Making a home: Black Greek life on campus

By Dara Stack

Staff Writer

Until 1945, Black students were not permitted to live on campus. However, by creating their own housing through Greek life, they could. The Gamma Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha — the first Greek-letter organization for African American women — was officially chartered at the University of Illinois on Feb. 12, 1914, marking the beginning of Black Greek life on campus.

FEBRUARY

Students say social media causes negative body image, eating disorders

By Cecilia Milmoe

Features Editor

As social media usage continues to increase, more people find themselves regularly scrolling through apps like TikTok and Instagram. However, many students have found that these apps can have negative impacts on their body image and self-esteem. Students explained the impact these sites have had on them, and professionals discussed how to combat the negative impact of social media on body image.

MARCH 

Ramadan comes to campus

By Fizza Hassan 

Staff Writer

Muslim students welcomed Ramadan, the ninth month of the Lunar Islamic calendar and the most sacred time in Islamic culture. For 30 days, Muslims fast from dawn to dusk, participate in prayer and reflect with their community. Muslim students discussed how they planned to manage their semester workload with Ramadan while also maintaining a healthy work/study balance.

APRIL 

Yung Gravy whips up the sauce at Spring Jam

By Matt Troher and Nicole Littlefield

Assistant Features Editor and Assistant Copy Chief

The University’s annual Spring Jam concert series continued this year with a visit from Yung Gravy. The Minnesotan rapper with a flair for showmanship and an affinity for older women graced campus with his presence, performing some of his most beloved songs such as “1 Thot 2 Thot Red Thot Blue Thot,” and “oops!” Despite a last-minute venue switch to the State Farm Center due to inclement weather, hundreds of students attended the free concert and took a proverbial ride on the gravy train.

MAY: 

Illinois scientists contribute to groundbreaking black hole image

By Rebecca Oriza

Staff Writer

For the first time, scientists were able to capture the image of Sagittarius A* — the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy. Among the hundreds of dedicated scientists involved in this monumental event were professors and graduate students from the University of Illinois. Team members from the University helped to devise interpretations of the imaging, among other things.

JUNE: 

Campus History: University observes Juneteenth for first time

By Cecilia Milmoe and Matt Troher

Features Editor and Assistant Features Editor

In 2021, President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law, designating Juneteenth as a federal holiday. Although this was the first year the University observed Juneteenth — a holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans — the holiday has been observed by members of the Champaign-Urbana community for decades prior. The holiday serves as a time to reflect on Black history, and the role Black organizers have had in shaping both the University and the wider C-U community.

JULY: 

College advice your mom won’t give you

By Gwyn Skiles

Staff Writer

Many students will leave for college with imparted wisdom from their parents. However, there are many situations that parents can’t prepare their kids for. From advice on how to discover yourself to how to be courteous to your neighbors in the dorms, there are plenty of things you can only learn from other students.

AUGUST: 

Phi Mu’s ‘fearless’ fighter remembered at ‘Swifties’ night

By Faith Allendorf and Sarah Bond

Managing Editor for Reporting and Staff Writer

Junior and Phi Mu sister Ava Shaw was one of the main organizers behind the first Swifties Night at Joe’s Brewery in March. Unfortunately, after a battle with a heart condition, Shaw didn’t make it to see her and her friends’ creation for the second time. Memories of Shaw filled the August Swifties Night as friends dedicated the event to the late fearless fighter.

SEPTEMBER: 

Grainger research aims for the skies

By Conor Blount

Staff Writer

Known for its top-ranked engineering programs, the University is recognized as one of the premier research institutions in the nation. The University alums who helped create YouTube and PayPal have become household names among students. However, not many know about the Grainger researchers leading space missions on campus. These lesser-known innovations touch people’s lives and may lead to the next big thing. 

OCTOBER: 

In loving memory of Pinto Bean

By Lillie Salas

Staff Writer

A legacy recognized during Illini football’s Homecoming Game belongs to Pinto Bean, a beloved squirrel who frequented the University campus. Known among students as an unofficial mascot, Pinto Bean used to brighten onlookers’ days. The passing of the popular star devastated many, and the impact of Pinto Bean remains to those remembering.

NOVEMBER: 

Abortion remains important to student voters

By Yuzhu Liu

Assistant Features Editor

For many people, abortion access was one of the biggest issues at stake in this year’s midterm elections. Despite Illinois’ current abortion legislation, many were worried that losing it could be only one election away. Students and locals said the overturning of Roe v. Wade largely impacted the way they voted.

DECEMBER: 

Early graduates share college experience advice

By Lena Brockway

Contributing Writer

With the fall semester coming to an end, some seniors are expecting to finish their four-year undergraduate education on an earlier schedule. Early graduates reflected on their college experience and offered advice to current students. With an untraditional graduation, these wintertime graduates are looking forward to the post-graduation world. 

features@dailyillini.com

The post 12 months of features appeared first on The Daily Illini.

On Oct. 6, right-wing political commentator Matt Walsh visited the University for a screening of his documentary “What is a Woman.” The same night, the Illinois Student Government posted a statement on its Instagram account. While expressing its support for the LGBTQ+ community as pointing out that Walsh’s claims are hateful, the statement declared that “free speech permits such discussion to occur.”

Students flooded to the Instagram comments, including Soumil Biswas, sophomore in ACES. He argued that the University, which prides itself on the inclusivity of LGBTQ+ individuals, should have prevented Matt Walsh from spreading hate speech against trans people.

“I don’t know if hate speech really consists of free speech, but the hate that was brought to trans people because of this event definitely does not align with the University’s beliefs, so they should not allow that to happen,” Biswas said.

Biswas said he believes ISG should have censored the event. He noted that the student government should represent the voice of the student body, and many in the student body were calling for condemnation.

“The statement ISG put out was very lackluster,” Biswas said. “It was kind of a dumb response because they could just condemn it or just stay silent.”

Four days after the incident, Vindhya Kalipi, junior in LAS, resigned from her position as the vice president of ISG. According to ISG’s announcement, Kalipi resigned over “a fundamental difference of opinion regarding free speech.”

Before Walsh’s arrival, Kalipi talked to administrators and looked through existing laws. She said she understood the Supreme Court has upheld that hate speech is technically protected under free speech. However, Kalipi said she was upset and believed ISG should take a stand and prohibit hate speech.

“We represent students, and we should be listening to what the student body that elected us and believed in us wants,” Kalipi said. “If the administration doesn’t want to do anything about it, at least we should be doing something.”

Kalipi recalled that she was frustrated when she found out she was the only executive member who believed hate speech should be prohibited.

President Garrett Forrest, junior in LAS, said that though he agrees Matt Walsh’s visit was harmful, he believes free speech is the foundation of democracy.

“The price of having free speech — the price of having a society where you don’t have to worry no matter who’s in power of your views being suppressed or you being punished for advocating for something … The price of that is hate speech,” Forrest said.

He mentioned the counter-protest outside Walsh’s discussion.

“When Matt Walsh was here, there was a counter protest outside there, highlighting the beautiful diversity of the LGBTQ+ community,” Forrest said. “I think it’s on those of us who are opposed to hate speech, who are opposed to the ideas being spread by people like Matt Walsh, to be even louder to convince even more people that we’re right.”

Forrest noted his other concern was that the demand to ban Walsh could impact his relationship with University administration. 

“It would have reduced my ability to negotiate and work with them on trying to address all of the other issues that I’m really focused on trying to make progress on this year, whether that’s campus safety, textbook and course material or (providing help to) students dealing with sexual assaults,” Forrest said. “They do appreciate and have respect for the fact that I didn’t ask them to do something that they legally couldn’t have done.”

Kalipi said she initially drafted a lengthy response that discussed why hate speech should not be protected, but the executive team decided to trash the whole statement and started a new one. Kalipi said she regrets approving the second statement and signing her name on it.

“For a second there, I fell into the politicians’ trap,” Kalipi said. “I was so nervous about how it would be if the executive (team) disagreed. I think that ultimately, I was just scared.”

Patrick Porter, senior in LAS and ISG Senator, said that the executive team excluded regular ISG members from the drafting process.

“There wasn’t even any discussion whatsoever, so when everybody else saw it, that was the first time I saw it,” Porter said. “I didn’t expect to see that kind of response.”

Porter said he and many in the Senate disagreed with Forrest’s rhetoric, which looks like it was “copied and pasted.” Porter argued it is the student government’s “minimum responsibility” to reaffirm their support for the LGBTQ+ community. He pointed out that redirecting the targeted transgender students to the University’s resources is not enough.

Knowing the lack of response from University administration, Porter said ISG could have taken this opportunity to show more decisive leadership. He said the response was so disappointing that he published a statement of his own, claiming that ISG must stand against hate speech.

“There are clearly many of us within ISG that weren’t happy with the position that we as an official body took … some of us don’t want to necessarily be associated with the statement,” Porter said. “If we were able to deliberate on this a little bit more to add our own insight into it, I’m not sure if it would have made any significant difference in this instance.”

Forrest clarified that multiple people were involved in the decision-making process, including Kalipi, who Forrest said was “a strong defender” of the position of Porter and many other ISG members. Forrest asserted that he has the right from the Student Government Constitution to unilaterally make a statement on behalf of ISG.

“I am the leader of this institution, and I’m not obligated to bring more people into the discussion when I’m making a post like that,” Forrest said. “I had to make what I believed was the right decision, and having more people involved in that discussion, I could say wasn’t going to change my mind about that fundamental issue of free speech.”

Mia Macias, junior in LAS, said she was mad when reading ISG’s response. She said she understood the free speech standards but believed more precautions could have been taken to protect transgender and nonbinary students. She said she expected to see informative massmails and helpful resources.

