Author: jdmorgan@illinois.edu

Fall 2021

I’m feeling sentimental as the semester winds down. Instead of going in my usual mushy direction, I’m going to reflect on the amazing Graduate Assistants who are currently working with us on Team Awesome. I hope you had a chance to read all of their profiles, listen to their theme songs, and try out some of their suggested recipes.

There are some things that caught my attention when looking at all of the profiles together:

Dinosaurs: 4 people chose to have a pet dinosaur (named Steggy, Gayle, Squiggles, and Greg)

Dragon: 12 people chose to have a pet dragon (named Frasier, Cotton Candy, Buster, King Douglas the Third, Smaug, Arthur, Spark, Brownie, Bartholomew, Argus, Quiche, and Chicken)

Over half of the GAs hail from Illinois. Amazingly, the second most represented state is Vermont (2). After that, we have gathered the team from Texas, Ohio, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Florida, and Wisconsin.

When asked to self-identify which part of the s’more they’d be, the majority identify as the graham cracker (8), 4 people are marshmallows, 3 people are the chocolate bars, and 1 person is a burnt marshmallow (frankly, that’s always the best part of a s’more).

Now for my typical cheesiness: teamwork makes the dream work. And it’s a dream getting to work with these GAs and the other full-timers on the staff: Matt Beth, Whitney McComas, and Lindsey Sharp. <3

Meet the Graduate Assistants: Abbie Mills and Clelia Sweeney

At the end of the year, we say goodbye to two of our fabulous Graduate Assistants. Abbie Mills will be finishing up the librarian licensure program in the spring, which means that she’ll be busy student teaching, and Clelia Sweeney is graduating. I want to say more, but then I’ll start crying and it will either get really awkward in here or you’ll start crying too and no one wants either of those things.

Abbie Mills

Abbie is a townie who loves the local parks and all of the great local businesses. She’s excited to be attending graduate school in her hometown and seeing all of the growth and transformation of C-U. After graduation next spring she wants to she wants to get a job at a school where she can grow deep roots and create fabulous collaborations with the staff. Help students develop a love of reading? Yes, please!

  • What is your favorite part about working at the Help Desk?
    • I love getting to know more of iSchool community through this job than I would have otherwise! I’ve made a lot of my closest grad school friends via becoming friends with the other wonderful GAs I work with! And I really love getting to use Canva daily to generate social media content and ridiculous content for our amusement (for examples ask the Desk some time 🙂) I never thought I would be in a tech support job– but here I am and it’s awesome!
  • What is your second favorite book?
  • Based upon your current cooking repertoire, if you were a professional chef, what would your signature dish be?
    • Everything eggs (eggs with everything on hand that you want to toss in)
  • What would be the theme song of your life?
  • If you could hang out with any cartoon character, who would you choose and why?
    • Hilda because she’s always having wonderful magical adventures and I want to meet her pet, Twig
  • If you were famous, what would you be famous for?
    • Good News Podcaster
  • What part of the s’more are you?
    • Dark Chocolate (with a hint of coffee) – high quality chocolate
  • Would you rather have a pet dinosaur or a pet dragon,  and what would you name it?
    • Dinosaur (Triceratops) named Squiggles

Clelia Sweeney

Clelia is from rural Vermont (two GAs from Vermont this fall, what are the odds?!), where she loves the loves the smell of fresh air, apple picking, grungy general stores, and the Quechee Hot Air Balloon Festival. She’s graduating next month and is looking forward to finding a job in Adult Services at a public library.

  • What is your favorite part about working at the Help Desk?
    • My favorite part about working at the Help Desk is getting to work with professors and staff on campus. I like feeling involved in iSchool life, especially because my program has been mostly remote due to COVID. Now that we’re working in person I can actually meet people face to face, which is a wonderful change.
  • What is your second favorite book?
  • Based upon your current cooking repertoire, if you were a professional chef, what would your signature dish be?
  • What would be the theme song of your life?
  • If you could hang out with any cartoon character, who would you choose and why?
    • Todd from Bojack Horseman because he is really sweet and down for a good time
  • If you were famous, what would you be famous for?
    • Screaming (horror movies, voice over, haunted house, screaming contest winner etc.)
  • What part of the s’more are you?
    • Graham cracker
  • Would you rather have a pet dinosaur or a pet dragon,  and what would you name it?
    • Dragon named Buster

Meet the Graduate Assistants: Krysta and Cheyenne

Remember Krysta and Cheyenne from their profiles last year? If you are like me, you’re curious and want to know more about them. Here you go! 

