---

By Vincent Rhomberg, Southern Illinois University Media Services

CARBONDALE, IL – Kristin Doty, a senior from Herrin majoring in musical theater at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, is the fall 2017 recipient of the Stuart Fischoff Excellence in Musical Theater Award.

The award, presented each semester of the academic year, honors an outstanding undergraduate student in the university’s musical theater program. The honor includes a $1,000 cash award.

“I feel like I was born singing,” Doty said, acknowledging her lifelong passion for musical theater. Doty participated in her first stage production in fifth grade and has not looked back.

Doty performed in school and community shows and was part of the McLeod Summer Theater-Carbondale Community Arts’ All-Southern High School Theater Project productions throughout high school.

“It was always the highlight of my summers,” Doty said of the All-Southern theater productions. “The professional environment prepared me for the college rehearsal process and challenged me to grow as an actor, singer and dancer.”

Doty met some of the SIU faculty during those summer productions and on visits with her school during Drama Daze, one of the theater department’s most successful annual outreach programs. Doty chose SIU because she felt welcomed and because she knew her training would be in good hands.

She has appeared as Morticia in “The Addams Family” and Charlotte in “A Little Night Music.” Her summers “off” see her onstage as well. She has worked at the Pioneer Playhouse in Danville, Ky., the Red Barn Summer Theater in Frankfort, Ind., and most recently as a camp counselor at Music Theater Works in Wilmette.

When she is not on stage at SIU, she writes poetry and theatrical plays. Doty said she clears her mind by “playing piano, knitting and gardening,” and she looks for inspiration hiking in the forests and parks in the region.

“I am overwhelmed by the love and support I’ve received from my theater family,” Doty said. “It means so much when someone believes in you, and this award has given me encouragement, confidence and determination to take with me into my senior year.”

The Stuart Fischoff Excellence in Musical Theater Award, established in 2013, honors an award-winning screenwriter, film consultant and California State University Los Angeles professor of psychology who died in 2014. Fischoff and his wife, Rachel Gordon Fischoff, who is also a writer and script consultant, moved to the area in 2005.
Privacy Policy | EOE © 2017 SIU Board of Trustees All Rights Reserved.

http://www.illinoishsglorydays.com/id166.html

TAMAROA, IL –  (Illinois High School Glory Days, Please click on the link for the full story.  Here is an excerpt below.)

NOTE:  I ran through all the Franklin County consolidated high schools.  I am going to share links from the surrounding counties, and former conference opponents etc. The links to the site Illinois High School Glory Days has been very popular.  I will continue to share these from time to time.  -Steve

Tamaroa (population 740) is located in southern Illinois in northwest Perry County.  U.S. Route 51 runs through the center of town and connects it to its larger neighbor seven miles to the south, Du Quoin.  The Illinois Central Gulf Railroad joins with the Missourri Pacific Railroad south of town and splits again just north of Tamaroa.  A branch of the Collier Creek flows through the north end of Tamaroa.  The town name comes from the historic Native American tribe of the same name, The Tamaroa.  The Tamaroa Indians were a part of the once proud and strong Illiniwek Indian Confederation in Illinois.

Tamaroa residents probably began education efforts for their children in the late 1800s.  For several decades the town supported its own high school and grade school district. The school building at the top of this page served as both high school and grade school until the early 1950s. A new high school building was then constructed “on the west edge of town”.

by Reece Rutland, Rend Lake Public Information/Sports Information Director

INA, Ill. (Aug. 1, 2017) – “I had been drawing maps and dreaming of travelling since age twelve. I was concerned that if I didn’t move while very young, I might become complacent and never venture out. To position myself to stay in my hometown would have contradicted my most long-lasting ambition.”

Those are the words of Rend Lake College graduate Emily Browder, almost her mantra, a thought that has powered her unique journey from Woodlawn to world traveler and is currently trending towards a Master’s degree abroad for someone who wasn’t even sure college was right for her initially.

 

Browder graduated from Woodlawn High School as valedictorian in 2014, thanks in part to the dual credit classes she took at RLC. With those courses, she was able to raise her GPA to an astounding 4.4 on a 4.0 scale.

While she had initially planned to transfer and earn her degree, Browder felt the world calling, explaining that a few months before graduation she felt discontent with the traditional route of education into the workforce. So, she hatched a plan.

“From January to May 2014, I worked two jobs, Rare Chophouse and Cracker Barrel, to save up and be financially independent. Between the two serving jobs, I once kept track and realized I worked a stretch of 50-60 days without a day off.  I had to keep straight A’s to be valedictorian, and in general, it was a very stressful semester for me,” she explained.

