Members of the chess team carry their trophies down the hall as St. Ethelreda School, 8734 S. Paulina St., honored them with a pep rally and indoor ticker tape parade on Dec. 3, 2019, to celebrate the team winning the Illinois State All Grade Chess Championship. (Denise Duriga/Chicago Catholic)
The St. Ethelreda School chess team took home top honors in November at the Illinois State All Grade Chess Championship winning first place overall. Individual players Shakira Luster, 13, Trechelle Williams, 14, and Imani Hill, 14, took home third, fourth and 10th places. The school, located at 8734 S. Paulina St., celebrated the team with an all-school pep rally on Dec. 3. News of the team’s success caught the attention of local news outlets and Good Morning America. Eric Luster, father of team member Shakira, has been coaching chess at St. Ethelreda for four years. He also teaches seventh and eighth grade science and math at the school. As a professional chess player himself, he has plenty of skills to pass on, and friends who are willing to help teach the 50 kindergartners through eighth graders who participate on the school’s chess team. All that work has garnered tables full of trophies, proudly displayed by the school’s front office. It has also helped members of the team find skills and talents they did not know they had. The team usually has two practices a week, one for kindergartners through fourth graders and one for fifth through eighth graders. There is a wide variety of skills in both groups, Luster said, but teaching chess is just like teaching a regular school class: You have to tailor the material to reach each player where he or she is. “We can all be working on openings, for example,” Luster told the Chicago Catholic in May. “But some are learning the basics and some are way ahead of that.” Good preparation is about one-third playing games, one-third running drills and one-third studying, and some of the best learning can happen during tournaments, when a better player might take the time to explain to someone they’ve just beaten how they could have improved their game. “That happens a lot with the adult tournaments,” Luster said. “I’m not sure how much it happens with the kids.”
Cardinal Cupich visits school that held mock conclave On the morning of June 2, Cardinal Cupich, dressed in a red cassock and wearing a red zucchetto, joined the student “cardinals” at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy to see a reenactment of their now-viral mock conclave and to answer their questions about the real conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV.
Local school’s mock conclave goes viral around the globe Two days before Pope Leo XIV, a native Chicagoan who is a member of the Augustinian religious community, was elected the 267th pope by the College of Cardinals, students at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy elected their own native Chicagoan in a mock conclave, and the student elected took the name “Augustine” when he accepted his election.
St. Ann School receives $97,000 from Big Shoulders Fund St. Ann School Principal Kathleen Fox credits a school culture that emphasizes ongoing learning and making sure each students feels that they are known and valued for its growth in test scores and other academic measures.