“Who wants to make a tackle? Who wants to make a play? Who wants to be a leader?” I can still hear my high school football coach yelling these questions at the 40 men who had their helmets off and were taking a knee during halftime. I can still smell the grass and the hot dogs, and I remember – no matter what the score was – how our coach was able to bring our team together with each halftime speech.

For most of us, standing at the edge of a precipice is downright scary. There’s no other way to put it. Peering over the edge of a cliff, right into the eye of uncertainty, is not at all comfortable, but Luvvie Ajayi is right, “comfort is overrated.”

Seven years ago, Marise Robbins-Forbes joined the College of ACES Office of Advancement. On December 21, she will retire and the impacts of her contributions to the college will continue for decades.

As one of the writers on the marketing and communications team for the College of ACES, I get to learn new things about science every single day and then use a bit of creativity to explain it to the public. I don’t just want my writing to make sense and be scientifically accurate, although those things are key; I also want to write in a way that captures readers’ attention and describes how they can use the information in their lives.

In early December, our office had the great honor of hosting the Director General of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) Ruben G. Echeverría to present the 2018 ACES Distinguished International Lecture.

It was great to see so many students taking advantage of the opportunity to hear Dr. Echeverría speak about “Magical Realism…How to Achieve a Sustainable Food Future” because he was speaking directly to th em.

If you missed the lecture, it is now posted for viewing.

When you graduate high school, you are on top of the world. You think to yourself, “College will be a breeze. I’ve studied common core for four years so I can go on to study things I am good at!” Maybe you can relate to this. If you can’t that’s okay too, you might be more of a realist than I was two short years ago.

Over the winter break, I had the opportunity to take a class that involved touring different National Parks in Texas and New Mexico. I was told it would involve some hiking, but “no fitness level would be required.” On the first day of the trip, we toured two different missions (historic catholic churches) in the El Paso, TX area that involved no hiking of any kind.  We did some light walking and spent more time traveling by car than by foot. The next day however, we went to our first National Park: Guadalupe Mountains National Park. 

My name is Alexandra Houser and I will be graduating in 2019 as part of the first class of students in the new non-thesis Master of Animal Sciences program at Illinois. I came to the CU area in the fall of 2018 to begin this unique one-year program knowing that the next nine months would be very challenging, but also extremely worthwhile… and boy was I right!

Students and faculty may have just returned from spring break, but it feels like it’s taking forever for spring to show its shiny green face this year. Looking back in my phone, I find photos of fully leafed-out trees and fat, unfurling hosta leaves by early April in recent years. This year, buds are still in winter-mode: small and clenched, as if they’re hunkered down for a storm.