SIU crowns homecoming royalty

Southern Illinois University students Brittany Wendel and Grace Gonzalez were chosen as this year’s homecoming royalty in a vote by students.

Wendel is a fourth-year student in dental hygiene who fell in love with SIU during a tour her sophomore year of high school, which was originally for her older sister. Her decision to study dental hygiene dates back to second grade.

“I’ve always wanted to go into dentistry,” Wendel said. “So knowing they had such a good program, it’s actually the only bachelor’s program for dental hygiene in the state of Illinois, I, like, was hooked the minute I saw campus and, like, knew they have what I wanted.”

Wendel said she was inspired by early visits to her dentist.

“Over time, I figured out that I wanted to go more of, like, a focused route with dental hygiene,” Wendel said. “I just love being able to provide that dental care to patients and being able to improve their overall health while just focusing on the mouth.”

Wendel is the vice president of Saluki Ambassadors, a part of the Dawg Pound and the Student Chapter of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association (SADHA) and also runs the Southern Illinois University (SIU) Tiktok account and is known as the Tiktok girl on campus.

“I’m not in media or anything like that. They actually found me on Instagram and I was just very active on their pages,” Wendel said. “They asked me to come in and just do a screen practice and just see how I was on screen in front of the camera. And it actually went really well and they offered me a job and I’ve been doing it since then.” 

In her hometown in Streamwood, Illinois, Wendel said she volunteers at open mic nights and Broadway camps. Her biggest volunteer experience comes from Saluki Ambassadors with campus tours.

Wendel wanted to run for homecoming court to bring more attention to Saluki pride and how fun it is to be involved in homecoming.

“I really like the idea of being that example of just what it means to be proud wearing maroon every single day because it’s my whole wardrobe,” Wendel said. “Who cares what is fun and isn’t fun just make it fun, just being super involved on campus and I just I love being the embodiment of your Saluki pride.”

Homecoming for Wendel is a time for current Salukis, alumni and possible future Salukis to come together.

“It’s more than the tailgating and stuff. It’s, like, we’re watching a football game together,” Wendel said. “We’re cheering on the same team. We’re having a parade to showcase all the SIU stuff, all the Carbondale stuff we have. It’s just a great way to come together I think as a community.”

Wendel said she has been involved in homecomings since she was young, being in cheer a good amount of her life and being in homecoming parades. 

“It’s always fun to come have this one reason to come together,” Wendel said. “I don’t think it’s ever, ever gonna go away, because it really is, like, the homecoming. It’s like everybody coming back home.” 

Wendel’s co-winner, Grace Gonzalez, was not available for an interview at the time of publication. She is a fourth-year early childhood major with an American Sign Language minor. She is from Chicago and is president of Sigma Kappa.

Eight other students make up the homecoming court.

Arianna Goss is a senior in Healthcare Management from Sainte Marie, Illinois, who decided to come to SIU because of scholarship opportunities.

“That’s what pulled me to campus were the interviews for those,” Goss said. “Then based on my tour here and meeting students, I decided ultimately to go here.”

She plans to go into public health or long-term care, is currently interning at the Liberty Village of Marion and is also very involved on campus.

“I’m a part of the Honors Program and Student Health Care Management Association also Undergraduate Student Government,” Goss said. “Delta Zeta Sorority and then I serve on a couple of committees under Undergraduate Student Government and then I also completed the REACH program last year for undergraduate research.”

Goss said she decided to run for court this year because of the memories she has of seeing other students doing it.

“My freshman year, I worked for the football team as an athletic trainer aid and I just remember seeing all of you know, both juniors and seniors serving on that court,” Goss said. “I guess in my mind, I was always like, I would love to get to that point to know that like, I’ve been involved on campus and ultimately would get to serve in that capacity.”

Julian Acevedo is a senior studying zoology and came to SIU because of the welcoming environment he experienced while on a tour of the school.

“When I visited the first time I really liked the people and diversity here and I really liked that everyone was welcoming and friendly compared to some other schools I went to,” Acevedo said. “Being able to have a community like that, to kind of connect to and meet new people, is something I really like.”

Acevedo said he’s from a family with people in the medical field; he took an interest in medicine and has a love for animals.

“I was like putting the two together to become a vet in the future is my overall goal,” Acevedo said. “And to really like having that aspect of the medical field but kind of dealing with animals since I feel they’re usually on the side-burner compared to humans.”

