Andrew Haglund

Sauk Valley Community College is just a few miles from where I grew up and it recently celebrated its 60th anniversary. My grandpa was involved in its founding and I could not be more proud of what he’s done for my hometown. If I could somehow, someday, give back to my community the way he has: well that’d be a hell of a thing.

Reposting the original story by Brandon Clark about the 60th anniversary of Sauk Valley Community College since Shaw Local’s website is an ad-filled abomination:

Celebrating 60 years of Sauk: How a community built a college and a lasting legacy

Sixty years ago, a determined group of local visionaries decided to turn an “educational desert” into a flourishing community college serving thousands each year.

As Sauk Valley Community College marks its 60th anniversary in 2025, its founders, leaders and supporters are reflecting on how a grassroots movement built a thriving institution from the ground up while continuing to shape futures across northwest Illinois.

The college’s roots go back to 1965 when discussions began among educators, civic leaders and residents about the need for a local junior college. One of the key figures behind that movement was Pete Dillon of Sterling, who would go on to serve as a founding member of SVCC’s first Board of Trustees.

“I was the first one to go to college in my family,” Dillon said. “When I came back [from school], I thought, wow, we’re kind of in an educational desert.”

“You can’t find someone who’s written a book on how to create a college. We were building something from nothing. But the people were genuinely committed to getting this thing done and we did it.”

– Pete Dillon, a founding member of SVCC’s first Board of Trustees

Former SVCC board member Mary Ellen Wilkinson recalled the early work Pete did even before there was a board.

“He worked on recruiting representatives from the various communities, and then those people had to be elected,” Wilkinson said. ”So there was a process before there was ever a board.”

Wilkinson said a feasibility study alone took a year and involved 100 people from 10 school districts.

When it came time to make the college a reality, Pete literally sketched out the foundation.

“I designed it at 4 in the morning in my basement,” Pete said of the Ironsides building – the college’s very first facility – built while the main campus was still under development. “The idea was that we needed something that could be used while the campus was being constructed.”

To generate community support, Dillon organized open houses so residents could walk through the Ironsides structure while it was still being built.

“We had a few thousand people come through,” Pete said. ”You probably couldn’t get away with that today.”

That public engagement helped lead to overwhelming support in a 1966 referendum to officially create the district.

“At Sterling High School, when we voted that day, we had to turn away 400 people because they couldn’t get in to vote,” Dillon recalled.

Even the college’s name was a community effort.

“There was a contest to name the college,” current SVCC President Dave Hellmich said.

A third-grade student at Dixon’s St. Mary’s School, Michael Flanagan, submitted the winning name.

SVCC opened its doors in the fall of 1966 with 660 students. Today, it serves over 2,000 students each semester with a wide range of academic, career and community-centered programs, including associate degrees in art, science, or applied science in more than 35 areas and over 50 certificates.

During the 2024–2025 academic year, SVCC awarded 247 associate degrees, 446 career-technical certificates, and 129 credentials, totaling 822 awards.

Vice President of Academics and Student Services Jon Mandrell highlighted one of SVCC’s more recent accomplishments – launching a regional police academy.

“Public safety is a huge need. Our September class is already full,” Mandrell said. “There was a gaping hole for police training from central Illinois up to the northwest. We just kept asking and asking, and advocating for years until we were finally heard.”

The college’s commitment to meeting local needs does not stop there. SVCC’s Vice President of Advancement Lori Cortez said the college’s Small Business Development Center supports more than 200 entrepreneurs and small businesses each year.

“Whether it’s to start up a business, keep their business going, or help them retire and transfer it to someone else, we’re here,” Cortez said.

SVCC is also helping local high school students invest in their futures.

The college’s Impact Program helps local high school students pay for their tuition when they complete volunteer service hours. Last year, it was awarded the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Excellence in Revitalization.

The college has also evolved beyond its original mission by offering select four-year degree options in partnership with universities.

“That wasn’t part of the original concept,” Wilkinson said, “But once you get your foot in the door and you see what’s possible, it makes a huge difference.”

Cortez agreed.

“Our data backs that up,” Cortez said. “Our retention rate here at the college is about 20% higher than other community colleges.”

Today, SVCC’s campus stretches across 150 scenic acres along the Rock River between Sterling and Dixon, a location that Pete helped negotiate during 30 days of daily visits and coffee with a reluctant landowner to seal the deal.

Looking back, Pete said none of the founding team had a playbook.

“You can’t find someone who’s written a book on how to create a college,” Pete said. “We were building something from nothing. But the people were genuinely committed to getting this thing done and we did it.”

Now 60 years on, Sauk Valley Community College is not only still standing, it is thriving, and still grounded in the values that built it: accessibility, persistence and a deep belief in what’s possible when a community comes together.

“You won’t find a better value in this world than a community college,” Mandrell said.

I’m a big fan of Severance and I’m so glad Ben and Adam are back for a few episodes of their podcast this summer to follow up the impeccable season 2. The first episode, Points of Vibration is a major overlapping Venn diagram for me since it guest stars Conan O’Brien (go Team Coco).

Around 26 minutes Conan talks about why he loves the show, which captures what I resonates with me:

[My son] loves it. And we talk about it. And then my wife will get into the conversation and we’ll really drill down in it and discuss things. And that is my favorite thing; shows that invite discussion, debate afterwards. When someone else makes a world that I believe is real, I’m taken for this great ride and I am invited to be part of it. And it’s just, you know, joyous. It’s great. You guys built a world.

