Long before he earned three degrees at the UI — a bachelor’s (1998) and two master’s (2003, 2009) — Cory Overstreet already knew the Armory inside and out.
“As a kid, my dad would take me and my brothers there play catch while he would run laps,” says the Champaign native, now a Chicago elementary school principal. “We always thought we were so cool to be hanging out on campus.
“In high school, I won a freshman/sophomore 800-meter race there and felt like I was on top of the world. Embarrassing enough, my first class as a freshman was there and I got lost trying to find it from the Six Pack. I still have no idea how that happened.
“As a graduate student, I taught Speech Communication 101; my last semester, I taught at the Armory. It was a night class full of seniors.
“One of them, Giselle Nunez, and I have been together ever since. We started dating after the semester was over. We have two children, both work for Chicago Public Schools, are both working on our doctoral degrees, and are proud U of I alums.
“The Armory definitely holds a special place in my life.”
