Alumni & Campus Stories

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Javan and Melissa Raney Samp kiss in front of the Alma Mater sculpture on their wedding day.

Club Kids

So special. So romantic. So U of I, how Javan G. Samp, ’15 ENG, and Melissa Raney Samp, ’15 ACES, together inscribed their names in the membership log of a

Kaytlin Reedy-Rogier holding Womens Center Sign

Agent of Change

Kaytlin Reedy-Rogier, ’10 LAS I first stepped foot on campus in 2002—a high school freshman from downstate Illinois, there to prove my mettle in a marching band competition. I got

Scott Ziffra crossing the finish line at the 2022 Antarctic Ice Marathon.

Globe Trotter

When Scott Ziffra, ’94 ENG, crossed the finish line of the December 2022 Antarctic Ice Marathon, he raised his arms—hands covered by thick black gloves—in victory. The moment marked not

Keith McLeon and family jumping in front of orange and blue colored VW Beetle

Illlini Beetle

Anyone visiting Keith McLean’s Orland Park, Ill., home can easily see the depths of his University of Illinois devotion. His basement is an orange-and-blue shrine, and McLean, ’88 LAS, a

Portrait of Ross Fishman

The Good Neighbor

It could have ended like so many tragic stories of gun violence that increasingly dominate today’s headlines. Fifty police officers unsuccessfully tried for 12 hours to end a Sept. 16,

Ravi Bashyal operating on a patient

Orthopaedic Angel

When orthopaedic surgeon Ravi K. Bashyal, ’01 LAS, responded to an unusual request for a Nepalese interpreter in the NorthShore University HealthSystem clinic where he works in Skokie, Ill., he