“I feel like there’s a lot that (ISG) can do in their power to at least try and stop something like this from happening again,” Macias said. “But, even if they had, it’s possible that someone like this could still come to campus, but it’s also the fact that they weren’t really willing to try.”

Forrest explained that he and Kalipi intended to put out a message earlier but suspended the decision because of their disagreement. Kalipi wanted to form an advocacy coalition to petition for change on a governmental level, an action that was opposed to Forrest’s arguments on free speech.

“The problem there was Vice President Kalipi’s position, essentially firmly that unless we’re calling for a ban, she wasn’t wanting to put a statement out,” Forrest said. “It was last minute because (of) the pressure that both of us wanted to say that we affirm the LGBTQ+ community and we don’t agree with Matt Walsh.”

Kalipi said Forrest “didn’t want any room for disagreement in the executive,” and she decided not to compromise to stay in ISG.

“I am really glad that ultimately I stuck to my morals because that’s what I should have done in the first place,” Kalipi said.

Macias said she was glad that Kalipi resigned.

“Really acknowledging the issue and resigning honestly spoke volumes because it shows that she cares,” Macias said. “But unfortunately, because of her co-workers, there was only so much that she could do.”

Porter noted there is a lack of communication within ISG, whether between branches or between the executive and regular Senate members. He said ISG had “awful” outreach and transparency to the student body.

“The only time that the student body really sees anything that ISG does is through these social media posts, and that really tarnished (its) reputation,” Porter said.

Under a recent Instagram post, ISG responded to Macias’ comment regarding trans rights, telling her that the student government has big plans to engage the LGBTQ+ community on campus. Marcias said she recognized the positive movement but felt upset about the late action initiated after LGBTQ+ students had already expressed their concerns.

“Okay, it’s great that you’re acknowledging it, but it’s something that should have already been done,” Macias said.

Biswas questioned how ISG would implement these plans.

“I don’t know what that means,” Biswas said. “Have they reached out to LGBTQ+ organizations? I want to see something.”

Kalipi and Porter both said they were not aware of previous discussions around the plans. Kalipi added that she believes there is no way for ISG to make up for what it did.

“Unless they spin it around and fight for hate speech not being protected under the First Amendment, there is nothing they could do that can override the mistakes that they made,” Kalipi said.

Forrest said ISG and the administrations are taking more steps on proactive communications. He said he is also getting feedback from critical workshops within ISG and open discussions with various student leaders. He said he agrees he didn’t do enough regarding the Matt Walsh situation and promised to do everything he can to protect students from hate speech.

Biswas said he thinks Forrest should resign, as Biswas believes the president fails to represent the students’ voice. He said he has been upset with the student government for a while and decided to run for senator next semester. He emphasized that he wants more ISG candidates who care about minorities.

Forrest said he understands why many students disagree with his insistence on free speech, and he feels incumbent to listen.

“There is so much more that unites us in terms of our commitment to protecting diversity … and we shouldn’t have to look at each other as enemies,” Forrest said. “I know that many of them look at me right now as a fundamentally bad person, as someone who doesn’t care about them, but I do care. And I am listening.”

Kalipi pointed out that the general morale in student government is low. She said she saw people wanting to make a change ended up shaping an “elitist institution.”

“I had hoped that a new assembly and the new VP would never be involved in student government culture, so things would be different,” Kalipi said. “But I think this whole thing just goes to show that there will always be an elite force that controls everything, so I don’t know.”

yuzhul2@dailyillini.com

The post Matt Walsh controversy continues for ISG appeared first on The Daily Illini.

Note: Official results for this race have not been posted yet. Stay tuned for updates.

Race update: Wednesday, 12:20 a.m.

Incomplete results of early voting, mail-in and election day ballots at the time of update show that Democrat Aaron Ammons is ahead with 30,855 votes. Republican Terrence Stuber has 27,627 votes.

Race update: Tuesday, 11:45 p.m.

Incomplete results of early voting, mail-in and election day ballots at the time of update show that Democrat Aaron Ammons is ahead with 30,419 votes. Republican Terrence Stuber has 26,451 votes.

Race update: Tuesday, 11:00 p.m.

Incomplete results of early voting, mail-in and election day ballots at the time of update show that Democrat Aaron Ammons is ahead with 26,822 votes. Republican Terrence Stuber has 24,156 votes.

These results are not official, nor have all ballots been counted at this time. Please continue to check this article for more information. 

Background information

As county clerk, either Democratic incumbent Aaron Ammons or Republican nominee Terrence Stuber would be responsible for supervising local and federal elections and maintaining government records such as marriage licenses, birth and death certificates and taxes.

Ammons has been in the office since 2018. He became the first Black person in this position and the third Black Champaign County official in history.

With a history of battling drug addiction and a felony conviction, Ammons went on to be a community activist. Before being elected, he served as an Urbana alderman and co-founder of the grassroots organization Champaign Urbana Citizens for Peace & Justice.

Ammons has lived in Champaign County for 30 years and is married to Carol Ammons, the state representative of the 103rd District representing Champaign-Urbana.

Ammons has expanded voting access across the county, increasing early voting locations up to 30 and encouraging voter participation. Ammons said he is passionate about voting rights and vows to ensure fair, accessible elections in Champaign County.

Republican challenger Stuber serves as the coordinator of Audiovisual Services at the College of Veterinary Medicine and a trustee for Tolono Village.

Born to Navy veteran parents, Stuber has been a lifetime Champaign resident and said he has a natural passion for public service. He claimed he aims to return accuracy, efficiency and integrity to the clerk’s office. Stuber said he will correct the “long list of errors” that he believes exist in the current clerk’s office.

Stuber led local headlines in August, saying he wasn’t sure if former president Donald Trump had won the 2020 election. He later said that President Biden won the election, but there were questions about the election process.

At an October forum, Stuber expressed skepticism regarding the clerk’s office, questioning whether the Champaign County election sites were secure. He said the first of his measures to restore trust is to put publicly accessible cameras throughout the election center.

yuzhul2@dailyillini.com

The post Election spotlight: Champaign County Clerk race appeared first on The Daily Illini.

Chaundra Bishop, an Urbana City Council member, said she remembers she had tears in her eyes when the news first leaked that the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade.

Bishop added that although she knew this change was only a matter of time since the Supreme Court had appointed three conservative justices in a row, it was still a shocking moment. She said that she thought of people who were already facing barriers to reproductive health care are now placed in a dire situation.

“Think about older people (who) fought this battle 50 years ago, and then to think that their children are going to have less rights than they do,” Bishop said.

With midterm elections coming up, Bishop said many on the ballot are asking voters about their greatest worries. She said reproductive rights are at the top of the list.

“This is a very big concern for a lot of people, so they want to hear their candidates say that they support reproductive rights,” Bishop said. “And those that do not receive far less support.”

Mia Bartletti, freshman in FAA, just turned 18 and said she is excited to vote. Bartletti said she has determined to vote for Gov. Pritzker and his vow to protect reproductive rights.

“He has come out and made statements not everyone has, saying (things) like, ‘I’ll keep Illinois a pro-choice area and don’t worry, you’re safe,’” Bartletti said. “That was good to know I’m in a safe place.”

Bartletti said she didn’t consider any red-state school when deciding where to go to college, as she saw an uncertain future of policy changes. She said she is glad to stay in Illinois where she can make choices.

Bartletti said she has confidence in Pritzker’s reelection and Illinois’ abortion legislation and feels upset for people in the states that banned abortion where policy can be difficult to change.

Corinne Lipkin, sophomore in LAS, said she is “slightly worried” about losing abortion rights in the midterm elections.

“Because I never thought that Roe v. Wade could be overturned in the first place, I feel like anything could happen at this point,” Lipkin said.

Bishop said the overturning of Roe v. Wade has fired up Champaign-Urbana. She explained that many people have realized that despite Illinois’ secure environment as of now, one election can change everything.

Bishop recalled how she heard of Republican women voting for Democratic candidates because of discontent with Republican politicians overextending their restrictions.

“Most people generally think that reproductive health care should be left up to women and their doctors,” Bishop said. “I think the support is stronger than what Republican politicians are saying.”

Lipkin said that though she has “some issues with both sides,” she will vote for more liberal Democrats during the election season. She said she expects more progressive people in the office to maintain the status quo.

“At least they are talking about women’s rights,” Lipkin said. “They’re at least trying, or at least pretending that they’re gonna try, so that’s better than the opposite.”

Lipkin said she feels many people didn’t care much about voting until Roe v. Wade proved how politics could impact her life. She said she believes the affair inspired more people to vote because they could make a change in their bodily rights.

Bishop said there have been plenty of drives for voter registrations. As a part of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund Board, Bishop has been busy calling, texting and sending postcards to remind people to vote for candidates who are outspoken about the fight for reproductive rights.

Despite the efforts, Bishop said she doesn’t see any predictability of this year’s midterm elections. She explained that today is a very different time when the nation has so much on the line, including reproductive rights, the economy and workers’ rights.

“I wouldn’t dare to speculate on what’s going to happen, but I’m definitely on pins and needles,” Bishop said.

yuzhul2@dailyillini.com

The post Abortion remains important to student voters appeared first on The Daily Illini.

Trevor Burke walks into a grocery store and picks out various fruits and vegetables. Then, back in his room, he smashes a fresh watermelon with a hammer in front of a microphone covered with a towel. As the desk gets messy, Burke knows he’s made another masterpiece.

Burke is a sound designer at Deep Silver Volition, a video game studio in downtown Champaign. He uses produce to design sounds for Volition’s line of action and shooter games — ripping bell peppers for a punch, cracking celery for broken bones and squeezing grapefruit for the sound of blood.

“It’s stupid sometimes,” Burke said. “What you have to do to get sound is sometimes nonsensical and not what you’d expect.”

