Alumni

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.  

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. 

As a college student, Rachel Wyffels made a serendipitous class choice that sparked a passion and shaped her career path.

“As a horticulture major, I was focused on landscape design; then I took one of Dianne Noland's floral design classes because I needed to fill an elective. I ended up really loving it, and I became passionate about flowers,” she said. “I got an internship over the summer working with a floral design business in Chicago that did events, and I was hooked.”

At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, safe workplaces have always been a priority. For Daniel Gaither, director of safety for the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at U. of I., they’re a passion. To observe World Safety and Health Day this year, Gaither reflects on what safety looks like for the vibrant community of students, faculty, and staff in ACES.

In 1999, Brad and Joyce Riskedal, both University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alums, were busy raising a family and working the family farm in north central Illinois. Looking for an additional source of income, Joyce began Country Lights, a soy-wax candle brand that grew into a prominent fixture in their community.