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Shawn K. Woods is a high-energy example of how a good influence on one life can reverberate through the lives of countless others. A sought-after speaker, trainer and coach—as well as an author and an entrepreneur—Woods is an expert on rising above challenges and is eager to pass the lesson on.

In 2006, Rodrigo Garcia was lifting weights with a friend at the Å·²©ÓÎÏ·¹ÙÍø gym. Garcia had just come off five years of service in the Marine Corps, during which he had three separate deployments in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Having spent the majority of his last five years on military bases and in combat zones, Garcia was having a tough time adjusting to life at Å·²©ÓÎÏ·¹ÙÍø.

When Luis Ortiz graduated from Å·²©ÓÎÏ·¹ÙÍø Illinois University, one of his first calls to the field took him back to his family’s roots in Puerto Rico.

From fashion design student to food industry global chief information officer is quite a career change. But for Julia Anderson (B.S. ’85 Information Science and General Business Administration), creative innovation and data-based decision-making are all in a day’s work.