Author: Zainab Susi

About Diana!  I grew up in Illinois and earned a BA in English Studies at Illinois State University. I met my husband, Jason Blackman, at college and we moved to Washington, DC where we lived for more than a decade. While there I worked for a number of political and advocacy organizations and earned a… Read more

If you could change one thing about the last year what would you change?  Compassion, too many people didn’t take time to form their responses to situations. Is there anything new you tried last year? How was your experience?  Not new, but new again, we started doing revivals again, both preaching and singing. A whole… Read more

By Zainab Susi The entire world witnessed what happened on Wednesday, January 6, 2021 at the Capitol of the United States of America. I moved to the States more than thirty years ago, but this horrible event took me back to my childhood growing up in Karachi, Pakistan. Not in a million years did I… Read more

About Stacey  I grew up in the Peoria area, but allowed the military and college to drag me from Arizona to Washington D.C. and eventually Heidelberg, Germany.  Upon returning to the states and after leaving the military, I lived in Philadelphia before marrying Julie and moving to Chicago.  Julie and I have two children, Sydney… Read more

It’s hard to believe that this is my fourth year keeping a grateful jar. Four years ago, when I first started keeping a grateful jar, it was simply a new year’s resolution. My intention was to focus on all the things I was grateful for, small or big for the whole year. Then, on the… Read more

About Jennifer Tee My name is Jennifer Tee. I have been married to my husband, Darren, for 26 years. We met at Carrie Busey where Darrn taught P.E. and  I was student teaching. We now both teach at Kenwood Elementary School in Champaign. We have three children ages 21, 18, and 17. Besides being a… Read more

By Zainab Susi 2020 has felt like the longest year in recent memory, but it’s almost over and we are about to begin 2021. A new year. Sadly, the coronavirus pandemic is not over, and still countless families, workers, and businesses are struggling. My heart goes out to the people who have lost jobs, homes,… Read more

About Mindy Mindy Spencer is the Director of Alumni Relations for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She is also one of the founders of the Mahomet Seymour Equity Alliance. Mindy is a Mahomet-Seymour High School alumna. She has a BS in Environmental Economics and  an MBA in… Read more

Congratulations to Iman Zainab Hussain for achieving an MBA on December 12, 2020 from Illinois State University.  From a young age Iman always excelled in academics and arts. As an older sister, she’s helped teach me in many subjects, even when it was difficult to accept her help she never gave up on trying. From… Read more

About Branda Farney I grew up in LeRoy, IL and graduated from high school there.  Soon after graduation I got married and began my life together with Jerry these 54 years.  Jerry went to college and became a pastor; so, I became a pastor’s wife.  We lived away for 22 years in Ohio and Iowa… Read more