Please take a moment to learn a little more about our talented and diverse alumni as they excel in life after Illinois State.
Check back often, as we will continually showcase new alumni throughout the year. Spotlighted Alumni rotate each time the site is visited.
Career: Team Leader in Life/Health Underwriting: State Farm Insurance, Owner: Spears Consulting Services
Treyce' L Spears, a 2006 Graduate of Illinois State University's Sociology & Anthropology department, where she earned a Master's Degree, has been selected by The Conference Board to facilitate a session based on her thesis work, “Black Women: Balancing Multiple Identities In Corporate America” during their upcoming Diversity Conference.
It was at Illinois State University in the classrooms where I was introduced to the writings of Patricia Hill-Collins; Ella L.J. Edmonson Bell and Stella M. Nkomo whose discussions on professional identity and “the outsider within” helped to explain what I was witnessing and reading about, a mass exodus of Black women from the corporate sector. I began to ask questions. The responses that came from women throughout central Illinois made my research necessary and relevant.
I will always be grateful to the many professors at Illinois State University whochallenged me to explorethe issuesbehind the actions.To understandoutcomesand not be satisfied with simply knowing, butcause others to understand and be moved to positive action.Dr. Maura Toro-Morn served as my thesis Chairperson along with Dr. DianeBjorklund, and Dr. Sammie Robinson, professor at Illinois Wesleyan University.
Spears is employed at State Farm Insurance Company in the Life/Health Underwriting department where she serves as a Team Leader. Spears, who worked while pursuing her degree, says that her employerwas always flexible concerning classschedules.“When I neededto adjust my hours to attend a daytimeclass,my management made it possible." Spearssaysshe recently celebrated14-years with the company.Spears also owns Spears Consulting Services, and says that she hopes to publish a book on her business strategy and apply for a grant to expand her research on the subject she began at Illinois State University.
Career: Latin America Product Operations Manager, Motorola Inc. in Libertyville, IL
How did Illinois State help me get there?
As an undergraduate, I struggled to identify the best career path for me, but ultimately I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology in 1992 and immediately completed my Masters of Arts in Sociology in the summer of 1993. The skills I learned in little under 6 years at Illinois State University could not have been more beneficial in my last seven years at Motorola and in my personal relationships.. The one thing I found most valuable in my day to day work is the relationships and networks I have built in my life. This network is something you can always count on when working projects, accomplishing goals and ultimately achieving future career growth. I feel that the time I spent in my studies of Sociology really gave me a lot of information about how people are effected by their past interactions with people, their upbringing and their socio-economical factors. In the end, getting them to work together in a collaborative manner comes down to doing your best to understand them and their needs.
I once worried that I might be limited in what I could use my degree in Sociology, but the truth is I have done supply chain planning, sales operations and product operations and currently the majority of my employees are Latin American, so my sociology skills are more used then ever. Six years later I received my MBA degree and although that knowledge is helpful, it is my opinion that it has not been the driving factor for my career growth and the extensive network I have built. I now realize that struggle in the beginning to chose my career was really the best thing and gave me great flexibility to choose the best path for me.
High School Teacher, University High School
"The summer of 1996, I took a job as an archaeological Field Technician for Burgess and Niple Architects and Engineers. I was part of a phase III salvage excavation on the Indiana side of the Ohio River. The site was Middle Mississippian and we blasted it out to make way for a road. Who says you can’t use a back ho and pan scrapper in archaeology! In the fall of 1996 I made my way out West to do my graduate work at Western Washington University in Bellingham. I worked as a teaching assistant for the archaeological field school that excavated sites in British Columbia and on Sucia Island.."
"After I finished the MA I returned to Illinois and took a job working second shift at a group home for young men with rather severe behavior disorders. I was then able to take courses towards a second BA in education which I completed in 2000. In 2005 I achieved National Board Certification in Early Adolescent Social Studies Education. In 2006 I took my current position teaching 9th grade World Studies and 10th grade U.S. Studies at University High School in Normal."
"My anthropology background provided by ISU has dramatically shaped who I am as a teacher. I deal with kids on a daily basis who are struggling to understand the global events impacting not only our nation but the multitudes of peoples we share the planet with. The experience I had at ISU informs how I deal with these issues. Whether it is teaching about the earliest days of human evolution, the rise of Western Civilization in Mesopotamia, to the secular humanism of Enlightenment philosophy, I try to create an environment where kids can express the diversity of their views on controversial topics. The kind of environment I had as a student in my undergraduate anthropology courses at ISU."
"A few years ago I turned my hand to creative writing and now have stories published in The First Line, The Storyteller, The Rockford Review, The Northwoods Journal, the Dan River Anthology, and AntiMuse.org. All of my pieces are anthropologically informed. The first story I ever sold was to The First Line and it is a piece dealing with the Afghan sport of Buzkashi. I am currently working on a book set against the Second Anglo Afghan War of 1878-1880."
