2020s
Max Hoover, attended Kent State 2018–2020, Warren, OH, owner of Cockeye Creamery in Warren, Ohio, served his Kent State-inspired “Black Squirrel” ice cream until Sept. 19, 2021, to raise money for Kent State University at Trumbull’s Care Closet. Hoover, who uses his background in biology and integrated science to experiment with innovative flavors, combined espresso ice cream, caramel streak and cinnamon streusel to pay homage to Kent State’s unofficial mascot, the black squirrel.
Hoover donated 15% of Black Squirrel proceeds to the Care Closet, which opened in the fall. It was created by 2020-2021 Undergraduate Student Government to provide food, personal items and clothing to students in need.
Earlier in the summer, Hoover ran a similar campaign with the limited run “Black Squirrel” flavor. He donated 15% of those proceeds to benefit The Campus Kitchen at the Kent Campus, which provides nutritious food and meals each week for students and Portage County community members struggling with food insecurity. In just a week, he sold more than 20 gallons.
"Giving back to the community is important to my family and me," says Hoover, whose parents also attended Kent State in the early ’90s. (Erik Hoover and Stacey Hoover, BS ’93, started Cockeye BBQ in 2015 and later expanded to Cockeye Creamery, which their son owns and operates.) “Some students are struggling to work, care of their families, take classes and study, so it’s nice to do something that may ease their burden.”
View a video at https://www.kent.edu/alumni/news/max-hoover.
Antonio Williams, BIS ’20, Chicago, IL, is one of four US-born basketball players on the Tallinna Kalev/TLU roster in the Korvpalli Meistriliiga league—the highest tier level and most important professional basketball league in Estonia. (Tallin, Estonia’s largest city, is located 55 miles south of Helsinki, Finland, across the Gulf of Finland.) Williams is a starting point guard and has led the team in scoring, averaging 17.8 points per game as of late April.
During his 2019-2020 senior year at Kent State, Williams led the Golden Flashes in scoring (14.7 points per game) and assists. The team finished 20-12 and had a chance to make it to the NCAA tournament, but the season was cut short by COVID-19. They were sent home midway through the Mid-American Conference tournament because of the virus.
Nadim Boukhdhir, MArch ’21, Tunis, Tunisia, wrote about his experience as a Fulbright Scholar at Kent State, which was shared on the Office of Global Education website and on the College of Architecture and Engineering’s Twitter account. He was awarded a fellowship from Kent State to travel to Finland to continue research into innovative learning approaches and educational strategies.
Sara Haidet, BA ’21, Louisville, OH, was hired as media coordinator at Innis Maggiore, a full-service positioning ad agency based in Canton, Ohio. Her responsibilities include researching and organizing media plans as well as managing media budgets. She majored in communication studies at Kent State University at Stark and was a project management intern at the agency before being hired full time.
Grace Irvin-Dillard, BA ’21, BBA ’21, Bedford, OH, launched a body care company as part of an Entrepreneurial Experience class in 2019. Since founding the company, Touched by Grace Body Care, Irvin-Dillard has recorded more than 4,600 sales. According to a July 30, 2021 article in Cleveland.com, she reached “six figures” in sales in 2020 alone. In addition to degrees in entrepreneurship and Pan-African studies from Kent State, she also received a diploma in natural skin care formulation from the School of Natural Skincare.
Lauren Sasala, BS ’21, Sylvania, OH, was born and raised in Northwest Ohio but says she feels most at home in the mountains. She graduated from Kent State with a bachelor’s in journalism and recreation management and now is a missionary guide for Creatio, a youth evangelization program. It aims to guide young adults to experience beauty and goodness and to encounter the presence of God in creation through missions, outdoor adventures and care for creation.