When Beverly Kim graduated from DGS in 1997, she never imagined she would be the successful chef she is now— a recipient of the James Beard award, contestant on Top Chef, and owner of a Michelin-star restaurant. 

Kim decided to pursue cooking after her sister suggested the career path in high school, and now it seems like a natural continuation of her interests.

“I always loved making people happy … I loved the creative part of cooking,” Kim said.

Through reaching out to Chicago-area chefs, Kim landed an internship at the Ritz-Carlton, which deeply inspired her to continue in the culinary arts. 

“I wanted to do something I felt passionate about, not just for a job … but something that I was engaged in at a spiritual level,” Kim said.

After culinary school, Kim’s passion took her back to Chicago, where she opened her first restaurant, Parachute. The restaurant has since been adapted into Parachute Hi-Fi, a more casual listening bar. 

Kim says the inspiration for Parachute originated from the free-flowing connotations of the word— a nod to the nonconformity inherent in her experiences as a Korean American.

“[Parachute is] our kind of expression of Korean American cuisine, because at that time, there was very little representation between traditional Korean and … anything outside that box,” Kim said.

Outside of Parachute, Kim is a founder of The Abundance Setting, which works to support female chefs as they raise families and pursue professional cooking careers.

“There’s a saying that, like, a woman’s place is in the kitchen, but in a professional kitchen, it [is] more male dominated,” Kim said.

Kim says the support she received from other women in the industry was integral to her success as a chef, something that prompted her to create The Abundance Setting. But also important was her time at DGS, where she was involved in activities ranging from cheerleading to math team.

“I just tried a lot of different things to find out what I liked,” Kim said. “Having access to the arts, having access to being creative, having access to being a leader … These are all cultivating entrepreneurial … abilities.”

Kim will be an upcoming contestant in America’s Culinary Cup. Watch her on CBS when the show premieres March 4.

Jon Hansen has made a name for himself through hosting for the Chicago Blackhawks. He is also a host for WGN Radio, an editor of the non-profit newsroom and a DGS graduate.

His aspiration for hosting started back when he was a kid. 

“When I was five years-old, my parents gave me an old camcorder. From there, I would videotape my brother’s football games and provide my own announcer commentary. I’ve been hooked ever since,” Hansen said.

His interest continued into high school as he participated in many activities catered toward announcing. 

“I read the student announcements on Tuesdays and Fridays for a few years. I occasionally joined WDGC as a guest host, and was on the speech team all four years. In addition, and equally important in my career, [I performed] in countless plays and musicals throughout my years at DGS, which allowed me to be on a microphone in front of a lot of people at a pretty young age,” Hansen said.

Now Hansen spends his days providing fast-paced, play-by-play commentary to keep listeners entertained and informed. He makes sure to incorporate expert analysis with the key events of the game for everyone to understand. 

His advice for future journalists or broadcasters is to take the opportunities presented to them and run with them.

“If you want to broadcast sports, start doing it now – start a podcast, a YouTube series or a TikTok where you interview and engage in DGS sports. If you want to be a talk show host, join the speech team and practice your craft in front of judges. If you want to be a journalist, join Blueprint and start writing as much as possible and make as many mistakes as possible now, so you learn from them for later,” Hansen said. 

From pitching for the Downers Grove Longshots, to now closing for the New York Mets, the 2011 graduate Nick Burdi is one of the most notable baseball players out of DGS.

“I always knew it was my dream. Probably got a little too loud about it sometimes. But I just knew deep down that if I spoke it into existence that I would do whatever it took to make it come true,” Burdi said. 

Not only did he excel on the dirt, but he excelled on the turf as well. He played quarterback for the Mustangs up until his junior year.

“It was always football. To be honest, it was probably my favorite sport to play even over baseball. Once I clocked 95 mph for the first time, I kind of figured [baseball] was what I was meant to do,” Burdi said. 

Originally drafted in the 24th round out of high school by the Minnesota Twins, he declined the offer and went on to play college ball for the University of Louisville. By the 2014 draft, he was considered a top prospect and went in the second round as the 46th pick to the Minnesota Twins once again. 

“Meeting Joe Mauer my first year was pretty cool just because it was someone you saw so much of. Kind of one of those moments where you start to realize you belong in the same locker room as these guys,” Burdi said.

Throughout his career, he has played for teams all across the country including the Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, Chicago Cubs, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and, as of now, the New York Mets.

Burdi has had many significant moments in his career, but to him being back in his home city as a Pittsburgh Pirate was the most memorable. 

“When I got to pitch against the Cubs in 2019 on opening day and having all my family and friends there–[that] was pretty special. I thought that was always cool for everyone to experience that together,” Burdi said.

That being said, Burdi does have a lot of love for the Yankees’ organization as well. 

“Making the opening day roster for the Yankees was definitely a really cool moment. I think with all the history behind that organization that’s probably my favorite so far,” Burdi said.

It wasn’t always glorious for Burdi on his journey through the majors; he fell victim to the very common Tommy John injury. 