Burke found his passion for music production in middle school. Unlike his peers, eager to express themselves through electronic music, he decided to pursue “the science of sound.” Burke added that he has more fun solving problems when building a specific sound with his music knowledge.

“It’s the same reason why somebody would enjoy math or more scientific (kinds) of things, where it’s a bit clearer in its path with definite answers,” Burke said.

As an avid gamer, Burke said his interest in shooter games led him into the industry. He explained that a microphone could not capture a satisfying sound when recording a gunshot in a field.

Burke described how he breaks a gunshot sound effect down into several parts: instant-moment sounds that are called transients, consistent sounds that are called the body, mechanical sounds and a kick drum base layer. He then uses an assortment of Tupperware containers, fireworks, wrenches and tiny bags of nails to imitate the different sounds and combines them to create a realistic gunshot sound.

“The funniest part is what you are adding to that gunshot to make it sound more satisfying and more specific is completely up to you,” Burke said. “Use almost anything on anything if you know how to process it or blend it in the right way.”

Burke said he believes sound is a massive delivery of emotion, and most people don’t realize the significant appeal of sound. He said he knows that quality sound design involves over a million different behind-the-scenes techniques, filling up a frequency space and creating a more fluid process.

“Maybe I add a little bit more bass in the chest thump when you fire the gun,” Burke said. “Fits it more, I like it more. In the context of the game, better sound is what makes you stand out.”

For Burke, building the sound of a vehicle can take up to an entire week. Unlike movies where the sound of the engine accompanies pre-recorded footage, video games need to ensure that every sound fits the player’s actions.

As the player hits the brakes, sound designers turn down the volume of the engine and raise the brake screech. To figure out how the vehicle’s traction impacts the functional sound of the brake, Burke said he has to collect data on the cars and experiment with different sounds.

“There was a lot of complicated effort that goes at the end of that process of implementing it into the game,” Burke said.

Although the designed sounds have to conform to their functional roles, Burke said he sees creativity in his job. He gradually figured out his preferred nuances among audio software plug-ins and compared his work on the audio workstation to musicians’ performance on guitar pedals.

“The building blocks are the same, and it’s more about how you apply it and how creative you can get,” Burke said.

Burke also works on otherworldly sounds for more fictional worlds. Burke said he had to use his imagination when creating the sound of a fireball. He first hears the sound in his head and then tries to think of real-life techniques and objects that could bring it to life, such as dry ice and seltzer.

“If you get 10 people to do 10 sound designs, they’re all going to come up with different sounds, and that’s the self-expression,” Burke said. “It’s just how can I get something where I see it and say, ‘Yeah, that sounds good. I liked that.’”

Burke said that since many studios want an individual to take on all roles in the process of video game sound design, he encourages students who wish to pursue a career in this field to obtain a “whole spectrum of skills” from recording to programming.

“Try to learn the entire process instead of just saying, ‘I’m a sound designer; (that’s) only what I’m going to do. You’re gonna have to hire me if you want me to (do) sound design, nothing else,’” Burke said. “It doesn’t work like that.”

Despite the competitive job market, Burke said the sound design industry has been enlightening professionals with plenty of fun and that people are usually happy with their work.

“It is genuinely just a bunch of dweeb nerds who just love learning about it and love focusing on it since it’s so creative, entertaining and, most of the time, (there’s) a lot of passion,” Burke said.

yuzhul2@dailyillini.com 

The post The artist who turns fruit into fistfights appeared first on The Daily Illini.

State Representative Carol Ammons climbed up a ladder in front of the crowd, the Alma Mater statue behind her opening its arms, casting a huge shadow to the ground.

As Ammons shouted “my vote,” the crowd yelled back “my voice.” She shouted “my body,” and the crowd chanted “my choice.”

On October 2, nearly 100 days after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, Champaign-Urbana community members of all ages and backgrounds were brought together in protest for the Women’s March. Myra Bradwell’s Women’s Law Society and the University’s chapter of If/When/How organized the event as a local counterpart to the National Women’s March in Washington D.C., which is set to take place on Oct. 8.

Chloe Carpentier, a graduate student studying law and the president of If/When/How, said she believes it is wrong to allow the Supreme Court to dictate reproductive rights.

“By assembling today, hopefully, we raise some noise and make our electors aware that we’re not going to stand for this,” Carpentier said.

Emma Overton, a graduate student studying law and the president of the Women’s Law Society, added that Champaign-Urbana has done a lot to support reproductive rights, and she hopes to see the town as a health care source for people from other states.

“It’s unfortunate that we have to be out here standing up for our rights, but we’re really grateful for the support,” Overton said. “Hopefully, the sheer number of people that come out and stand up will show people that this is a serious issue and something that needs to be protected.”

Paula Enstrom, 68, said she lived in an “extremely red area” in Charleston, Ill., where people who used to believe in reproductive rights now see it as a lost cause. She said the march built camaraderie and encouraged people to fight with their voice.

As a nurse who worked in the emergency room, Enstrom said she saw tragedies when people were pregnant but not ready to have children. She said it’s important for medical professionals to advocate reproductive rights.

“If I don’t stand up for patients in our country to get the health care that they need, who’s going to do it?” Enstrom said. “No matter where you live, there are people who will stand up for our rights.”

Enstrom said that while women in Illinois are fortunate to have abortion legislation, the possibility of losing those rights is “one election away.”

Ammons said in her speech that the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has set off a wave of female voter registrations. She said in Kansas, women accounted for over 70% of newly registered voters in the weeks after the decision, which Ammons believes every state needs to repeat.

Carla Hopkins, a retired Registered Nurse and a current volunteer at McKinley Health Center, said that now is the time to become politically active.

“It breaks my heart that we even have to be out here like this today,” Hopkins said. “It breaks my heart that we’re having to regain ground that we fought so hard for when I was young.”

On the day of the march, the League of Women Voters set up a table on the lawn beside the Alma Mater to help attendees register to vote and learn about candidates.

“Don’t get frustrated; get involved,” Ammons said. “Don’t complain; organize.”

A long line of attendees holding colorful signs over their heads marched miles from the Alma Mater to the Champaign County Courthouse. Ammons and student volunteers raised up trumpets and shouted “what does democracy look like,” and the crowd responded “this is what democracy looks like.”

Chants like “healthcare is a human right” resounded through streets mixed with several car honks from drivers and screams and claps from neighbors.

Chaundra Bishop, an Urbana City Council member, spoke to the attendees in front of the courthouse. She said she was here to remind people of their power lying in the voting booths. Bishop said she felt powerful in the crowd.

“Sometimes you sit at home by yourself, reading articles, watching the news and thinking like, ‘what can I do,’ but then you come out to events like this and you see that it’s not just you concerned about these issues,” Bishop said.

Izabella Cyran, senior in LAS, emphasized the importance to foster a supportive environment on campus full of young people learning about lives and developing opinions. With a homemade sign reading “not your uterus, not your choice” in hand, Cyran explained that many policymakers do not understand the suffering of people with uteruses.

“By limiting reproductive rights … not only is it sexist, but in a way it’s also classist because the people who will still have access are those who are more socio-economically well off than those who won’t,” Cyran said.

Diane Wall, 73, is a retired nurse. She said many people didn’t realize abortion could save a woman’s life. Working as a nurse in the late 80s, Wall saw women with ectopic pregnancies dying because some states only allowed abortion when the mother’s life is totally at risk.

Wall said she joined the march because she believes abortion should be legal and wants to elect people who share her values.

“We can only hope we can raise our voices,” Wall said. “We can shout as loudly as we can and hope people hear us. I hope it makes a change.”

yuzhul2@dailyillini.com

lisamc3@dailyillini.com

The post 100 days after Dobbs: C-U Women’s March amplifies community voices appeared first on The Daily Illini.

Caleigh Ellis, freshman in Education, first moved onto campus a month ago. Unlike many students who were sad about leaving home for college, Ellis said she had been waiting for this moment for so long and was “incredibly relieved.”

Growing up under heavy family pressure, Ellis said she always expected to go to college and looked at it as an escape from her depressing life back then.

“Being out here is one of the best things that’s happened to me in such a long time,” Ellis said. “It helps me not feel like being back home (which) makes me feel suffocated in a way.”

Carrie Finkill, the embedded counselor in residential life, said students trying to move forward from traumatic childhoods and dysfunctional homes are usually underrepresented. Finkill said that as these students attend college and leave their nuclear culture, they start to evolve their old worldviews and gain more autonomy.

“Your world gets a whole lot bigger because you’re exposed to so many different things as a student in college,” Finkill said. “So all of a sudden, all these things are opening up, and all these ideas that seemed very solid one way begin to change.”

Before college, Ellis was living with a foster family, where she had to share a room with two others. Ellis said some extended family members didn’t like her and her friends that stayed. She recalled one day coming home from a friend’s birthday and seeing the room full of trash, the closet ransacked and her things thrown everywhere.

Now living in her dorm, Ellis said it is great to have a place to herself where no one can step in without her permission.

Ellis said she feels at peace when doing housework that reminds her she owns the space, whether it’s putting up clothes, running an essential oil diffuser or decorating the room with posters and tapestries. Ellis said an organizational structure helps with her mental health and recommends students keep a relaxing routine.

Micheala Burrows, senior in LAS, echoed Ellis’ experience. Burrows said she almost never left the small area she was brought up in. She went to a small, Christian high school with a graduating class of 20 students, lived three miles outside town in the woods with no car to travel away and stayed at the same address for 18 years.

With an unsafe, traumatic family life, Burrows said her home “sucked the life out” of her, and she knew she needed to move away when going to college. 

“I needed to get out because I didn’t feel safe, I didn’t feel happy and I didn’t feel like I was meant to be there,” Burrows said. “I didn’t realize until I really went away from my town that it was really ignorant and very blinding.”

