LFHS Class of 2011: 'Today We Become Part Of The Tradition'

Since the first graduating class sat in our place we have come a long way.

Our building started as bare stone but as the years progressed students have left a little bit of themselves at Lake Forest High School. With each graduating class, the building before us has transformed into a beautiful school covered in ivy and filled with experiences we were lucky to call ours for the past 4 years.

Seventy-five years ago, in 1936 the Publick room was the library and student council members served as hall monitors who enforced school rules. 

In 1951 the yearbook honored three LFHS graduates who had died in Korea, joining the 21 who lost their lives during WWII, calling them “our honored dead”.  That same year a Lake County court declared that the separation of Lake Forest High School from the Deerfield Shields school district in Highland Park was legal.

During Lake Forest High School’s 25th year, the Scouts won conference titles in football, wrestling and golf. At this anniversary, 152 seniors graduated.

By the golden anniversary in 1986, the ivy was flourishing and so were LFHS’s students.  During this year parent teacher conferences were held for the first time in 20 years, and Warren High School used West Campus as their school had been destroyed in a fire.

Whether a freshman in 1951 or 2007, each student nervously walked through the same front doors and one by one each class has left those very same doors as confident seniors.

Graduating today we join a group of distinguished alumni who have all had their turn to sit in our place. We have all walked in and out of the doors, spent countless hours in the library and enjoyed cheering the Scouts to victory.

Today we become part of the tradition.

We are the 75th graduating class.
We are the seniors who lead sports teams to three state titles and we are the seniors who put on the 50th annual talent show.

Our experiences here now become memories and part of the ever-growing leaves, which crawl up the sides of the main building.

As we look to the future we reflect on what we have contributed to this high school, how we have made it a better place, how we have propelled it forward, how we became part of the ivy.

Our class is unique and special. We have the highest ACT average in the history of LFHS. We are a class whose personality and charisma will not soon be forgotten. Each individual whether the most involved senior or the student who simply participated in academics has become part of the ivy and thus has contributed to the history of our school.

The ivy grows each year to cover more of the school as each student leaves its mark. It is a constant reminder of the passage of time and classes which have gone before us.

We will always be remembered as the 75th graduating class but today we leave Lake Forest High School and become part of the history, the tradition and the ivy.