Turns out Elizabeth Amanieh is every bit as good at answering questions as the Iowa TV reporter is at asking them.
We posed the following to the proud member of the UI's Class of 2015: What’s the one spot on campus you have the fondest memories of?
“What a question I get the privilege of answering,” she says. “In a time where race and sex are at the forefront, in a time where we as humanity begin to ask what we believe in, I think back to Illinois.
“Because my fondest memory was neither in a dorm nor a lecture hall nor a bar. It was a feeling. The feeling that at any given time, I was surrounded by people who were different than me. Who came from different backgrounds. Who didn’t grow up in the northwest suburbs of Illinois, and attend a well-respected high school.
“Because for some of my peers, getting to high school alone in a crime-ridden city was half the battle. Because for others, getting to high school in a misogynistic country was another.
“What I love about Illinois is that I constantly felt that I was being exposed to the world outside my own. I wasn’t living in Champaign, in the confines of cornfields. I was living in the midst of students from all across the country, all across the world.
“Surrounded by students from more than 80 countries, I could experience what diversity was. I could experience culture. And I could challenge myself to understand. That’s what Illinois is.
"It’s a place that gives you the opportunity to travel around the world, without leaving Champaign. Because within that campus, you are give the opportunity to understand the world outside your own.”
