role with groups like the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization. In 2020, he co-founded the People's Response Network, a group that is pushing to expand the city's health network and social services. While preparedness for heat waves has improved since 1995, the way Chicago counts heat deaths is 'subjective,' Ehrman said. He wants the city to gather and release data from hospitals about whether the mortality rate rises during heat waves, rather than publicizing only those deaths that have heat listed as a factor. 'If Mr. Smith dies at home or on the way to Cook County Hospital or at the hospital, and he's got four or five major underlying conditions, there will almost never be a doctor who will put heat on the death certificate,'' Ehrman said. 'So that's the huge problem. Heat-related deaths (are) a massive undercount.' Experts often refer to extreme heat as a silent killer: It sneaks up on people, and its symptoms can be subtle. And that subtle but very real danger was on full display in July 1995. 'What happened — in terms of fatalities, especially — was kind of a slow evolution, a slow disaster,' said Mike Bardou, a warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Chicago. 'The effects of heat on the body are cumulative. It's not necessarily an immediate thing.' On July 12, after days of continuous rain, a musty heat spread across the Chicago region and temperatures soared with a record-high heat index of about 126 degrees. It had climbed, and stayed, well past the level required to trigger the city's emergency heat plan. Instead of raising the alarm, city leaders waited three days before warning residents. Mark Razter, a 28-year-old meteorologist less than a year into his job at the National Weather Service, was driving home from a weather conference in St. Louis that day. Nothing seemed unusual except that it was uncomfortably warm. 'Obviously, we knew it was hot,' said Ratzer, the only meteorologist currently working at the weather service who was also there 30 years ago. 'But I don't think anybody, going into it, had an appreciation for quite the severity that it was going to be.' By the time officials declared a state of emergency and the rising number of heat deaths started dominating the news cycle, Ratzer said 'the heat wave itself was over.' Meteorologists at the local weather service office had a more limited approach to public messaging back then than they do now, Ratzer said: 'We produce a forecast, and then we let the decision-makers do what they do with that information. We might issue a heat advisory or heat warning.' He said the threat wasn't visibly destructive like a tornado. 'Nothing journeying through, tearing down buildings,' he said. 'It's almost like no warning would have prevented some of those things; the whole system needed to change. Which it did.' After the heat wave, the weather office started working much more closely with the city and including public health guidance in its forecasts. 'That kind of microcosm of change that occurred during the event, around messaging, is something that has very much taken hold — not just in Chicago, but globally, particularly with the advent of human-caused climate change,' Horton said. 'We now know that extreme heat is the No. 1 killer, from an environmental health perspective.' Heat waves kill more people in the United States than all of the other weather-related disasters combined, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Thirty years ago, extreme heat was rare in Chicago. In the years since, however, area residents have grown increasingly familiar with stretches of similar, sometimes even higher, temperatures and humidity that rival conditions from the 1995 event. The heat index — a combination of atmospheric temperatures and relative humidity that determines how the heat really feels to the body — peaked at 124 degrees on the second day of the 1995 heat wave, and remained over 105 the other days. On Aug. 23-24, 2023, Chicago experienced its highest heat index since then, reaching 120 degrees. During another hot stretch a year later, the peak index was the same. Most recently, during a three-day heat wave beginning the weekend of June 21, the heat index peaked at over 100 degrees. Heat can also be particularly dangerous if it lingers. People die from extreme heat, Horton said, not necessarily because of acute exposure in the middle of the day, but because humid heat persists through the night, limiting the body's ability to recover, rest and recuperate. Summer nights have become warmer under climate change. In Chicago, while overall summer average temperatures have warmed by 1.7 degrees between 1970 and 2024, average overnight lows have increased by 2.5 degrees in that same period. 'It's this long-term exposure to high heat and humidity, and no bodily breaks, that makes people really suffer and ultimately die because of it,' Horton said. The vulnerability index that Horton's team is developing aims to identify residents and communities who are particularly vulnerable to heat. It also seeks to help in the design of solutions to reduce residents' risk, and to inform the city's policy decisions and resource allocation to improve emergency response and preparedness. To determine which Chicago residents are at the highest risk during heat waves, team members are studying factors that can worsen or alleviate someone's experience of extreme heat. For instance, underlying health conditions like cardiovascular disease, diabetes or respiratory illness are linked to higher susceptibility to hotter weather. They are also asking: Who in the city has access to air conditioning? Can they afford to run it? In July 1995, officials ruled 485 deaths as heat-related. But health experts and climate scientists say the number is over 700, because death certificates underestimate the real number of people killed by heat and hinder a proportionate response. According to a study of the Chicago event published in the American Journal of Public Health, 'the heat wave appears to have contributed to 254 more deaths than were attributed by the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.' 