Meet Jay Lopez, an online master’s student in Recreation, Sport & Tourism. Jay lives and works in Long Beach, California, with his wife, Emily, and their two young children.

COVID-19 I've done food distributions, I've worked in vaccination pods, where we're inoculating thousands of people that day. Waking up at 5 am to get on-site for a food distribution that starts at 8 am. There is so much stuff that you can talk yourself out of going back to school. But I must tell you it's been one of the most rewarding experiences that I've done in my life.

Get to know our graduate students one exceptional story at a time. Each story reveals the diverse facets of the Illinois experience. Watch the One Story video series.

Nic Morse created this video series, and he is the Digital Media Specialist at the Graduate College. Nic came to the Graduate College after owning his own production company in town called Protagonist Pizza Productions. He now works on videos, graphic design, and motion graphics for higher education at Illinois.