Land Acknowledgement Statement
Land Acknowledgement Script
Land Acknowledgement
As a land-grant institution, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has a responsibility to acknowledge the historical context in which it exists. In order to remind ourselves and our community, we will begin this event with the following statement. We are currently on the lands of the Peoria, Kaskaskia, Piankashaw, Wea, Miami, Mascoutin, Odawa, Sauk, Mesquaki, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, Ojibwe, and Chickasaw Nations. It is necessary for us to acknowledge these Native Nations and for us to work with them as we move forward as an institution. Over the next 150 years, we will be a vibrant community inclusive of all our differences, with Native peoples at the core of our efforts.
Messages from Dean Constable and Committee Chair
Dr. Constable: Speech Script
Dr. Peter Constable’s Welcome
I’m happy to be here with all of you. Thank you for coming. On your programs you will note that today we are “Celebrating the Past, Empowering the Future.” Being at the historic Memorial Stadium, built in 1923, reminds us of the history and tradition of this great university. In a similar way, walking down the first floor hallway of the Basic Sciences Building reminds us of the thousands of DVM graduates, and hundreds of faculty members, who forged the strong reputation that our college enjoys today. But instead of looking to the past, I am looking around this room. I see an incredibly bright future in the faces of our students. We have students who dreamed of being a veterinarian since childhood, and students who chose it as a second career. We have students who are passionate about shelter medicine, equine medicine, mixed animal practice, zoo medicine, public health, research, specialty medicine, and more. Pursuing a veterinary degree is not an easy path. Each of you should be proud to be here. And on top of the pressures of your studies, many of you also gave your time and talents to clubs; volunteering for wildlife, student well-being, and outreach; and pursuing outside learning opportunities around the globe. You are the future of veterinary medicine, and I am confident you will lead our profession in new and better directions. Thank you to our students, to their families, and to the generous donors who support the scholarships we award today. Now, please join me in welcoming Dr. Saki Kadotani to the podium.
Saki Kadotani reading Russhawn Aldridge’s Speech Script
Welcome to the All Orange and Blue College of Veterinary Medicine Awards and Scholarships Celebration 2025
On behalf of the Awards and Scholarships Committee, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the 75th anniversary awards and scholarships celebration. We are honored to gather with you—students, families, alumni, donors, faculty, and friends—to recognize and celebrate the achievements of our hard-working students. We extend our deepest gratitude to the alumni, friends, and supporters whose generosity makes this event possible. Your contributions affirm the strength of our college community and the shared belief in the transformative power of education and mentorship.
As a committee, we were privileged to review the applications of so many capable and inspiring students. Today’s recipients have demonstrated not only academic excellence, but also a remarkable commitment to service, leadership, and professional growth. This celebration is a tribute to their dedication and the many ways in which they are already advancing the mission of our college through education, innovation, and compassionate care. In closing, I would like to say thank you to the advancement team for all of their efforts in organizing this very special event. We hope that you enjoy the company and congeniality of this 75th anniversary year celebration! Warm regards, Russhawn Aldridge, Ph.D. Chair, Awards and Scholarships Committee
Keynote Speakers: Drs. Jim and Erin Lowe
Jim and Erin Lowe: Speech Script
Drs. Jim and Erin Lowe
We are really glad to be here today, and to the families and friends here today, in spite of what your students have said, I am old and grumpy, but I did not take a horse and buggy to vet school. We did have a Model T, and yes, the parking department was full in force at that point, Okay? So, I want to share a little bit about us, and we understand that brevity is a key in these things. We’ve done some of these things and we want to share a little bit about our Illinois journey and why we thought the Illinois journey was important, and so, in our household we are double JBT scholars, so an undergraduate in the college of aces we were both JBT scholars. We are double, triple degree holders in our house from this institution. So, some of us have two degrees from the college we both have ACES degrees, some of us have two degrees from the college, some of us have one degree from the college and one degree from information sciences. Mostly because, I think, they thought I wasn’t quite bright enough and had to come back for a repeat lesson. That was the reason we had to get a master. They let Erin out and they let her go do other things. We are double EVP alums, so we’ve participated in the Executive Veterinary Program here, which has happened for 35 years. There’s about 400 graduates of veterinarians really across the thing of intensive post-graduate training. And maybe most interestingly, we are double competitors for the institution for the university. One of us was on the dairy judging team and a successful dairy judge. One of us was a band geek, and I’ll let you figure out where it is, except this is my second home, so you can figure that out. This place has really been transformative for us, and I spent the first 20 years of my career in private practice and industry really had the opportunity to come back. Dr. Whitley made that mistake and said you’d like to work part-time and then Dr Constable was maybe a bit of a fool and let me join the institution full-time. Erin has been here more than I have at in in Champaign-Urbana. This place is home to us. It’s been really, really transformative for us. And I hope it’s transformative for all of you.