'This is a problem throughout — I would say a global problem — that heat is not listed as a contributor,' Horton said. 'It is incredibly rare for heat to be listed as the cause of death.' In an August 1995 report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 'a lack of a uniform definition for heat-related death across the U.S. results in substantial variation in the criteria used to certify such deaths.' During a typical year, the Illinois Department of Public Health confirms an average of 15 heat-related deaths across the state, according to Graham Briggs, division chief of emerging health issues at the agency. 'That varies a little bit year to year, but we think that that's a large underrepresentation,' he said. 'There's a lot of complexity, trying to understand how heat (drives) things like renal failure and cardiovascular disease and other stressors on the body.' Heat is considered the primary cause of death when there are no other reasonable explanations, and when a person's body temperature is 105 degrees or more when they die. However, if the temperature is not measured at or close to the time of death and the body has cooled down, it can be difficult to classify it as a heat death. But heat is not often the sole or main reason people die; rather, it tends to be a contributing factor. Older people or those with cardiovascular disease are particularly vulnerable to extreme heat, according to Ponni Arunkumar, the chief medical examiner for Cook County. 'The heat is just a stressor that pushes them over and causes them to die,' she said. At the county's medical examiner's office, labeling a death as heat-related entails a thorough investigation of many factors, including the surroundings: Was the person who died in a place with no air conditioning? Were the windows closed? 'We want to know the circumstances,' Arunkumar said. Since 2015, when the county's medical examiner's office started keeping electronic records, 27 deaths among Chicago residents have been marked as heat-related; three of them died in typically colder months because they were exposed to malfunctioning heating systems. Heat is listed as the primary cause of death in only five cases, including those of three women who died at a Rogers Park senior living facility during a May 2022 heat wave because the heat had been kept on in the building and the air conditioning was broken. Records also show 15 people have died since 2015 of cardiovascular disease made worse by hot weather. Another four have died of complications from drug and alcohol use, which interfere with body temperature regulation, complicated by exposure to heat. But even when heat aggravates preexisting health issues, those circumstances might get overlooked by different agencies, Briggs said. Still, he hopes that experts' understanding of how many people actually die from heat, whether directly or indirectly, is improving with technological advances and thorough data analysis. 'Every year, we get a little bit better at the way that we report (heat) deaths,' Briggs said. While some ComEd customers experienced interruptions in July 1995, there is no record of widespread system failure, according to Mark Baranek, senior vice president of technical services at the company. To relieve strain on the grid and reduce the possibility of greater outages, however, ComEd did implement some temporary outages, he said in an emailed statement. George Goss, an expert on grid stability and professor emeritus of electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, moved to Champaign in 1993. He said he'd be surprised if something similar happened today. 'I think we're in a different position than we were 30 years ago,' he said, 'but I would not deny that there's a possibility.' Nowadays, Gross said, electricity is very climate dependent. 'Not only in terms of generation — because now we use solar and wind — but also because (of) that kind of heat,' he said. 'And particularly if it's persistent, then it can cause all kinds of stuff.' For instance, power lines can sag when the air around them isn't cool enough. And if they touch each other or a tree, they can short-circuit or start electrical fires. During periods of extreme heat, the risk of outages can rise. For instance, the grid may become overwhelmed from a large swath of the population running the air conditioning at the same time, or severe weather can knock down electrical infrastructure. Briggs, from the Illinois Department of Public Health, said if severe weather coincided with a heat wave, it could put people at risk. 'If we did see loss of power in a large area over a sustained period of time — in a vulnerable population like assisted living centers … we could see a number of deaths,' he said. 