Her hard work paid off. In July of that year, she moved to Charlotte, N.C. to begin the next chapter of her life. She said she picked her destination on a whim, “mostly because it’s between the mountains and the ocean. The day I moved there was my first time in the state.”

The change in location wasn’t the only alteration Browder made. She wanted to actively start building her career. To that end, she took an entry-level sales position for a direct sales and marketing firm called Capstone Consultants.

“I quickly learned that I enjoy sales, and as the youngest person in the office, I was promoted to an account manager position within two months. Pay was 100-percent commission, and I worked a bare minimum of 65 hours per week, with the typical workweek ranging between 70 and 75 hours from Monday to Saturday,” Browder said.

“But, I loved every second of it. From leading staff meetings to recruiting to refining my sales technique and style, I absorbed an immense amount of valuable information at Capstone. I learned that when I’m excited about the work I do, long hours don’t bother me at all. I also appreciated the people aspect, having to recognize different styles of communication and build relationships to produce high sales.”

Her new position also allowed her the ability to do the thing she loves, travel.

“I spent about a week each month on out-of-town business trips. The owner of Capstone was one of the most inspirational leaders I have ever had the pleasure of working for, and desirable performance was rewarded with free concerts in South Carolina and the occasional day off while in Wilmington, an adorable little beach town.”

Even with her success, Browder said not having a degree simply posed too great a risk to her career advancement opportunities. So, after a year in Charlotte, she returned to Southern Illinois to finish up her associate degree at RLC.

While she saw the importance of education, she wanted to complete her degree as quickly as possible. Browder also began researching her undergraduate options to transfer on after graduating from Rend Lake.

Someone like Browder wasn’t content to just attend school though. When she returned home, she resumed working at Rare Chophouse in Mt. Vernon and was promoted to management within a few months.

“I took my first college course in summer 2015 and graduated at the end of summer 2016 with straight A’s and two associate degrees. To graduate in such a short period of time, I took between 18 and 21 credit hours each semester, and as a manager at Rare, I worked full-time,” she explained.

Despite moving states away and experiencing a new career, Browder took a different kind of journey when she returned to the classroom. She found a setting where education wasn’t a means to an end, but rather, its own unique development opportunity.

“Mr. Jornd’s (RLC Business Associate Professor Mark Jornd) macroeconomics class was really the turning point in my view of education. Prior to that class, I saw a degree as necessary in obtaining a successful job but didn’t have an extremely high appreciation for the knowledge gained,” she relayed.

“Suddenly, I was introduced to these amazing concepts of supply and demand, the invisible hand, the game theory, etc. Mr. Jornd’s classes are not easy by any stretch of the imagination, but I would come home from working a ten-hour shift and still find energy to do those horribly difficult assignments. I appreciate the education for itself rather than only for where it would take me.”

At the same time, she was also getting to apply what she was learning in the classroom to her professional life.

Her role at Rare Chophouse began to take off as she became involved with the restaurant’s finances, gaining first-hand experience in the business subjects she was actively consuming in her coursework.

“The concepts I learned in my classes, whether business communication, ethics, marketing, or economics, directly helped me grow in my positon as a manager. The opportunity to take a concept learned in class and apply it directly to my career was extremely rewarding,” she expressed.

The academics at RLC weren’t the only thing to leave an impact on Browder.

A Rend Lake College Foundation scholarship recipient, she was asked to be the student recipient speaker at the 2016 RLC Foundation Annual Dinner, an experience that allowed her a special glimpse into the amount of community support available to students.

“I really appreciated the opportunity to speak with the members of the community and thank them for their support of RLC and the community. I know the quality education I received while still in my hometown would not be possible without the donors. It was wonderful to see the students and the generous donors who contribute to our education together. I truly look forward to giving back to RLC and the community as I advance in my career because without RLC, I sincerely doubt I would be on the CPA path,” she said.

That was a path that Jornd persuaded Browder to consider when he urged her to look into an undergraduate degree in accounting or finance, and Dean of Math and Sciences Andrea Banach came through by working with her to assist in the initial steps of the transfer process.

In fall of 2016, Browder transferred to Loyola University as an honors accounting student. She joked that her initial criteria for a university was that it would be large and in a cold-weather climate, and yet, she found herself at a small, private Jesuit university in beautiful New Orleans.

“After being accepted to both Loyola and Tulane, we went back to New Orleans to tour the campuses. In the honors program at Woodlawn, I had the opportunity to tour several schools. I always heard students say that something about their choice of school ‘just felt right.’ Personally, I always thought that was ridiculous, but Loyola changed my mind. I had a sense of contentment and belonging. I cancelled my Tulane tour and decided on Loyola within 24 hours,” she said.

