Author: jdmorgan@illinois.edu

Alum: 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

Alum: 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

Alum: 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

 

Alum: 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.

.

Get Reacquainted with Team Awesome Alums–Bobbi (Battleson) Hardy

Bobbi (Battleson) Hardy is an August 2016 alum of the LIS program, and a Team Awesome alum from the mid aughts. Do we wish we had her here that whole time? Heckin’ yeah! Alas, life had other, wonderful plans for Bobbi. She’s currently living (and working) in Farmer City, Illinois. She’s remote working for Engineering IT at the University of Illinois as their Communications and Customer Relations Coordinator.
 
Anything going on in life right now that’s especially awesome, bearing in mind that simply surviving is really pretty damned awesome?
Preparing to enter a year-long internship for a Masters in Social Work – Advanced Clinical with Mental Health concentration and learning new knitting techniques. I’ve also found that axe throwing is my sport of choice.
What do you remember best about your time on Team Awesome? Any particular stories you want to share?
Building relationships with colleagues and staff and faculty was my favorite part. I do fondly remember helping folks from around the world, over the phone without screen sharing, navigate file management and web publishing for required class sites in 2005!
Do you find yourself using Help Desk/ITD/Team Awesome skills in your current life?
The customer service skills and experiences I had impact my daily work and how I treat other customer service workers, even MediaCom.
What was your favorite class or instructor when you were in school?
I enjoyed every class I took. I loved the 8-week course on Comics with Carol Tilley. It changed my perspective on information delivery. I must mention Intro to Network Information Systems – with Martin Wolske. I credit that class, and Team Awesome, with getting me started in my IT career! Other honorable mentions: Library Buildings, Storytelling, Readers Advisory, Information Modeling, IT Project Management, Global Context and Social Justice in Youth Literature
Any regrets about your time here?
I wish I had been more involved with some of the social groups. When I started, I lived in Urbana and was single. When I came back to finish my degree, I was married, commuting, and working full-time so my social availability was limited.
Cat or dog?
Cats, but I take every opportunity to meet new dog friends.
What’s your favorite meme?
Kermit the Frog, sipping tea – I can’t get enough of them.
Any recommendations for good TV shows?
West Wing is my all-time, ultimate favorite. More recently, Ted Lasso has been great. I just discovered the podcast ‘Fake Doctors, Real Friends’ so I’m re-watching Scrubs. I’m a sucker for any Masterpiece Theater show and Star Trek series. I also enjoyed Longmire this last year.
Would you rather fight 100 duck-sized horses, or one horse-sized duck?

One horse-sized duck! Once you got over the shock of the size, it’s just a matter of getting to a Subway and ordering bread, er, a sandwich for the duck! Problem solved. “Don’t bother ringing it up – it’s for a duck!” (RIP Mitch Hedberg)

Get Reacquainted with Team Awesome Alums–Katie Dunneback

Today we go in-depth, no holds barred, super-duper-softball-questions with 2003 Team Awesome alum, Katie Dunneback. Katie is currently working at a federal library in DC—well, if we’re being literal, she’s doing work for a federal library in DC from a top-secret remote location (her parents’ home in Chicago!).

Anything going on in life right now that’s especially awesome, bearing in mind that simply surviving is really pretty damned awesome?

My “pandemic project” was to launch a YouTube channel and associated Instagram account focusing on planners and goal setting called Crafting Ruby Dreams. I’ve also been digging into Clifton Strengths, and learning a lot about myself as a person and as a fiction writer. I’m looking forward to getting back into writing fiction again in 2021.

What do you remember best about your time on Team Awesome? Any particular stories you want to share?

The camaraderie of the cohort I worked with, even though I was only there 10 hours a week since I split my GA time with #TeamAwesome and the Vet Med library (RIP). The two things I remember best about my time is frequently resetting Don Krummel’s 16mm film reels. There was one time I had to reorient one from being both backwards *AND* upside down, but I managed it! The other was dressing up for Halloween with the rest of #TeamAwesome and posing with Brynnen in the lobby between 126 and 131.

Do you find yourself using Team Awesome skills in your current life?

I’m often the tech support for my parents’ even though I’m halfway across the country. I also use a lot of the skills I learned in my personal life, like figuring out the setup I need for working from home or the YouTube channel. I don’t use the hard skills for the day job as I’d get in trouble (😁), but I do use the thought processes I developed for sorting out various system issues I encounter. But having the language of tech support helps me when dealing with my office’s tech support.

