Promises to Keep
First appeared in Illinois Alumni in April 2009 under Features
Lhea Randle dreamed since she was 8 years old that she would go to college, but when her mom died, it looked like her plans might go up in smoke. Mauriell Amechi, commuting one hour each way to high school and being raised by his grandmother, felt that college was...
The Friends of Dick Russell club
First appeared in Illinois Alumni in March 2009 under Profiles
How do you tell the story of a man whose career with the CIA is classified information? A man who subsequently suffered from locked-in syndrome, a condition in which the patient retains all cognitive function but cannot move most of his muscles, not even to speak? You tell the story...
Teacher Advocacy:
First appeared in NCTE Council Chronicle in March 2009 under Features
Teachers typically do not enter the profession intent on becoming political advocates. Their focus is how best to help individual students, leaving others to look out for students’ and teachers’ interests in the wider world. However, many teachers are recognizing that their classroom efforts are being hampered by forces outside...
Microbes: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
First appeared in Biomarker: Institute for Genomic Biology in December 2008 under Features
People don’t always like to be reminded of it, but microbes are everywhere. There are more microbes on one human hand than there are humans in the world. The vast majority of these organisms are benign, and many are even beneficial: they help us breathe and digest our food; they...
Broken by the Blacklist
First appeared in Illinois Alumni in December 2008 under Profiles
“‘Ma, … how do you really feel about the blacklist? Angry? Frustrated? How?’” “That needed to be answered, and I thought about it a lot. Angry? No. To me, anger is a futile emotion. I think I can sum it up in two words: deep sorrow. Not for myself -...
More Than One Way to Live a Life
First appeared in Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion in October 2008 under Essays
Six years my junior, the youngest of four kids, my little brother John was like the dot over the letter “i.” He was there, but not central to the dynamic of the ruling triumvirate formed by my sister, myself, and my first brother. John was there, handy if we needed...