Class of 2021

 

 

 

High School Graduate #2

 

Covid 19 took a toll on all of us, especially Vinny who was in his senior year of High School in 2021.  I know it is 2023 and way too late posting this but I finally got around doing it after all the procrastination.

 

Proud to say that he was the Salutatorian of the class of 2021 from Tinley Park High School, IL. He gave a soul stirring speech at the Graduation ceremony ( kidding, it was a regular speech but packed a punch). He worked really hard all 4 years of high school to make a name for himself. Like millions of other graduates in their senior year, he "went to school from  home"  and missed out on most of what would have been an exciting year for him at school. Nevertheless, he was chosen as the Drum Major for the school band but never got to perform due to restrictions. He was the captain of the Scholastic Bowl team and the Tennis Team. He and his doubles partner went to State level representing his school which was an honor in itself. 

He was accepted by many schools including University of Michigan but he decided to go to University of Illinois, following his brothers footsteps. Although his interests were in Economics and Chemistry, he is leaning towards Chemistry as his major.

 

 

 

 College Bound!

This post is long overdue.......by about 1.5 years. Anyways, better late than never.... right?

Jay graduated High School in May 2019, securing 3^rd rank in his class of 256. He will be majoring in Physics at University of Illinois, Champaign, Urbana. He excelled through his 4 years of high school. He won many accolades, but I think he is most proud of winning the Scholar-Athlete award all the 4 years as a part of the cross-country team. In the summer of 2018 he ran a total of 300 miles which is an achievement in itself.

Recognizing his achievements in high school, the university waived his tuition for all the 4 years. All he has to pay for is room and board. Besides that he won close to $3500.00 in scholarships. Notably the Michael O’Connell Scholarship which is the highest honor bestowed upon a senior. He was also a finalist at the National Chemistry Olympiad held at Loyola college Chicago. Hay went to Iceland as a part of an educational trip and Scholastic bowl nationals in Atlanta in his senior year.

Senior Mathlete Scholarship

National Honor Society Scholarship

Michael O'Connell Scholarship

Arbor Park James Upchurch Award

Top 10 

Illinois State Scholar

AP Scholar with Distinction

SSC All-Academic/Activity

SSC All-Academic/Athletic

Titan Achiever

Challenge Curriculum

He had a great relationship with all his teachers especially Dr. Birrel, Mr. Barcena, Mr. Uniek, Ms. Baftiri, Mr. and Mrs. Osborne, and Mr. Rucinski etc.  It was Dr. Birrel who introduced him to the world of physics. He and a group of chosen students would go to Argonne national laboratory every month to conduct experiments under Dr. Birrel’s guidance.

Jay also worked with Dr. Lisa Goelz assisting her during 2 summers to collect data for  a Deep brain stimulations research for Parkinson’s disease  and he was cited for the published article.

https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007/s00221-019-05636-6?author_access_token=4UcGZ0kHOpvnXLDv-4oHFfe4RwlQNchNByi7wbcMAY6av_zVgp5C7oLB1gKh2cr9A8fua-QEjcHoyDYtSkQ6YGePV6K1NCOs-OP4HSQJAZdx8tE5Uww1iRlzMOiqgImdnJb0olrHgrao0a1AWo0TmQ%3D%3D

 

in his junior and senior year in high school Jay stepped up as a leader and initiated many environment friendly projects and also started the high school’s first boy’s volleyball team. Incidently he also scored the first point for the team in the history of TPHS’s boy’s volleyball

history.

 

Needless to say we are proud of our boy for everything he has initiated, participated and achieved in his young life. Also, this is just the beginning, who knows what the future holds. Love you son to infinity and back.

Valedectorian! Class of 2017- APMS

Vinny graduated his eight grade class. Being the Valedectorian was the icing on the cake. Top student of the class of 2017. He gave a speech which everyone appreciated. Really proud of my boy... he did good and worked really hard and did the whole school, community and the family proud. Like Jay he won a boat load of accolades:

* American Legion award for outstanding male student who showed citizenship and commitment in this school year.
* President of the National Junior Honor Society.
*Student Council member
*Yearbook Committee member
*Member of School Volleyball team.
*Mathelete
*Scholastic bowl member
*SAK Basketball
*OF Flag football ( Patriots)

Like his brother, he has shot up and stands 6 foot tall, may be a little taller :-)


He is looking forward to his freshman year at High School and meeting new friends and teachers. He has already attended the weeklong boot-camp at high school so he has a heads up on what to expect in High school. He took Personal Finance as a summer class so the academic year will be a little lighter. The transition from Middle to High school can be intimidating....but he has already had a feel of of High school and ready to hit the ground running.

