Cameron Loyet ’18 and Haley (Lower) Loyet ’17 started Honeymoon Chocolates while students at IWU. Now they are in the 2021 cohort of Arch Grants. Read more about it here and here.

Jacob Taitel ’18 earned a silver medal in the tuba artist competition at the Leonard Falcone International Euphonium and Tuba Festival, held virtually Aug. 7-8. Taitel is Adjunct Instructor of Tuba and Euphonium at IWU this semester, and a Graduate Student Instructor for the Musicology Department at the University of Michigan.

Michaela Burandt ’18 has recently been selected as President of the Class of 2023 within her Physician’s Assistant Program at Midwestern University! Congratulations, Michaela, we look forward to seeing your leadership in the future!

Congratulations to Emily Hardesty ’18, BFA Music Theatre ‘18, who will be playing Ilona in She Loves Me this summer and is featured in their Jerry Herman revue at Quisisana Resort!

Inspired by a Rotary Youth Exchange trip to Peru, Adjunct Instructor in Political Science Zoe Bouras ’18 is now the communications and development director for The Immigration Project, a nonprofit that works with about 1,000 immigrants a year. Congratulations to her for her success!!!

A blog of Rotary International recently shared a story of Muyi Yang ’18 about his experiences of founding a school for marginalized youth in Syria, which you can find here. More information may also be found here.

Muyi has been nominated as the Coordinator for the Nordic and Baltic Region of the Rotary Peace Fellowship Alumni Association Europe. Dedicated to bridging cross-cultural dialogues, he recently published his first Arabic article on one of the biggest media platforms in the MENA region. The article highlights his appreciation of the rich culture in the MENA region and the resilience that the local populations embody. You can read the article as published here and here translated into English.

Zach Silver ’18 has been recognized in Smithsonian Magazine for his work in Laurie Santos’ Comparative Cognition Laboratory and the Canine Cognition Center. Read the Smithsonian article here.

Taylor Williams ’18 graduated a semester early from Southern Illinois University School of Law on December 12, 2020. Taylor grew up in the country outside of Bloomington and will return to Bloomington to work at a local law firm. Taylor also received the McLean County Bar Association Scholarship in December, prior to her graduation.”

Tim Foszcz ’18 will star as a featured performer, or “new face,” in the first virtual installment of Porchlight Music Theatre’s popular New Faces Sing Broadway series. New Faces Sing Broadway 1987 will be filmed on-site at Chicago’s historic Studebaker Theatre and will be available for streaming Nov. 6-29, 2020. The series features Chicago’s newest talents performing unforgettable songs from the hit shows Les Misérables, Into the Woods, Me and My Girl and more.   For ticket information, visit PorchlightMusicTheatre.org.

Congrats to Mike Plecki ’18, who won the Khan Cup at Urbana Country Club along with his father. Read the full article here.