I’s on the World: Arctic Chill

Oh, the places we go … University of Illinois alumni are globetrotters who travel near and far, but never forget their Alma Mater!

John Warkenthien with night sky showing green streaks of northern lights “Seeing the Northern Lights from Tromso, Norway, was a moving experience,” John Warkenthien says. (Image courtesy of John Warkenthien)
Oh, the places we go … University of Illinois alumni are globetrotters who travel near and far, but never forget their Alma Mater!

When the time came for John Warkenthien, ’78 LAS, to get a good look at the Northern Lights, he set out for Tromso, Norway, on a Viking Ocean Cruise. While frigid temps and a celestial light show provided him with the expected change of pace, it wasn’t easy for him to escape everyday life. That’s because Tromso also is the northern-most location for well-known franchises like Burger King and the Hard Rock Café. Warkenthien did, however, find one unique local treasure, the Tromso Astrology Museum, calling its 360-degree movie a “light show for the ages.” Bringing Illinois orange and blue to the ends of the earth isn’t new for Warkenthien, CEO of NextStep Solutions, a Houston-based consulting firm that offers cloud-based behavioral health software. Last year, he traveled to Antarctica.

For more photos of alumni around the world, check out our Flickr album. Send pictures of yourself clad in orange and blue to IllinoisAlumni@uillinois.edu. You also can post to www.Facebook.com/IllinoisAlumni and twitter.com/uiaa using hashtag #IlliniWorldwide.

Alumni Stories