When moving to the University, Burrows saw numerous opportunities the campus town had to offer, such as jobs, scholarships and student loans. She learned to gather life resources and pay bills alone and was amazed by the environment with countless restaurants, study spaces, social clubs and unlimited WiFi access, which Burrows didn’t have back in her hometown.

“These might be basic things, but especially for someone coming from a really small location, having all these things suddenly at my disposal was really life-changing,” Burrows said.

Burrows said she loves the vast diversity on campus. Surrounded by people from around the world, she enjoys learning about different cultures and backgrounds, which she didn’t have a chance to do in a rural area. 

“That’s something that’s very, very important for me as a humanities major — I love talking to people about how they observed the world,” Burrows said. “This (campus) is like a tight-knit community that I don’t think I’ll ever quite forget.”

However, Finkill said the sudden exposure can result in anxiety in students first coming into the University, especially for those who have no one to help prepare them in a dysfunctional home.

Burrows said she experienced that anxiety in her freshman year when she had to navigate the campus alone and taught herself everything others learned from their parents. However, she said she soon used that fear to push herself to embrace who she was.

“That grueling process of change is really overwhelming, but at the end of it, you come up so much better,” Burrows said. “Being anxious is normal, and it’s worth it.”

Burrows said it is hard for new students to find their place on campus. She encouraged students to embrace the discomfort, reach out to people and explore the campus instead of sitting in a chair thinking about how lonely they are.

Finkill said University Housing constantly provides mental health services to students, including regular gatherings with well-trained residential advisors, guest talks on conflict resolution and Finkill herself as an on-site counselor at ISR — where she closely supports student residents.

“I do think housing does a good job of offering the information,” Finkill said. “The other part of it, of course, is you have to take the information. Everything is a two-way street.”

yuzhul2@dailyillini.com

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When Brian Cunningham, professor in Engineering, was in his thirties, his parents passed away from cancer. He saw doctors struggle to diagnose cancer types and assess whether treatments worked. He then decided to dedicate his engineering career to cancer research.

Now, years later, Cunningham and his colleagues invented a new way to help clinicians diagnose cancer at early stages and choose the most effective treatments for patients.

According to Cunningham, this new method features a liquid biopsy that detects individual microRNA in blood. He explained that microRNA are molecules originating from cancer cells and revealing cancer mutations.

“Ordinarily, a biopsy is used to remove tissue, like a tumor, and then to look at the cells by a pathologist,” Cunningham said. “But in a liquid biopsy, we’re seeking to take a small volume of blood out of your arm or finger and then test for the presence of molecules, whose concentration can tell the severity of cancer.”

Yanyu Xiong, a graduate student studying electrical and computer engineering and leading author of the research, said her mother was once diagnosed with cancer and later recovered. She said patients have to go through painful chemotherapy and numerous other tests to see the effectiveness of their treatments. Xiong said it usually takes such a long time that some patients may not be able to live through it.

“The earliest you can detect it, the better chance for people to stay alive,” she said. “That’s the first thing that we want to develop — something that can detect cancer at an early stage.”

However, Cunningham said it is challenging to identify microRNA in the blood of early-stage cancer patients — the small number of cancer cells in their bodies leads to a low concentration of microRNA that is hard to monitor. To solve this problem, Andrew Smith, professor in Engineering, applied quantum dots to count individual molecules.

Smith defined a quantum dot as a tiny piece of a crystal. He explained it as a bluish emerald shrunk into a 10-nanometer crystal semiconductor, a unique material that allows scientists to change all its attributes, including colors and electrical conductivity.

Smith said that in this study, quantum dots were tuned to emit light. The research team attaches these luminous quantum dots to microRNA, captures them on a biosensor and measures these molecules by counting the bright spots in the image.

“That digital counting is what makes them very, very useful for this application,” Smith said. “You can be very sure of exactly the number that’s present. That doesn’t really happen for other types of light-emitting materials. It’s the fact that quantum lights are very bright — we’ve engineered them to be emitting this very specific color range that we can measure.”

Smith noted that combining quantum dots and photonic crystals further improves the test outcomes. He compared a photonic crystal to a narrow-shaped lawn with plenty of ditches where tiny quantum dots fit in. He said the two materials resonate and dramatically amplify signals that make microRNA easy to detect with low-cost instruments.

Xiong emphasized the significance of photonic crystals. She likened quantum dots to blinking stars in the night sky. To obtain accurate data, Xiong said she used to spend hours capturing numerous images with fast shutter speeds. She said the application of photonic crystals successfully tackles this difficulty in this study.

“We found in the photonic crystal, (quantum dots) do not blink anymore, and they’re less than before,” Xiong said. “All those findings help us to visualize single molecules using an objective lens.”

According to Smith, this study is a milestone of multi-year cancer research initiated by Manish Kohli, a cancer clinician and researcher at Huntsman Cancer Institute in Utah. Smith said he has worked with Kohli and Cunningham since 2016 on castration-resistant prostate cancer, which leaves patients only a year to live and is considered incurable.

Smith said the team has been attempting to fill the clinical care gaps by using technology to help doctors quickly determine treatments.

“You want to be able to decide if this therapy given to this patient is responding or not,” Smith said. “But you don’t know until they recur, and that stage is almost too late. So, you want some rapid tests that within a couple of days of treatment, you could tell if it’s the right treatment for a patient.”

Kohli expected the new liquid biopsy could replace pathologic complete response, or PCR, the traditional technique to identify microRNA. He said PCR is highly laborious and time consuming as clinicians must ship plenty of blood samples to laboratories with high-end, expensive instruments.

With this new technique, Kohli said clinics can assess a cancer patient’s condition with one or two drops of blood from a pinprick on their finger. He envisioned a device that can upload the microRNA counts onto the cloud and send the information to doctors hundreds of miles away.

Smith added that the research team aims to make the liquid biopsy a simple, regular test that can be done frequently during cancer treatments.

“That’s something revolutionary in many ways,” Kohli said.

According to Cunningham, the team will be conducting trials on blood samples collected from 100 patients at Kohli’s clinic with various stages of prostate cancer. Cunningham said they will verify this new technique’s superiority by comparing it with other existing methods of identifying molecules.

Kohli recalled that it took time for the research team to understand each other when they first met. He said each member’s expertise in medicine and bioengineering was once isolated, but he knew the more their specialties get united, the better research products they will offer patients.

“Otherwise, the application of these sciences will fall short of their potential,” Kohli said. “There are 1000 questions to ask cancer researchers, and we don’t have great technology being applied. We’ve successfully done many projects together, and we are going to build on that as we keep moving forward.”

yuzhul2@dailyillini.com

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When Chicago mural artist Levar Hoard walked down Green Street a year ago, he saw there are 25 spaces of blank wall dominating the block between Fourth and Fifth streets.

As the sun went down, the entire street sunk into shadows, but Hoard looked up and saw the smooth surface of that wall struck by the orange glow.

Over the summer, Hoard created a mural featuring the Alma Mater statue on that same wall, the east side of Skyline Tower. He said he wanted to create a new landmark for the University at this prominent location.

“It was just a no-brainer to try to develop a classic mural, a mural that was contemporary but would age and last forever,” Hoard said.

Hoard introduced the two muralists who completed the painting: Ryan “Yanoe” Sarfati and Eric “Zoueh” Skotnes. Hoard said when people take a closer look, they will marvel at the incredible details which were all done by hand.

Sarfati and Skotnes said the 160-foot mural was their tallest piece of work. To fit the elongated wall, the artists designed the mural on a DNA strand. The helix wraps in the drapery at the bottom, travels through the florals and Alma’s shoulders and waves into the violet cloudscape.

“It emphasizes the underlying movement,” Sarfati said. “The DNA spiral is one way that you can keep the viewers engaged all the way to the top, and then they’ll want to view it all the way back down.”

Hoard said the mural signals the soul of the Campustown community, just as the word Alma does, meaning “soul” in Latin.

When first visiting the University a year ago, Hoard said it wasn’t long before he recognized the institute’s superior academic accomplishments. However, he said he couldn’t find the same innovation and energy in the mostly brown streets on campus.

“When you go into a community and the art looks amazing, that’s probably a signal that that’s an amazing community,” Hoard said. “When you go into a community with no art or poor examples of art, it may be a sign that this is not an intellectually progressive community.”

That was when Hoard came up with the Boneyard Area Mural !nitiative or BAM!, a multi-year project focused on revitalizing Campustown with public art. He noticed the juxtaposition of dated and modern buildings on campus and considered art a link between the University’s past and present.

Matt Garrison is the CEO of R2 Companies. The real estate firm acquired the Bankier Apartments and initiated the makeover of the Green Street frontage. As an alumnus, Garrison said he witnessed the dramatic change in the streetscape since he graduated in 1998. Garrison said he understood that Green Street was the center of college life and felt an obligation to improve the district when returning to campus as an investor.

“We have high rises and parking podiums that are commercially successful, but they need to have a soul,” Garrison said. “Imagine Green Street and the Boneyard with dozens of high-impact murals. It’s the same street, but it’s better as well.”

Garrison believed well-executed public art could create a network effect. He expected that the iconic Alma Mater mural would attract attention and foot traffic, boost retail, inspire other property owners to bring more art and eventually breathe life into campus.

According to Hoard, BAM! features three other murals along the Boneyard and plans to have another four coming up this year, including one of the world’s largest optical illusion murals. Another highlight is a two-year mural project at Park Place Tower, where art and design will completely change the postmodern architecture.

“This is a very advanced concept,” Hoard said. “Everything we’ve done in Champaign has been one of a kind. You can only see it in Champaign, and no other examples exist anywhere else in the world.”

