Future Lt. Gov. Corinne Wood (’76) can still feel the “beer-soaked, sticky floors” of Kam´s, located 52 steps from the back door of her sorority and where she spent “too many fun-filled nights.”
When she thinks back to her time at the UI, the images that come to mind include Chief Illiniwek (“I’ll never forget the enthusiasm and pride we all had in the Chief, who embodied our Illini spirit”); classes in the “ancient, crumbling Lincoln Hall”; and “the expansive Quad on a spring day, filled with students studying, socializing, romancing, playing frisbee and streaking.”
But simply graduating — and with honors, no less — was a big deal in itself to the granddaughter of German immigrants.
“For a ‘first-gen’ student, a college degree from the University Illinois represented the opportunity to fulfill the American dream,” she says. “Whatever I was able to achieve in my lifetime, I attribute to the education I received at U of I.”