 

Browder explained that Loyola University “just felt right.”

Again, not content to just be a student, Browder holds a position in the consulting department at a public accounting firm in New Orleans, working primarily on litigation engagements. She explained that her duties can range from anything from uncovering fraud to calculating an estate’s worth.

With her undergraduate nearly complete, the ambitious Browder is already looking for her next adventure.

First off, she plans to sit for her CPA exam to further her career.

On the education side, she has already taken steps to transfer abroad and continue her graduate degree in Europe.

“My two great passions are education and travel—why not combine them! Aside from a mission trip to Puerto Rico, my first time out of the country was to Argentina when I was 18. I had never travelled alone before, but exploring Buenos Aires and immersing myself in their culture was a life-changing experience,” she expressed.

“After that, I’ve travelled as much as possible. Europe has charmed me each visit, and I can easily see myself living there. My suitemate first semester was a Dutch exchange student. She’s now one of my best friends, and after we took a road trip to Illinois where she met my family and Midwestern way of life, I visited her in Amsterdam over Christmas break after exploring Belgium and Germany for a few days …. The reality of graduating in one year made me ask myself if I would actually be content with stopping my education at that point. I said no. About 40 phone calls later to various European universities and my international friends, I realized going abroad was quite achievable, especially since Europe has lower tuition rates than American universities.” 

 

And while she may be Europe bound, Browder is quick to look back on RLC as one of the cornerstones that helped pave the way.

“A lot of students like myself go to RLC with plans to transfer. I think that’s a great strategy, but I can say with certainty that RLC should not be viewed as merely ‘a necessary step’ in getting a four-year degree. No, the education I received and the connections I made at RLC have been vitally important to me. I would encourage everyone to maximize those opportunities.”

 

 

INA, Ill. (Aug. 1, 2017) – “I had been drawing maps and dreaming of travelling since age twelve. I was concerned that if I didn’t move while very young, I might become complacent and never venture out. To position myself to stay in my hometown would have contradicted my most long-lasting ambition.”

Those are the words of Rend Lake College graduate Emily Browder, almost her mantra, a thought that has powered her unique journey from Woodlawn to world traveler and is currently trending towards a Master’s degree abroad for someone who wasn’t even sure college was right for her initially.

 

Browder graduated from Woodlawn High School as valedictorian in 2014, thanks in part to the dual credit classes she took at RLC. With those courses, she was able to raise her GPA to an astounding 4.4 on a 4.0 scale.

While she had initially planned to transfer and earn her degree, Browder felt the world calling, explaining that a few months before graduation she felt discontent with the traditional route of education into the workforce. So, she hatched a plan.

“From January to May 2014, I worked two jobs, Rare Chophouse and Cracker Barrel, to save up and be financially independent. Between the two serving jobs, I once kept track and realized I worked a stretch of 50-60 days without a day off.  I had to keep straight A’s to be valedictorian, and in general, it was a very stressful semester for me,” she explained.

Her hard work paid off. In July of that year, she moved to Charlotte, N.C. to begin the next chapter of her life. She said she picked her destination on a whim, “mostly because it’s between the mountains and the ocean. The day I moved there was my first time in the state.”

The change in location wasn’t the only alteration Browder made. She wanted to actively start building her career. To that end, she took an entry-level sales position for a direct sales and marketing firm called Capstone Consultants.

“I quickly learned that I enjoy sales, and as the youngest person in the office, I was promoted to an account manager position within two months. Pay was 100-percent commission, and I worked a bare minimum of 65 hours per week, with the typical workweek ranging between 70 and 75 hours from Monday to Saturday,” Browder said.

“But, I loved every second of it. From leading staff meetings to recruiting to refining my sales technique and style, I absorbed an immense amount of valuable information at Capstone. I learned that when I’m excited about the work I do, long hours don’t bother me at all. I also appreciated the people aspect, having to recognize different styles of communication and build relationships to produce high sales.”

Her new position also allowed her the ability to do the thing she loves, travel.

“I spent about a week each month on out-of-town business trips. The owner of Capstone was one of the most inspirational leaders I have ever had the pleasure of working for, and desirable performance was rewarded with free concerts in South Carolina and the occasional day off while in Wilmington, an adorable little beach town.”

Even with her success, Browder said not having a degree simply posed too great a risk to her career advancement opportunities. So, after a year in Charlotte, she returned to Southern Illinois to finish up her associate degree at RLC.

While she saw the importance of education, she wanted to complete her degree as quickly as possible. Browder also began researching her undergraduate options to transfer on after graduating from Rend Lake.