2017 and beyond

Can’t believe I haven’t posted in more than a year. Life has been hectic. Where do I start? New job? Yeah… came as a surprise but working for the “mothership” that put a PC in every household at the Chicago office. Started June 2016. Where it takes me…….nobody knows it has its ups and downs. Huge learning curve. Drinking from a fire hose even after being on the job for 8 months. Lot of travel. Planes, Hotels, rented cars, taxis, strange places, people, food……I used to love traveling , not so much now. Miss my home my bed, my family. I wish they could go wherever I go. Anyways….

Cars.com was good. Lived working with Jeff. Great manager and motivator. Jason was the most considerate CIO I came across.

Enough about me. Vinny is almost done with 8^th grade. Learning and earning tons of accolades. Straight A student. He is our showman J! He MC’d the talent show at school. Student of the month for Feb 017. Teachers and Students love him alike. He will be taking part in a speech competition next month. He mentors lower grade students and they look up to him. You can’t imagine without a smile on his face. We play UC ( ultimate championship) every day and he wins all the time. It is an indoor madeup basketball game only he and I can play. He roughs me up pretty bad.  He will be a 9^th grader in less than 3 months.

Jay has been steady as a rock. Track, cross country scholastic bowl, chess club, energy club. 24 hours a day is not enough for him. His professors and administrators love him and has made a name for himself in the last 1.5 years. He was student of the month for TPHS in March of 2016. Unusual for a freshman. But expect the unexpected from him. Mature beyond his age. Honors with distinction throughout his high school except the first trimester in 9^th grade. His Physics teacher takes him to Argon National lab 3-4 times a year to conduct experiments. What an honor. He is going to Iceland in Summer of 2019 with his Chemistry teacher. Another chosen one here, not everybody gets to go. Some of his professors are in awe of him. He was honored as one of the top 5 sophomores for TPHS this month. He is focusing on his academics and has already gotten 50+ letters from different colleges from across the country. He is an energy conservationist and frowns upon any wastage much to my chagrinJ. He has a drivers permit and will soon get a driving license. He is a good careful driver.

God bless my children. May you grow up to be strong, righteous and dignified ( paraphrasing from Rod Stewart’s song). It is a joy to see them grow into fine young men. …….both over 6 feet tall!

Lata is taking care of all of us, she is the oak that keeps us together. Love her to death J.

I hope 2017 is just as good as 2016 and see what life has in store for us.

Bye 2015.....Hi 2016!

Somebody here is going to have a big birthday this month!!. We are going to Puerto Rico to celebrate. We initially considered Paris and Hawaii but settled on Puerto Rico. Paris and Hawaii can wait for the future.

It has been a long time since I posted here, so we have a lot to catchup on. Oak forest Patriots won the superbowl... again :-)....Vinny was ecstatic to win back to back Super bowls. He also won an autographed Steve McMichael's jersey and autographed picture. He played Volleyball for his Middle school. He has a talent show item coming up for which they have been practicing for almost 3 months now. Should be good.

Vinny turned 13 on October 25th, at 5'8" he is the second tallest in the family :-). We celebrated at Dave and Busters with his friends- Kartik, Ethan, Dylan, Jack, Sonali, Rohan, Rohun, Aby, Joe. It was a lot of fun for all. He is also the proud owner of a brand new Iphone 5S.

As always, he is doing great in school with straight A's. At the parent teacher conference they were singing his praise and saying how proud they were of both the Pillai boys.

He is working hard to get his 3rd degree blackbelt in Taekwondo and if all goes well, he should be able to pass all the tests and ranked by April of 2016. Meanwhile, he is honing is Basketball skills at SAK basketball league.

Jay hit the ground running at High School, literally. He joined the cross country team and did extremely well. He took part in several meets and by the end of the season, he coud run 3 miles under 22 minutes. He is really pumped up about that. He won the Scholar Athelete award and also was honored for his achievements in Physical education and Digitial Literacy. Apart from that he is taking AP Geography, Physics, Honors Geometry, French and Honors English. He had Honors with Distinction during the semester and Honors after the first final exam. Great going. In preparation for IMSA, he took SAT at scored good marks for his age and grade. He has already selected his courses fro next year and has a full plate :-). No time for Lunch, he is giving up eating.....kidding... his teacher let him eat while in class, well..some of them.

Jay is swimming for his High school and making rapid improvement fine tuning his form and shaving off minutes from his personal record every meet he attends. It looks like he has stopped growing tall for now and is building some muscles and strengthening his body. Unfortunately work schedule has permitted to go to only one of his meets. He loves his parents and brother being there at the meets.

God bless my boys, I hope they grow stronger and wiser everyday and be good citizens to this country and the world.

We bought a second apartment and getting it ready to be rented. Looking for prospective tenants. It has a nice view of Lake Michigan, close to Loyola and public transportation.

Sheela Nair (Lata's cousin) visited us from Canada over the Christmas break and it was nice to have her over.

Again goodbye to 2015 and Hello 2016!

