On Wednesday, Nov. 11, students and faculty lined the hallways to welcome and give thanks to veterans who visited MHS. A total of eight veterans came to share their experiences with students during class.
“I think it’s important that everyone knows what [the veterans] have gone through and their experiences, and we’re learning about it [in class], so it’s really cool to have someone come in and talk about what they experienced,” said Sophomore Lindsay Dickens. “Even though we just read in textbooks about what happened, it was real.”
Sometimes it can be forgotten that the war was a real event and the connection between reading what happened and the devastation it brought to some families and how sad it was can be lost.
For Sophomore Dominic Carstens, Veteran’s Day is a time to think about his cousin who is in the marines.
“[Students] should take away that veterans let us sleep safely at night, and other countries have to worry about being bombed and things like that,” said Carstens.
Despite honoring the day with veteran visitations, many students feel that MHS should have school off like the neighboring schools, such as Libertyville and Stevenson, to better celebrate Veteran’s Day.
Dickens herself does not have any veterans in her family who are still alive, so she said not having Veteran’s Day off from school does not greatly impact her.
However, she said, “I feel like if you did have someone, it would be harder to come to school [on Veteran’s Day] if they were in town, and [you] wanted to see them.”
Christopher Lagioia, social studies and world language department chair, was in charge of coordinating the veterans’ visit since students were in class that day.
Previously coming from Dundee-Crown High School in Carpentersville, which is a school that also has classes on Veteran’s Day, he was accustomed to planning for veteran visits, so he decided to continue hosting such guest speakers at MHS.
“We had speakers, I had eight veterans come in, and they spoke to social studies classes. I also had the social studies teachers do a mini 10-minute lesson on the history of Veteran’s Day,” said Lagioia.
Finding veterans in Mundelein who are willing to come to MHS and speak can be a difficult task because some don’t like to speak in front of a big crowd or they want to be with someone else while speaking. To accommodate this, Langolia paired up the visiting veterans and had them go to different classes to speak.
“It’s appropriate that we thank veterans for their service, and the feedback from [having vets come visit] is positive,” said Langolia, “And I think it does trickle out and remind people to thank a veteran whether it be the ones visiting MHS or the ones that currently work here or others they know outside of the Mundelein walls.”

Veterans Who Visited MHS

1. Alan Ayers
2. Jonathan Boldt
3. Nick Konz
4. Corey Marchman
5. Nathan Scheid
6. Randy Schenck
7. Steve Simonelli
8. Kip Stehling