Ilya Vynnyk, Mundelein High School Class of 2021, was one of 35 students from the Chicagoland area to be accepted to attend floChicago, a leadership and civic engagement summer program. The six-year-old initiative brings together a diverse group of Chicago area student leaders who work to build social capital and inspire real community solutions to issues such as race, criminal justice, and affordable housing. Vynnyk is the third Mundelein High School student to be selected for floChicago which receives hundreds of applications annually from high school juniors.
Vynnyk has a keen interest in the American political system and founded the Political Action Club at Mundelein High School. The club helps promote political literacy among their members and invites local politicians to speak with students. Vynnyk is looking to floChicago to experience and learn about the real life problems metropolitan areas face, and strategies each community can employ to make a difference.
“My main goal for floChicago is to develop my perspective on the many political issues that will be covered in this program. We will meet with City of Chicago officials to learn about the problems facing the city. My hope is to learn from the other students and gain an understanding of the problems that they face. I also hope to meet new people that, without this program, I would not have had the privilege to meet.”
Vynnyk serves as president of the National Honor Society and is co-president of Peer Tutors. In addition, he was selected earlier this year to take part in the Mikva Challenge in Iowa which empowers young adults toward an interest in politics. While there he met Presumptive Nominee for the Democratic nomination for US President, Joe Biden. Vynnyk recently took eighth place, along with MHS students Flavio Diaz and Sofia Feijoo, in the Global Business category at the state Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) competition. He was also chosen to represent MHS at the 2020 Boys State event, sponsored by the American Legion and Post set for Washington, D.C.
floChicago Founder Matthew Brewer, a Stanford undergraduate, Yale Law School and Harvard MBA graduate, now a partner at the Chicago law firm Bartlit Beck, grew up in an African American community on Chicago’s South Side which is representative of Chicago’s rigid, endemic color line found across neighborhoods. Brewer created the program to foster leadership that represents all manner of perspectives, all races and all corners of the metro area.