NEAR WEST SIDE — Four decades of Whitney M. Young Magnet High School alumni donned their orange and blue Saturday and greeted fellow former classmates at a reunion held in honor of the school's 40th anniversary.
Coming from as far as California and New York, alumni toured the Near West Side school and attended a pep rally style ceremony in the school's gymnasium.
Whitney Young is notably the city's first public magnet high school and rated the No. 3 high school in Illinois by U.S. News and World Report.
Current Whitney Young Principal Dr. Joyce Kenner, who has served as principal for 21 years, acted as emcee of the reunion. She shared stories of how she still makes personal calls to Harvard Deans on behalf of her students, and announced that the school is at a 100 percent college acceptance rate.
Famous alumni of the school include First Lady Michelle Obama, NBA player Jahlil Okafor, and Lana and Lilly Wachowski, the sibling creators of "The Matrix" trilogy and other films. None were in attendance, but their classmates who were remembered them fondly.
Mike Shields, cousin of Michelle Obama and class of '82, said his Whitney Young years were filled with nothing but good experiences. He remembered his cousin Michelle as "quiet" and "studious" during her Whitney Young years.
When Whitney Young opened in 1975, the neighborhood was still recovering from the damage sustained during the Martin Luther King Jr. riots of the 1960s, and disinvestment in the neighborhood opened its streets up to crime.
The school's founding principal, Bernarr E. Dawson, knew the school would have to set itself apart for parents to allow their kids to attend. Today, it consistently ranks among the top in the country.
Dawson died in 2008 but his son, Wayne Dawson, attended the ceremony on his behalf.
"He would've been proud," Dawson said of his father. "His military background had him keeping everyone accountable to a culture of excellence and the school is still like that today."
Milfred Moore, part of the first graduating class of '78, credits Whitney Young for teaching him the skills he uses in his everyday life.
"What college does for most people, Whitney Young did for me," he said.
Verlane Franklin, also class of '78, said she took two buses and two trains from her South Side neighborhood to attend Whitney Young. Franklin's mother brought her to the school 10 days into the school year, after Franklin broke out in hives because of the environment at her own neighborhood school.
"Literally as soon as I walked into Whitney Young my hives went away and I knew this was my home," Franklin said. "We're like a family. It's such a great feeling to be back."
Katrina Foster, class of '92, came from a family struggling with homelessness and bounced around neighborhoods as a teen. Today, she's a dentist.
"Whitney Young exposed me to more than just what I saw in my neighborhood," she said. "I couldn't have got that anywhere else."
Deb Keegan, who helped organize the reunion with a supporting committee of 15 graduates, said "it's been an unbelievable experience" hearing how deep the alum's ties run back to the school.
"The graduates realize they were part of something really new and groundbreaking, and they kicked off this school that has remained something very special," she said. "Everyone is proud to be a part of it and are excited to come back."
Annually, 10,000 students apply to be admitted to Whitney Young. Only 350 make the cut. A documentary that follows real CPS students through the selective enrollment process at Whitney Young was released in 2015.
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