March 28, 2024
Features | Herald-News


Features

Bolingbrook library honors second graduating class

BOLINGBROOK – On Aug. 6, Fountaindale Public Library District celebrated its second Smart Horizons Career Online High School (COHS) graduates in a ceremony featuring state Reps John Connor, D-Romeoville, and Natalie Manley, D-Joliet, as well as other community leaders and distinguished guests.

These nine graduates – Marisol Avila, Jennifer Bruzzo, Jianni Ciaccio, Ricardo Contreras, Teresa Dominguez, Roberto Llanas, Janeth Ortiz, Penny Painter and Carlos Winter – are the second class of students to receive their high school diploma through Fountaindale Library.

COHS, in partnership with Gale, a part of Cenage Learning, is an accredited online high school diploma and career certification program. In 2014, Fountaindale became the third public library in the country – and first in Illinois – to offer this vital initiative through grant funding from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and tThe Clinton Global Initiative.

This funding allowed Fountaindale the opportunity to award scholarships to prospective students and made the dream of receiving a high school diploma without financial burden a reality. Thanks to a partnership with Reaching Across Illinois Library System, another 11 more Illinois libraries now offer COHS in their districts.

Today, Fountaindale has 20 COHS enrollees. For information, visit fountaindale.org/cohs.

The Reaching Across Illinois Library System (RAILS) is a multitype library consortium serving over 1,300 libraries in northern and western Illinois. RAILS provides continuing education and consulting, eBook services, delivery, shared online catalogs talking book services and more. For information, visit railslibraries.info.