“I’ve had five surgeries throughout my career so those have definitely been the toughest. But I love what I do and wouldn’t trade it for the world,” Burdi said.

Burdi has some words of wisdom to those hoping to follow a similar path. 

“If it was easy everyone would do this. There will be more people telling you [that] you can’t vs. [that] you can. So try to block out any noise and believe in yourself,” Burdi said.

For Burdi, high school wasn’t just about sports.

“As I’ve gotten older it’s the time with friends on and off the field that hold the most memories for me,” he said.

Burdi highlights how his time at DGS has influenced who he is today and how successful he is.

“I take a lot of pride being a kid from Downers Grove and representing the town in the right way. There are a lot of hard working people that show up every day at DGS to give kids like me the chance to go accomplish something really cool. I hope that doesn’t go unnoticed because it’s the teachers and coaches that made a lot of this possible for my family and I … I just hope to represent the community and people in the best way possible,” Burdi said.

From a member of National Honors Society, Student Council, Spanish Club and the DGS newspaper to TikTok star, Eileen Tyrrell is one of many accomplished DGS alumni.

After graduating in 2017, Tyrrell made her way to social media popularity in July of 2025.

“I started posting on TikTok in 2021, mostly just for fun, not thinking anyone would see it … for about four years that’s how it went — I used TikTok as a creative outlet, occasionally posting skits or my opinions or things about my life … Then, in July of 2025, I started posting ‘day in my life’ videos as a bookseller living on a pretty tight budget in New York City,” Tyrrell said.

Tyrell’s rise to popularity can be credited to people’s interest in New York City and attraction to working in a bookstore.

“I think there’s a lot of yearning right now to see more content about regular people who don’t post thousand-dollar shopping hauls or live in luxury apartments. So once I saw that people were interested in my day-to-day life, I kept making videos about it and my following grew from there,” Tyrrell said.

Once Tyrell reached 10,000 followers on TikTok, she was able to join the Creator Rewards Program and was able to earn money from her videos.

“Content creation has given me the ability to save money, donate money to causes that are important to me and also have a little bit more flexibility for fun things, like going on trips,” Tyrrell said.

Making content on social media has helped Tyrrell to express her opinions to a wider audience.

“These days it feels like hate, discrimination, ignorance and greed are rewarded, while empathy and critical thinking are punished or silenced. I want to show other people that it’s normal and cool to care about being a good person and that you can still have a vibrant, rewarding life even on a pretty minimal salary,” Tyrell said.

Amongst the many notable alumni at DGS, Olivia Tyrrell is one whose story should not go unnoticed.

Tyrrell graduated from DGS in 2017 and attended Iowa State University, where she received her bachelor’s in mechanical engineering. After her undergraduate years, she went on to work as an intern for NASA Langley and now is working full time as a research engineer.

“I love my career at NASA Langley, the work I do and the people I work with, and I see myself continuing to contribute to flight missions and research,” Tyrrell said. “My role on the science team includes determining camera placement, selecting hardware and analyzing image data to estimate terrain elevation.”

Tyrrell then proceeded to go into more depth of her role as a researcher engineer

“I work on the Advanced Measurements Team in a project Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume Surface Studies. The project involves a camera system mounted to the bottom of a lunar lander that captures images during descent and landing,” Tyrrell said. 

She followed up by praising science teacher Stephen Zownorega for helping guide her into the industry.

“I didn’t seriously consider engineering until my senior year, when my physics teacher, Mr. Zownorega, encouraged me to explore it and took us to a women in STEM event at Argonne National Laboratory. That experience really sparked my interest in engineering and set me on the path I’m on today,” Tyrrell said.

Tyrrell proceeds to then give her own advice that she would give to current high schoolers.

“My biggest advice to students is to keep an open mind; don’t rule out opportunities just because they feel unfamiliar at first,” Tyrrell said. “Work hard, but also give yourself grace and take time to enjoy being a college student. That balance is incredibly important.”

While many children dream of going for the gold, the inevitable pressure and expectations of life catch up, and most let these fantasies die. Track and field athlete and 2007 DGS graduate Egle Staisiunaite proved this idea wrong, competing for Lithuania in the 2012 London Summer Olympics as a 400m hurdler at age 23.

The unwavering confidence she had in her abilities made her successful. 

“It came early on, that desire or even the belief that I could make it, it came very early. I would say maybe one or two years after I started track,” Staisiunaite said.

Her aspirations only had beneficial results because it was combined with hard work and discipline.

“[It’s] work ethic, setting a habit of working hard, not necessarily hard, but putting in the work,” Staisiunaite said.

Like many, Staisiunaite faced extreme adversity in high school, partly because she came to the U.S. as a Lithuanian immigrant. She found navigating this new lifestyle difficult and used track and field as the thread that would tie her life in Lithuania to her new American life.

“I was an immigrant, so fitting into the culture, nobody told me the track season was starting, so through trying out different things, learning the language, not having many friends and being shy, track and field gave me the confidence,” said Staisiunaite.

Through it all, achieving her dreams made her efforts immensely fulfilling, serving as an inspiration to many who don’t feel capable of achieving something greater.