North works to have all of their events be inclusive to everyone, ranging from special events to clubs and committees.

A major event that North has is The Big Game.

The Big Game is an all-school event that supports the Special Olympics. North’s Special Olympics basketball team competes against another school during an all-school assembly.

“The Big Game started a few years ago, and it has become one of North’s greatest traditions. It’s my favorite day of the school year. So The Big Game is when we have our D127 Special Olympic athletes compete against another school or school district. It’s an all-school assembly, and instead of thinking about it in a competitive nature like a normal basketball game, it really just celebrates this idea of spreading kindness, spreading inclusion, celebrating everyone’s differences and just everyone coming together,” said activities director Keeley Naughton.

This year will feature The Big Game for the first time since 2020. Many people are working hard on making it a big one. One way is by selling shirts to support the Special Olympics.

“Everybody needs to get excited for The Big Game and order your shirt,” Naughton said.
Another way Grayslake North works to make the school inclusive for all students is by having clubs where students can have a voice and spread their culture and background.

Clubs, such as Latinos Stand Up and the Black Union, create a space for students to appreciate their differences and create a welcoming environment throughout the school.

“We want to make the kids feel welcomed. It matters how they feel about it. We also understand that kids are involved in sports. We don’t expect everyone to meet every time. We meet every week on Thursdays,” said LSU sponsor Martin Rocha.

Latinos Stand Up is one of the major clubs at North. It allows for anyone to join and those who are part of the Latino community to be able to have a voice.

Clubs like these are created not only for a safe place to speak on issues but so that students can socialize and branch out to others.

“I think it’s important for all students to get involved. I think most students are involved, but I think it’d be nice if all students could be involved in some extra curricular activity some way or another because it just shows responsibility and maturity,” Rocha said.

Clubs are a great way to give student voices a platform, although many may not know that North offers a steering committee other than Student Council.

Knights Way has been a major factor in the way that Grayslake North improves its activities and environment.

“I just knew I wanted a group of students to help inform some of the work that we were doing. And so the student steering committee started, and they gave me feedback on things that were going well here and what things weren’t. Since that time, kind of every year the students have chosen different activities,” said sponsor Jenny Andersen.

Knights Way has created projects and campaigns to help improve the environment and educate other students, teachers, and staff. In past years there have been inclusive curricula added to health classes.

Currently in progress, students within the committee are putting together a survey-based campaign against slurs.

“A group of students and I are actually putting out a survey-based campaign against slurs because that’s a problem that we’ve heard from students and teachers that we want to help fix. So we are going to try and educate students about slurs and why we shouldn’t use them and who can use them,” said junior Rebekah Moncivaiz.

With students being the ones having first-hand experience of the school environment, having a committee like this helps not only students but teachers and staff mold the best conditions for the student body.

Knights Way has been happening for about five years now. Many students have shared a passion for activism throughout past years. In light of recent global and local events, many young adults have become more involved and passionate in their communities.

“Students have really driven what we’ve done. We’ve had an all-school, all staff, presentation by students where students run a panel and talk about their experiences. Being at North through a variety of diverse identities, we had students of color. We had students of religious minorities. We had students who were queer, trans, students who are disabled all talk about ‘this is what my experience has been at North,’ what’s been good and what hasn’t been good, give some feedback to teachers and staff about how to be more inclusive. Then those students led breakout rooms where staff got more individual training from students about what they’d like to see,” Andersen said.

All of these are some of the many different opportunities for students to have a voice in how North runs to make the student body feel included.

“I think just this entire group we don’t have a lot of other schools where students are allowed to put an input, and where we’re allowed to try and make change within the school,” Moncivaiz said.