Hoard said this project represents a world-class artist team who will draw global eyes to Campustown. Besides murals, he said BAM! will also renovate the Boneyard Greenway and trail, including redesigned bike lanes and better lighting.

“This is a University that produced a student that created the world’s first visible light LED, but when you go on the Boneyard, you have 1970s yellow sodium lamps,” Hoard said. “That’s a disconnect for us, so we would like to see high-quality LED lights on the boneyard to reflect Nick Holonyak Jr., who created the world’s first visible light LED.”

As the creator of the first mural of BAM!, Skotnes said he felt honored to be involved in the initiative that he believes will transform Campustown into an art destination.

“Bringing these amazing public art pieces together … will be very impactful for years to come,” Skotnes said.

Garrison added that the public art will show the University to visitors as a dynamic community and change their first impression of the campus and attract more potential students.

“With public art, we make an investment and sit back and watch it take on a life of its own,” Garrison said. “Campustown is a creative cluster of energy, youth and potential. We want to celebrate this and hopefully help it continue to flourish for the next generation.”

yuzhul2@dailyillini.com

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Here is what you get at Levi’s Stadium.

On the day of a football game, an app will show you the route from your home to the parking lot. When you arrive, it has your ticket ready on the home screen. After the ticket is scanned, it shows the way to your seat, the availability of nearby bathrooms and food ordering served in minutes. At the end of a big day, the app guides you back to your car to take you home.

The Illinois app is now bringing this experience to the University.

The idea started when Andreas Cangellaris, former dean of the College of Engineering, and professor John Paul, who designed the technical Levi’s Stadium (home of the San Francisco 49ers), met in 2017.

“Andreas said, ‘gosh, do you think it would be possible to do for a university what you’ve done for a sports stadium?’ and JP said, ‘I think we could,’” director of Rokwire William Sullivan said. “For Levi’s Stadium, it was all about making the fan experience wonderful. On our campus, it’s all about the student experience — to reduce as much friction as possible, open doors and make things easier.”

Sullivan said the intensive research and design started in August 2018. Thanks to the efforts of engineers, designers, researchers, content experts and students, the Illinois app officially released its fourth version at the end of July.

According to Sullivan, the design team conducted multiple focus groups with students to learn about their needs.

“A lot of our efforts are trying to understand the barriers to students’ success,” Sullivan said. “What are the hurdles that students face on a daily basis? What are the annoying little problems that get in the way of a wonderful, successful experience here at the University of Illinois? And how can we use this technology in these tools to reduce those hurdles?”

Coming to a campus much larger than their high schools, many new students feel overwhelmed and find it hard to navigate different buildings, especially ones with unfamiliar acronyms.

To solve this problem, Sullivan said the Illinois app worked with the Office of the Registrar to connect students’ course schedules to Google Maps, where students can now look for their day-to-day routes to classes, including locations of accessible entrances.

To Sullivan, the most significant change in the new version is its first steps towards personalization. While everyone had the same home screen last year, users can now decide what they want to prioritize on their “favorites” page to better suit their needs.

“The whole idea is thinking from a student’s perspective about the challenges or frustrations they’ve got and breaking it down into pieces,” Sullivan said.

Kathryn Courtney leads the Illinois app’s student affairs features. Courtney mentioned that one of the most used tools is the University housing’s dining menus with over 10,000 views a day. Students can use this tool to view the menu items, as well as to set filters to only see the food options they want with a list of about 25 common ingredients to exclude from their diet.

A brand-new feature of the app is groups. Courtney said the Illinois app has prepopulated several groups for residence halls at the beginning of the semester. She said she sees endless possibilities for these groups to build University housing into more inclusive communities as the groups automatically include all residents, as opposed to opt-in social media channels.

Joe Grohens, Rokwire’s communications director, encourages faculty to use quick polls in groups as a simple version of iClicker. Besides the academic and residential groups, entertainment ones are also springing up. Grohens said he is a member of Illini Squirrel Enthusiasts, currently the largest group in the Illinois app, and always enjoys seeing the photos of squirrels roaming around campus.

Speaking of the meme joke group “ur mom but better,” Courtney laughed.

“We have created a platform that allows creativity, and we support the idea that people can create communities of interest to them,” Courtney said. “And with that freedom comes, I guess, the ability to be silly.”

Sullivan said the team is now bettering the events feature. He noticed that with over 300 event calendars published by various departments and RSOs on campus, people can easily miss things due to an overload of information.

According to Sullivan, the Illinois app is now categorizing different calendars and allowing people to identify their interests, tag events and set reminders.

“One of the things so attractive about coming to the University of Illinois is it’s got this great diversity with way more to do than you could never even begin to think of accomplishing, but there’s a cost to that as well,” Sullivan said. “The cost is you don’t even know about what you might want to do. So, we’re working to make it easier for people to understand what events exist that they might be interested in.”

The new version highlights wellness features, led by Mel Fenner. This includes daily wellness tips, a to-do list for better time management and wellness rings of healthy habits.

Fenner said that despite tons of wellness resources on campus, students usually assume they don’t exist, as they rarely hear about them. He said the team aims to create a smoother process for students to get help without having to dig deep.

“The space in the middle between needing and obtaining has traditionally been very difficult because students may not know where to start,” Fenner said. “Our hope is that when a student is seeking that information, we have it all centralized and ready for them to take advantage of a lot easier.”

Fenner said an ambitious goal of the wellness features is to flip the traditional medical mode, where a patient must call their doctor and wait until the doctor is available.

“We’re hoping that the doctor or the nurse or the counselor is able to reach out to you and say, ‘hey, we noticed that your engagement on campus has been dropping, you haven’t really been going to classes frequently, or you haven’t been dining as often, we just want to make sure everything is okay,’” Fenner said.

He said the team is now talking to doctors and medical providers to figure out where technology fits and where a human practitioner engages in the process. Though there is no detailed timeline, Fenner believes the Illinois app will continue refining this new tool and preparing to serve the campus in the foreseeable future.

Apart from promoting students’ wellness, the Illinois app is now pursuing two other initiatives, including global joint learning and research participation, Sullivan said. According to Grohens, the app’s feedback channel keeps receiving suggestions on new features, including MTD bus schedules, class assignments, library integration and interactive campus tours.

Sullivan said the Illinois app always welcomes people to bring their ideas on what should come next.

“(The Illinois app) is really making this huge place a little bit smaller and a little bit more manageable,” Sullivan said.

yuzhul2@dailyillini.com

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“Rain or shine, come to South Quad at 3 p.m. to play.”

Dylan Murphy, sophomore in Business, dropped this message on the University’s unofficial subreddit, r/UIUC. He organized a campus-wide game of Capture the Flag that took place on the pouring Thursday afternoon.

Murphy asked the players to show up in black or white shirts, which automatically separated them into different teams. The goal was to steal the other team’s flag and take it back to the base.

Murphy said he has a natural passion for hosting community events. He organized a foot race in the fall and a snowball fight in the winter. According to Murphy, the Capture the Flag tied this line of games together to close out the school year.

“What I do is just to bring the University together,” Murphy said. “I’ve heard stories of people meeting new friends at these events, and the purpose of all these is for people to meet new people and experience something together.”

Celia Cousineau, junior in FAA, joined the game of Capture the Flag with her friends from Adventure Club. Cousineau said she enjoyed rushing wildly outdoors and falling over in the mud rather than sitting inside all day to study for finals.

Murphy said he advocates for a varied college lifestyle.

“A lot of people live college in a very traditional manner — they do their studies and there’s the night scene, and it can get kind of repetitive,” Murphy said. “I have been a victim of that repetition. It’s boring at the end of the day once you keep doing that, so I guess I’m obsessed with creating new experiences for people to enjoy.”

Lee Rao, junior in LAS, said he had never been on the South Quad before participating in Thursday’s game. He said this game got him out of the house and let him explore new places on campus.

“I love this,” Rao said. “I came in like 15 minutes late, but as I was walking over, I saw everyone running around, and I couldn’t help but smile. It was just so happy to see people playing.”

Although Murphy worried that the turnout would decline due to the rain, he said the weather made the game better.

“It’s like a battlefield, right?” Murphy said. “It’s Capture the Flag. It’s a war. Rain just gives you an aesthetic vibe that you wouldn’t feel otherwise.”

The rising wind drove the rain in sheets as screams and cheers echoed through the vast quad. Dozens of players chased each other across the grass shiny with puddles, kicking up water that splashed their calves. Some sped on and flopped down on the ground. Everyone’s clothes were crumpled, soaked and mottled with mud.

Despite feeling cold and tired, Tiana Blake, junior in Education, said the scene was very cinematic.

Melissa Singleton, senior in LAS, compared the rain to a trial by fire. She said while it added up the difficulty of getting close to people, there was much more spice.

“Only the real ones show up,” Eastern Hoggard, senior in Engineering, said as the white team who won all three rounds of the game as they ate the pizza Murphy ordered.

Rao said he had never played Capture the Flag in adulthood.

“You play these games as a kid, but then you grow up, you never get to do crazy things like this again,” Rao said. “It’s cool to play childhood games as an adult. You’re bigger, stronger and more aggressive.”

When asked about the craziest element in the game, the players mentioned what they called the crane gambit. As the final round allowed both teams to hide the flags, the black team placed theirs in the crane under the McFarland Bell Tower, which marked the boundary line between the two teams’ bases.

According to Rao, the black team put considerable defense at the back to confuse the enemy and successfully kept the white team busy looking for the flag for more than 20 minutes.

“Everyone was frustrated,” Blake said. “We hid our flag in a really risky place. We took a lot of risks, and they didn’t pay off. But it was so fun.”

Rao and Blake said they expect more events like this in the future.

