Lynsey Panek stood at the base line ready to serve, with a racquet in one hand and a tennis ball in the other. Playing in an exclusive, invite only tournament as a junior in high school really made Panek feel the pressure.
So much sweat poured from her face and body, to the point where her skirt was sagging from all the sweat. Fatigued from playing in the Memphis heat, fighting the pain of her barely healed dislocated shoulder, needing to impress the college scouts, she tossed the ball up and underhand served it over the net.
After a long and well fought four hour match, Panek said “good game” to her opponent and accepted her defeat with her head held high.
“There’s something about grinding it out and giving it all I had, and even though I lost, I feel like I left it all out on the court,” Panek said.
Panek has been teaching science at Prospect for two years. She grew up in Orland Park with no siblings, but two supportive and loving parents. As an only child, playing tennis gave her the chance to get to know and interact with other kids in her area. Her passion for her sport later led to the great opportunity of getting to play D1 tennis at Murray State University in Kentucky.
Panek started playing tennis at a very young age. Her mom, Mary, enrolled her in lessons when she was only three years old. She recalls taking “little kid lessons” with her tiny racquet and squishy tennis balls on miniature courts.
Many of Panek’s childhood role models helped influence different aspects of her life. She loved watching former tennis pros Lindsay Davenport and Monica Seles on TV, and looked up to her mom’s passion for teaching and tennis.
Most of all, Panek admired her step-dad George Schwarz and his work ethic. Now, he sees and admires all of her life accomplishments.
“I loved watching her play and grow,” said Schwarz. “She grew into such an amazing person and player.”
As Panek started to focus more on her family, she took a break from playing tennis to take care of her kids, but hopes to get back into it once her kids are older.
She has a one year old daughter named Liv and a four year old son named George (Georgie for short). Seeing them grow up together as siblings is something Panek loves as a mom.
“Just them smiling and watching them learn or realize and seeing their personalities develop,” said Panek. “Now that I have two, watching them interact, oh it’s the best.”
Among many moments, some of her favorites are when Liv blows kisses saying “good night,” already knowing it’s her bed time, or when Georgie helps his sister by wiping her nose and keeping dangerous things away from her.
“Even at 15 months … she knows what she wants,” said Panek. “My son is just the sweetest older brother to her.”
One of the things she likes to do as a mom is to bake for her kids, specifically baking their birthday cakes. This year Panek baked a Ghostbusters cake for son and a Monsters Inc. cake for her daughter.
“As my son gets older, the designs get more and more intricate,” Panek said. “… so a lot of fondant decorations, but it’s fun.”
Balancing work life and family time while also trying to get some selfcare time is difficult when everything feels so demanding, but Panek says it all comes back to “mom guilt.” She realized that having kids changes the way you act and makes it clear what is really important to you. Schwarz noticed that Panek being with her kids impacts the way they grow as people.
“She is just always happy, and I feel like you can really see it in her kids,” said Schwarz.
Being with her mom a lot, Panek got to see her mom’s love for teaching. As a child, she always found science to be exceptionally interesting. She always knew she liked science and math the most, but choosing what to do with those interests took time to figure out.
Taking the MCAT, working as a nurse’s assistant, finishing grad school and applying to multiple physician assistant (PA) schools are all things Panek did to figure out what she really wanted to do. She fell into teaching after grad school, and it wasn’t until a couple years ago that she decided to stick with teaching.
Panek’s first teaching job was at a Nobel Charter school called Butler College Prep in 2015. She found out about the Prospect opening at a job fair with a bunch of different high schools in Illinois. Standing in line for information about the Niles district, Panek waited.
“I was super pregnant with my daughter,” said Panek. “I thought this is so stupid, no one is going to hire me because I am so pregnant.”
With little faith in getting a job offer, Panek was surprised when a District 214 representative came up to her and introduced her to the former science division head at Prospect, Julia Evans. They then offered her an interview, and she got the job a couple weeks later.
“I’ve worked at 3 completely different schools, so it was an adjustment. Not in a bad way, in a way of just so much change last year. Like having a newborn, making the leap from 1 to 2 kids and then a new job and a new environment, but I love it. It’s great.”
