Alumni & Campus Stories

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Collage of images of Greg and Riley posed with her diploma, Greg signing the diploma, and a close-up of the diploma.

Dad’s Approval

Not many people have the honor of signing their own child’s college diploma. Greg Knott, MS ’17 IS, MBA ’19 UIS, former University of Illinois Board of Trustees (BOT) secretary,

Susan Hagel portrait and image of her with her wheelchair basketball team

Going for the Gold

It was 1972. I was a senior at a small-town high school in Wisconsin, waiting in my guidance counselor’s office—sitting in my wheelchair. I wanted very much to continue my

Haina Ramos working on a computer in doctors office.

Stress Reliever

Licensed clinical social worker Haina Irish Ramos, MSW ’16, provides traditional in-person counseling through her work with Thriveworks, an Arlington Heights, Ill.–based mental health provider with more than 340 locations.

Susannah Scaroni poses on an outdoor track with her Tokyo Paralympics gold and bronze medals around her neck.

Record Setter

One minute, wheelchair racer Susannah Scaroni, ’14 ACES, MS ’22 ACES, was pushing through a normal long training session, heading east on Windsor Road not far from campus. The next,

Bob and Flo Anne O’Brien in front of yellow painter cinderblock wall in Haiti.

Haiti’s Humanitarians

At Bob O’Brien’s retirement party from Western Rock Products in 2004, a colleague gave him a mason’s trowel and a hammer. “You’ll need these,” he cracked. The civil engineer didn’t

Carmen Rossi, casually dressed, sitting on the edge of a bar countertop at his Hubbard Inn restaurant.

Serial Entrepreneur

It’s astonishing that Carmen Rossi, ’07 LAS, MS ’09 AHS, ever had time to go to class. As an undergraduate at Illinois, he started a business that built dormitory lofts