Over the summer, Jenny Prochotsky began a project to distribute free fresh produce to local Bloomington residents. Her efforts, with the help of the community and IWU alumni and staff, have affected  the lives of many families in need.

Here’s an excerpt from the IWU article, highlighting Alex’s involvement in the project:

Alex Kim ’13 built a Veggie Bike in 2012 to transport vegetables from the IWU Peace Garden; Farm to Food Pantry volunteers use it regularly. Volunteers with the IWU Peace Garden, founded in 2012, have supplied produce and helped with the project.

Along with Alex, Jenny has received help from Cheryl (Baller) Philippi ’81; Michael Gorman ’10, Information Technology Project Analyst; Deborah Halperin, IWU’s Action Research Center Program Coordinator; Karin McDowell ’00; Manish Mandava ’14; and Bobby Castillo ’14, Admissions Counselor.

For more on Jenny’s “Pop-Up Produce Stands”, The Pantagraph has also covered the story.

Bloomington-Normal was ranked among the 50 best college towns in America!

Find out where we’re ranked.

Professor of Physics, Gabe Spalding will be featured at the SPIE Optics + Photonics conference in San Diego, August 17-21. He will present research co-authored by recent IWU physics grad “Sunny” Qing Ding ’13, “Optical trapping with pillar bowtie nanoantennas,”.

Ding is pursuing his Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbaba-Champaign!

Nick Nichols is now a Systems Summer Intern Speech Program Lead and delivered the keynote address for the Speech Competition Finals and the yearly EDIT Conference for high school students at State Farm.

Congratulations on all your achievements, Nick!

After decades of service to Illinois Wesleyan, Ann Harding retired in June as director of Alumni Relations.

Read more about Ann’s commitment to IWU and its alumni, here.

Join the new academic tradition known as the Summer Reading Program.  Students, faculty, staff, and alumni are reading:

 The Madonnas of Echo Park by Brando Skyhorse.

• If you would like to participate in an alumni only book discussion group in Bloomington, Chicago or Washington DC, please click here to register or contact your area Alumni Regional President directly.
• Click here to RSVP for the campus book discussion group on Friday, August 20, 6-8pm.

Wednesday, September 3rd the author will be discussing his book at the President’s Convocation at 11 am at Westbrook Auditorium in Presser Hall, IWU.

Josh has joined LKCS as a sales and marketing assistant.

Read more about Josh’s new position here.

Congrats on the job, Josh!

Artist Leeya Jackson ’13 chose Illinois Wesleyan because it’s a liberal arts college where she could incorporate “crazy whacky courses” into her major.

Click to read her full article in College Lifestyles.

Great choice, Leeya!