It took a little while for Tina Thomas, ’76, to get her head in the clouds. Growing up in Danville, Illinois, Thomas led a quiet childhood and became intrigued with biology after being inspired by a high school teacher. And because only certain careers were often earmarked as “women’s jobs” at that time, Thomas’ mother encouraged her...

NIU’s Unity Walk returns for its seventh year Tuesday, Sept. 21 — calling all Huskies and members of the larger community to come together in support of positive change. This year, the event is interwoven with the approaching one-year anniversary of the Belonging initiative ongoing as a partnership between NIU and the cities of DeKalb...

Real estate investor, entrepreneur and author Farrah Ali, MB.A. ’13, did not always have her financial affairs in order. In fact, as recently as a decade ago, the single mother was weighed down by $80,000 in debt. But thanks to lessons she learned, in part during her education at NIU, she has now found extreme...

As a new school year begins across Illinois and the nation, administrators continue to face a familiar and unwanted challenge. COVID-19 remains among the problems that superintendents, principals and other school district personnel must confront to keep students, teachers, staff and their communities from the virus and its variants. Gov. JB Pritzker has mandated masks...

“Without a solid foundation, it’s hard to build anything,” said Cameron Kielb, who earned his nursing degree in 2015 from NIU. He credits his college education with challenging him to be more than “just okay.” This year, Kielb received the Ambulatory Nurse of the Year Award from Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital. Ambulatory care nursing is...

President Dr. Lisa Freeman has launched a task force aimed at revitalizing Greek Life at NIU. The group, which includes student representatives from all four Greek councils on campus, alumni of the Greek community, NIU administrators and a DeKalb community representative, will spend much of this year examining the current state of Greek Life and...

Nathan Lupstein, ’16, has found his ideal role as part of Google’s University Programs. As a teenager in Aurora, Illinois, Nathan Lupstein took a creative approach to his surroundings, applying critical thinking and making up his own mind about what he wanted to learn. “Especially in adolescence, I wrote poetry and music extensively as a...

Donor-funded collaboration hub will foster creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship throughout the NIU community and beyond. To enter Barsema Hall is to enter a world where anything seems possible. The high ceilings and busy common areas seem to vibrate with the energy and ideas of those who work and learn there. That energy was at a...

Join the NIU College of Law for the next Race and the Law Conversation, Examining the Case for Reparations on Tuesday, August 31 at 6 p.m. with U.S. Congresswoman Shelia Jackson Lee. NIU Law Dean Cassandra L. Hill will moderate. Tuesday, August 31, 2021 6 – 7 p.m. CST Register Now for this virtual Event...

When Christine Knudson and Marco Castillo began their degrees in geology at NIU, little did they know they would eventually be working on Mars. Both alumni now work at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, as part of teams who are exploring the planet through remote instruments. These two researchers will join Argonne National Laboratory physicists...

When Elois Joseph, MBA ’15, was growing up on the west side of Chicago, she did not realize her community was what others would consider “underserved.” “As a child, I didn’t know or understand what it meant to be from an underserved community,” she said. “I just knew I felt loved, supported and protected by my family,...

By Eva Richards As a third-generation movie-theater owner, Mark Stern was born with entrepreneurism in his blood. His grandfather opened his first movie theater in 1927 in Chicago, just before the first ‘talkies’ were created and distributed. Stern’s father also went into the theater business, owning several theaters in Chicago and the suburbs. “We lived...