Alumni Profiles

Karen Walker Halvorsen

Hometown: Charleston, Illinois

Graduation Information

Bachelors: Ag Comm - 1973
Masters: Advertising - 1978

Work Information

Company: Self-employed
Years Worked: 30

How did you obtain your job?

Bridge teacher, writer & professional player; Free-lance copywriter; Part-time instructor of online English and advertising courses at Parkland College

Achievements

Won a national bridge championship (North American Spring Nationals, Dallas TX, 2006)

College of ACES

What was your favorite memory as a student in the College of ACES?

ACT spring-break trip to St. Louis

What was your favorite ACES class and why?

All of the courses taught by Jim Evans, especially the campaigns class.

University of Illinois

Why did you choose to come to the University of Illinois and College of ACES?

When I was 12 years old, I accompanied my grandfather on a trip from Charleston to Champaign to buy soybean meal. It was a sunny day in February, the day after a blizzard, and as we came up Route 45, I was awed by the gleaming roof of the brand-new Assembly Hall, rising out of the prairie like a spaceship. When I asked my grandfather what it was, he said, "That's the University of Illinois." I promptly announced that I was going to go there, to which my grandfather replied, "Humph." (Translation: And the money will be coming from ...?") It came (thanks to grants and scholarships), I went, and after a year in LAS, found the AgComm program.

What activities were you involved in on campus?

Dairy Science Club, ACT, Institute of Aviation Flight Hostess, Illini Union Bridge Club