Senior Elizabeth Silvay is known for her incredible accomplishments at LFHS. She has excelled not only in all of her classes, but also in her social activities. After an interview with her, here is a look into Elizabeth Silvay’s life.
Silvay’s Daily Schedule
Silvay starts her day with her early bird Physics-C class. Although she has never done an early bird class before, she has taken on the challenge and continues to push through.
For the next class, she is a teacher assistant for Mr. Gigianos AP World History class, which she loves. Mr. Gigiano was Silvay’s AP European History teacher her sophomore year. Although she has never taken AP World History before, she loves listening in on the lectures and learning alongside the students.
The next class in her day is AP Comparative Government with Mrs. Kyrias. After this, she is off to lunch. Silvay then has Linear Algebra and Applications.
“The class uses matrices to solve systems of linear equations, which is more of an abstract way of thinking about linear equations. There are a lot of applications in this such as economics and computer usage of linear algebra,” said Silvay. She loves the class and enjoys being able to solve these equations.
After math, Silvay heads to AP Economics, which is not one of her favorites but she is interested in pursuing the class. She then has a study hall where she tries to complete her heavy workload for the night. After that, she has AP French, which she loves to engage in, already having received her seal of biliteracy. To end the day, she has AP Literature.
After school, Silvay heads to her sport: either tennis in the fall, or track in the spring.
Afterwards, she regularly goes to Starbucks with her best friend, Annie Gibbons. They then head to either Lake Forest Library or Lake Forest College Library. Silvay and Gibbons generally stay until closing hours, or until they complete all of their work for the night. After that, the girls go on their nightly drive around town before they return home for the night. Once home, Silvay will eat her dinner, shower and then head to bed for a good night’s rest.
Silvay’s Favorite classes
This year, Silvay’s favorite class is Linear Algebra and Applications. She loves how her teacher, Mr. Summey, keeps the class engaging and fun.
Silvay also loves being a teacher assistant for Mr. Gigiano.
“He’s definitely one of the top teachers I’ve ever had,” said Silvay. She believes that Mr. Gigiano makes learning very interesting and keeps the class actively listening to his lessons. Silvay enjoys being able to help the students because she relates to students’ efforts of trying to keep up. In Gigiano’s class, Silvay is constantly helping students learn.
The one thing Silvay regrets is not taking Ceramics. Her freshman year, she took Art Foundations but regretted it when she saw her friends walk out of the ceramics studio with incredibly crafted pieces.
Silvay’s Involvement and Activities
Silvay is involved in many activities inside and outside of school. In school, she is a devoted member of the Math Team. She originally joined the team freshman year because her math teacher thought that she was a very strong student. Silvay was on her middle school’s Math Team and figured that since she had already enjoyed it before, she might as well continue her participation into high school. Her junior year, Silvay became one of the team’s oral presentationists. This means that she and Devin Parsons study, solve and present specific, niche topics to a panel of judges during competitions. The girls are graded not only on their correct answers but also on their explanations. Silvay excels in problem-solving while on the team, finding it fun to finally solve a problem after working so hard to get it. Another one of her favorite parts about being on the team is getting to attend State.
“It’s super kooky,” said Silvay. “There’s always a song that we sing before we compete.” Silvay truly enjoys the team and every part of it.
Additionally, Silvay is the Secretary of the French Club. She has always loved French, a devoted learner since the age of three. Her mother is fluent in French, which has peaked her interest. She considers the French Club a fun way to stay involved with the language.
Silvay has also been on the JV Tennis Team for the past four years, enjoying socializing with her teammates. Starting her junior year, Silvay also decided to start running track.
Outside of school, Silvay is heavily involved in ski racing, which she has been doing since fourth grade. She has spent countless hours skiing whether that be at camps, with her team or just for fun. She has raced with the Aspen Valley Ski Club in Colorado as well as her home team, Wilmot. Last year, she helped organize the first-ever Team Illinois Ski Team, making it to the Western High School Championships in Mammoth, California. During the winter, Silvay drives to the mountain twice a week after school, as well as on the weekends for her practices. She generally has races in Michigan and Minnesota. Even though the ski team is located at Wilmot, Wisconsin, she is making the best out of it. She loves her team and she feels that everyone is very involved.
Silvay’s Future Goals
Silvay is unsure of what career path she may follow after college but, after doing research with chemical engineers at Northwestern this past summer, she has become very interested in the subject. She is planning on majoring in chemistry or chemical engineering.
“Every product that you buy has chemical engineers that design it, so there are a lot of applications that come with it. That is something that I might want to do down the line,” said Silvay. She also thinks it could be interesting to be a chemical patent lawyer, which requires a general scientific background and law school.
Silvay’s Family and Friends
Silvay lives with her mom, dad and younger sister Katie– a sophomore at LFHS. Her family is very tight-knit. Due to the fact that Silvay and her sister are close in age, they enjoy spending time together and get along well. They have regular family dinners; however, these aren’t your typical dinners. Silvay’s best friend, Annie Gibbon’s, explains that during Silvay dinners, they indulge in political, historical or current topics..
“You feel like you’re sitting in on a Gigiano lecture. My first time sitting at the Silvay family dinner table, Katie started rambling on about the Seven Years’ War. Mr. Silvay started to argue that she was completely wrong, and then they all started arguing about it. I was just sitting there dumbfounded,” said Gibbons. “The entire family understands historical references and it’s such a different dinner table culture than any other family I know.”
Gibbons lives down the street from Silvay. The girls became friends during their sophomore year when they were seated next to each other in Mr. Lubliner’s English class. They had never met before yet they instantly clicked. Gibbons sees Silvay as a very driven person, which encourages her to be the same way. Because the girls do their homework together every day, they give each other the motivation to stay on track.
Joining the Lake Forest Community
Elizabeth Silvay moved to Lake Forest as she entered her freshman year of high school. At first, she was scared; moving from Chicago to the suburbs was quite the adjustment. Silvay had a few family friends from Lake Forest, and her family would frequently visit during the summers, but she didn’t know any of her future high school classmates. Her first time meeting anyone her age was at the tennis tryout for the high school.
“I’ll always remember: freshman year, I drove to tennis tryouts and didn’t know a soul. It was so scary. I saw all of the older girls driving up in their Jeeps; and then there was little fourteen-year-old me,” Silvay said. Although this was definitely one of the harder experiences for her, Silvay makes it very clear that she has incredible teachers at LFHS, has met amazing people and made best friends. Overall, it has been such a positive experience for Silvay, even though it was initially scary.
