Tag: alumni

Alumni Spotlight—Charles Burton

April 23, 2020 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

Alumni of the College of Applied Health Sciences have myriad career options thanks to the tremendous diversity of programs. We periodically will put the spotlight on an alum to find out what they’re doing now, what experiences they had and what AHS means to them. This week, we talk to Charles Burton, an Recreation, Sport and Tourism undergraduate and graduate alum who is now Chief Operating Officer of the Don Moyer Boys & Girls Club in Champaign, Ill.

Q: Why did you pick AHS?

A: If you are driven by curiosity, creativity, and the desire to improve the lives of others or you are interested/fascinated by the human body and the sciences it is natural, pursue a degree in Applied Health Science. As an athlete, with a passion for helping others, I chose AHS as a springboard to gain relevant practical experience working closely with other students and professors in fast-moving environments. The college of applied health sciences equips you to implement scientific principles together with practical clinical experience toward improving quality of life for patients in the rapidly growing and ever-changing healthcare and recreational, sport and tourism industries.

Q: Why did you pick RST?

A: As previously stated, as an student-athlete, I had become to appreciate the competition, adversity, theory practice and science that is required to be successful in sports. In looking at the professional climate, Recreation, Sport & Tourism had began to grow on a world-wide scale. The NBA had become a global brand and other sports were using metrics and science to gain competitive edges in competition. Hospitality & Tourism had also began to grow with more families traveling abroad and more individuals looking to become entrepreneurs in specific sciences. The concept of leisure had been studied and were in its early stages of understanding its effects on mental health and a healthy lifestyle. In Parks & Recreation as well as Youth Development, logic models and fundamental program development principles were becoming the standard. RST allowed me to gain experience in all of these arenas and develop analytical and critical thinking skills to adapt to the fast-growing and ever-changing environment. RST provided me with the opportunity to gain necessary hard & soft skills to be able to have success in any career. The transferable skills allowed to me to be flexible in my career choices and use my passion for helping others in a variety of ways professionally.

Q: Which professors had the most impact on you?

A: It’s hard for me to name one. Each professor brought a different perspective and level of expertise, which challenged me to adapt and always look at challenges as opportunities. The professors gave me more than academic information, they gave me perspective and skills that allowed me to be successful today. Here is a quote, “The world will never stop evolving, our responsibility is to accept the discomfort with change but use it to grow/expand our knowledge through the change to create new opportunities!”

Q: What course did you most enjoy?

A: RST 501 Concepts & Applications in Recreation, Sport & Tourism. This course opens your eyes to various opportunities via a conceptual lens.

Q: Did you enter AHS knowing your career path, or did AHS help you decide?

A: I had no idea of what I wanted to do! Outside of being an athlete, I didn’t know what I was good at.

Q:Did your AHS experience lead to your current job?

A: Yes, it did. I have worked in almost every aspect of Recreation, Sport & Tourism. My current position as Director of Operations/COO requires me to work conceptually on changing critical issues, finance/budgeting, problem solving, looking for new opportunities through challenges, program development, community relations, customer services, organizational leadership, mentoring/coaching, etc. The foundation for all of these skills came from AHS.

Q: What was your favorite on-campus experience

A: The Quad! Such a beautiful space and seeing the diversity and being able to speak with and understand various cultures were amazing. Spaces like this help us come together and develop a higher level of cultural competency.

Q: What does AHS mean to you?

A: AHS means 4 P’s (Passion; Purpose: Potential; Pathways). Getting a degree from AHS will assist you with Finding your Passion, Defining your Purpose, Discovering your Potential, and Developing Pathways to a Greater Future! These are the strategies for growth and development that are used every day.

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.
 

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AHS celebrates outstanding alumni

Oct. 18, 2019 | Anna Flanagan

AHS Distinguished Alumni Award recipient John Consalvi and Dr. Patricia Barrett Malik, who received the 2019 Harold Scharper Award, shared advice from their academic and professional journies with student leaders during a luncheon on Oct. 18 (Photo by Jerry Thompson)

A bilingual speech-language pathologist who has helped train and place bilingual clinicians throughout the United States and a woman who began her career at Illinois as a graduate student and ended it as the director of the Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services were honored for their achievements during a ceremony on October 18.

In accepting the 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Applied Health Sciences, John Consalvi said, “The best thing about receiving an honor like this is feeling that you are part of something special, something greater than yourself. What a tremendous gift.”

John completed his master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology in 1991. He became a bilingual clinician in the Chicago Public Schools system, an enormous system with thousands of students who were native Spanish speakers and only six bilingual speech-language pathologists. He founded Bilingual Therapies Inc. to train bilingual clinicians and place them in schools, growing the company into a nationwide staffing provider in 10 years. He recently launched SPEDXchange, an online resource that facilitates connections among those in the special education community, including special education teachers, speech- language pathologists, occupational therapists, school psychologists, school district administrators, and all staff that serve special education students and their families.