Now awaiting her graduation this May, Singleton said this classic game brought her back to the most diverting part of middle school Physical Education classes.

“I was almost not going to come, and then I was like, ‘No, you should do it; it’s your last chance to just be a young student and have fun,” Singleton said.

yuzhul2@dailyillini.com

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When Rileigh Kilgore, a graduate student in Social Work, was about to walk onto the stage to accept her bachelor’s degree a year ago, five family members surrounded her, repeatedly adjusting her gown to ensure all wrinkles were out and her cap was on straight.

Growing up in Watseka, Ill., a small town with a population of less than 6,000, Kilgore was the first in her family to go to college. Despite the COVID-19 protocol at the time, Kilgore remembered the euphoria she felt when her whole family shot confetti poppers at her as she stepped out of the auditorium.

Kilgore said she had come such a long way to get to that moment.

Kilgore later mounted her diploma in a frame and hung it on the wall. Now awaiting the graduation ceremony for her master’s degree on May 14, Kilgore said this diploma always humbles her by reminding her of the obstacles that have made her who she is today.

“It shows that it’s possible to change the trajectory of a family,” Kilgore said. “A family who has previously been homeless, been low income and struggled with drugs and alcohol can turn it around.”

Fabian Lopez, senior in Business, said he finds inspiration from his parents who immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico decades ago, not speaking any English but successfully laying a firm foundation for their children’s dreams.

Lopez said his parents continually propelled him and his brothers to pursue a college education, which his parents were unable to achieve. He views their struggle as his fuel to obtain his degree.

Lopez said the celebration isn’t only for his graduation, but also for how far his family has come. He said his grandma is coming up from Mexico for his graduation.

“Seeing somebody in the U.S. graduate with a bachelor’s degree in accounting — that’s something my grandma has never seen before,” Lopez said. “It fulfills the once-imagined vision of my grandfather, who was the first one to step into this country.” 

Lopez said the cost of attending college discourages many Hispanic students from pursuing higher education. With his business career path, Lopez said he aims to provide more financial resources catering to his community.

While Lopez encountered the same challenge in the first year, he was later granted multiple scholarships and grants that offered him a free college degree. Lopez has been awarded the Graduate College Master’s Fellowship, which covers the full tuition for his Master’s program at the University.

“I see the incredible character stories of other people getting their master’s degree, and I was like, ‘Why not me?’” Lopez said. “My parents’ faces lighted up when I told them I’m gonna get my Master’s degree paid. They couldn’t believe it, and I couldn’t even believe it myself.”

Jahlinea Cekander, a first-generation senior in LAS, has never applied for any scholarship.

“I’m not gonna show you how poor I am and work three times harder to prove to you why I deserve to go to college,” Cekander said.

Cekander said she was brought up by a single mother who works all the time and has no knowledge of the FAFSA, the internet or higher education. Cekander learned to be self-sufficient and responsible at a very young age. When arriving to college, Cekander said she did everything on her own — from completing the applications to navigating the campus.

“I didn’t even know getting help in that area was a thing,” Cekander said.

Vincent Cunningham, associate director for TRIO programs, encourages students to utilize University resources. He said he trains his staff as “clarity providers” who open conversations and provide needed information including administration, financial aid and academic mentoring.

“No one does it by themselves, and that’s probably one of the biggest misconceptions about first-generation students,” Cunningham said.

While Cekander knows someone who planned a big graduation party, Cekander said no one has told her what graduation will look like.

“I’m just like walking the stage and getting drunk afterward with my friends,” Cekander said. “If I’m overwhelmed, my mom doesn’t know what to do, so I have to maneuver through the stress alone.”

Kilgore echoed Cekander’s experiences. She said she finds it hard to explain the college system to her mother, who doesn’t know what a semester means. Though her family provides enough emotional support, Kilgore said they can’t understand why she has to miss Christmas due to assignments, finals or work.

Kilgore said first-generation students bear heavy pressure to be poster children, especially those with siblings. She pointed out the stigma around these students who are forced to demonstrate success and make no mistakes.

“I definitely know that my family is really, really proud of me,” Kilgore said. “However, I also know that not all of them truly understood what it took to get to the point that I am.”

Luckily, Cekander’s passion for books resonates with her grandmother, who majored in English like Cekander, but later dropped out because of pregnancy. Cekander said her grandmother has a natural curiosity about her classes, and she enjoys giving back what she’s learning to someone who can comprehend.

Cekander said she knows how proud her family is of her graduation. She said she once hesitated about attending commencement because of her anxiety but eventually decided to go for her mother.

“When I told my mom I wasn’t gonna walk, she started crying,” Cekander said. “I am walking to give my mom that moment to feel like she did something right.”

According to Cekander, her younger sister sees Cekander as a role model. Cekander said she will help navigate her sister through college.

“She finally has someone I didn’t have,” Cekander said.

Kilgore said that because she comes from a community full of doubts about whether she can achieve higher education, she must uphold the priority of education. 

“The advice I would give to first-gen students is to do it for yourself,” Kilgore said. “I found so often that first-gen students who go to college to make their parents proud, and they end up really struggling because it has to be for you.”

yuzhul2@dailyillini.com

Editors Note: A previous version of a photo caption incorrectly stated Lopez moved to the U.S. with his family. Lopez’s family immigrated decades before him. The Daily Illini regrets this error.

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Mozart is a barista new in town. Whether you want a lavender latte, cream soda or strawberry lemonade, Mozart is ready to serve. Mozart also makes a drink in less than 30 seconds, works continuously for 14 hours and never gets paid.

Mozart is a robot.

Yummy Future, the first robotic coffee shop on campus, recently opened on Green Street. The robot barista, Mozart, features a mechanical arm programmed to brew beverages.

According to Guangzhe Cui, co-founder of Yummy Future, customer traffic has exceeded expectations.

“A lot of customers just like the futuristic vibes,” Cui said.

Robert Brunner, associate dean for innovation and chief disruption officer, attributed the emergence of robotics businesses to labor shortages for minimum wage jobs. Brunner said many companies now see the opportunity to utilize automation to adapt to the lack of workforce.

“One beauty of automation is its (ability) to do the same thing over and over again,” Brunner said. “You don’t have to worry about them getting bored.”

Brunner said he expects Yummy Future’s robotic coffee shop system to work effectively in environments with massive customer flow such as airports and shopping malls.

Cui said that they are also exploring potential markets in rural areas where traditional coffee shops are hardly accessible due to management and recruitment difficulties.

However, not everyone shares the excitement about the growth of robots.

Mikayla King, junior in LAS and Starbucks barista, worries robotic coffee shops will take jobs from human baristas.

“Corporations go like ‘oh, this is faster, get rid of all jobs,’” King said. “If people think that a robot can do a job, there’s no opportunity for an actual human to do that job.”

King said she doesn’t believe robots can fully replace human employees.

“In the morning and at night, I have to check temperatures, and I feel like a robot could do those things if they have it programmed, but how does the robot know if the thermometer is broken?” King said.

Brunner pointed out that although automation replaces simple, repetitive work, it creates more skilled job opportunities. He gave an example of automobile manufacturing where automated production lines improve accuracy while there is a growing demand for human employees to inspect the working status.

According to Cui, Yummy Future utilizes human-machine cooperation. With the robot taking the most burdensome work, Cui said the staff, mostly former baristas at regular coffee shops, now focus on overseeing the store and facilitating business.

“When we hire most of our baristas, they are happier,” Cui said. “Because they don’t need to stand there for long durations of time, pulling espressos and cleaning this and that.”

Julie Muňoz-Najar, a clinical assistant professor of Social Work, said people have romantic imaginations about how technology serves humans — she called this the enslavement of robots. Despite the novelty, Muňoz-Najar said she always stays cautious about how society interacts with this new economic approach.

She referred to the protests by Amazon workers last year against the workplace. As some people push back on robotic systems, Muňoz-Najar said Yummy Future may face a similar hurdle.

“People might come to them and say, ‘What are you doing to ensure that you’re still being a part of the community and not creating a bigger divide?’” Muňoz-Najar said.

Likewise, when asked if she would work for a robotic coffee shop, King shook her head.

“I don’t want to be near robots,” King said. “They’re very creepy.”

Cui said he empathizes with people’s natural resistance to robots. He said the primary responsibility of Yummy Future’s staff is to alleviate customers’ potential discomfort by familiarizing them with the machine.

While the robotic coffee shop system does not have much human interaction, Muňoz-Najar sees the transitioning role of human employees to offer a different type of care.

Cui mentioned the engineering team has added customization options based on the staff’s feedback. Unlike baristas who recommend drinks to satisfy customers’ needs, Cui said it takes years for the machine to achieve the same level of humanized design.

“It’s hard to get off the comfort zone, but we cannot just stay in the same place forever,” Cui said.

Muňoz-Najar emphasized the importance of retraining employees in a technology-centered market. Apart from barista techniques and customer service skills, she expects staff at robotic coffee shops to obtain human-machine knowledge that prepares them to work alongside the robot. 

Knowing that automation is coming in, Brunner encourages students to think about the opportunities it will create.

“It can be scary because we are creatures of habit,” Brunner said. “But life is about adapting and evolving to how the environment is changing, and I think this is just another example of where you know you have to learn.”

To offer some insight, Bruner said students should ask questions about how to work with automated machines in future professional encounters.

“It allows you to make a bet on your future and say ‘I want to learn those skills now when I’m here at the University of Illinois,’” Brunner said. “How can I work with automation instead of fearing it? How can I work with it? How can I leverage it? How might I be able to position myself to be complementary or augmented in partnership with AI?”

yuzhul2@dailyillini.com

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The Biden administration announced on March 24 that the United States would welcome up to 100,000 refugees fleeing Ukraine. However, it may take years for these Ukrainians to be approved to enter the U.S.