'Hopefully, we're better prepared if we do see a nightmare situation.' The Chicago area is not unfamiliar with dangerous combinations of severe weather and heat. In June 2022, a line of thunderstorms swept across the Midwest and part of the South, followed by a heat wave with indices over 100 degrees. Energy operators had to cut off electricity to customers — because supply couldn't meet the growing energy demand — for 21 hours as a measure to prevent larger-scale blackouts. In northern Illinois, storms left 125,000 ComEd customers without power overnight. According to climate science nonprofit Climate Central, 80% of all major power outages — affecting at least 50,000 customers or interrupting 300 or more megawatts of service — in the United States reported between 2000 and 2023 occurred due to weather; more than half of those were caused by severe weather, which includes high winds, rain and thunderstorms. Over that same period of time, Illinois experienced 77 major power outages, of which 69 were weather-related, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Between 2008 and 2017, most electric outages in the state occurred in July, each affecting an average of 624,486 customers. Driven by climate change, accumulating humidity in the region has increased the intensity of severe storms and tornadoes. These represent a particular threat to above-ground transmission wires, transformers and utility poles, which transmit and distribute most electricity but are thus exposed and vulnerable to the elements. Where power lines are buried, flooding can also cause issues. In a letter to the Chicago City Council and Mayor Brandon Johnson last September, the People's Response Network called on the city to take public ownership of all electricity by ending its contract with ComEd, which they claim has 'failed over and over again' to maintain infrastructure in Black and Latino neighborhoods, leading to blackouts even as electricity costs rise. Each summer, ComEd presents emergency preparedness plans to the city of Chicago and the Illinois Commerce Commission. Preparations for heat waves include reviews of circuit loading, maintenance of generators to deploy, as well as plans for transformer failure and transporting key replacement equipment where needed. 'ComEd is prepared to ensure safe, reliable power during hotter and more humid heat waves,' Baranek said. 'Investments made in the system over the last 30 years have improved the reliability and resiliency of the grid, while keeping an eye on affordability so customers can take action like running air conditioning and fans.' The company has also invested in climate-resilient infrastructure, Baranek said, such as moving key circuits underground to reduce outages related to severe storms, as well as trimming and removing vegetation near power lines to protect them from debris in the case of a tornado. According to ComEd, customers across Chicago experienced a 99.99% reliability rate last year, with 94% or more than 1.2 million local customers experiencing zero or one interruption. 'This is the best performance on record,' he said. Today, city services have a more solid plan in place in the event of extreme heat, experts say. But community awareness of the impacts of extreme heat has also been heightened. 'In this heat wave, we're checking up on each other,' said Linda Austin, who works as a senior liaison in the 16th Ward, during an extreme heat advisory on June 23. 'If there's someone who we haven't seen in a while, we're reaching out.' Austin runs weekly meetings for seniors living in the Englewood area on Wednesday mornings. During heat waves, she said she encourages residents to check in on their neighbors daily to make sure they're safe and healthy, and helps organize rides for seniors in the area if they need to get somewhere. During the 1995 heat wave, many of the casualties were seniors who didn't have family or neighbors to check in on them, especially those living in high-rise buildings where the heat was particularly intense. 'We had people in senior centers calling (for help), and some people didn't have air conditioners or fans,' she recalled. 'We always say, we will remember.' Whether they're organizing with neighbors in their wards or helping children and seniors professionally, more people now understand how to prevent heat stroke in their day-to-day lives by hydrating, staying in cool spaces and seeking medical help as soon as symptoms start to show up. During the three-day heat advisory in June, at least 10 Chicago aldermen told the Tribune that they had a plan in place that was specific to their ward, with many providing water to residents or checking in on seniors during the advisory. Members of the community also step in. 'I'm a librarian, so they're really not supposed to be bringing any food or liquid, but I do let them bring in their water bottles as well, especially if I have a class coming in after they've been outside,' said Atondra Rouse, 63, a librarian at Turner-Drew Language Academy. During the 1995 heat wave, Rouse lost her 3-year-old son, Geno, after a home-based day care provider left Geno and another child asleep in a hot car. The day care provider faced criminal charges and was sentenced to two years of probation. Rouse said she was at her mother's house picking up her then-5-month-old daughter when her husband called to tell her what had happened. 'When I got to my mother's house, (my husband) called again, and he said, 'He's gone,'' she recalled. 'He told me to come home because something was wrong with little Geno.' Rouse said she takes extra care to stay out of the heat, especially during the hot summer months. In her role as a librarian, she works with students every day, and during hot days, she helps pass out water bottles to the students. 'I try, I try (to look out for them),' she said. 'I love my kids.'
