"Life is really hard. Do we need to make it any harder? I want to make it a little easier."

Illinois State Scholar means something specific: top 10% of Illinois high school graduates, by GPA, standardized test score, or both. Steven Still can tell you what it took on his end—he tested in with a 30 on the ACT and is heading to SIU to study ag systems and technology, with his eye on precision agriculture. The work appeals to him because of its dual payoff: better yields for farmers and less chemical runoff in the environment. “With precision agriculture, you could engineer it to only spray in the exact places it needs.”

The eight Du Quoin seniors who earned the designation this year don’t share a single path. What they share is a sense of what comes next—and why it matters.

Reagan Rodely is going to SIU for mechanical engineering, aiming toward biomedical research. She toured the university’s labs and saw researchers working on innovations that could change lives. She wants to design devices that help people. “I want to give back to my parents because they’ve done so much for me”—but also, she says, to help others she’s never met.

Isla Calderon is deciding between Michigan Tech and SIUC, both for biomedical engineering. Her path was clarified through a summer volunteering at the NubAbility All Sports Summer Camp in Du Quoin—a program for children with limb differences that draws families from across the country. She saw what accessible design means in real time and began thinking differently about the built world and who it serves.

Addison Willis is also going to SIU, for history education. She’s a Golden Apple Scholar—a competitive Illinois scholarship that comes with a commitment: five years teaching at a school below the poverty line after graduation. “That feels like I’m giving back to my community, helping students learn. I have such a passion for teaching.”

Alayna Iman is admitted to Purdue University for speech, language, and hearing sciences. She sees speech pathology as foundational—the kind of work that helps people find their voice early and carry it forward for a lifetime.

Chloe Webb is going 12 hours away to Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina. The distance is intentional. She’s watched family members feel constrained by circumstance and wants to model something different. She’s leaning toward criminal justice and law school, with the goal of advocating for people who need a voice—and proving that new paths are possible.

Hallie Provart is going to SIUC for early childhood education. She thinks of it as foundational work—not just for children, but for everything that follows. Give a child the right start, and the rest has a chance to stand.

And then there’s Tyden Griffith, whose path runs through a different kind of system—one that powers nearly everything else. He plans to become an electrician and, eventually, an entrepreneur, building his own company from the ground up. “Electricity runs the United States,” he says. It’s a realization shaped through hands-on learning—an understanding that the most essential systems are often the ones you don’t see. His goal is to be part of that backbone, providing something people depend on every day.

What drove them to get here is as varied as where they’re going. Isla wanted to redefine herself when she entered high school without the same social footing as her peers. Chloe watched the people she loved and decided she would not accept limits she didn’t have to accept. Reagan built her schedule around dance, finishing homework at lunch. Tyden found direction through hands-on exploration, discovering both a trade and a future he could build himself.

All of them, in different ways, chose to build optionality—to earn the right to choose their path rather than have it chosen for them.

They grew up in a place they describe with a kind of quiet pride: multi-generational families, familiar faces, a community that shows up. It’s a place that gives them a foundation—but not a boundary.

They’re about to carry something of it forward.