What was your favorite class or instructor when you were in school?

I loved the Networking class with Martin as I learned a lot of useful skills I’ve been able to use through the years. I also really enjoyed Cataloging I with Linda Bial as I’m constantly relying on what I learned in that class these days. Science Reference with Linda Smith was another favorite. But I think my absolute favorite was Adult Popular Literature since I led the petition campaign to bring it back!

Any regrets about your time here? (a class you wish you’d taken, a club you should have joined, etc.)

No real regrets from me. For classes, it helped that my mom was a practicing librarian and gave me a lot of direction on what classes to take. I also made a lot of great friendships through my time at Illinois, and routinely see friends at library conferences when I’m able to attend.

Cat or dog?

I’m a dog person, but I’m sans pets at the moment.

What’s your favorite meme?

Ohhhh!! Good question. I cannot pick just one.

Any recommendations for good TV shows?

DERRY GIRLS! I went to an all-girls Catholic high school in the early-90s (Chicago, not Ireland, though) and may have had a few flashbacks.

Would you rather fight 100 duck-sized horses, or one horse-sized duck?

Hmmmm…duck-sized horses have the numbers, but a horse-sized duck has the bulk and they’re effing mean. I’ll go with duck-sized horses!

Get Reacquainted with Team Awesome Alums–Troy Babbs

I’m super excited to share our first 2021 Team Awesome alum profile with you! Troy Babbs graduated in 2014 (which he asserts is the best year to have graduated), and he’s three credits shy of getting is CAS. He’s a local, living north of Champaign, and working as the Marketing Manager at a digital forensics/cybersecurity firm based out of Chicago and Miami. If this picture doesn’t convince you of how wonderful Troy is, keep reading. You’ll know how great he is by the end of his profile, hilariously written by him and left largely unedited by me because, well, I’ll let him tell the story in his own words . . .

Anything going on in life right now that’s especially awesome, bearing in mind that simply surviving is really pretty damned awesome right now?

Besides depression? I started as a part-time social media coordinator at my current job and now have full-time hours composing lots of blog posts, doing research, touching up Website design and selling myself/the company to maximize prospects and solve problems. EXCITING!! Plus, lots of side hustles such as the TV And A Movie podcast I do with my daughter in an effort to get more female voices in the podcast world…and an opportunity to swear at each other in public! (Set to release in January 2021 – please grade us on a curve).

 

What do you remember best about your days as a GA? Any funny/crazy stories you can share?
  • We literally had the best Help Desk staff in the history of Help Desking (sorry to break this to everyone else but I’m pretty sure you’re awesome in your own way).
  • There was the gentleman who was looking for light-up pens that the iSchool of old had. They had a sentimental attachment for him and I hunted down some castaway pens in the main office. After sending them to him, we looked up his Website and discovered an Angelfire-like, bells and whistles laden diatribe against left-wing politics. (oof)
  • Back in the days of every class being personed by an ITD TA, there was a teacher running late for their first class of the semester. We were chatting in our Lync room and, as soon as the TA called the class off, I yelled down the hallway that he just logged on and the sound of screaming/laughing reverberated down the hallway!
  • Becca McGuire and I CRUSHED our Web page/HTML seminar…use your search engine skills to dig that up!
  • The last shift before a Winter break, Madison Sullivan and I had a ‘90’s boy band YouTube marathon all…day…long!
  • And how could I forget my first week as a GA/TA when the building flooded and we had to go into action mode to save computers and salvage what we could? Plus we scored free donuts for it. What is better to a GA/TA than free food?!
  • My ultimate legacy is what has been considered to be the best Moodle profile in the game. My daughter has pledged to have it displayed on the wall of the auditorium where we will have my funereal celebration. (My penultimate legacy is the smattering of “Take It To The Moodle” bumper stickers that are still scattered around the building.)
Do you find yourself using Team Awesome skills in your current life?

Research, research, research!! In addition to analyzing stats and optimizing SEO results, all in efforts to expand our reach…and maybe teach people a little thing or two about life along the way.