Krysta Bruce 

Krysta traveled from Gouldsboro, Pennsylvania to come to the iSchool. One of the things she loves about that area of PA is that you get to see a bunch of wild animals all the time, including foxes and bears. After graduation next spring, Krysta will pursue a career in archives. 

  • What is your favorite part about working at the Help Desk? 
    • I love the people I got to meet working at the help desk, (my coworkers). It has led me to making great friendships. 
  • Based upon your current cooking repertoire, if you were a professional chef, what would your signature dish be? 
    • Icelandic Ambrosia, pound cake with jam, vanilla pudding, and strawberries
      • This is a family recipe:
      • Slice pound cake into thin slices.  
      • Spread raspberry jam on it like it is toast. 
      •  Then spread vanilla pudding on top of jam.  
      • Then cut the strawberry into small pieces and cover the pudding. 
      •  Then repeat until the container is filled. 
      •  My family normally makes person servings in small containers, but could also be make in a big cake pan as well. 
      •  Cake and pudding can be made before so that it is easy to make (or store bought if time is tight).  
      •  (Strawberries can be swapped for blueberries and blackberries for strawberry allergies as well) 
  • If you could hang out with any cartoon character, who would you choose and why? 
    • Scooby Doo because he is my childhood

  • If you were famous, what would you be famous for? 
    • Writing books  
  • What part of the s’more are you? 
    • Marshmallow 
  • Would you rather have a pet dinosaur or a pet dragon,  and what would you name it? 
    • Dragon named Smaug 

Cheyenne Puetz 

Cheyenne joins us from New Vienna, a small (no stoplights!) town in Iowa. She loves how the community comes together to support friends and neighbors. You need a hand? There’s someone who will help. With just over one semester left in the program, she wants to work as a youth services librarian in a public library after graduation. 

  • What is your favorite part about working at the Help Desk? 
    • My favorite part about working at the Help Desk are the kind and caring people I get to work with and helping faculty and students navigate online and in-person learning. 
  • If you could hang out with any cartoon character, who would you choose and why? 
    • Cassie the Pink Dragon from Dragon Tales – Love her personality and as a child felt like I was Cassie. She was the voice of reason for Dragonland.
              
  • If you were famous, what would you be famous for? 
    • Famous author 
  • What part of the s’more are you? 
    • Graham cracker 
  • Would you rather have a pet dinosaur or a pet dragon, and what would you name it? 
    • Dragon named Arthur 

Meet the Graduate Assistants: Katie Peterson and Mariah Tennell

Today we get to know new and different tidbits about two of our continuing Graduate Assistants: Katie and Mariah. 

Katie Peterson 

Katie joins us from Naperville, Illinois, where she loves exploring the Prairie Path on her bike (https://ipp.org/trail-map/ ). With a little over one semester left in the program, she’s hoping to work as a cataloger in an academic library after graduation. 

  • What is your favorite part about working at the Help Desk? 
    • My favorite part of working at the Help Desk is being a part of the social media team and writing about everyone’s cute pets. 
  • If you could hang out with any cartoon character, who would you choose and why? 
    • Mr. Ratburn from Arthur because he is a teacher, is funny, and has a lot of interesting passions

  • If you were famous, what would you be famous for? 
    • Publishing a book that people liked 
  • What part of the s’more are you? 
    • Marshmallow 
  • Would you rather have a pet dinosaur or a pet dragon,  and what would you name it? 
    • Dragon named Cotton Candy 

 

Mariah Tennell 

Mariah joins us all the way from Gainesville, Florida, where she enjoys the beaches (and with winter coming, who isn’t dreaming about beaches right about now?). After graduation next spring, Mariah plans to become a metadata analyst.  

