Tricia Rollerson grew up in various homes around the country, moving from one state to the next. So did Teresa Polson. Both went to college, earning bachelor’s degrees in psychology and social work, respectively. Later, they both found paths into education, eventually becoming principals of middle schools in suburban Valley View School District 365U. Rollerson’s John J....

Alumni all over the world have shown their Huskie pride by expressing their interest in volunteering their time and talent to support their alma mater. Initially, however, many did not know where to start until Northern Illinois University Alumni Association (NIUAA) Executive Director Reggie Bustinza sought to find an uncomplicated way for alumni to volunteer....

NIU alumna Pettee Guerrero is passionate about helping workers stay safe and healthy on the job. “We rely on workers to provide so much to our communities, to make possible the industries that fuel our economy in northern Illinois,” she says. “The workers are someone’s mother, father, child, husband or wife. They are all important...

Friday’s NIU ROTC Huskie Battalion’s Commissioning Ceremony features guest speaker Maj. Gen. Brian E. Alvin (’84), the most senior ranking U.S. Army officer from NIU. Alvin received his B.S. in Industrial Engineering Technology from NIU and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant, Chemical Corps in May 1984. His distinguished military career includes command and leadership assignments...

“Dear Chairman McEvoy,” the note begins. “I just read your informative letter dated October 1, 2018. Congratulations on the program you are managing in Anderson Hall.” Written by Cal Korf, the typewritten missive to Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education Chair Chad McEvoy came in response to an alumni e-newsletter sent to thousands of KNPE graduates. Korf’s days...

How do you compose a theme for a Star Wars project and make it “sound like Star Wars” without using any of John Williams’ iconic score? That’s a challenge NIU School of Music alumnus Jermaine Stegall took head on when charged with creating music for Lucasfilm’s Our Star Wars Stories. “For these episodes we didn’t have a...

The 2018 Mid-American Conference Champion Northern Illinois University Huskies will take on the UAB Blazers, champions of Conference USA, in the 2018 Cheribundi Boca Raton Bowl in Boca Raton, Florida, NIU and the MAC announced Sunday. The game between the 8-5 Huskies and the 10-3 Blazers will be held at FAU Stadium in Boca Raton...

William “Dre” Buchanan, ’99, said he always wanted to get into the entertainment industry, but knew he had to make a living. After graduating from NIU with electrical engineering major, he worked as an engineer for several companies. He was a project engineer for Underwriters Laboratories and later became a project manager for Transit Television Network to...

When Spring Piatek was treated for Kawasaki disease at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago at age 4, she remembers a nurse staying with her in the middle of the night to tend to her fever. The nurse gave her a grape Popsicle to soothe her raw throat from crying and reduced her fever by placing...

While most people are sleeping, Cora Dyslin, ’17, is working in the dark in the middle of the night with mice at San Diego Zoo Global. This isn’t your average mouse, but rather the Pacific pocket mouse, an endangered species native to California. The mouse, believed to be extinct in the 1980s, was rediscovered in...

Joanne Chamberlain Krakora graduated high school in a class with 27 classmates she’d known since kindergarten in the small town of Toulon, Ill. Neither of her parents had attended college. When she arrived on NIU’s campus, she wasn’t quite sure which way to turn. “It was a bit overwhelming,” she remembered. “I’ve never been someone...

Recognition dinner brings together 100 alumni, family of co-founder More than 15,000 students in the past 50 years can call themselves college graduates because of the McKinley “Deacon” Davis CHANCE Program at NIU. They’ve gone on to careers in every area—social sciences, government, education, business, entrepreneurship, radio, television, film, medicine, art, engineering, sports and more....