John received the 2018 Louis M. DiCarlo Award for Recent Clinical Achievement from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation. He is a Fellow of the Illinois Speech-Language-Hearing Association, which awarded him Honors of the Association in 2017.

Dr. Patricia Barrett Malik received the 2019 Harold Scharper Award from the Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services. Pat completed a master’s degree (1982) and Ph.D. (1988) in what is now the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism, focusing on therapeutic recreation. Her graduate assistantship was with DRES, then under the direction of its founder Tim Nugent.

Pat held a tenured position at Illinois State University until 1998, when she resigned to help her husband Ron Malik grow a community rehabilitation business that changed the model for group homes. In 2005, she returned to the University of Illinois as director of the Beckwith residential program within DRES and assumed the leadership of DRES in 2014. Pat oversaw many efforts to advance accessibility and inclusivity at Illinois, including the development of a wireless remote control that makes campus elevators more user-friendly for students with severe physical disabilities and an innovation technology project with the Toyota Foundation that made it to the top 10 international entries.

Among the things she learned at Illinois, she told the audience at the event, was that making mistakes is part of living life. “The greatest mistake one can make in life is to be afraid of making mistakes,” she said.

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Undergraduate Jocelyn Solis shares her story

April 03, 2024 | Ethan Simmons

Solis won the Margaret K. and Edward W. Harvey Scholarship in Parks and Recreation

Jocelyn Solis, second from left, with her family

Grit.

This is the word that describes Jocelyn Solis. When she decided to come to the University of Illinois as a first-generation student, her extended family asked, “Are you just going to last a semester or are you going to push through?” She describes her initial semester as “rough.” Everything was new, and she didn’t know whom to turn to for advice. She had to wade her way through the murky waters of college life and figure things out for herself. When she first decided to go to college, she knew that she would be responsible for supporting herself through school and had intended to go to the least expensive school that offered her admission. Jocelyn had visited the University of Illinois when she was a child and had attended an Illini baseball with her uncle. Upon admission, she realized that despite being more expensive than other offers, her heart yearned to be here. She created a budget and payment plan, took on multiple jobs, and figured out how to make it work.

A huge weight was lifted off of Jocelyn’s shoulders when she made it through her first semester with decent grades and zero debt. Eventually she made her way to RST after taking RST 100: Recreation, Sport, and Tourism in Modern Society. Once in RST, the small class sizes allowed Jocelyn to better connect with her professors. A natural introvert, she was encouraged to network and connect with people, and she found that exercise helped her combat stress. She grew as both a person and a professional. “I learned how to network here. During my sophomore year when I went on the Chicago Facility Tour, Don [Hardin] pushed me out of my comfort zone and introduced me to a facility manager during the trip. I didn’t know how to go up to people and introduce myself, and it was a little uncomfortable for me, but afterward, I was like, ‘Oh, this is how you do it.’”

When asked about her favorite RST memories, Jocelyn describes loving RST341: Community Recreation Planning and RST465: Event Implementation and Evaluation in Recreation, Sport and Tourism. These hands-on courses made her feel like she was really in the field, allowed her to actually “do something” for a community, and taught her how to work with a team. After graduation, she knows she is going to miss the RST community and her multicultural sorority, Sigma Lambda Gamma, which focuses on empowering women and has provided her a support network of like-minded individuals.

Jocelyn credits her mother, Virginia Mejia, for her accomplishments. A single-parent and self-directing woman, Virginia raised her “to be a strong independent woman who knows her worth.” She showed her that “she was going to be who she was and that she didn’t need to change for anyone else.”

This past spring, Jocelyn won the Margaret K. and Edward W. Harvey Scholarship in Parks and Recreation, and on May 11th, she was the first in her family to graduate college. This summer, she will complete her internship with the Associate Director of Facilities, Jessica Lee Adkisson, at University of Illinois at Chicago Campus Recreation. Afterward, she wants to work in campus recreation or with a park district.

Jocelyn hoped she could pave the way for her younger brothers and sisters to also go to college and pursue their dreams. She wanted them to know that “you can still be great and do what you want to do even if others have chosen a different path.”

Her trailblazing efforts have paid off. Her brother, Luther, recently came to the University of Illinois and has fallen in love with RST as well.

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A Journey to Empowerment

May 06, 2019 | Anna Flanagan

Kevin Fritz heard the word “can’t” frequently when he was a child. Today, he is an accomplished attorney in a prestigious Chicago law firm. He described his journey to independence in accepting the 2018 Harold Scharper Award from the Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services.

Harold Scharper Award recipient Kevin Fritz is flanked by Susann Sears, director of Beckwith Residential Support Services, and Pat Malik, former director of Disability Resources and Educational Services.

Kevin Fritz’s disability made his childhood difficult. People noticed his wheelchair before they noticed him. The severity of his disability made it impossible for him to perform the tasks of daily living for himself, and he was often hospitalized with intense illnesses. Despite all of this, he had a strong will to succeed.

So when his health finally stabilized during high school, his thoughts immediately turned to taking advantage of opportunities. It was the first time he felt empowered in his life.

