On Monday, Dec. 4, ETHS honored notable alumni with the annual Distinguished Alumni Award. This award was established twenty years ago in 2003, to “recognize graduates of [ETHS] who exemplify the tradition of excellence fostered at ETHS through professional achievements [post-graduation],” according to the ETHS webpage. Some of the nominees came to school and spoke at the ceremony that seniors attended, some awards were given remotely or even posthumously. This year’s winners were Nichelle Campbell-Miller (Class of 2011), Sanders “Sam” Hicks (Class of 1940, posthumous), Dr. Elizabeth Hill (Class of 1916, posthumous), Dr. Frank Ling (Class of 1966), Dr. Kenneth Schaefle (Class of 1986) and Andrew Slavitt (Class of 1984). The Evanstonian talked to two of the winners, Campbell-Miller and Schaefle, whose stories are featured below.
Nichelle Campbell-Miller
Nichelle Campbell-Miller is a school social worker at a middle school in Terre Haute, Indiana, providing one-on-one services with students at her school, Sarah Scott Middle School. In addition to her position as school social worker, Campbell-Miller also facilitates her school food pantry, school intervention program and coaches basketball and volleyball.
Campbell-Miller was inspired to enter a career in social work from the mother of one of her friends, who was a social worker at Haven Middle School in Evanston.
“[My friend’s mom] was instrumental in my life. She embodied everything I felt a social worker should be. As I grew older, I knew I wanted to be a lot like her. She was definitely the catalyst for me becoming a social worker, but I always knew I wanted to help people in some way,” Campbell-Miller said.
Graduating from ETHS in 2011, Campbell-Miller attended Indiana State University for four years. She began her employment at Sarah Scott Middle School in 2015.
“I love my job so much,” Campbell-Miller said. “I don’t even consider it to be a job. It’s just so much fun. I am a huge kid at heart, so I love being able to have fun with the kids. I enjoy being able to watch the lightbulb go off for students in [social and emotional] capacities, watch them grow and develop as human beings and come into their own.”
Campbell-Miller described her receiving of the Distinguished Alumni Award as a “great honor.”
“I am a product of immigrant parents from Jamaica. It means a lot to be able to carry out my family’s name and make them proud,” she added.
Campbell-Miller’s recognition has gone beyond ETHS’ distinguished alumni award. She has won the City of Terre-Haute’s 12 Under 40 award, given to professionals under the age of 40 who are making a difference in the Wabash Valley community. She has also been awarded social worker of the year for both her region and the entirety of the State of Indiana.
Though Campbell-Miller is more than satisfied with her current position, she sees school administration down the road for her.
”I love what I do so much right now and the way things are going for me. I don’t see it changing in the next five or so years, but eventually I’d love to be a school principal,” said Campbell-Miller.
Dr. Kenneth Schaefle
Dr. Kenneth Schaefle, ETHS graduate and successful doctor, has experimented with a variety of different fields of interest since his graduation in 1986. As a distinguished alumni, he believes the ETHS community’s high exposure has inspired and led him to a fulfilling career.
Schaefle grew up in Evanston, and went to Haven Middle School prior to attending ETHS from 1982 to 1986. During his time at the high school, he participated in the dual chemistry/physics program, which continues today; it’s an intense course that he loved. He was quite impressed with the school’s brilliant, competitive environment, and took up interests in music and men’s gymnastics.
“Within the first month or two I realized it was a really challenging environment and that it was academically rigorous,” he said. “You had to put a lot into being there in order to keep up. The momentum of what we were learning and the work we were doing was fascinating.”
Following his graduation, Schaefle moved on to study physics at Northwestern University, but switched to an English major soon after. During his time at Northwestern, he became interested in and took up sound engineering, and was hired to control sounds and music for live bands.
Schaefle deeply enjoyed sound engineering, and ended up using his skills in future endeavors.
“I loved having the sound of the whole band in my hands, and I loved the engineering challenges of building up sound systems. I went very far with that,” he said.
In 1993, after graduating from Northwestern University, he and two fellow NU graduates, Jon Rosenfeld and Andrew Moskos, went to Amsterdam. Together, they founded an improv comedy group called Boom Chicago, and he became the show’s sound technician. As the first improv comedy show in the Netherlands, it became wildly popular, and by the year 2000, they had their very own 240-seat nightclub theater. In Chicago, it became a competitive audition, with almost 1000 email requests for an audition spot. Quite a few successful comedians have performed there, such as Seth Meyers and Jordan Peele.
For Schaefle, it was an exciting period in his life; he believes that fun is a major factor in being successful.
“I think it was hugely successful, not to brag, but we had so much fun. Maybe the most important definition of success is that we did exactly what we wanted to do, and had fun,” he said.
After 12 years at Boom Chicago, Schaefle moved to New York to start medical school at the age of 40, and developed a passion for global health and medicine. His hospital, Montefiore, has had a partnership with a Ugandan hospital for more than 20 years, and Schaefle received an opportunity to travel to Uganda and work at the partner hospital. It was extremely short-staffed and had less advanced equipment and technology, which is exactly why he felt it was important.
“I went as a medical student, and loved it so much that when I was a resident, I volunteered a whole month. After volunteering, they asked me if I’d like to join their staff; there’s never been anything else I wanted to do in all of medicine,” he said.
In Uganda, Schaefle and his team worked with inpatient admissions seven days a week. They treated people with diseases such as HIV and malaria, and even spent time teaching medical students and patients about common diseases; in the area that they worked in, many lacked health literacy. During that period in his life, Schaefle split his time between Uganda and the United States.
Even with his impressive achievements during his career, Schaefle’s most meaningful triumphs were from his childhood years. His experience as an Eagle Scout, for example, taught him life-saving skills that he has put to practice in Uganda, and his ETHS varsity gymnastics letter is his most treasured possession. Pure effort earned him the varsity letter, he said, and it took much effort.
But most importantly, Schaefle believed his most valuable experience and asset was his education at ETHS. He considered ETHS to be a competitive, intelligent environment that gave him countless opportunities.
“It’s opened the door to everything that’s come after,” he said. “Just seeing so many skills on display, and seeing the fun people had, made me hungry to stay involved. It’s a ‘do anything you want’ school. You can go a thousand different places.”