Chicago Tribune
11-06-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Andrew graduate Zoe Tseng awarded $10K scholarship from Lighthouse Guild
Zoe Tseng, who just graduated from Andrew High School in Tinley Park, has learned to embrace the many challenges of being legally blind, taking on new activities such as line dancing. Tseng's hard work caught the attention of many teachers at Andrew, but also the scholarship committee from the Lighthouse Guild in New York City. The nonprofit awards scholarships to students with blindness or low-vision who 'have demonstrated exceptional academic achievement and perseverance,' according to President and CEO Thomas Panek. In Tseng's case, the scholarship is worth $10,000. In addition to her high GPA and honors and advanced placement classes, she's also been mastering her knowledge and skills in psychology, which she'll be studying at the University of Illinois Chicago come fall. She also received the Rita Brud Scholarship from Tinley Park for $1,000 and the University of Illinois Chicago's yearly scholarship for $5,000. 'I like connecting with others and being able to help them,' said Tseng, adding she loved AP biology and learning about the brain and different aspects of personalities. 'It feels good.' Her extracurricular activities have often centered on that connection. She was a member of the Restorative Circles peer mediation group where she volunteered with an intervention specialist helping students who had gotten into fights, and participated in writing letters to veterans and residents of a retirement community. Tseng also was a Senior Leader at Andrew, and helped start a chapter of HOSA-Future Health Professionals. She also enjoys spending time with friends, riding a tandem bike with her family, reading and making and drinking bubble tea. Tseng hasn't let being legally blind stop her from these activities, but it's taken some doing. 'I wouldn't say it's no big deal because it is,' she said. 'I have to put a lot more effort into it than someone sighted. But I'm happy with how things are going for me. There are a lot of positives.' Tseng was born with cone-rod dystrophy, a genetic disorder that causes progressive loss of vision. She can still see, though everything is blurry and she wears sunglasses because of a sensitivity to light. But she's been working since third grade with Kathleen Redican, a teacher for the visually impaired at the Southwest Cook County Cooperative Association for Special Education, who has taught her to use technology to help make up for what she can't see. So she learned to use the screen reader software called JAWS — Job Access With Speech, as well as VoiceOver on the phone, another screen reader, which uses touch and voice. Redican said Tseng has come a long way from being a quiet young girl to an independent, self confident teen who advocates for herself. 'She's extremely driven, she's motivated, she is one of the kindest people I know,' Redican said. 'She's just so considerate, so thoughtful. 'She has faced many barriers and challenges because of her vision impairment. I just feel like throughout her education, she has demonstrated remarkable perseverance, adaptability and independence.' At Andrew, Tseng received occasional assistance from special services aide Kim Duffy, who, for example, helped her learn to measure materials correctly in chemistry class. Tseng has also drawn, and returned, strength and support from classmates. 'I have the community of other blind students or students with disabilities,' she said. 'I understand what it's like to feel a little different or frustrated that I'm not like my peers.' Her success has been the result of a combination of 'drawing on the strength of those around us and being intrinsically motivated,' she said. Another source of support is more ineffable. 'Having a more personal relationship with the Lord, that's been a really big influence on me,' she said of being a parishioner and helping out at Lemont Church. 'I think the Lord's love is very influential.' Behind it all has been the support of her mother Katie, dad Robert and older sister, Sophia. Even their 11-year-old shih-tzu-poodle, Ginger, has had a role. Robert Tseng, her dad, said the family is continually impressed by Zoe. 'She has an interesting combination of being somebody who's very determined, perseveres through hardships, but also somebody at the same time who can connect with people — she's empathetic,'he said. 'I think that's a very interesting combination. 'Sometimes we scratch our heads … we're not sure where things come from,' he said. 'I think part of it is nature, the way they were born, and of course the people who have come into their lives. We have two daughters and they're each very special in their own ways,' he said. But he added that not being able to focus on a computer screen the way many people do could have been a benefit. 'It's a blessing in disguise,' he said. He said the support of the church, school and teachers have also been a difference. 'She's had some wonderful teachers,' he said. 'They've had such positive influences on her life.' Redican said her former pupil has left her mark on her and at school. 'Zoe has made such a positive impact on my life and the Victor J. Andrew Community,' said Redican. 'I know she will continue to positively impact others she will connect with as she pursues her college education at the University of Illinois Chicago.'