They call me Mr. Arbor

Jay graduated his eight grade class with high honors with a GPA of 4.13. He was expecting to do better and be the class valedictorian but there were at least 2 others who had better GPA in his graduating class of 130+ students. Proud of my boy... he did good and worked really hard. Here are some of his accomplishments this school year:

* American Legion award for outstanding male student who showed citizenship and commitment in this school year.
*National Junior Honor Society member
*Student Council member
*Yearbook Committee member
*Member of School Basketball, Volleyball and track team.
*Mathelete
*Scholastic bowl member
*SAK Basketball
*OF Flag football ( member of the Superbowl winning Patriots)
*Tinley Park Thunder Swimmer


He racked up a lot of hours doing community work in the village library, school and charity events held by the village. At 6'3" he stood tall above all his fellow eight graders( not that that is an achievement), since this is a log, I am merely mentioning it as this will be a reference point for years to come for him and generations to come :-).

He is keen on going to IMSA ( a public school for students who excel academically in Illinois). The admission process starts in September 2015 and we'll do our best to facilitate that, if he gets in , it will be awesome!. If not it will still be good as it a preparation process  and learning experience that is worth trying.

He is looking forward to his freshman year at High School and meeting new friends and teachers. He has already attended the weeklong boot-camp at high school so he has a heads up on what to expect in High school.The transition from Middle to High school can be intimidating....but he has already had a feel of of High school and ready to hit the ground running.

Jay has bee a good role model for his little brother who follows him ( much to his annoyance) and want to emulate him. Even though they fight and argue about silly stuff, I know that deep in their heart they love and care for each other.

Sounds of the River...

I spent a good part of my child hood in a small village called Cheruvally in Kerala. My maternal grandfather had his agricultural land here, the fertile soil could grow coconut, jackfruit, tapioca, paddy, a variety of root vegetables which are highly nutritios, mangoes, bananas, pineapple, pepper, coffee and the list goes on.
I am reminiscing about Cheruvally because of a small river that ran trough the heart of the river and was the source of water for the villagers.Banks of the river was the community place where everyone got together to socialize.

The sound of the river was soothing and relaxing and I would often drift off to sleep listening to the sound of the water gushing down stream.  Today I live in a small city and about half a mile from the Interstate-80 which runs across the US from East to West. When we moved here 15 years ago the constant sound of moving vehicles bothered me, but now it is background noise. Not only that, the sound has become like the sound of the river and it reminds me of the river in the tiny village that I grew up in. I guess as one gets old, life comes a full circle and you start associating things with your childhood.

Super Bowl!

School year 2014-15 started off well. Both boys are doing well academically and otherwise. Jay did 15 hours of community work for NJHS. Vinny and Jay played volleyball for their school.

2014 SuperBowl:

11/9/2014: It was a cold windy but sunny Sunday afternoon. The game was tied at 6 points apiece and the OF Saints were threatening at the 2 yard line for the extra point conversion. Middle linebacker Jay is waiting in anticipation. The Saints center snaps the ball the QB and they just run straight into the end zone for one point. Jay lunges for the ball carriers flag and snags it just before he crosses the line. The ref blows the whistle and declares that the play was incomplete. His mates pat Jay for his flag (which is same as tackling the ball carrier in regular football). That was the difference in the game. Both teams played hard and scored another touchdown each with one extra point conversion for the OF Patriots. Final score 13-12 in favor of the Patriots.

Oak Forest Patriots, the senior division team of the Flag football league played 10 games and did not lose any. All season they allowed 4 touch downs. With strong defense and equally strong offence they averaged 25 points per game which is awesome by any standards.

Jay and Vinny were both Patriots, Jay in his final year of flag football with the OF league and Vinny as a rookie. What a way to finish his final game with a win. Just like Jay's rookie year with Steelers when they won the junior league championship. This OF Patriots team was special. Head Coach Tim Meline, Asst. Coaches Scott Schoon, Bill Jerazol, Coach Ryan and the players- Ella, Jack, Trevor, Jack, Jericho, Turtle(Jack), Johny, Josh, Ryan, Justin, Joe, Jay, Vinny, Timmy and Kyle will forever be bonded as the 2014 Oak Forest Flag football Senior division champions. It might sound trivial but for this bunch it was a special year. For the last 3.5 months they spend a good part of 3 days a week preparing, practicing and playing flag football. These are 10-13 year olds who internalized every word that came out of their coaches’ moth and executed on the field. I have never played organized sports so I will never know what it is like to go out there and play in front of at least 100 people who show up to watch these games. Mostly family and friends but it is a sizable audience considering we live in a small community.

Vinny celebrated his 12the birthday by taking his best buds Ethan, Dylan and Jack to the movies. Jay took his brother and a couple of his friends to IFly Chicago which is an indoor flying place. We also had Srinivasan’s, Kumar’s and the Srirangams over for a little get together and also celebrated Karthik, Jay and Vin's birthday with a cake.

It's the Holiday season.....trying to be festive!!