Someone like Browder wasn’t content to just attend school though. When she returned home, she resumed working at Rare Chophouse in Mt. Vernon and was promoted to management within a few months.

“I took my first college course in summer 2015 and graduated at the end of summer 2016 with straight A’s and two associate degrees. To graduate in such a short period of time, I took between 18 and 21 credit hours each semester, and as a manager at Rare, I worked full-time,” she explained.

Despite moving states away and experiencing a new career, Browder took a different kind of journey when she returned to the classroom. She found a setting where education wasn’t a means to an end, but rather, its own unique development opportunity.

“Mr. Jornd’s (RLC Business Associate Professor Mark Jornd) macroeconomics class was really the turning point in my view of education. Prior to that class, I saw a degree as necessary in obtaining a successful job but didn’t have an extremely high appreciation for the knowledge gained,” she relayed.

“Suddenly, I was introduced to these amazing concepts of supply and demand, the invisible hand, the game theory, etc. Mr. Jornd’s classes are not easy by any stretch of the imagination, but I would come home from working a ten-hour shift and still find energy to do those horribly difficult assignments. I appreciate the education for itself rather than only for where it would take me.”

At the same time, she was also getting to apply what she was learning in the classroom to her professional life.

Her role at Rare Chophouse began to take off as she became involved with the restaurant’s finances, gaining first-hand experience in the business subjects she was actively consuming in her coursework.

“The concepts I learned in my classes, whether business communication, ethics, marketing, or economics, directly helped me grow in my positon as a manager. The opportunity to take a concept learned in class and apply it directly to my career was extremely rewarding,” she expressed.

The academics at RLC weren’t the only thing to leave an impact on Browder.

A Rend Lake College Foundation scholarship recipient, she was asked to be the student recipient speaker at the 2016 RLC Foundation Annual Dinner, an experience that allowed her a special glimpse into the amount of community support available to students.

“I really appreciated the opportunity to speak with the members of the community and thank them for their support of RLC and the community. I know the quality education I received while still in my hometown would not be possible without the donors. It was wonderful to see the students and the generous donors who contribute to our education together. I truly look forward to giving back to RLC and the community as I advance in my career because without RLC, I sincerely doubt I would be on the CPA path,” she said.

That was a path that Jornd persuaded Browder to consider when he urged her to look into an undergraduate degree in accounting or finance, and Dean of Math and Sciences Andrea Banach came through by working with her to assist in the initial steps of the transfer process.

In fall of 2016, Browder transferred to Loyola University as an honors accounting student. She joked that her initial criteria for a university was that it would be large and in a cold-weather climate, and yet, she found herself at a small, private Jesuit university in beautiful New Orleans.

“After being accepted to both Loyola and Tulane, we went back to New Orleans to tour the campuses. In the honors program at Woodlawn, I had the opportunity to tour several schools. I always heard students say that something about their choice of school ‘just felt right.’ Personally, I always thought that was ridiculous, but Loyola changed my mind. I had a sense of contentment and belonging. I cancelled my Tulane tour and decided on Loyola within 24 hours,” she said.

 

Browder explained that Loyola University “just felt right.”

Again, not content to just be a student, Browder holds a position in the consulting department at a public accounting firm in New Orleans, working primarily on litigation engagements. She explained that her duties can range from anything from uncovering fraud to calculating an estate’s worth.

With her undergraduate nearly complete, the ambitious Browder is already looking for her next adventure.

First off, she plans to sit for her CPA exam to further her career.

On the education side, she has already taken steps to transfer abroad and continue her graduate degree in Europe.

“My two great passions are education and travel—why not combine them! Aside from a mission trip to Puerto Rico, my first time out of the country was to Argentina when I was 18. I had never travelled alone before, but exploring Buenos Aires and immersing myself in their culture was a life-changing experience,” she expressed.

“After that, I’ve travelled as much as possible. Europe has charmed me each visit, and I can easily see myself living there. My suitemate first semester was a Dutch exchange student. She’s now one of my best friends, and after we took a road trip to Illinois where she met my family and Midwestern way of life, I visited her in Amsterdam over Christmas break after exploring Belgium and Germany for a few days …. The reality of graduating in one year made me ask myself if I would actually be content with stopping my education at that point. I said no. About 40 phone calls later to various European universities and my international friends, I realized going abroad was quite achievable, especially since Europe has lower tuition rates than American universities.”

 

And while she may be Europe bound, Browder is quick to look back on RLC as one of the cornerstones that helped pave the way.

