Geneva alumna to be 'the voice' of graduation ceremonies at NIU

Stephanie Schiller of Geneva will sing at three NIU graduation ceremonies next month, including her own.

You could call Stephanie Schiller "the voice" of Northern Illinois University commencement ceremonies.

Schiller, a senior at NIU and a 2003 graduate of Geneva High School, has had the honor of singing the national anthem and NIU Alma Mater at five past graduation ceremonies and will do it again at three ceremonies May 17, including her own graduation at 9 a.m. And NIU School of Music officials would like her to do it at future graduations, for as long as she would like.

"The national anthem is definitely the hardest song to sing," Schiller said. "I have done it before at a Cougars game, and I have sung in front of about 16,000 at the NIU graduation."

When Schiller sings at this year's graduations, they will have more meaning and emotion than those in the past, with the tragedy of the Feb. 14 shootings in Cole Hall still weighing heavily on Huskie hearts.

"All I can think about is how lucky I am that I was not in Cole Hall that day," said Schiller, whose brother, Pat, is an NIU freshman. "This was the first semester in five years of being a student there that I did not have a class in Cole Hall.

"The first phone call I made was to my brother because I knew he had classes at Cole Hall, but thankfully he was at his dorm cafeteria," Schiller said.

Moving forward: As time has passed, Schiller said, "I think we have all done a tremendous job moving forward and getting on with our lives with the help of our professors, counselors, friends, family and the community.

"I love NIU and I wear my colors of red and black with pride."

She also should be proud of her singing voice, which has been on display at other big events. During her senior year in high school, she represented the Midwest Division at the Music Teachers National Association national competition in Salt Lake City.

She had hoped to sing the national anthem at an upcoming White Sox game, but arrangements to do that Tuesday afternoon fell through when the Sox brass, which has done so much to honor NIU, apparently had a scheduling mix-up and had to cancel her appearance.

With the Sox game getting scratched off her schedule for now, what would be next?

"I guess the next stop would be a Bears game," Schiller sais with a big smile.

Not Mom's hotcakes: Be still my beating heart. An item on the breakfast menu at Nosh, on James Street in Geneva, caught my eye last weekend and had my heart racing. It was under the menu category of "Your Mom won't make this." And knowing my wife, I can say with complete confidence she would not make this for breakfast: Mars bar hotcakes.

You read that correctly. That's three chocolate chip pancakes, topped with caramel, almonds and nougat.

One could get a toothache just thinking about it.

All in one place: The high cost of higher education is staggering, but you can add the cost of gasoline to that headache. The gas, of course, comes into play when you are carting your college-age child all over the state, the Midwest, or maybe even the country, to visit college campuses.

More so than ever, attending something like the Fox Valley College Fair from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at the St. Charles North High School gym makes a lot of sense.

Karen Porter, the scholarship coordinator at North, tells me more than 180 colleges and universities from around the country will be represented.

High school students and their parents from the entire region are invited to attend.

One word of warning is being passed along by Porter -- please be patient if there is a lack of parking.

A popular practice: When I began living and working in the Tri-Cities area some 30 years ago, I noticed one thing that was very different than Naperville, where I grew up. People here were really into garage sales. When my wife and I had one at our home -- at the time on 14th Street in St. Charles -- it was amazing how many people showed up. So it makes sense that the St. Charles Park District still promotes the concept with its community garage sale scheduled for 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday to benefit the teen center. Keep your eyes peeled for the sales in town those two days.