EPCHS Alum In The Spotlight: Amy Kazin, Class Of 1991

The Evergreen Park Community High School alum in the spotlight this week is someone well-known to not only current students, but thousands of other alums dating back more than 20 years.

Amy Kazin, EPCHS Class of 1991, wears many hats at present-day-EPCHS. She is the director of music, a color guard teacher, choir director, division chair for art, industrial technology, music and world languages and the school’s director of activities. But her first role at EPCHS was as a student in the late 1980s.

“EP was a much smaller school then,” Kazin said. “My graduating class only had 132 students. I really enjoyed growing up in EP because I had the same classmates throughout my childhood.”

Long known to the EPCHS community for her leadership in music and theater, Kazin actually entered college at the University of Illinois as an aerospace engineering major. After a year in Champaign, however, Kazin changed her major to music and has never looked back.

At Illinois, Kazin was the original music director for a co-ed a cappella group called "No Strings Attached," for whom she wrote most of the first arrangements and ran rehearsals.

“They were a fantastic group of people to make music with and we had a lot of laughs,” Kazin said, noting the group still exists at the state university 30 years later and has recent EPCHS alum Benas Alcauskas as a current member.

It was as a student at EPCHS when Kazin significantly developed her love for music and saw the impact it has on people. The “Music Changes Lives” motto at EPCHS today is a result of that revelation.

“I used to eat lunch in the music department during a jazz class, much like the lunch choir students do now, because it was the only way I could fit all the classes I wanted into my schedule,” Kazin said. “I guess some things never change!”

Kazin returned to EPCHS in 1997 when she was hired as a color guard teacher. Since then she has continued to add responsibilities, including becoming the musical director in 1999, choir director in 2012, division chair in 2016 and activities director in 2019.

On some days, Kazin will teach color guard in Block 0, an hour before most students get to school, yet remain on campus hours after school guiding events and extracurricular activities.

“Our fine arts kids give their time, effort, talent, and energy every single day, even though they wear multiple hats, too,” Kazin said. “Because of the summer theater camp, I have worked with some of them for 6 or 7 years now, and it's pretty special to have the opportunity to build a relationship over that length of time. There are families with multiple music students who have spent 10-12 years connected to the program, and the relationships that we are able to build with them and others have created the music family that has held strong for so many years at EP.”

Many have asked how Kazin is able to balance her many roles at EPCHS.

“If I'm honest, some days my answer is ‘I don't know either.’” she said. “When I see the effort that my students invest and the energy that my colleagues put forth on a daily basis, I can't help but keep going, one way or another.”

“In times when they lack the motivation or are struggling, it's my job to pick them up and help them through. I never expect anything from anyone that I wouldn't do myself and I always want my students and my colleagues to feel supported under my leadership. That's why I keep pushing.

Oh, and coffee plays a pretty big role, too.”