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Fluddles provide key to a local wetlands preservation project.
Fluddles provide key to a local wetlands preservation project.

Volume 6 • Number 1 • Spring 2023

Old Main bell.

Civic Leadership

Hear about Illinois State University faculty/staff who are living the value of civic engagement through their leadership in community organizations. Changing the lives of others while also changing themselves.

Redbird alum Tyler Clark in his Chicago Microsoft office

Q&A with Redbird alum Tyler Clark

Tyler Clark ’09 has been trying to impact communities and people’s lives through public service and affairs since he was a student at Illinois State University.

Archana Shekara, professor of graphic design in the Wonsook Kim School of Art and creative director of Design Streak Studio, a research-based social innovation lab that focuses on human-centered service design.

Campus hero: Archana Shekara

Redbird Impact named Archana Shekara the spring 2023 Campus Hero for her work as creative director of Design Streak Studio, a research-based social innovation lab that focuses on human-centered service design.

Lizzy Carroll ’17

Inspiring an impactful cycle

Lizzy Carroll ’17 hated high school. Her attendance was dismal, and she felt completely unmotivated to try. But then, two educators personally connected with Carroll during her junior year at Carl Sandburg High School in southwest suburban Chicago, and everything changed. “They took a genuine interest in what I liked to do, why I wasn’t

Professor standing in front of dry erase board speaks to students seated at desks.

Get with the program

Illinois State University students learn the value of community recreation programs in Dr. Yun Chang’s Evaluating Agency Services course. By surveying participants, they help make the programs better.

From left: Angelo Capparella, Bill Davison, RJ Rowley, and Brittany Menzel ‘22

Fluddles

Combine these two words, floods and puddles, and you get: fluddles. To some ears, it’s a quaint-sounding word, rhymes with cuddles, could even be something a child might say. But in nature, fluddles are quite significant and are the key component of a local wetlands preservation project.