UIAA honors dedicated couple for Distinguished Service Award

The University of Illinois Alumni Association has named Jim and Marlene Evans the 2024 recipients of the UIAA Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes alumni accomplishments and service throughout their lives. A slate of eight alumni awards in six categories were presented on Sept.

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ACES Family Academies alum finds family, home at ACES

Every summer, alumni of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are invited back to campus with their kids or grandkids for ACES Family Academies. The two-day event introduces kids ages 8–13 to ACES majors, programs, and research through fun interactive classes and gives them a taste of campus life with meals in dining halls and a night in the dorms.

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What this chocolate scientist got to learn from — and teach — cacao farmers in Trinidad and Tobago

Editor's note: This article was written for The Hershey Company by chocolate scientist and College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences alum Allison Brown, Ph.D., who volunteered to help cacao farmers and business owners in Trinidad and Tobago maximize the value of their crops. 

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Big dreams to big data: ACES alum shares her path from crops to data science

Jarai Carter didn’t know she could combine her passions for big data and agriculture when she enrolled as a crop sciences major in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. But today, as a senior manager of data science at John Deere, Carter leverages her interests to develop products with engineering solutions to make farming more efficient, sustainable, and profitable.

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He cut class to see her at breakfast. Nutrition became their lives

Breakfast may be the most important meal of the day. But it was beyond important for Henry Leung, PHD ’75 ACES, and Cecilia Tsun-Tai Jen Leung, MS ’71 ACES, PHD ’74 ACES, back when they were international graduate students—he from Hong Kong, and she from Taiwan.

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After a frightening accident, Susannah Scaroni continues to break boundaries in wheelchair track

ONE MINUTE, wheelchair racer Susannah Scaroni, ’14 ACES, MS ’22 ACES, was pushing through a normal long training session, heading east on Windsor Road not far from campus. The next, she was moving ahead much more quickly than she expected.

It was early morning on Sept. 16, 2021. A month before, Scaroni had been in Tokyo for the Paralympics, where she won a gold medal in the 5,000 meters and a bronze medal in the 800 meters.

Now, she was on the ground next to her chair. A vehicle had struck her from behind.

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Sign up now for ACES Family Academies on July 10-12

Summer is here, and that means ACES Family Academies is back on campus. Taking place at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, ACES Family Academies is a two-day interactive and educational event held July 10-12, 2024, that gives families and kids (ages 8-13) a glimpse into being part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at Illinois.

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From blue jacket to Illini orange — Doyle Karr’s colorful career in agricultural communications

What seems like not long ago, Doyle was a young child growing up on his family’s farm in Wapella, Illinois. The sixteenth of nineteen children, Doyle held responsibilities on their farm just as his siblings did: milking cows, collecting eggs, and working in the garden. 

In the blink of an eye, Doyle Karr, a 1986 graduate from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, found himself standing on stage in front of the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences’ graduating class of 2024 as a distinguished alumnus and this year’s keynote speaker.  

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Siblings enshrine educational legacy through gifts to ACES

Education has always been an important value in the Gardner and Hinderliter families. Now, this legacy is enshrined through two gifts from Gardner siblings Leonard and Marian to the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.  

Leonard Gardner and his wife, Lila Rhodes Gardner, donated their share of the Gardner farm to establish the Leonard and Lila Gardner Illinois Farm Bureau Family of Companies Endowed Professorship in Agricultural Policy. 

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