College of DuPage honors 2024 Class of 5 Under 5 Alumni

The College of DuPage Foundation’s inaugural 5 Under 5 program celebrates five alumni who have made significant contributions to their communities, professions and fields of study within five years of leaving the college.

Honored for their accomplishments are Rima Househ, Brian Kavanaugh, Princess Siafa, Lori Swanson and Samuel Christopher Wilson.

Learn more about COD’s 5 Under 5:

• Rima Househ, marketing and events coordinator at Carol Fox and Associates

Rima Househ comes from a long line of COD graduates – great uncles, an uncle and aunt, her mother, and her older sister. Her time at COD included being part of the Buffalo Theatre Ensemble’s shadow program, through which she was able to work closely with a professional actor.

Because of her background and language skills, Househ would love to work internationally, possibly in Europe or the Middle East, and apply what she learned at COD. She believes she can help people through arts, especially in places where it is an emerging part of the culture. In 2019, Househ was named one of the college’s two outstanding graduates.

Rima’s COD Story

• Brian Kavanaugh Jr., operations supervisor/team leader

Brian Kavanaugh Jr. enrolled in COD’s Automotive Service Technology program after hearing of its excellent reputation. After graduating with his Master Automotive Service Technology Associate in Applied Science, he began in Ally Bank’s insurance division as a mechanical claims specialist. He reviewed and adjudicated low-dollar mechanical claims, which relied on his extensive knowledge of auto diagnosis. He then was promoted into a position as an office-based adjuster dealing with high-dollar mechanical claims and denials.

His next promotion was as team coordinator managing the day-to-day tasks of the MCS team, and currently he is a team leader overseeing the operations of the MCS team. This includes setting up meetings and collaborations with directors and managers to implement new procedures or to enforce other procedures. His goal is to continue climbing the ranks at Ally.

• Princess Siafa, journalist and DePaul University Graduate

Princess Siafa has never wanted to be anything else but a journalist. After she moved from Liberia to the U.S with her family, her sister recommended COD. While balancing full-time work with being a full-time student, Siafa found opportunities like the Career Ready Scholar program offered through the Career Services office that prepared her for the future.

Siafa’s goal is to become a news anchor and educator, like Emmy Award-winning correspondent Marley Kayden, who also co-hosted “Chicago’s Best” on WGN. As a journalist, Siafa aims to affect as much change as she can from her position, just as she has seen reporters from her home country do. Her ultimate dream is to open a college in Liberia that can serve students the way COD has served her.

• Kaela Villafania, Ph.D. student at Michigan State University

Kaela Villafania first became interested in physics because of the problem solving and creative thinking required. She received a position in NIU’s Research Rookies program, through which she worked with a faculty mentor on her research during her first year and became co-vice president of the Society of Physics Students. Before graduating with a Bachelor of Science, with a minor in applied mathematics, she was accepted into a student diversity traineeship at Argonne National Laboratory to work with the Accelerator Development Group.

During the summer of 2022, she applied for the Chicagoland Accelerator Science Traineeship at NIU and was accepted into both NIU’s master’s program and CAST program. Villafania is now working on her Ph.D. in physics and focus on accelerator science. She sees her future self holding a joint appointment with a national laboratory and a university.

• Samuel Wilson, Accounting Tax Consultant, Deloitte

Wilson said his best experience at COD was spending two years with the accountancy program’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program, which provides free tax preparation for members of the community during tax season. He was also an Honors Scholar and the lead organizer of the college’s chess club, through which he showed many students how playing chess can develop career-ready abilities.

Wilson, who earned his Associate in Arts degree, was named one of the college’s two outstanding graduates. He also received a scholarship from the Illinois Community College Faculty Association, awarded to only seven community college students in Illinois annually. Wilson was accepted into the prestigious Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he earned his Bachelor in Accounting. He now works as a tax consultant at Deloitte.

View photos from the ceremony on the COD Newsroom’s Flickr.com page.