Lisa Wilson, executive director of the East Central Illinois Refugee Mutual Assistance Center, said that while the center is ready to help resettle Ukrainian refugees, there will be no substantive progress until the U.S. government lays out a plan to transfer these people.

“The avenues (for Ukrainian refugees) to come to the U.S. are pretty much blocked,” Wilson said.

Wilson revealed that The Refugee Center has accepted only one Ukrainian who was already in Illinois so far. According to the Department of Homeland Security, only Ukrainians already living or studying in the U.S. before March 1 are eligible for the temporary protected status.

For those fleeing Ukraine, the pathways to getting a visa are narrow. There is not a specific immigration category for a war refugee visa. Wilson added that a visitor visa is never an option for the displaced since a visitor visa holder must declare a plan to return home.

Wilson confirmed that the first Ukrainians coming here will be the ones who have family members with U.S. citizenship. According to the census, Illinois has been home to about 47,623 people of Ukrainian ancestry — containing one of the largest Ukrainian communities in the country.

Wilson said these Ukrainian refugees will apply for family immigration which can take years to process. The U.S. refugee admissions program requires candidates to apply for refugee status outside of the U.S. They cannot cross the border until U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services authorize legal permission.

According to The Pew Research Center, many refugee applicants do not go through the approval process while in their home countries. They usually stay in neighboring countries under temporary protection while waiting for resettlement and undergoing health screenings and cultural orientations.

The Department of State reveals that these procedures take at least 18 months to complete. A Human Rights First report finds that the delays leave some refugees in harsh conditions and prolong their separation from families.

Wilson also attributed this tedious wait to the quota system that USCIS uses to allocate visas. The system specifies that no one country can account for more than 7% of all diversity visas issued annually. Therefore, Wilson pointed out a foreseeable long period before Ukrainian refugees ultimately get permission to travel to the U.S. on family immigration.

Wilson mentioned that refugee resettlement demands a significant infrastructure investment and processing time. She said many of the Refugee Center’s clients waited for years before they could finally enter the U.S. The Refugee Center stated that the refugees’ identities are protected.

Unfortunately, increased burdens on the immigration system have worsened the delays. USCIS acknowledged a heavy pending caseload and prolonged processing time due to the COVID-19 standstill and the Trump administration’s decision to cut resources.

“Right now, I don’t have any positive news about the U.S. or our area, in particular, receiving those people fleeing Ukraine,” Wilson said.

yuzhul2@dailyillini.com 

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When Gabriel Popescu, professor in Engineering, visited a major pharmaceutical company a few years ago, it shocked him that the chemicals they use to determine cell viability kill the cell in 15 minutes or less. 

“It’s like checking the pulse of a patient with a razor blade,” Popescu said.

But after two years of research, Popescu and his team at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology found a way to determine the survivability of a cell that would not use deadly chemicals.

The team introduced an approach that identifies live and dead cells using phase imaging and deep learning. This advancement has positive implications for testing new medicines and determining patient response to treatment.

According to the team’s research paper, traditional methods of identification use dyes that only attach to cells that lost their membranes. The team’s study also shows that this method takes time to reach optimal staining levels.

Chenfei Hu, University alumnus and the leading researcher of the study, mentioned that the toxicity of the chemicals used in identification stains prevents long-term investigation. He pointed out that the approach wastes time and is costly since drug makers need to repeat the procedure over 1,000 times. 

“You cannot deliver repeated experiments on one single cell,” Hu said. “Even 200 years after these chemicals were invented, people are still using them in a very old-fashioned way.” 

Popescu said the recent studies have opened new directions for imaging technology that his laboratory has developed over the past 15 years.

“That’s how this whole research started.” Hu said. “By combining the imaging tools and the power of artificial intelligence, can we help cell health screening in a cheap, rapid and accurate way?”

They succeeded. The imaging displays the internal structure of a single cell by measuring the optical phase delay; the light gets delayed more where the cell regions are denser. This creates high-contrast images. The researchers then bring in an algorithm that reveals the biological information of cell components.

Results find that this label-free method has approximately 95% accuracy in evaluating cell viability. According to Hu, this success has never been achieved in any traditional way.

The study also reveals that after using the algorithm, the assessment of a cell only takes 100 milliseconds – about eight times faster than color imaging. 

“Once it has learned, it’s instantaneous,” Popescu said. “It’s like once a child has learned what a cat and a dog is and what the difference is, the moment they see a dog, it takes a few milliseconds to know.”

Hu said that while previous approaches relied on manual counting, researchers now only need to put cells under the microscope and let the computer do the job. To Popescu, it is fun to sit in front of the screen and glance at how the computer automatically labels everything.

Hu also said he sees potential that this research could apply to many real-world settings. Hu envisioned that this new approach would save plenty of materials for drug makers who must repeatedly test cell viability when inventing new medicine.

Young Jae Lee, graduate student in LAS and a contributing author of the study, said that this new method is especially valuable in treating cancer patients by visualizing how the cells react to drug injections.

“We can see how the cells move around and how they change their shapes based on their health conditions,” Lee said. “It makes our work easier.”

Popescu revealed that his laboratory is trying to apply the new method to measure the viability of clusters of cells. He explained how hard it is to examine small tumors extracted from patients since light does not travel well through these thicker, closely-gathered tissues.

“Dealing with all the scattering is like trying to look through a cloud,” Popescu said. “We’ve actually made progress since we submitted this paper. We are very excited to bring it to these 3D structures with a lot more applications.”

Popescu said that keeping an invention only in laboratory studies limits its impact. He referred to at-home COVID-19 test kits which employ the same methods of phase imaging. Popescu said practicality in the real world is his ultimate goal.

According to Popescu, the research team has applied for a patent. He said his biotechnology company is now incorporating the hardware into their products.

“At the end of the day, we want to solve problems that people care about,” Popescu said.

yuzhul2@dailyillini.com

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Andrew Buckley, the 2021 Krannert Center Debut Artist and graduate student in FAA, sees a glass wall between the stage and the auditorium.

He describes a typical symphony orchestra concert: Musicians silently walk on and off stage as the audience sits still and claps in the dark.

As a clarinetist for more than 10 years, Buckley has embraced this classical musical tradition. But now, with his upcoming debut professional album “Where We Go Next” premiering with The Goodwin Avenue Trio on April 9 at Smith Memorial Hall, Buckley said he is redefining what a classical concert experience is truly about.

“The question is, what does classical music sound like in the next 10 years?” Buckley said.“This is it.”

According to Buckley, in his early undergraduate career, his chief reason for creating music was to make a living. To become more employable, he joined three instrument studios as a conducting apprentice in the school’s wind ensemble.

However, Buckley said he realized that he was spreading himself too thin trying to monetize his talents.

“Is that really why I’m a musician — just to make money?” Buckley said. “Part of it, but it’s more so to create outstanding and deep emotional musical performances. And I don’t think you can do that until you narrow down the focus and commit to one thing. For me, that was clarinet.”

“I want to stay away from talent, but it just comes naturally,” Buckley said.

Unfortunately, the pandemic hit before Buckley started to pursue his master’s degree. He said he was sinking into turmoil because of the lack of gig opportunities and the newfound dullness in graduate school.

During this time, he founded The Goodwin Avenue Trio with pianist Chanmi Lee and cellist Briar Schlenker, both graduate students in FAA.

“We have to create something because we’re just gonna go nuts if we don’t,” Buckley said.

The trio made its professional debut in March 2021, with only 40 people sitting 10 feet apart. The concert was also live streamed. Buckley said the scattered audience did not react a lot. He felt like he was talking to a brick wall when he constantly shifted his attention between the auditorium and the live-stream camera. 

Despite the difficulties, Buckley said he heard appreciation from people for him bringing them back to concert halls.

“It was weird for them in that aspect, but people didn’t mind,” Buckley said. “They just wanted to be there.” 

Buckley’s girlfriend, Becca Frederick, graduate student in FAA, recalled how when the Illinois Wind Symphony presented “Pines of Rome” last semester, she saw people moved to tears by Buckley’s clarinet solo.

Buckley said he knew it was his best performance because he had played the excerpt more than 500 times.

Buckley said that after enough practice, all technical playing points slip away. He said that he concentrates more on expression onstage. He mentioned that sometimes, he even stops focusing on rhythm.

“He’s so passionate about what he has to say through the music,” Frederick said. “You can see it in his face. You can hear it in the sound and his movement. He’s very expressive, very good at getting the audience to feel what he wants them to feel.”

Buckley said he has been reflecting on performer-centered classical concerts.

“The audience members don’t feel like they’re having an experience,” he said. “They’re watching somebody else have an experience. Are we really conveying emotion when we’re doing that?”

Buckley has a solution. He said that he gives oral program notes and asks the audience for feedback during intermissions. He said this communication includes the audience in the music-making process and allows them to see the personality behind the performance instead of a robot moving fingers on a musical instrument.

When Buckley won eight hours of free recording in Krannert Center Debut Artist competition, his first thought was to record his four favorite pieces of classical clarinet. But, he hesitated.

“Those four pieces have been recorded 100 times by performers that are way better than me and way better than I ever will be,” he said. “Is that something where people are actually gonna take notice?”

At that time, Buckley said that he met Professor Bärli Nugent from The Juilliard School in a music entrepreneurship class. Nugent encouraged Buckley to feature new, diverse composers of his age in his album. Buckley said he immediately decided to go for this idea.

According to Frederick, student composers have little chance to get their works presented even by school ensembles. Buckley added that all these composers have are recordings produced on iPhones that are put on websites and often never played again. To Buckley, this is a waste of creative energy.

Buckley said his debut album aims to give voice to the underrepresented young musicians and to engage the audience.

