A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit my old grad-school stomping grounds at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This had me going back down memory lane and looking up artifacts from those good days past. For instance, this photo of several lovely grad students in the program willing to come together within the apartment complex we lived in at the time to have a tea party (great thanks to Jiyeon Kang, Tracey Kmetz, Elaine Hsieh, Nicole Martins, and Erin Donovan–they are now all very big deal professors and professionals and department chairs all over the country).
I also found this gem from my when I earned by doctorate in 2007, with my all-around amazing advisor and forever mentor Cara Finnegan. We both definitely look exactly the same these years later.
The Department of Communication was having a 75th anniversary celebration. It was a complete honor and pleasure to get to listen to some wonderful talks, have the chance to give one myself, and catch up with wonderful mentors.
I also had to join my fellow alumni to look for our old grad student offices (which have since been completely plastered over–this is where the door was, and Young-Mie Kim, Laura Miller, and Ian Hill are flabbergasted at the change, as you can see).
Ian, Cara, Laura, and I found Lincoln’s statue so that we could all rub his nose for good luck.
