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In 1965, Marge Csakai and Jim Blair took a Creative Writing class at Å·²©ÓÎÏ·¹ÙÍø The teacher was none other than Pulitzer Prize winner Gwendolyn Brooks, who three years later also was appointed poet laureate of Illinois, but that exciting fact is a mere footnote in their family story.

Romanetha Looper was raising her two sons in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood, which is plagued with crime and poverty. This rough community is where Looper has planted roots and sees an opportunity for positive growth and change.

Pianist Susan Tang, assistant professor, music, has taken her love and passion for music around the country and has finally planted roots in Chicago.

Å·²©ÓÎÏ·¹ÙÍø Illinois University was one of nine schools across the country-and the only one in the Midwest-to host Google's Computer Science Summer Extension (CSSI-Extention).