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Community Corner

Oak Forest HS Inducts Two New Members into Hall of Fame

Recently, Oak Forest High School welcomed two new members to the Hall of Fame.  Retired Oak Forest High School math teacher, Skip Moroz, and Oak Forest High School Alumna, Dawn Jackson Blatner, (Class of 1993), were inducted into the Hall of Fame.  Moroz is being inducted as a Spirit of Oak Forest Hall of Fame Member and Blatner is being inducted as a Pride of Oak Forest Hall of Fame Member.  Dr. Savka Mladenovich, Assistant Principal for Teaching and Learning, introduced both Moroz and Blatner, who was one of her student council officers when Mladenovich was the Student Council Adviser.

John “Skip” Moroz retired after 38 years of teaching, but still has not left Oak Forest and was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a Spirit of Oak Forest member.  Moroz continues to work at Oak Forest as the math tutor and still assists the students he loves to teach.  He earned his undergraduate degree in mathematics from Illinois State University and his graduate degree from the University of Notre Dame in mathematics as well.  Moroz served for 28 years as a Mathletes coach, and under his direction, Oak Forest won several Conference championships.  He also served as the President of the Oak Forest Faculty and Staff Association.

Moroz is a highly influential teacher at Oak Forest High School whom students flock to for assistance.  In the Freshman Top Ten Survival Guide, student mentors have listed him as the person to find and get to know immediately upon entering Oak Forest High School.  Moroz was grateful for the honor and thanked his wife for attending years’ worth of dances and for the late dinners that she made after his extracurricular events at school.    He thanked the Math Department, who he says has always been there for each other.

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Mrs. Dawn Jackson Blatner, Class of 1993, was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a Pride of Oak Forest Member.  At Oak Forest High School, Blatner was the President of the Student Council Executive Board and hosted and planned the State convention.  She was also a skilled athlete, excelling in soccer, where she was a part of the team that won the All-Conference Soccer Championship and the Regional Soccer Team Championship.  She earned the Bronze Tablet Scholar award at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, and in 2012, received the Outstanding Young Alumna award.

She is a registered and licensed dietician and does regular appearances on Fox News in the Morning, CNN News, Dateline NBC and the NBC Nightly News.  She also makes web appearances on Lifetime Television’s website.  She writes food and nutrition blogs for USA Today and is the author of the Flexitarian Diet, which offers a simple but intelligent approach to eating.  She is an advisory board expert for Fitness and Time Out magazines and is a nutrition consultant to the Chicago Cubs. 

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She offered to students at the ceremony a simple recipe for success in one’s career.  “Do for a career what you do in your spare time,” she said.  In this way, Blatner chose the things to involve herself in that she was already pursuing in real life, when she was considering a career while in college.  She also advised students to “be brave.  Bravery is being afraid, but still going for it.”  She says there are experiences that are scary, like talking to the Chicago Cubs professional baseball players, but those experiences are always valuable.  Last, she said to add special “sauce” to one’s life.  The special “sauce” are the people who make a difference.  She credits Dr. Mladenovich for seeing leadership in her that she didn’t know she possessed, her parents for giving her strength, and her husband for being her right hand man for the strength she has had to pursue.

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