First-year law student Matthew Novotney had no idea what was about to happen when he was asked to join a Zoom call with NIU College of Law Dean Cassandra L. Hill. He thought he was there to discuss his 1L experience as a law student, but he quickly learned that story was just a ruse...

Paige Bohne and Janet Guadarrama Fifteen newly minted teachers are ready to return to the school districts where they grew up and, thanks to a partnership between Elgin Community College and Northern Illinois University, never really left. The students completed their first two years at ECC and then, with no relocation or commute required, earned their B.S.Ed. degrees...

LaVerne Gyant This wasn’t the life LaVerne Gyant had sketched out for herself. She had grown up in Chester, Pa., designing her own clothes – and, under the loving tutelage of her grandmother, Lottie Ennett, sewing those garments by hand and by machine. Yes, fashion was what she loved, and when she enrolled at the nation’s oldest...

A.J. Dick, an NIU student pursuing his doctorate in physics, has won a prestigious graduate student research award from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The DOE announced recently that Dick is among 78 students from across the nation to be selected for its Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program. The research projects...

The head of NIU’s research and innovation enterprise delivered virtual testimony last week to members of Congress who are considering a substantial budget increase for the National Science Foundation (NSF). Gerald C. Blazey, NIU’s vice president for Research and Innovation Partnerships, was among five research experts called to testify during a U.S. House of Representatives...

Julie Chavez School occupies a special place in Julie Chavez’s heart. “I had quite the unstable childhood, and school was really my safe place. I had a meal; I had teachers who cared about me; it was structured – I just really thrived in that environment,” says Chavez, a senior Elementary Education major from Aurora. “With everything...

Alyssa Lazzerini started on a different path before earning her bachelor’s degree in public health. Alyssa Lazzerini, ’15 “I initially went to another college to get a degree in nursing, but I wasn’t very passionate about it,” Lazzerini said. With an interest in working with the community, she started looking into public health—the promotion and...

When Daniil Krimer graduated with his M.F.A. in acting in 2019, he had no way of knowing the kinds of changes that were on the horizon. When he founded the Kane Repertory Theatre in St. Charles, Illinois, in 2019 and became its artistic director, he had no idea that the world—and particularly the theater arts world—would grind to...

Three College of Health and Human Sciences (CHHS) doctoral students were recently named as inductees to the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. Alexis Briley, of Greenville, North Carolina; Jerian Dixon-Evans, of Plainfield, Illinois; and Marisol Perez of Chicago, will join an elite group of members in the honor society which recognizes and encourages superior scholarship...

The NIU Graduate School typically hosts an awards ceremony in April to recognize and celebrate the outstanding accomplishments of our graduate students. These students are nominated for recognition by their academic departments, are fellowship recipients, or are dissertation and thesis prize winners. “The annual reception provides an opportunity for the Graduate School to recognize some...

Chemistry Professor Tao Xu is one of the many NIU faculty members known for being an innovator. Since joining NIU in 2006, Xu has worked to develop new highly efficient solar cells, discover a new electrocatalyst that converts carbon dioxide (CO2) and water into ethanol, and create other novel materials through his lab’s nanotechnology research....

Jim Morris’ life has been filled with music, language, philosophy and advertising. That combination of influences and interests has made for an interesting journey. When he landed on campus in 1967, it was a different time. The assassination of John F. Kennedy, the Vietnam War and the political unrest had wiped away America’s innocence. The...