The Many Faces of North: Beth Bendix and Yolanda Vazquez

What if students wanted to know more about their teachers? More on what they do in their free time, what they eat for breakfast, their favorite music, if they have any pets maybe, and the list goes on and on. This is what this story is about, knowing more about the teachers that teach, featuring Beth Bendix and Yolanda Vazquez.

“I grew up in Mundelein, IL, not far from here. I went to Mundelein High School. My high school life was pretty typical. I was a pretty good student, not very outgoing, but had some close friends,” Bendix said.

“I went to school with the same people from kindergarten through eighth grade, and there were a few schools that fed into my high school, so I met a lot of new people. It was intimidating at first, but I met a lot of my best friends that I am still close with today,” Vazquez said. “During college, I was always busy. I worked full time while having a full course load, so I was always either working, going to class, or doing homework. I met some of my closest friends during that time as well,” Vazquez said.

Now that teachers are in high school, many wish they could go back and do a few things differently.

“I wish that I would have gotten more involved and experienced more in high school. It wasn’t until my senior year that I went to a dance or a sporting event, and I wish that I got out of my comfort zone and done that. I think I missed out on a lot of fun experiences with my friends because I didn’t go earlier in high school,” Vazquez said.

Sometimes people get so distracted with being a good student that they forget to have fun and have a high school experience. Of course, it is important to do one’s work and have great attendance and grades, but that person could be missing out on all the fun.

“I wish I would have gotten involved in more school clubs and activities,” Bendix said. Many adults wish they did more in their high school years because high school goes by too fast. People who haven’t done much in high school or made an impact may wish they had. And people who have done a lot of sports and clubs may wish they had done more stuff.

“While I attended some school-sponsored events, I was not actively involved in any extracurriculars,” Bendix said.

“I was in choir all four years of high school,” Vazquez said. While getting involved in sports and clubs are hard, in truth, it’s not hard. You just get involved. You go to the person running the place and ask and they will accept you. They love new people joining them, so if you think that you’re not accepted anywhere then just remember that clubs and sports love new people. And if you can’t do that, there is an easier way, getting a job! I worked in the dining room of a retirement community prior to working at North. I started there in high school as a server, worked my way up to being a supervisor and continued to work there for 11 years,” Vazquez said.

“I worked at Pik Kwik, a local grocery store as a cashier. Then I worked for several years as a waitress throughout school,” Bendix said.