“That was the first time I truly felt authority or power to do something,” he said. “And I did. I immersed myself in academics. I tried to learn things. I tried to become more articulate, sensitive, ambitious.”

In his junior year, he came across an article in New Mobility magazine that listed the top ten universities for people with disabilities. What intrigued him most about the article were the photos of people in wheelchairs.

“They were doing things, going to classes, wearing clothing that wasn’t from a hospital. It was fascinating,” he said.

The University of Illinois was at the top of the list. Although this Pennsylvania resident wasn’t even sure where Illinois was, he called the Division of Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES) and spoke with Susann Sears, who now directs the Beckwith Residential Support Services program for people with severe physical disabilities who require personal assistants. She recommended a campus visit.

“She said I could take a tour on a special bus that was accessible and see the place where I would live with other students and get care,” he said. “That was the second time in my life that I felt empowered.”

His father drove him 12 hours for the visit. The ride home was quiet, with Kevin feeling “shell-shocked and elated.” His father broke the silence, saying, “Kevin, if you can get in, you can go.”

At Illinois, Kevin learned how to maximize his quality of life. He credits Susann in particular with igniting a fire in him to push back when people said no. “She fought for me to change what is commonplace,” he said. “I have rights. I’m allowed to be here. I deserve to be here.”

He seized opportunity after opportunity, becoming the first student with a known physical disability to be elected to the Illinois Student Senate, which he also chaired, and to serve as director of the Illini Union Board. A student in Community Health, he served as president of Future Health Care Executives, the largest student organization in the College of Applied Health Sciences, and of the rehabilitation service fraternity Delta Sigma Omicron. He landed coveted internships with then-Senator Barack Obama and with Lynne Barnes, vice president of hospital operations at Carle, who encouraged Kevin to apply his analytical mind and passion to law school.

During his studies at Washington University School of Law, he served as the primary editor of the Washington University Journal of Law & Policy, as a board member of Wiley Rutledge Moot Court, and as executive director of advocacy for the National Association of Law Students with Disabilities. He won several mock trials as well as an Excellence in Oral Advocacy Award. As an associate in the firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP, he counsels clients on a wide range of employment issues. His courtroom experience covers the full spectrum of litigation. He co-chairs the firm’s All Abilities Affinity Group, which focuses on inclusion in the workplace, and speaks extensively on disability and diversity issues throughout Chicago.

Looking back on his days at Illinois, Kevin is grateful for the many opportunities that he had through his affiliations with AHS and DRES. He considers the University of Illinois to be a mechanism that allows people to master their lives, adding that he is very honored and proud to have mastered his own.

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Proud To Be A Philanthropist

March 08, 2019 | Anna Flanagan

Mannie Jackson with AHS Dean Cheryl Hanley-Maxwell

Mannie Jackson has been lauded for his sharp business sense and entrepreneurial spirit. Of All his many achievements, however, Mr. Jackson says his most important is being a philanthropist.

Mannie Jackson has been lauded for his sharp business sense and entrepreneurial spirit. Of All his many achievements, however, Mr. Jackson says his most important is being a philanthropist.

From Boxcar to Boardrooms

Mannie Jackson was born and lived for three years in a boxcar in Illmo, Missouri. After moving to Edwardsville, Illinois, he became a stand-out player in basketball and earned a full scholarship to the University of Illinois. He and his best friend Govoner Vaughn were the first African American starters for the Fighting Illini and the first to earn varsity letters. Mr. Jackson also was the first African American team captain.

He went on to work and play for the Technical Tape Corporation, which had a team in the National Industrial League, before joining the Harlem Globetrotters. He followed his basketball career with a successful career in business, working first for General Motors and then for Honeywell, from which he retired as international senior vice president of marketing, administration, and logistics. At the time of his retirement, Mr. Jackson was serving on the Board of Directors of six Fortune 500 companies.

Giving Back

Mannie Jackson returned to the world of professional basketball after retiring as the first African American owner of a major sports franchise when he bought the nearly-bankrupt Harlem Globetrotters. He not only restored the team to international fame and fortune but also made it a leader in charitable giving.

Mr. Jackson endowed the Mannie L. Jackson Illinois Academic Enrichment and Leadership Program (I-LEAP) in the College of Applied Health Sciences, which provides academic and personal support services to first-generation and underrepresented college students. His gift to Lewis and Clark College helped to establish the Mannie Jackson Center for the Humanities.

In accepting the 2017 Distinguished Alumni Award, Mr. Jackson said, “I like being called a philanthropist. When you decide to be a philanthropist and you help others and improve the world when you go, the legacy and the memory of what your family meant to the world and what you tried to accomplish lives forever.”

Mr. Jackson is a two-time inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, as an owner and as a player. He was named Laureate in the Order of Lincoln, the State of Illinois’ highest honor. He also received the NCAA’s highest honor, the Theodore Roosevelt Award, and the University of Illinois Alumni Achievement Award, the highest honor bestowed upon alumni by the University of Illinois Alumni Association.

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