Happy Holidays from the Robinson Family!

-Jon ’05, Justine ’06 & Joey ’35

Gena (Rawlins) Melick and alumni Brian Rawlins ’01,  Van Miller ’04 (aka “IronVan”), and Matthew Melick ’03  completed the 2013 Ironman Louisville competition, held on Aug. 24 in Louisville, Ky.  Competitors swam 2.4 miles, biked 112 miles and ran a marathon. See the results.

As the director of human resources at The Horton Group, one of the largest privately held insurance brokers in the nation, Katie Cummins joined more than 50 other employers at this year’s IWU Internship Fair.  Katie, who was an intern herself less than a decade ago, brings a unique perspective. As a student, Cummins took the advice of then-internship coordinator Ann Harding (now director of alumni relations), who suggested that she apply for an HR internship at Bloomington-based Afni.  Now Cummins directs HR functions for Horton’s 300 employees. 

Pat used to work in IT for IWU and now is one of two people who works for Fermi Labs in what is called Scientific Linux. They help redesign research software for use in laboratories around the world. They have also worked with the scientists conducting research with the super-collider in CERN. In fact, when some of those scientists recently received the Nobel Prize in Physics, they thanked Scientific Linux, half of which are alumni! Pat was a philosophy major at IWU who also knew his way around a computer. He sits on our alumni advisory board for IT.

A cookout hosted for some of our IWU friends last weekend at our home in La Grange Park

Included in the photo:

IWU alum Kayode Karunwi, who is now a Ph.D. student at Clemson University, discussed the 15th International Conference on MacroMolecular Complexes in this video clip from WYFF TV in Greenville, S.C.

On July 17, over 2,500 alumni and friends made gifts to IWU totaling over $450,000. Unless otherwise specified by donors, all the money raised went to student scholarships and financial aid.  The “All in for Wesleyan” challenge began when Illinois Wesleyan Trustee John Horton ’82 and his wife, Joann, offered a gift of $100,000 if alumni and friends could raise $50,000 in one day.  When that challenge was met, several more challenges followed — and each was fulfilled.  Howard ’60 and Sharon ’60 Fricke offered a $10,000 gift if 600 donors participated.  Ed ’62 and Lin Phelps then offered $25,000 for 1,000 total donors.  Korey ’00 and Heidi Coon offered a $15,000 challenge for 1,200 donors.  Dr. Mike Sombeck ’83 offered $25,000 if we could reach 1,500.  Finally, at the end of the day, Dr. Randy ’73 & Jodie Reed offered $25,000 and Ed ’62 & Lin Phelps added $10,000 more to match every new gift, dollar for dollar…up to a total of $35,000 in gifts before midnight.

It was an exciting day to be a Titan.  The challenge became about so much more than numbers and dollars and donors.  It provided our alumni and friends with a chance to share their pride and explain how much IWU means to them.  If you weren’t following these conversations on social media, you can click here to read them now.  THANK YOU to all of our loyal alumni and friends who made July 17 an incredible day for our school and our students.