“The music people are going to hear is more representative of the 21st century,” Buckley said. “It’s not Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn. It’s new, it’s weird, it’s experimental — kind of everything that folks in my generation are going through right now.” 

To Buckley, the most exciting thing about this album is that the music has never been heard before. He said the Trio is now bringing the creation to life.

“We’re trying to invent the next cool thing,” Buckley said. “The next fancy thing. The next form of our heart.”

yuzhul2@dailyillini.com

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When Juanita Rogers first met her daughter’s Girl Scout leader, Stephanie Cockrell, Rogers believed something was special about her.

Watching how Cockrell cared for the girls and advocated for them, Rogers said she loved Cockrell’s extraordinary vision that extended far beyond the scouts. Her 14-year-old daughter, Marianna, admired Cockrell so much that when she left Girl Scouts to pursue her own goals, Marianna’s passion began to go away.

However, Rogers said she knew that their paths would eventually cross again.

She reconnected with Cockrell years later and started working with The Well Experience – a nonprofit, multifaceted organization Cockrell founded to support minority women and children. Rogers would later become president.

“From there, it’s just spiraled into something beautiful – friendship, connection and now just me serving on the board,” Rogers, said. “It’s been a beautiful ride.”

For Cockrell, The Well Experience has always been in her heart. She said it sprouted from her life experiences as a woman, a mother and her desire to provide families with services she wished she had.

She compared The Well Experience to a village where the sisterhood raises their children together. Cockrell said they helped young girls internalize self-love and self-confidence so that they wouldn’t have to struggle with insecurities their mothers are trying to fight off today.

“Seeing their smiles, watching them grow, seeing them come back and say ‘Ms. Stephanie, you taught us this, and we actually used it,’ and then just watching the young women they turn into; it blesses my heart so much,” Cockrell said. “They’re all my babies.”

Before joining, Rogers was deeply concerned about how her daughter was losing enthusiasm for art and music, especially as she was the only Black girl in community activities. Seeing her reminded Rogers of her early memories of culture shock when growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood in California 30 years ago.

Rogers said that was when she realized how vital representation was.

She now sees many girls who look like her daughter and herself at The Well Experience. Rogers said Marianna can ultimately have fun without worrying about whether she fits in because of the way she looks.

Rogers remembers how her quiet, reserved Marianna announced that she wanted to go with The Well Experience’s summer trip to Chicago last year. This would be the first time Marianna would be away from Rogers. 

“Marianna has never wanted to do anything like that,” Rogers said. “She said, ‘I think I’ll be all right for a couple of days without you.’ I said, ‘Really?’ She said, ‘Yeah.'”

“It means so much just to know that she can come to a place where I know is safe, and she knows she feels safe. I can’t even begin to tell you all the things that Marianna has gained just by being connected to The Well. It has done so much to her psyche.”

Cockrell echoed Rogers’s sentiment, emphasizing that safety is not only about day care centers protecting children from dangers but also about mental health. 

If a child is experiencing a crisis, Cockrell asserted, the parents must have gone through the same thing. She introduced wrap-around services, which provide a holistic strategy to support families through their dark days, whether due to gun violence or school expulsion.

With social workers, clinical professionals, mentors and case managers, The Well Experience has built a system of full-circle care for families from counseling sessions to employability skills training. They host teen talks every Thursday night where youth can voice their thoughts. The after school program works to enhance early readiness for kids, as Cockrell said statistically, many Black and brown children have lagged in reading and math by third grade.

“We want to make sure that families have the opportunity to grow,” Cockrell said. “When you don’t see opportunity, it opens up the door to crime, to substance abuse, to so many different things. We got to find some hope somewhere.”

Quandra Clark, the director of operations, said she enjoys the financial literacy classes the most. She said she benefits from learning about finances since such topics have been absent from schools and homes.

Cockrell said COVID-19 has worsened racial and economic inequities that minority families were already dealing with. At the peak of the pandemic, she got calls from parents who did not know how to use Google Classroom for their children’s online courses. She had to sit in front of her computer and explain to them step- by-step through her phone.

Cockrell said the families she worked with either could not afford to hire tutors or spend time educating children themselves. This growing pressure on household finances and child care has resulted in higher trauma and domestic abuse.

“COVID did not create these issues of inequity,” Cockrell said. “It brought them more to light. Probably many people were like, ‘Wow, this is happening,’ and we’d be like, ‘Baby, this has been happening.’”

Cockrell said the once-unified Black community has been thwarted and destroyed. But now, The Well Experience is rebuilding and striving to bounce back.

She looked back on the summer trip where she led young girls to visit the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago. Cockrell said the girls saw the glorious chapters of the stories of Black people that have often been left out.

“I want to make sure they see that you come from greatness,” Cockrell said. “You don’t just come from slavery. We want to make sure they know this is a part of your history, but it’s not who you are.”

Similarly, Clark treasured every moment with the girls during their summer trip. Watching them raise deep questions, make commitments to their future and become sisters for each other allowed her to know the girls personally.

To Rogers, the sisterhood is like a beautiful tapestry woven from different paths the members have walked through. Revisiting her first day stepping into this welcoming family and finally feeling heard, she said that she never worked with a group of people that she loved so much.

According to Cockrell, the name of The Well Experience comes from her daughter, J’wel, a 12-year-old girl with autism.

“She’s got this heart – every penny she gets, she wants to buy something for someone else,” Cockrell said. “I kept thinking about how I really wish that people would serve.”

yuzhul2@illinimedia.com

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Bhavana Khanna, senior in LAS, was once taught to imagine herself as a flower.

Her teacher went on with this analogy: Every time you have sex with someone, you are plucking off a petal from yourself.

Khanna soon realized how much fear and toxic thoughts these words would implant in students’ minds.

 “This is not what we want sex education to be,” she said.

Now the President of Sexual Health Peers, Khanna initiates conversations about sexual health around campus. When talking about what she notices has been missing from the current sex education system, Khanna gave a wry smile.

“I made a list, and I didn’t know where it stopped,” she said. “But it is improving. I know that change doesn’t happen all at once. There is a long way to go.”

The Keeping Youth Safe and Healthy Act, enacted last year, calls for comprehensive sexual health education from sixth to 12th grade. Despite a common misconception that beginning sex education early encourages children to engage in sexual activity, Cary Archer, manager of education and outreach at Planned Parenthood of Illinois, argued the opposite.

“Sex education is not just about telling kids condoms exist,” Archer said. “People tend not to have a good sense of when we talk about ‘comprehensive’ how many topics we’re talking about.”

He also said that by validating personal choices and focusing on consent, comprehensive sex education helps youth establish boundaries, prepares them for healthy relationships and thus delays the onset of sexual interaction.

However, enrolled in an Indian high school that did not offer sex education, Khanna said she learned about sex primarily from her friends and Facebook accounts where men embellished their sex life.

Kathryn Rhoades, graduate student in Education and sexual health graduate assistant at McKinley Health Center, said the Sexual Health Education Program faces a challenge to educate university students with a diverse backgrounds of knowledge. She said while some have had rich experiences with inclusive sex education, some have hardly been exposed to systematic anatomy.

“Our job is to provide the basics,” Rhoades explained. “We are trying to get a comprehensive sex education platform that dispels many common myths.”

Khanna said that when her sister had sex education in high school, the class was just a period of time spent merely displaying pictures of genital warts.

“My sister was really scared because the pictures didn’t make any sense to her,” Khanna recalled.

Archer said that the ineffective, negative abstinence-only programs have lasted many years. Fortunately, with the state bill requiring curriculum to align with the National Sex Education Standards, Archer noted that these backward techniques are disappearing from classrooms.

According to SIECUS, Illinois authorizes school districts to choose whether to provide sex education. If a school decides to teach, it must follow the required comprehensive guidelines.

Archer said that the optional inclusion of sex education leaves out essential subject matter. SIECUS report reveals that only 28 percent of Chicago schools cover every compulsory sex education theme in all grade levels.

On the other hand, Archer believes the bill brings forth high standards across the state. He said the inclusive curriculum clamps down on the stigmatization of LGBTQ+ youth.

“Although there are schools that opt out … I think for a lot of schools who might have been trying to engage with programming but weren’t sure what to do, the new guidelines provide a really clear roadmap for them,” Archer said.

Moreover, he points out that comprehensive sex education considers families primary educators. The opt-out policy guarantees parents or guardians’ right to remove their children from all sex education programs.

However, Khanna said her parents kept strict taboos about sex. She said that though she wishes her parents could have talked about her pleasure and boundaries, they always avoid mentioning these topics and refer to sex as “that” or “it” when they have to.

As a therapist in training, Rhoades recognizes sexual shame as one of the most significant challenges. She works to create inclusive, open conversations, reducing the stigma surrounding people curious about sex and sexuality.

Now leading Sexual Health Peers, Khanna attempts to free her community from sexual shame. She welcomes new members who usually get timid at first, encourages them to be vocal about sex and observes their growing knowledge and confidence.

“They’re helping other people, and they’re taking more responsibilities. I just love seeing that transformation from a shy person to a person who’s like ‘I know how to get this done,’” Khanna said. “Breaking that stigma does affect our lives in lots of ways that we might not even know.”

Rhoades adds that it is crucial not to pressure people to speak on private topics they are uncomfortable sharing.

“As a sex educator, you have to be a little bit vulnerable. You are going to talk about stigmatized topics,” Rhoades said. “But we make sure that all of our spaces are very safe to have those conversations.”

As Archer expects, comprehensive sex education consistently empowers and instructs young people to bring up conversations with adults and become educators for their peers.

“One great thing about young people is that they are curious,” Archer said. “They want accurate information so they can talk about sexual health in a really mature, respectful, insightful way.”

yuzhul2@dailyillini.com

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