  • What is your favorite part about working at the Help Desk? 
    • Meeting new people and resolving tech issues. 
  • If you could hang out with any cartoon character, who would you choose and why? 
    • Naruto Uzumaki because he never gives up

  • If you were famous, what would you be famous for? 
    • Baking 
  • What part of the s’more are you? 
    • Graham cracker – hold everything together 
  • Would you rather have a pet dinosaur or a pet dragon, and what would you name it? 
    • Dragon named Brownie 

 

 

Meet the Graduate Assistants: Sam Boyle and Jonas Yela

In today’s Thursday Two-fer, we discover more about the last two of our new graduate assistants: Sam Boyle and Jonas Yela.

Sam Boyle

Sam is from Lindenhurst, Illinois, and while that’s only 15 minutes away from Six Flags, her favorite thing about the area is not the amusement park, but her friends and family. <3 She’s in her first year in the LIS program and plans to pursue a career in either information technology or policy after graduation.

  • What is your favorite part about working at the Help Desk?
    • My favorite part about working at the Help Desk is meeting so many people in the iSchool whether that be fellow GAs or staff/faculty or other students who come up to the desk. It’s nice to interact with people in person again!
  • What is your second favorite book?
  • Based upon your current cooking repertoire, if you were a professional chef, what would your signature dish be?
  • What would be the theme song of your life?
  • If you could hang out with any cartoon character, who would you choose and why?
    • SpongeBob – he would be a lot of fun, no boring with him
  • If you were famous, what would you be famous for?
    • Being Taylor Swift’s top listener on Spotify
  • What part of the s’more are you?
    • Marshmallow
  • Would you rather have a pet dinosaur or a pet dragon,  and what would you name it?
    • Dinosaur named Gayle

Jonas Yela

Jonas grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His favorite thing about the city is the Lakefront—especially by the Milwaukee Art Museum and along the Bay View neighborhood. He’s in his first year at the iSchool, with various ideas about what direction he’ll head in after graduation. Archives/special collections? Academic Librarianship? PhD? So many great options!

Meet the Graduate Assistants: Ashley & Hanna

Thursdays are like a gift that keeps on giving: the promise of tomorrow being Friday and, more impressively, the low-down intel directly from two more of our graduate assistants. Today we get to know more about Ashley and Hanna, both of whom are on Team Dragon.

Ashley Tschakert Foertmeyer

Ashley is from Delaware, Ohio (an actual place, not one state dressed up inside another state!). She loves the small downtown—great restaurants, one of the oldest movie theaters in the US (https://www.thestrandtheatre.net/history), and Ohio Wesleyan University (tiny, beautiful, historic). After graduation she’ll pursue a career in academic librarianship.

  • What is your favorite part about working at the Help Desk?
    • My favorite part about working at the Help Desk is Course Support. I like chatting with the instructors before class begins and I love being able to catch snippets of many different courses.
  • What is your second favorite book?
  • Based upon your current cooking repertoire, if you were a professional chef, what would your signature dish be?
  • What would be the theme song of your life?
  • If you could hang out with any cartoon character, who would you choose and why?
    • BoJack Horseman – he is a real person, introspective without realizing it, would be an interesting person to talk to
  • If you were famous, what would you be famous for?
    • Reading
  • What part of the s’more are you?
    • Graham cracker
  • Would you rather have a pet dinosaur or a pet dragon,  and what would you name it?
    • Dragon named Frasier (her dog’s name is Niles)

 

Hanna Foster

Hanna comes to us from Texas—Dallas & Austin. Her favorite thing about the state is Tex-Mex. If choosing something favorite about a location, she loves the hill country around Austin (and lakes to swim in!). After graduation she plans to land in a public library either in Youth Services or Programming/Outreach.

  • What is your favorite part about working at the Help Desk?
    • All of the friends I’ve made! I would have had a much harder time building a community here if it weren’t for my GA position here.
  • What is your second favorite book?
  • Based upon your current cooking repertoire, if you were a professional chef, what would your signature dish be?
  • What would be the theme song of your life?
  • If you could hang out with any cartoon character, who would you choose and why?
    • Scooby Gang so I could solve a mystery with them.
  • If you were famous, what would you be famous for?
    • Winner of the Great British Bake-Off (the rest of the team can attest to this!–Jen)
  • What part of the s’more are you?
    • Graham cracker
  • Would you rather have a pet dinosaur or a pet dragon,  and what would you name it?
    • Dragon named Quiche

Meet the Graduate Assistants: Isaac Wink and Matthew Monteith

Two-fer Thursday puts two GAs from opposite ends of Illinois in the spotlight. Meet Isaac and Matthew!