What has it done for us? And I think that’s, that’s it’s important to think about those things. Well, one it’s two Final Fours and a Rose Bowl. Some of us are older than others and I got to go to two Final Fours. Some only got to go to one, Okay? But we both got to go to a Rose Bowl, so that’s important. But maybe most important we’ve been to the NCAA Golf National Championships 17 years in a row. So, I do appreciate Josh Whitman for, we don’t just have to be a golf school anymore. So, that’s a big, it’s a big boost for us, Okay? On a serious note, although that is relatively important in our lives, it gave us the obvious things of knowledge and skills, and you’ve all spent a lot of time, you alumni here, and the students here, you’re thinking about what knowledge and skills I’m getting. And that’s the obvious things but those aren’t the important things to us. The important things it gave us were people. It gave us friends, it gave us each other — I view that as a benefit, you can talk to Erin later if she thinks it is Okay — It gave us mentors, Jimmy Clark, and Paul Harrison, and Stan Curtis, and Larry Firkins, and Tony Goldberg are important people in our lives to this day. It let us really be with some key influencers. And I’m so old I can’t spell TikTok, and I barely understand what Instagram is. But there are these influencer things, but they were the original influencers, and I had really the benefit of working with Erwin Small and the old people in this room know who Erwin was. But Erwin is on the wall in the teaching hospital, and when I was a freshman the first day — y’all think I’m scary — students I walked in, I’m walking down the hallway, there was no orientation or anything, we just turned up. And we walked down the hall and this little, short man with short hair, who was really kind of gruff, walks by and goes “Lowe, how are you?” And I’m like “Who is that man and how does he know my name?” But that was transformative It would teach me how to be a doctor. The thought about being a professional and that was really, really important. We both got to know Bob Easter. Bob’s the now the president was president emeritus of the Institution. I had Bob for swine nutrition as an undergrad. I can’t say Bob was a mentor, but Bob was really always there to say, “Hey how have you thought about that, have you thought about?” And those things are really, really important. But I think, as we talked about what we were going to say today, we think the community is what’s really helped us. And I think you all, particularly the students, I think the alumni would say this, that’s why the alumni are in the room. The community that we build here is super, super important. It’s really the thing you’re going to take away. There’s the obvious classmates. In our case, we’ve got both vet school classmates, and undergrad classmates, and EVP classmates. But there’s this larger community of being able to go anywhere in the globe, right we’ve got our State Farm friends when we go watch basketball games. We’ve had the good fortune to travel all over the state all over the nation and all over the world. Both of us have for work. And there’s nothing like hearing an ILL in Warsaw or Shanghai or Skypole.
And it’s that instant connection of community and family that we have here that we just can’t get anywhere else. So, I think we want to leave you with some things. right? We’re in Memorial Stadium and the in the football coach, Bret Bielema, talks a lot about family. And I can see it right out the window here on the tunnel the team comes out. and Illinois really is a family and it’s been a family for us, and I think as an ILLINI I want you to think about, students, how you’re going to take advantage of that family. I want you to reflect and think about how I use these relationships, this community to go be great, not good, but be great. And we have this is this is one of the new ivies, this is an incredibly powerful institution. Illinois globally. How do you leverage that? And our challenge to you is, how do you go think about when the opportunity presents itself to come and give back how do you think about how do I give my time and effort to go do those things? One of the reasons I’m on faculty is because that was an opportunity. How do I go help shape the next generation? I could have continued to do what I was doing. That would have been fun. But this was a chance to go do something. And how do each of you find that little spot to help the next generation be great? Thanks.
