• Below are some of the honors, awards and accomplishments that students and staff from Hinsdale Central earned during the 2020-21 school year.

    Faculty and Staff

    • Maggie Buoy was named the 2020 School Social Worker of the Year by the Illinois Association of School Social Workers (IASSW).

    • Kim Estoque, who is Hinsdale Central’s girls gymnastics coach, began her 30th year of coaching in November. Estoque was voted the West Suburban Conference Coach of the Year during the 2019-20 school year.

    • Kim Estoque and Myles Laffey were named conference coaches of the year in girls gymnastics.

    • John Naisbitt was named a finalist for national coach of the year in boys tennis by the National High School Athletic Coaches Association.

    • Julie Baker and Pat Richards were named Outstanding Activity Sponsors by the Illinois Directors of Student Activities. Baker, who was the faculty sponsor for Women in Engineering, and Richards, who was the faculty sponsor for SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) and the DAWGS Military Support Group, received this award in recognition of the impact they have made on their club or activity, and because they exemplify what it means to be the "ideal advisor."

    Individual Students

    • Seniors Qing Dang, Amer Goel, Bilal Khan, Sidh Leekha and Aileen Yang were named candidates for the 2021 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program. Each year, up to 161 students are named Presidential Scholars, which is considered one of the nation's highest honors for high school students.

    • Junior Sacheen Upadhye won the Hornaday Badge Award from the Boy Scouts for "completing a conservation-related project and verifying its lasting impact over time." This award is given to fewer than 100 Eagle Scouts from across the country on an annual basis.

    • Senior Moses Yawe from was selected for the College Board's National African American Recognition Program.

    • Hinsdale Central junior Alexandra Collins was one of six youth leaders from across North America who earned a Brower Youth Award from the New Leaders Initiative program.

    • Alonso Guerrero, Jacob Marquez, Melanie Quinones, John Rivera and Maria Rivera were selected for the College Board's National Hispanic Recognition Program.

    • Junior Shivani Rao was invited to present at the American Society of Hematology's Annual Meeting and Exposition, which was held virtually in early December. The focus of her presentation was the study about blood types and COVID-19 severity that she conducted with Dr. Shivi Jain from Rush University Medical Center.

    • Junior Suzan Nofal was among the 22 students from across the country who were selected as members of the inaugural Equity in Civics Youth Fellowship.

    • Senior Katrina Geiersbach was among the 26 individuals from across Illinois who were named to the Illinois High School Association's (IHSA) 2021 All-State Academic Team. The IHSA awards this honor to students who "have excelled in academics, while also participating in multiple sports and activities."

    • The following students from Hinsdale Central took first place in their individual events during a competition that was held in conjunction with the Illinois Business Professionals of America (BPA) State Leadership Conference:

      • Angelina Buonavolanto, Simran Karamchandani and Emma Schackart - Broadcast News Production Team
      • Ajay Gupta - Extemporaneous Speech
      • Bilal Mohammed - Advanced Interview Skills

    • Several students from Hinsdale Central finished in the top 10 in their individual events during the virtual competition held in conjunction with the Business Professionals of America (BPA) National Leadership Conference.

      • Nathan Zock took first place in the Graphic Design Promotion event.
      • Aira Chaudhary, Athena Deng, Nicole Hu and Sarah Thornton took second place in the Global Marketing Team event.
      • Saanvi Sethi took second place in the Prepared Speech event.
      • Ajay Gupta took second place in the Extemporaneous Speaking event.
      • Bilal Mohammed took third place in the Advanced Interview Skills event.
      • Arnima Agrawal took fifth place in the Graphic Design Promotion event.
      • Rama Bhagwat took fifth place in the Business Law & Ethics event.
      • Annie Ascher took eighth place in the Prepared Speech event.
      • Annette Ciupek took 10th place in the Advanced Interview Skills event.

    • Senior Anna Pellegrino received the recognition of Outstanding Attorney during the 2021 ISBA High School Mock Trial Invitational.

    • Junior Amy Dong earned a Silver Key at the national level for the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. She was automatically considered for the honor after earning a Golden Key in the regional competition.

    • Divers Conor Furlong and Sami Kassir finished in first and second place respectively at the West Suburban Conference championship.

    • Papers written by Amy Dong, Joseph Luo, Rohan Shah and Grant Zhang from Hinsdale Central's Data Science Club were among the 35 that received an honorable mention award in conjunction with the MathWorks Math Modeling Challenge. Only 9% of the papers submitted for the competition received an award.