Isaac Wink

Isaac comes to use from Berwyn, a western suburb of Chicago, where they apparently like to trash talk about Naperville since he says that one of his favorite things about it is that it’s on the CTA’s Blue Line (thereby giving better bragging rights for being part of Chicago??? Don’t ask me, I’m from Champaign. Can’t wait to hear what our Napervillian GA has to say about this.—Jen). He’s in his first semester in the LIS program, with his sights set on working in either an academic or federal library after graduation.

  • What is your favorite part about working at the Help Desk?
    • So many things! But I’ll narrow it down to two: 1) The people I get to work with, and 2) Having the inside scoop on the massive amount of resources available to us as iSchool students.
  • What is your second favorite book?
  • Based upon your current cooking repertoire, if you were a professional chef, what would your signature dish be?
  • What would be the theme song of your life?
  • If you could hang out with any cartoon character, who would you choose and why?
    • Pikachu because he’s cute, down for a good time, and adventurous.
  • If you were famous, what would you be famous for?
    • Sentator’s husband
  • What part of the s’more are you?
    • Graham cracker
  • Would you rather have a pet dinosaur or a pet dragon,  and what would you name it?
    • Dragon named Spark

Matthew Monteith

Matthew joins us from Cobden in Southern Illinois, where he holds a love/hate relationship with the trees. They are majestic beings of great beauty, but they make things massively humid in the summer. Why trees, WHY???!!!!! Matt is in his first year at the iSchool and while he arrived here two months ago thinking that he’d flex archival skills after graduation, he’s now leaning toward a tech-related position.

  • What is your favorite part about working at the Help Desk?
    • My favorite thing to do at the Help Desk so far is to help faculty and staff with their technical problems, as they present a great opportunity for both of us (me and the staff/student) to learn a great deal about how our systems here at UIUC work.
  • What is your second favorite book?
  • Based upon your current cooking repertoire, if you were a professional chef, what would your signature dish be?
    • Pork chops (seasoned with pepper, salt, chili powder, paprika), green peas, & yellow rice (seasoned with cumin turmeric, cardamom, and thyme)
  • What would be the theme song of your life?
  • If you could hang out with any cartoon character, who would you choose and why?
    • Professor Frink from The Simpsons, because he sounds like a good, educational time without being frightening
  • If you were famous, what would you be famous for?
    • Famous writer
  • What part of the s’more are you?
    • Chocolate
  • Would you rather have a pet dinosaur or a pet dragon,  and what would you name it?
    • Dragon named Argus

Meet the Graduate Assistants: Adam Hathaway and Claire Thomas

Good day, fine friends of the iSchool Help Desk! In Today’s Tuesday Two-fer, let’s get to know two more of the GAs who joined our team in August: Adam and Claire!

Adam Hathaway

Adam joins us from Scandia, Minnesota, where he takes advantage of the lakes—there’s so many to visit and swim in! (Adam, we all might need more info on your top picks.) Adam has time to figure out what he’s going to do after he graduates, and while he’s here he plans on taking advantage of as many opportunities as possible.

  • What is your favorite part about working at the Help Desk?
    • Everyone at the Help Desk is just the best. The atmosphere is very cordial and helpful.
  • What is your second favorite book?
  • Based upon your current cooking repertoire, if you were a professional chef, what would your signature dish be?
  • What would be the theme song of your life?
  • If you could hang out with any cartoon character, who would you choose and why?
    • Stephen Universe because he is the most upbeat, outgoing, kindhearted person, maybe to the point of damaging himself, but he sounds like a lot of fun.
  • If you were famous, what would you be famous for?
    • Picking a fight with a high intellectual and having a good point but arguing it very poorly
  • What part of the s’more are you?
    • Graham cracker
  • Would you rather have a pet dinosaur or a pet dragon, and what would you name it?
    • Dinosaur (they have feathers) named Greg

Claire Thomas

Claire is one of two GAs who comes to us from Vermont. Her favorite thing is timely—the fall foliage. When she graduates she plans to work either in a high school library or the children’s section of a public library.

