Alumni

When graduates leave the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, they enter a global network of alumni and friends making a difference in their fields. Even in the very farthest corners of the world, ACES alumni can be found leading industries and making progress toward the college’s mission to build robust food systems, nurture thriving families and communities, and steward a healthy planet. 

As part of a prestigious fellowship sponsored by The Norman Borlaug Institute, Molly Boyd, a 2024 graduate from the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, will spend the next several months working as an agricultural extension agent and teacher in Ghana. 

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.

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.

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.