 

What was your favorite class or instructor when you were in school?
  • I had Leigh Estabrook for my initial 502 course and that was a great introduction to the program.
  • Always a fan of Karen Wickett and Dave Dubin (oh, those wondrous game nights!!).
  • I tried to resist taking 562 – Metadata for the longest time but it turned out it was the most valuable class I took!
  • My favorite class I DIDN’T take was Bobby Bothmann’s Cataloguing class. Being a TA definitely had its perks!
Any regrets such as a class you wish you had taken, a club you should have joined, an event you weren’t able to go to, etc.?

I was fortunate to take advantage of almost every opportunity available to me, be it Dublin Core, SLA and ALA conferences and being the Treasurer of the SLA board.

Favorite meme?

As a meme connoisseur I have the innate ability to gather and examine all memes.

    • Cat and woman pointing memes but ONLY when they relate to UX…don’t be a poser and post anything else. Keep this meme pure.
    • Wholesome memes are bae and never turn out to be just fam.
    • Twin Peaks memes are art. (James is, and always will be, cool.)
    • (Another shameless plug – I’m more of a Vine connoisseur and you can go to Facebook and follow the page I run with my bestie (whom I met through GSLIS), Troy & Hilly’s Daily Vinespirations, for PREMIUM Vine curation!)
Would you rather fight 100 duck-sized horses, or one horse-sized duck?

Look I am literally a liker not a fighter but IF I was faced with such a quandary and couldn’t win them over with my effusive personality, I would have to face a horse-sized duck because one loaf of bread would keep them distracted until I could get a saddle and make them my go-to transportation.

Cat or dog or ???

Well I’m a library school graduate where they give you a cat with your diploma so what do you think? (Another shameless plug – go to Facebook and follow Li’l Hits The Best Cat In The Universe. This is scientifically proven.)

Alum: Mariah Tennell

Here at our remote Team Awesome bunker we’re taking time away from our holiday cooking to give thanks for the graduate assistants who put the Team and the Awesome in Team Awesome. You’re already familiar with their hard-working, tech-supporting, can-do attitudes. Now we pull the curtain back a little bit further so that you can get to know them better. Today, we’re featuring first-year student Mariah Tennell who plans to be a Metadata Analyst after she graduates.

Where are you from and what’s your favorite part about it?

I am from Gainesville, FL and it is special to me because of the beautiful beaches.

What is your favorite part about working at the Help Desk?

My favorite part about working at the Help Desk is being able to check-in on courses for technical support. The students and faculty have been extremely wonderful to work with and they really appreciate out help.

Favorite catchphrase?

You better believe it!

If you could have dinner with anyone, living or dead, what would you eat?

Home cooked mac n’ cheese

What is (or would be) your go-to karaoke song? 

Don’t Stop Believing by Journey

If you had to choose, would you rather it rained gummy bears, M&Ms, or potato chips?

Potato chips

What was your silliest/most embarrassing teenage phase? 

Always wore a Naruto jacket no matter the weather

Who would win in a fight between a trillion lions and the sun? 

The sun – the lions would never touch the sun

Alum: Clelia Sweeney

Here at our remote Team Awesome bunker, we’re reflecting on the people who make us so great (spoiler: it’s the GAs). You’re already familiar with their hard-working, tech-supporting, can-do attitudes. Now we pull the curtain back a little bit further so that you can get to know them better. Today, we’re featuring second-semester-first-year student Clelia Sweeney. When she graduates, she plans to get a job in public librarianship.

Where are you from and what’s your favorite part about it?

I am from West Hartford, Vermont. My favorite thing about Vermont is probably apple-picking in the fall, but it’s hard to choose just one thing. There’s also a weird, remote museum run out of a barn called the Museum of Everyday Life — one of my favorite places ever.

What is your favorite part about working at the Help Desk?

My favorite part about working at the Help Desk so far is my co-workers. Although starting a new job remotely was very daunting, I’ve felt very supported and welcomed.

Favorite catchphrase?

The book is not always better than the movie.

If you could have dinner with anyone, living or dead, what would you eat?

Eggs Benedict

What is (or would be) your go-to karaoke song?

Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana

If you had to choose, would you rather it rained gummy bears, M&Ms, or potato chips?

Potato chips

What was your silliest/most embarrassing teenage phase?

I fully participated in the emo craze in middle school: black raccoon eyeliner eyes, dyed black hair, My Chemical Romance discipleship

Who would win in a fight between a trillion lions and the sun?

The sun – the sun could kill us all!