  • What is your favorite part about working at the Help Desk?
    • I like having the opportunity to generate our own project ideas and the problem-solving work of figuring out what projects would be most helpful and how to implement them.
  • What is your second favorite book?
  • Based upon your current cooking repertoire, if you were a professional chef, what would your signature dish be?
  • What would be the theme song of your life?
  • If you could hang out with any cartoon character, who would you choose and why?
    • Asami (Legend of Korra) because I hope to be as cool as she is one day
  • If you were famous, what would you be famous for?
    • Writing fantasy novels
  • What part of the s’more are you?
    • Chocolate
  • Would you rather have a pet dinosaur or a pet dragon, and what would you name it?
    • Dinosaur named Steggy

 

Meet the Graduate Assistants: The Emilys! Emily Doehring & Emily Fishkin

If you’ve been getting a lot of support from Emily and thinking, “Wow! She’s always working!” you’ll be relieved to learn that we have TWO Emilys on Team Awesome and they both work the normal number of hours. In Today’s Thursday Two-fer, we’re thrilled to share more about Emily D. and Emily F.

Emily Doehring

woman standing in the same pose as a panda statue

Emily D. is a townie, born and raised. She loves the diversity and opportunities within the community. Small-town feel, big city amenities without the big city price-tag. She’s in the second semester of her first year, which still leaves her plenty of time to figure out what she’ll do after she graduates.

  • What is your favorite part about working at the Help Desk?
    • The people, for sure, but the memes and the spinny chairs are a close second.
  • What is your second favorite book?
  • Based upon your current cooking repertoire, if you were a professional chef, what would your signature dish be?
  • What would be the theme song of your life?
  • If you could hang out with any cartoon character, who would you choose and why?
    • Gudetama is Japanese fried egg character who is lethargic and he just hangs out – he’s a mood. I’m lazy and I like to sleep a lot.
      cracked egg thinking "the future . . . I can't"
  • If you were famous, what would you be famous for?
    • The American Tea Master & Source of all Tea Knowledge
  • What part of the s’more are you?
    • Marshmallow
  • Would you rather have a pet dinosaur or a pet dragon,  and what would you name it?
    • Dragon named King Douglas the Third, May He Reign Forever

Emily Fishkin

photo of woman standing in front of a tree

Emily F. is from Evanston, Illinois where she loves the beaches and Buffalo Joes. She’s in her first year at the iSchool and after graduation she, in her own words, wants to “work with youth learners in innovative ways, like making interactive fiction, and straight up reading. I love library sciences for its breadth – really works for me and my renaissance-woman-ness.”

  • What is your favorite part about working at the Help Desk?
    • I love getting to know the professors and their course material, and I weirdly love to feed the printers every week. It’s my favorite task and I feel like they are my little pets.
  • What is your second favorite book?
  • Based upon your current cooking repertoire, if you were a professional chef, what would your signature dish be?
  • What would be the theme song of your life?
  • If you could hang out with any cartoon character, who would you choose and why?
    • Toph from Avatar the Last Airbender, because I want to learn to see with my feet.
  • If you were famous, what would you be famous for?
    • Probably not something I intended
  • What part of the s’more are you?
    • Burnt marshmallow
  • Would you rather have a pet dinosaur or a pet dragon,  and what would you name it?
    • Dragon named Chicken

 

Meet the Graduate Assistants: Fall 2021 Edition starting next week

Who-boy, we have a lot of graduate assistants right now! Sixteen fabulous students who are currently enrolled in the LIS program and who grace our help desks and our course support parlor (den? corral?) to bring you the best of the best in iSchool tech support.

While the entire iSchool is our family, the GAs are our closest relatives, and since we’re not allowed to show them our love with noogies or trapping them in a half-nelson, we will post super interesting facts about them instead!

Starting next week (two GAs at a time, twice a week) you’ll find out where they’re from, songs that play (in our minds only) when they make their entrance in the iSchool tech support stadium, what they’d each be famous for (if they weren’t already famous for their great support), and MORE!

We’ll have things wrapped up in time to rest, relax, and give thanks for these wonderful humans during fall break.

.