Long-Form Journalism


Bobbi Jo’s Second Story

Many know the one that ended in a famous statue, but there’s more  Bobbi Jo Wright is famous in certain circles for being the girl in the statute, the one who was lifted up and held by the Shriner. But sometimes, there’s another memory that jumps past the event that led to the sculpture that…

A Life, Back on Course

St. Louis Shriners Hospital team helps Kansas teen pursue college golf dreams When Kerrigan approached the tee on the 530-yard par-5 first hole at Sugar Hills Golf Course while home for spring break, mentally, she was more than a few moon shots from where she was just a few years before. Staring down the not-yet…

A Life-Changing Month for Johan

Boy returns to Honduras with iPad, greater independence  One morning in the not-too-distant future, Johan will leave his house and join his classmates on the walk to school in his mountainous home village outside Ocotepeque, Honduras. Slung on his back locked safely in a sturdy case will be an iPad donated to him during his…

The Story of Big James

They called him Big James, and when he was tracking down varsity quarterbacks as a high school underclassman in the state championships, he was a special sight to see – especially to those who knew The Story. The story that Big James was born with a right foot so disfigured his mere presence on the football…

Is The Housing Market About To Crash? 

Reprinted from allenbrake.com Key Points The year that just ended was a historically unprecedented seller’s market in the St. Louis region. Many of the same market conditions exist in 2022. Rising interest rates make this a key time for potential buyers to take action.  Remember the Cabbage Patch Kid craze of 1983? If not, it’s definitely worth…

Welcome to Your New (Virtual) Home

Republished from allenbrake.com Can we interest you in buying a house that doesn’t exist?  Oh, and we’re not talking about a piece of property on which you can build your dream home. We’re talking about something that isn’t part of our reality.  Confused? Talk to your kid.  Today’s children know all about the metaverse. If…

Regrowing Hope for Transplant Patients

Published March 15, 2022 Andrew Benintende, MD, has witnessed the tragic consequences when a human body rejects a transplanted organ. His goal is to stop that rejection from happening.   Dr. Benintende is taking time away from his general surgery residency at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City to perform research at Northwestern…

Seeing the Science in Person

MBP director Danielle Tullman-Ercek and two current students talked about the American Chemical Society’s massive spring gathering and how Northwestern Engineering’s Master of Biotechnology Program (MBP) is preparing students for new trends and innovations. Published April 20, 2022 There was a lot of “new” for Olivia Meyer and Byron Fan when they attended the American…

What I Learned Creating A Self-Balancing Robot

Anna Garverick talks about her experience creating a robot that remains centered on a moving ball and the most important lessons she took away from the experience. Published April 20, 2022 The night before Anna Garverick was to present her independent project for Northwestern Engineering’s Master of Science in Robotics (MSR) program, she learned a…

Designing Products People Love

Bridget McMullan (MPD2 ’17) is using her MPD2 knowledge to meet member needs as director of product strategy at Anthem, America’s largest for-profit health insurer. Published April 20, 2022 Bridget McMullan expected that falsified or lost COVID-19 vaccine cards would be a problem for the public once vaccinations became available.  As the director of product…

Designing IoT Products to Connect the World

Ryan Lee (MMM ’16) talks about how Northwestern’s MMM program prepared him for his work as senior director of product management with Hologram, an Internet of Things startup. Published May 17, 2022 Ryan Lee spent more than five years as a consultant, and he enjoyed helping clients solve their business and technology challenges. But he…

Making Sense of the Magic

Denny Hsieh applies lessons from Northwestern Engineering’s Master of Project Management (MPM) program into his daily work at Intel. Published May 10, 2022 Denny Hsieh speaks candidly when he discusses his skills as a presenter prior to starting the capstone communication project in Northwestern Engineering’s Master of Project Management (MPM) program. “I was pretty bad,”…

Show Me That Smile

It was an ordinary afternoon in the lunch room of a Rochester, New York, elementary school, and all Ryan wanted to do was eat an apple like his classmates. Instead, the lunch room aide came over with a paring knife and cut the second-grader’s fruit into small pieces he could manage with his toothless mouth.…

Meet Ms. Hollywood

Camille steps into Shriners Hospitals for Children — St. Louis on the first cooler day leading into fall with her mom, Shantay, in tow. Ms. Hollywood has arrived. The 3-year-old Evansville, Indiana, girl recently underwent the first of what will be three limb-lengthening procedures before she hits her teen years. “When she walks into a…

The Ultramarathon Man

As Zach prepares for his first ultramarathon, he sometimes finds himself 20 miles into a training run deep in the Redwood Forest with tears streaming down his blond-bearded face. It’s not pain from the grueling run or sadness from a sometimes difficult past that brings them. They are tears of appreciation that he, born without…

Rewriting Their Stories

Rewriting their stories Host parents play important role in Shriners Hospitals international efforts to change lives It’s less than an hour before surgery, and Soumaila is taking deep whiffs from an oxygen mask that has been scented with cake batter. The mask isn’t hooked up to anything. It’s a replica that is part of a…

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