Student Speaker: Hassan Hanna
Hassan Hanna: Speech Script
PAINTING YOUR OWN ROAD
Hello everyone! My name is Hassan Hanna, a fourth-year veterinary student—soon to be a graduate in just five days! Someone pinch me… am I dreaming?
Before I dive into my story and how I ended up at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, I want you to close your eyes for a moment and imagine this:
You’re standing at a fork in the road. One path is blue, the other bright orange. As an Illini, which do you choose? You might wonder: Do these roads lead to the same destination? Will I face obstacles? Who will I meet? What if I choose the wrong one? Most importantly, which road will get me to my end goal?
I was overwhelmed by those questions, too, so I chose a third option. I painted my own road, blending Illini orange and blue into the most beautiful color in the world: brown.
My journey has been about forging my path, envisioning my future, and believing that the sky is the limit.
Before veterinary school, I felt daunted by the endless possibilities in this profession. I could work with any species. But if you had asked me back then what kind of vet I wanted to be, I probably would’ve laughed nervously and dodged the question—not because I didn’t know, but because I was afraid to say it out loud. Afraid of failing.
I remember speaking with an alumnus about career paths, and they told me:
“A lot of people in my class wanted to do wildlife. Don’t get set on wildlife or zoo medicine. There just aren’t many jobs out there.”
There it was—the first obstacle on my brown road. And it wouldn’t be the last. Many people along the way would tell me to steer clear of wildlife medicine.
And for a while, I let that fear guide me. I came into school telling everyone I’d be an equine vet. It was a safer answer. Familiar. But deep down, it wasn’t where my heart truly was.
The turning point came during my second year, when I joined the Wildlife Medical Clinic. Suddenly, everything changed. The excitement I felt triaging a long-eared owl… the joy of assisting with anesthesia on an American beaver during an FHO… I was hooked. That passion reignited my love for learning. The hours, months, and years I spent at the clinic are moments I’ll cherish forever.
Very few programs can showcase the power of a student-run clinic the way ours does. I’m incredibly grateful—not just for the patients I had the honor to treat, but for the incredible student volunteers, managers, house officers, and faculty who inspired and mentored me along the way.
It became clear: wildlife medicine was my calling. I was that kid who loved nature, who saw beauty in the animals others overlooked—pigeons, Canada geese, raccoons. I wanted to be a voice for the voiceless.
But how does someone like me pursue a field that’s so competitive… almost impossible to break into?
The answer: through the generosity of donors and the unwavering support of faculty. Because of you, I was able to gain hands-on experience at places like the Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network, Tufts Wildlife Clinic, The Raptor Center, and the Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute. I’ve been privileged to learn from world-renowned veterinarians who are pushing the field forward.
And right here at the University of Illinois, I was lucky to be mentored by outstanding faculty members like Dr. Borsdorf, Dr. Marrow, Dr. Sam Sander, and Dr. Will Sander. Most importantly, I’m beyond grateful for Dr. Stephany Lewis, Director of the Wildlife Medical Clinic—an incredible mentor and lifelong friend who made my journey unforgettable.
So, I ask myself: what would my Illini experience have been if I had chosen the orange or the blue road? Would I have felt fulfilled?
I may never know. But the road I did choose—my brown road—has led me to an exciting next step: joining the team at Washington State University and PAWS Wildlife Center as a Wildlife Specialty Intern.
And just like those who inspired me, I’m now driven to educate and empower the next generation of veterinary professionals. There’s nothing like witnessing a student’s “lightbulb” moment or seeing their confidence bloom. As I continue down this path, I look forward to deepening my understanding of veterinary medicine and contributing to the profession in meaningful ways.
To the donors, thank you. Your generosity has shaped our experiences, opened doors, and removed financial barriers we never thought we could overcome. You may not see the direct impact every day, but know this: you’ve helped countless students, just like me, walk the path they were meant to walk.
My journey is a reminder: you don’t have to follow the roads laid out in front of you. Be the driver of your own destiny. Paint your own road. And aim high.