Homecoming to Acevedo means being able to shine a light on students who show excellence in and out of the classroom, he said.

“I feel with homecoming it allows me to connect and meet people, like I said in the beginning, just because that’s my overall motto in life,” Acevedo said. “Why hate someone or don’t talk to somebody if you don’t know them that well?”

Junior Rose South is a computer science major and chose to come to SIU because of the community connection she has with Carbondale.

“I am a legacy. My dad’s from SIU,” South said. “Carbondale [has] always been kind of like my second home, Rainbow Cafe, I’ve been a part of that organization since I was like 13.” 

South said she found her love for computer science in high school while taking a web development class and took interest in coding.

“I’m also part of the Society of Women Engineers…  the University Honors Program and the Chancellor Scholars Program,” South said. “I’m also part of SASI [which] is Social Action of Southern Illinois and then I just participate in a lot of, like, local activism work.”

She chose to run for homecoming court to show other people like her who might be a different body type and sexuality that they can be involved also. 

“’I’m doing it to show other people that you can [be] people who like aren’t in sororities, people who like have larger body types, people who are gay, like and just kind of this like, you know, woman in STEM,” South said. “It’s just kind of like, showing this idea that like, you don’t have to fit into a mold to do it and to be good at it.”

Rob Hodges is a senior majoring in aviation and transferred from Northern Illinois University for a better academic environment that fits him. 

Hodges is currently in Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Incorporated, is involved with the Black Affairs Council and used to be an Undergraduate Government senator. After graduating, he plans to work at an airline and ultimately wants to work with helicopters.

Hodges said the decision to run for homecoming court came to him one day.

“I didn’t run in high school, and I just felt like running,” Hodges said. “It can just show like, you know, young dudes, it’s okay to, like, put yourself out there. Make yourself vulnerable.”

Jacob Vezensky is a senior in architecture and came to SIU after feeling the inclusiveness the school has to offer.

“I didn’t even get to stay for, like, the full tour and even then, like, everybody, like [was] really open,” Vezensky said. “They had my major and I just chose this over probably a bigger school because of all the love and friendship that everybody gave me here.”

Vezensky said he got into architecture for his love of designing things.

He is currently president of Kappa Alpha Fraternity, vice president of the Interfraternity Council and an umbrella organization under the Undergraduate Student Government with Fraternity and Sorority Life. 

“I really wasn’t involved in high school. I just kind of, like, went to school, went back,” Vezensky. “That was just kind of something that I wanted to improve on in college. I wanted to make these four years a little different.” 

Homecoming gives students a chance to be able to embody school pride. Vezensky said he really wanted to attend SIU and be involved in the community.

“I feel like there’s no other better way of doing it than being on homecoming [court],” Vezensky said. “I’ve sat down, watched the last couple of Homecomings [and] had to work the last one, so I wasn’t able to run for that, but this year, it’s senior year. I feel like it’s on the line.”

Senior Kylen Lunn, the DE’s own Multimedia editor, is majoring in cinematography and chose to attend SIU after a welcoming tour and seeing how beautiful the campus was.

Lunn said he got into cinema in high school after looking at videos on YouTube.

“My freshman year of high school I [got] this recommended YouTube video [that] came on my YouTube page. It was a video by this guy named Sam Kolder and he’s, like, a travel videographer,” Lunn said. “He made this video about traveling to Hawaii and ever since I saw that, I was like, oh my god, like this is exactly what I want to do with my life.”

He came to SIU to further his studies in film and hopes to do video works with bands traveling with them as a personal videographer. 

“I am a senior producer in Alt News, I’m a crew member in MCM, which is Movie Camera Movement,” Lunn said. “And whenever Photo Genesis is a thing I’m like, just a crew member involved in that.”

Lunn decided to run for homecoming court as a last hoorah before he graduates, he said.

“I feel like I’ve lived every memory that I could have at this school and I just wanted to kind of keep adding on to that,” Lunn said. “Also, my parents went to SIUC as well, but like they did it remotely. And they just kind of I’m just kind of whenever I told them I was running, I just saw how happy they were and it kind of made me really happy.”

Court members Alaina Herman and Raven Spears were not available for an interview before the time of publication.

Staff reporter Jamilah Lewis can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @jamilahlewis. To stay up to date with all your southern Illinois news, follow the Daily Egyptian on Facebook and Twitter.

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