After being away from campus for over a year, students officially came back for in-person learning on August 16. Students spent the 2020-2021 academic year distanced, virtual, and masked, but Redbirds are ready to return to a normal campus life moving forward.
Before transferring to Illinois State, Lexi Turner was an art major hoping to pursue a career teaching art. Then Turner realized her true purpose in life: She wanted to teach deaf children and help them to communicate.
Miriam Zappa likes to build things. It’s in her DNA as her father, Mark ’85, has had his own construction company for decades. It’s no wonder then that her favorite experiences as a volunteer often involve constructing something.
Approximately 3,200 students participated in this year’s Preview activities. While the mandatory Preview sessions were moved online this year due to COVID-19, students also had the opportunity to attend one of 22 First Year Feature sessions on campus during the month of July for a half-day experience.
Growing up in a small town such as Downs, there were plenty of ways incoming freshman Jessie Jones could be a difference maker. She took that to heart and was the kind of person to never turn down an opportunity to make an impact.
At just 18, Austin Feaman doesn’t have much memory of a time in his young life when he wasn’t pitching in to help others. He said it was as if his mother, Jennifer, “planted a seed” that helped determine who he would grow up to be.
Kole Damkoehler was only 8 years old when he participated in acts of kindness that would change his life.
Illinois State University’s campus tour guides offer up five recommendations for incoming students.
Beth Clark can’t remember a time when she wasn’t a volunteer. Living on the family farm, her calendar was always full with chores to be done. Plus, at Lexington High School she was active in all things musical as well as competing all four years in track and field. Her senior year she was team captain and a state finalist in discus. But, since childhood she’s made time to volunteer.
Growing up in Zach Angles’ house, it was a family tradition to pitch in and help others. When he recently found himself on the receiving end of a prestigious scholarship, it was happy news that caught him by surprise.
