Tell Your Story of U of I
A “storyography” is the collection of stories people tell about a place, an experience, or time that has touched their lives. These stories become part of their personal and institutional sagas and, in a very real way, define who they are.
Share your “I’ll never forget” moments from your years at Illinois. Your story may cut across generations and record joys, sorrows, and triumphs—big and small. The topic is up to you. So is the medium—send us audio, video, photos, or something your’ve written. Together, our stories will capture what U of I has meant to our lives.
Working for the Illini Union and ROTC
In a letter to the Storyography project, Lois Fullerton Meier (BS ’42, education) shares her duties as the Illini Union social director’s student secretary and as the Pershing Rifles sponsor.
A Page from the U of I Scrapbook
“He always very much enjoyed the vocation of teaching, not only of the students in his graduate courses in regional and urban sociology, but, as well, those in dear ‘Soc 1.’”
—Elizabeth M. Tylor (AB ’46, general curriculum) commemorates her father, a sociology professor at the U of I who worked out of a third floor office in Lincoln Hall until his death in 1945.
A Lincoln Hall Memory
“I have many memories of lectures in the theater but my most vivid memory is of walking up to the top floor and walking around the statuary whenever I wanted a peaceful few minutes by myself. I don’t recall ever seeing anyone else up there unless I invited someone to go along with me and only special people were invited.”
—Gust Rouhas, BS ’69, microbiology
About the Project
Featured Audio Story
“The least we could do was to organize protests and to show the powers that be that we cared about this country and that we were going to question authority. Sometimes it got ugly. The Dow Chemical protest was about as ugly as it got.”
Carolyn Sharp Kelley (AB ’71, English education; AM ’72, teaching of English) compares her experience as a student protester during the Vietnam War era to that of her father, who attended the U of I in the 1930s.
Sample Alternative Text
(Length: 2:59) | Transcript
More Audio Stories
Katherine Amato (graduate student, Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology) discusses the nitty-gritty of research in Mexico with friend and financial supporter Roslyn Snow (AB ’58, philosophy; AM ’59, English).
Brian Kung (AB ’11, East Asian languages and cultures) describes to his friend, Sarah Farrukh (senior, journalism), his decision to live part of a school year in a car.
Hinojosa-Smith (PhD ’69, Spanish), discusses a late start, living with dignity, and “the luckiest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
