16 area U of I students earn Dean's List recognition

Matthew Raab sprints the remaining yards to the finish line and a 22nd place finish in the Men's 14 - 18 division at the 2014 SJO 5K. Raab was one of 16 area students named to University of Illinois spring 2019 Dean's List. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)

Sixteen area St. Joseph-Ogden graduates now attending the University of Illinois earned recognition for their outstanding academic performance during the spring 2019 semester. Three of the academic achievers hail from Ogden and the remaining 13 listed are from St. Joseph.

Students named to the Dean's List are in the top 20% of a student’s college class or curriculum. To be eligible, students must complete at least 14 academic semester hours taken for a letter grade at Illinois. This semester, 7,025 U of I students earned that recognition. Among them, 5,048 of the awardees are from Illinois.

Members of this semesters Dean's List from Ogden include Nicholas Cagle, who is a freshman currently in General Curriculum studies, Carly Frerichs, a senior in Kinesiology and Jessica Kassuelke, who is a senior in Food Science and Human Nutrition in the College of ACES.

Freshman Camryn McKee (Political Science) and Emily Bluhm (Agricultural and Consumer Economics) along with sophomores Allison Place (Crop Sciences), Claire Smith (Agricultural Communications), Evan Hawkins (Advertising) and Mason Housenga (Physics) make up the group of underclass scholars from St. Joseph.

Juniors Casey Modglin (Agricultural and Consumer Economics), Hailey Collum (Architectural Studies), Lauren Gherna (English), Matthew Weyer (Information Systems) and Mira McLain (Integrative Biology) and two seniors, former three-sport athlete Jake Pence (Finance) and Matthew Raab (Agricultural and Consumer Economics), who was a distance runner for the Spartan cross-country and track program, round out the list of area recipients this semester.

CASA receives state funding

After 26 years of operation, the Illinois Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program will receive $2,885,000.00 in State funding.

CASA is not-for-profit organization which recruits, trains, and monitors volunteers who serve as advocates for abused and neglected children. Their services are also used in Termination of Parental Rights (TPR) cases and sometimes in adoption proceedings. Trained volunteers work to ensure the welfare of the children under their care is closely monitored and make independent recommendations to the court system advocating in their best interest.

In Illinois there are 31 CASA programs with nearly 2,500 volunteers who in 2018 advocated for the best interests of 4,184 child victims of abuse and neglect.

"This funding means that more children across Illinois do not have to go through the court process alone," said Mari Christopherson, Executive Director for CASA. "We applaud the Governor in supporting a program that works."

According to the statement issued this week, the funding will distributed to the current local programs with the goal of expanding their ability to protect the interest of minor children who have experienced abuse or neglect with a Court Appointed Special Advocate. The funds will also be used to expand CASA into other communities to help an estimated 2,000 or more children who do not have access to volunteers and service in their area.

The local branch, Champaign County CASA, is located at 301 S. Vine, Suite 210, in the Lincoln Square Mall in Urbana.

Wayback Wednesday: 2007 Track Sectional

On May 11, 2007, back when IHSA track & field was a two-class system, the St. Joseph-Ogden girls track team competed for a chance to advance to the state meet the following week held at O'Brien Stadium at Eastern Illinois University.

The Spartans, led by alum Andy Derks, failed to place in the top six in the team standings at the meet. Junior Hannah Hogan was the only Spartan to advance state.

Since then SJO's running program has blossomed into a perennial small school track powerhouse. In the past decade, the Spartans have brought home state hardware on five occasions. The bounty includes one state title, one runner-up title and three third place IHSA trophies joining the second place trophy won in 1978 and a 2000 state championship award.

Here are three of our favorite PhotoNews photos from that meet. View the entire collection here . . .


Hannah Hogan runs to a second place finish in the 3,200 meter run. She finished her eight loops in 12 minutes, 22.75 seconds. Hogan was a three-time state finalist in cross-country for the Spartans. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)



Hoping to qualify for state, Melissa Studinarz explodes out of the blocks in the 400m dash. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)



Senior Dayna Long runs the one-mile race on Friday. See more photos of Long in the PhotoNews Spartan archives here . . .