    • Junior Armaan Panjwani and seniors Josh Keating and Chiara Gregor excelled in their individual events at the state competition for the Illinois Design Educators Association. Keating took third place in the 3D CAD Modeling event, while Panjwani and Gregor tied for third in the Architectural 2D CAD event.

    • Several students from Hinsdale Central won awards during the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America's (FCCLA) virtual state competition:

      • Colleen Yopp won a Gold in the Fashion Construction STAR event.
      • Fatima Khan won a Gold in the Public Speaking Creed event.
      • Zuzanna Sokolowski won a Gold in the Apparel Construction event.
      • Sufia Iqbal won a Silver in the Salad Preparation event.

    • Derek Pancratz from Hinsdale Central was selected to participate in Carnegie Mellon University's Summer Academy for Math and Science (SAMS). This highly competitive program (only 75 students were chosen from the more than 500 who applied) utilizes traditional classroom instruction and hands-on projects that are administered by the university's faculty and staff to help students develop a deeper understanding of subject areas such as mathematics, biology and physics.

    School and District

    • Fifteen students from Hinsdale Central earned the AP Capstone Diploma award. This award is granted to students who earn scores of 3 or higher in AP Seminar and AP Research, and on four additional AP exams of their choosing.

    • Twenty-seven students from District 86 were recognized as semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program.

    • Fifty-one students from District 86 were recognized as Commended Students in the National Merit Scholarship Program.

    • The girls golf team from Hinsdale Central won its sectional and regional tournaments, while the boys golf team took first place in regionals and second in sectionals.

    • The girls tennis team from Hinsdale Central took first place at the sectional tournament and won the West Suburban Gold conference championship. 

    • The girls swimming and diving team from Hinsdale Central won its second straight sectional title.

    • Solstice, which is the art and literary magazine produced by students and staff from Hinsdale Central, was one of eight high school print literary magazines in the country to be awarded a Gold Crown from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA). This is the highest recognition CSPA gives to a student print or digital medium for overall excellence.

    • Students from District 86 earned 62 gold medals, 69 silver medals, 89 bronze medals and 114 honorable mentions for the scores they received on the Spanish, French, German and Latin national exams they took last year.

    • One hundred seniors from across the district earned the Seal of Biliteracy for the fall of 2020 by scoring a 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement exam in the spring, or performing well on a language proficiency test during first semester.

    • District 86 students earned 10 Gold Keys, 16 Silver Keys and eight Honorable Mentions in conjunction with the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers’ Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

    • Sixty-five students from District 86 earned All District selections for band, chorus, jazz band and orchestra from the Illinois Music Education Association.

    • The speech team from Hinsdale Central took second place in the state tournament. 

    • The Hinsdale Central Scholastic Bowl team won its regular season and postseason conference titles, and took first place in its regional and sectional tournaments. 

    • The varsity and junior varsity Science Olympiad teams from Hinsdale Central both took second place at the Virtual College of DuPage Regional Science Olympiad competition.

    • The Forensics team from Hinsdale Central accumulated more than 15,000 points for its speech and debate presentations, competition and service. As a result, the school earned a 1st Diamond degree of membership (coaching award) in the National Speech & Debate Association’s Honor Society.

    • The Hinsdale Central Math Team took first place overall and in all seven of its individual events at regionals. The team also finished in 11th place at state.

    • The varsity girls badminton team from Hinsdale Central won its conference title and took first place in its sectional tournament. 

    • The girls gymnastics team from Hinsdale Central took second place in the West Suburban Conference championships, and had several student-athletes finish in the top five in their individual events. 

    • Students from District 86 earned 35 gold medals, 55 silver medals, 52 bronze medals and 50 honorable mentions for the scores they received on the Spanish, French, German and Latin national world language exams they took last year. Several students from Hinsdale Central received additional accolades for their individual performances:

      • Yanning (Maria) Jiao received a platinum award for earning the highest score in the nation on the Level 1 French exam.
      • Nadir Muzaffar and Joy Chen earned perfect scores on the Latin exam. The perfect score that Muzaffar received was his third one overall (i.e., accomplished the same thing on the Latin I and II exams).
      • The gold medal that Stella Dang earned for her score on this year's Latin exam was her fourth overall. This honor qualified her for a special scholarship and resulted in her receiving a Book Award from the National Latin Exam.