“A lot of students like myself go to RLC with plans to transfer. I think that’s a great strategy, but I can say with certainty that RLC should not be viewed as merely ‘a necessary step’ in getting a four-year degree. No, the education I received and the connections I made at RLC have been vitally important to me. I would encourage everyone to maximize those opportunities.”

 

 

 

Reece Rutland, Rend Lake College Public Information

INA, IL – Rend Lake College has always been dedicated to enriching the lives of the students and district members through affordable education and varied programs, activities and engagement opportunities. Yet, in the late 80s, there was a very specific, and important, segment of the population that the college wasn’t serving adequately, the youngest members of the community.

The need didn’t go unnoticed either. In 1988, the North Central Association issued a report, naming a childcare facility as RLC’s “number one need.” It was a cause picked up by the Rend Lake College Foundation, and then, in turn, championed by Marjorie “Grandma Marj” Farrar.

Pat Kern, former CEO of the Foundation and current RLCF Board member, recalls the beginning of Farrar’s legacy at the college.

“In 1997, the Foundation was stagnant for a few months. We wanted to do something very badly. We wanted to be active and to pick up a project,” explained Kern. “The college’s number one need at the time was a daycare center for the students, and that was presented to the Foundation and we took on the project.”

Then, the estimated cost of the Children’s Center was approximately $360,000. With no money raised, Farrar made the initial donation of $100,000 that served as a catalyst for the project. Soon another major donor in Coyn Mateer matched Farrar’s donation, and with help from other community members, the Children’s Center was soon fully funded. The RLCFCC began construction and opened in the fall of 1998.

“Marjorie loved children and she loved to hear children laugh. Most of all, she loved helping,” said Kern. “She always came to Thanksgiving dinner at the Children’s Center and she visited as often as she could. She also helped college students travel abroad. It was her opinion that education happened over a lifetime. Now her family, who she loved dearly, is carrying on her legacy by continuing to support the RLC Foundation.”

Part of that legacy also includes the initial donation of $100,000 to the RLCFCC in 2014 to get the ball rolling on a new addition. Now called the Skill Development Room, the 1,500-square-foot space provides children with an indoor recreational space and learning library.

“My mother wanted to thank you all for this honor and recognition tonight. She’s always had a special love for the RLC Foundation Children’s Center and it always brings a smile to her face when she talks about it,” said Farrar’s son Fletcher at the time. “I’m pleased to announce she will be giving a $100,000 donation to the Children’s Center to continue helping the center as it expands and grows to meet the needs of the college and the community.”

Farrar’s donation was announced during the 2014 RLCF Annual Dinner, and was shortly followed by another significant donation from an anonymous individual. Within two years, the addition was completely funded and opened in time for the Fall 2016 semester.

A ribbon-cutting was held for the Skill Development Room in August and was led by her son Fletcher in her absence.

While Farrar’s legacy primarily tied to her extensive work helping to found the children’s center, her first donation to the college dates back more than two decades when she, and her husband Fletcher, took part in the 1995 Capital Campaign to match a Title III grant. With matches from the Federal government, the grant totaled $750,000 to create the RLC Foundation and an endowment for generations of students.

In addition to her donations to the RLCFCC, Farrar also donated the lot located north of the Holiday Inn in Mt. Vernon, which was recently sold and is now under construction. Valued at approximately $500,000, the donation is one of the largest gifts-in-kind the Foundation has ever received.

In total, Farrar and her family are credited with more than $250,000 in donations to the college, specifically to the RLCFCC, to reach the Diamond level donor status. Farrar passed away on Nov. 27 at the age of 94. In the history of the Foundation, only 11 individuals have reached the Diamond donor level.

Outside of her contributions to the college, Farrar was a school teacher in Salem, Ill., and Oklahoma. She also worked office jobs, one specifically at the family business, Farrar Oil Company, and owned Farraway Farm near Bluford. She also volunteered and worked at her church, Central Christian in Mt. Vernon. In 2001, Farrar was named a Senior Saint by the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce.

In 1998, Farrar was presented with the 19th Annual RLC Foundation “Community Support” Award during Commencement ceremonies on the Ina campus. It is an award given to an individual, business or organization that over a period of years has made outstanding contributions to the college and its students.

To see just who Farrar was, we only need to look at what she said when given the honor: “I will be honored even more by the young women who will use the day care facility so they can earn an education.”

“Both Farrar and Mateer are immortalized with a plaque inside the building that would never have been possible without their help.

Because of the efforts of two major donors, Marjorie Farrar and Coyn Mateer, and the Foundation Board members, young parents now have a first-class facility and program to which they can bring their children. Many parents could not attend class without such facilities.