Later on:

I also like the format in Severance: something very serious is happening. And Mark has, we know that he’s widowed, believes he’s widowed. He’s gone through a terrible tragedy. He wants to escape. It’s very dark. There’s some truly dark moments, but then Tramell [Tillman], as Milchick, will go into that dance. And I laughed. I mean, I stood on my feet when that happened.

Because when you set up a world like Severance, when the comedy does come in, or not even comedy, something comes in at an odd angle and there’s so many very funny moments, but it can come 30 seconds after someone really believes that the love of their life has gone forever. And so I’m at the mercy of the show, which I really like. I’m just there to witness this world.

I also have to say, I love the way the computers look, the way there’s this kind of mid-80s, late-80s design aesthetic. And so the cars are very generic and square and all of the stuff. I find myself looking at the stuff and the way it’s lit and the way the shots are composed.

And, you know, we live in this world now where people say, “was it a TV show or is it a movie?” I think we’re beyond that now because yes, this is technically a television show, but as someone who has hosted the Oscars, I don’t really see the difference anymore. You string all of Severance together with different edits and you make some cuts here and there and you make something that’s three and a half hours long. And I don’t see why that’s not an Oscar-worthy film.

They also interviewed Allen Stare, host of the Severed podcast (which I had not heard of). He conducts tons of research into the production of the show and goes far beyond a typical rewatch podcast.

Not related to the show but I loved Conan’s anecdote around the 13 minute mark about his personality:

My father was a scientist and he once looked at me — and he wasn’t kidding — and he went, “I think I understand. You’re making your living off something that should be treated.”

I certainly relate to this. I find that the things I get obsessive about are some of the same reasons I’m can be gainfully employed as a halfway-decent designer. (It bleeds into all areas of my life.)

PS. Transcriptions from the podcast were provided by Macwhisper.

A few weeks ago while heading to Wisconsin I strolled into a Target on Nintendo Switch 2 launch day, an hour after opening, and snagged a Switch 2 with Mario Kart World. It seemed liked there was a steady stream of buyers. As soon as someone checked out another would arrive but there wasn’t really a line, per se.

I gave up on getting a Switch 2 (at least immediately) after failing to secure one during preorders. But I was keen on replaying Zelda Breath of the Wild in 4K after seeing so many YouTube videos showing how good it looked.

This began a quest involving Mac gaming, OLED monitors, and finding the zen of console gaming.

I got Breath of the Wild working using CEMU on my Mac mini running at 5K resolution 60 frames per second and it looked fantastic. My Mac was humming along without even kicking on the fan and the quality was unreal. Apple’s display is not ideal for gaming so I started looking into some fancy OLED 4K monitors. After tinkering a bit I got the game running at 4K 240 frames per second and it was glorious. It was like I was seeing Hyrule for the first time, just absolutely stunning. I settled in and decided I’m gonna replay Breath of the Wild over the next 6 months on my Mac.

But this came with downsides like:

• Stutters from shader caching
• Annoyances with button mapping and connecting my controller
• Small thing: but the clicks to open CEMU, pick Zelda, get to fullscreen.
• Figuring out how to transfer my save file if I wanted to put it on our MacBook Air to play away from my desk (I tried the built in macOS Screen Sharing but no dice. It doesn’t support controller input and neither does Moonlight for macOS.)

These are definitely the first-est of first-world problems, no doubt. But they’re friction and time-consuming and when you have limited gaming time (because you have a 1-year-old kid) it adds up.

So now I have my surprise Switch 2 and I happily paid $10 to upgrade to the Switch 2 Edition. After some difficulty downloading (hotel Wi-Fi is crap. Bring an ethernet cable, kids. Shoutout to the concierge who dug through the back office to find me one) I was ripping through Hyrule and it was stunning. It’s not as high-fidelity as it was on my Mac mini set up but there’s zero of those friction points. I can even switch (ha!) to handheld mode and take it on the go. That’s the joy of console gaming, especially with Nintendo where it’s plug-and-play and system updates take 30 seconds instead of 30 minutes.

My last anecdote with the Switch 2 is our first night with it: we were trapped in a hotel room with a kid who goes to bed at 7 PM. We sat on the opposite end from where the kid was asleep and we put the Switch 2 in table top mode. My wife and I each had a Joy-Con and we had a blast playing a few rounds of Grand Prix in Mario Kart World before heading to bed. (It wouldn’t be until the next week that I discovered the sheer delight of Knockout mode.)

This post is really just here to say, and it’s gonna sound dumb: I like when gaming is fun. You hit a button and the Switch wakes up and you’re right back to getting blown to bits by a Guardian or sprinting away from a Lynel. Nintendo just makes it so nice to play games and I’m excited for the Switch 2 era to kick off.

As mentioned in my Q1 2024 update I was not a fan of Asteroid City. I was lukewarm on The French Dispatch as well so I was starting to think Wes Anderson’s work just wasn’t for me anymore (which is totally fine!). I’m a huge fan The Royal Tenenbaums, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and The Darjeeling Limited.

Every project has the potential of greatness. His latest movie The Phoenician Scheme I think achieves this. It combines his fascination with miniatures and over-the-top sets (and 90º angles) with genuine and funny dialog from his earlier work. Where his recent work felt soulless, there was heart here. This is as close to an “action movie” that Wes will likely go and I was enthralled. Michael Cera also shines with the most bizarrely charming accent.

Two thumbs up!

I bought the base M4 Pro Mac mini and have a twinge of buyer’s remorse after seeing the base M4 Max Mac Studio. For $600 more you get 2x the GPU, 2 more CPU cores, 12 GB more RAM, SD card slot, and more ports.

The only downside? Less cute.