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Volume 15 • Number 3 • Winter 2015
Extreme makeover: Department shifts from home ec to high-tech
The professional and academic focus in Family and Consumer Sciences has shifted gradually, coinciding with the transition of women to the workplace and keeping pace with technology.
Alumna empowers blind, deaf to soar at Florida school
Personalized and intense teaching leads to equally inspiring growth for other students at the 130-year-old St. Augustine campus, where 600 children are encouraged to be themselves.
Illinois State eyes future as online courses reshape higher ed
The educational format known as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) allows students from India to Indiana to take free courses from professors at the world’s most prestigious universities.
A drive to give back: Alumni couple makes record-setting gift
Illinois State alumni Jim and Carole (Czerniak) Mounier have always been part of the Redbird family, but for 30 years they were more like long-lost relatives.
Age no obstacle for globetrotting alum Ron Williams
Cycling across America would be the ultimate accomplishment for most, but not Dr. Ron Williams. The 76-year-old Illinois State alumnus has climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Rainier alongside his family.
Illinois State launches Social Media Analytics Command Center
The buzzword that really matters in social media is analytics. That’s one of the reasons the School of Communication just opened the doors on its new Social Media Analytics Command Center in Fell Hall.
Where are they now: Judy Smithson
Judy Smithson’s long recovery made her more aware of a peer using crutches and another needing a wheelchair, instilling a passion to help people with disabilities.
Mail to the Editor: February 2015
Mail to the Illinois State magazine editor for February 2015.
ISU to host Valley’s outdoor track and field championship
The 2015 Missouri Valley Conference Championship for outdoor track and field will be held on the Illinois State campus May 15–17.
Athletics facilities named for two Redbirds
Former quarterback Danny Barnett and his family have been honored with the Barnett Family Locker Room in the Kaufman football building.
Redbirds make 1,150+ gifts on Giving Tuesday
Alumni, students, faculty, staff and friends came together for Illinois State University on Giving Tuesday. Supporters made 1,152 gifts totaling $331,402 to support scholarships and University programs.
Iraq War vet turns tragedy into comedy
In December 2003, a roadside bomb in Iraq turned U.S. Army 1st Lt. Stephen Rice’s left foot into hamburger. Nine years later, Rice ’02 was onstage at the Laugh Factory in L.A. joking about it.
How we met: Kim Crouse and Joe Scrima
When WZND student director Kim Crouse selected Joe Scrima as part of the promotions team based on his qualifications, she had no idea he would also be all she was looking for in her future husband.
Redbird legacy: Following her sister to Illinois State
Lisa (Finch) Obery ’84 followed her older sister Sandra (Finch) Linn ’81 to Illinois State University, not knowing the decision would start a legacy that has created a special family bond.
From humble roots, Riggs family creates scholarship
The Riggs family is paying it forward for the next generation of ISU students by endowing a new College of Business scholarship. An additional seven-figure estate commitment is one of the largest in the college’s history.
