This year’s Homecoming celebration, coinciding with the 175th anniversary of IWU, was likely the most attended Homecoming in the history of the university.
“I have attended many a Homecoming since entering as a freshman in the fall of ‘67,” said Judith Ballard ‘71 in a Facebook comment on one of IWU’s Homecoming posts. “Without a doubt, Homecoming 2025 ranks up there as one of my all-time favorites. Kudos to all that made this such a memorable weekend. I always feel that a little piece of my heart remains in Bloomington after I leave.”
This success was thanks to the incredible community of alumni who have remained connected to the University, and each other, through years of friendship. A few of these groups of long-time friends and colleagues have shared their stories during this historic Homecoming season.
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“We’ve often been told the class of 2000 was ‘magic,’” said Nicole (Dykas) Scott ‘00 in a letter to the University, noting the “energy, ambition and unity” that propelled a specific group of them to lifelong success and friendship.
The Sanity Circle, as a group of 6 female alumni married to 3 male alumni came to call themselves in an online group chat, first met in 1996 when a majority of them attended a student-organized campus sleepover for minority students before the beginning of their first year on campus. Though some didn’t know until then that they had known each other long before 1996.
“Myself, Shaneka (McDavid) Langston ‘00, and Dwayne Hamilton ‘00 – who lives in Japan now – were all in the same third grade class together,” said Jewell (Littles) Walton ‘00. “We all dispersed and went our own ways after that, so in the first days after we arrived on campus, we were looking at each other like, ‘You look so familiar.’ So we found our third grade class pictures and realized, ‘This is you!’”
The group credits the sleepover weekend and support from existing students with convincing them that IWU was the place for them to be, despite it feeling like a distant and inaccessible place from their perspectives as urban-raised students of color.
“The efforts were organized by students who wanted to find people who, traditionally, private higher education didn’t serve as much, and show them that, maybe it’s not like the world they know, but they’re going to find a community that welcomes them and makes sure they’re okay,” Nicole said.
This opportunity not only created life-long friendships but created a chosen family and set them up for generational achievements.
“All but one of us are first-generation college graduates,” said Nicole.
“And my parents had gone to college in another country,” Silver (Rayside) Daniel ‘00 said, “so they had no idea what college in the United States was like.”
“We were the most diverse class in IWU’s history at the time,” Nicole continued, “and I think we were also one of the most successful.”
Among their friend group alone are a federal judge, a physician, an insurance chief legal executive, and other leaders and urban planning, health system administrators and directors in higher education. And, while on campus, the group found a guide and mentor in Deon Hornsby ‘97, now a trustee for both the Private Risk Management Association and Illinois Wesleyan University. Deon even “married into” the Sanity Circle through his wedding to Mona (Williams) Hornsby ‘00.
For 25 years, the Sanity Circle has supported each other as chosen family, celebrating weddings, birthdays and holidays together and supporting each other through all the successes and challenges that life has brought.
“The women of the Sanity Circle get together regularly, at least every other month, once a year for a planned trip, and the entire group consisting of spouses and children get together probably three or four times a year, at least,” Silver said. “Or just whenever someone needs someone to show up for them, one of us can throw up the bat signal and we’ll all come with whatever they need.”
Fourteen members of the Sanity Circle Family came together for their class’s 25th Homecoming reunion, creating a special opportunity to celebrate their lifelong friendship that began on campus.
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“At Riverwalk we have six members who are all IWU alums,” said Chris Bisaillon ‘93, the chief marketing officer of Riverwalk Capital Partners and a member of the IWU Board of Trustees. “Steve Dudash ‘99, Nate ‘96 and Matt Hilding ‘00, Collin Cheney ‘24, William McNulty ‘25 and myself.”
According to Chris, the multigenerational talent of the investment group is just one fractal of a large informal organization of alumni that formed around a common interest: golf.
“There’s about 30 of us IWU grads who have been playing every year together for at least 25 years,” Chris said. “It’s almost impossible to get 30 guys to do anything for 25 years.”
The effort that goes into maintaining the group is evident as a labor of love. The golf group, who call themselves the Fellows, have their own website and arrange competitions with prizes. But the effort has more than paid off with a considerable network of wisdom and talent generated by what Chris calls the “Illinois Wesleyan ecosystem.”
“At a smaller school you’re going to be sitting with the same 20 people multiple times a week in your economics or marketing class, which helps you really develop friendships with those people,” Chris said. Almost counterintuitively, the smaller number of students at a liberal arts university seems to create more opportunities to form lasting relationships among exceptional alumni who can go on to create great value in their chosen fields.
“I’ve always been passionate about entrepreneurship,” said Chris, who also joined IWU contemporary Jason Akemann ‘96 and Nate to create restaurant management firm Bottleneck Management in 2007. “What I’ve found is that, if you hang around friends who are high achievers you are almost forced to be a high achiever yourself. There’s a positive peer pressure when you see so many of your friends being successful and doing meaningful things whether in business or community service.”
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“We started off as artistic collaborators but quickly became inseparable pals,” said Braden Poole ‘16. “We've always subscribed to the notion that Red Scarves is less of a band and more like brothers who make music.”
The brotherhood of Red Scarves’ members, including Braden, Ayethaw Tun ‘15, Ryan Donlin ‘17 and Robby Kuntz ‘18, began the same way that countless college friendships have, with the music of Bob Dylan.
“One of my biggest inspirations at IWU was meeting the late Professor Ronald Emmons,” Ayethaw said. “I took his ‘The Words and Music of Bob Dylan’ course in fall of 2011. I came away from that class becoming obsessed with Dylan and folk music… In the fall of 2012, while approaching his office, I heard that he had another student with him,” who happened to be Braden. “Professor Emmons immediately mentioned that Braden knew how to play ukulele and guitar and sing and that we should get together and form a group.”
The group called themselves Red Scarves after a specific scarf bought for Ayethaw by his mother before he was born. He saw his relationship with the accessory as a metaphor for the group’s relationship with music – an object with long-lived connections to comfort, purpose and complex emotions.
The full group came together in 2014, when Ayethaw and Ryan met Robby at an IWU Jazz Lab rehearsal, after which Ryan spontaneously asked the other two to stay for a jam session.
“It was an electric feeling,” Ayethaw said. “There was an instant chemistry.”
Over the last decade, the band has released more than 20 albums, demos and singles. Their style draws from a variety of influences one might expect from Millennials who appreciate the popular folk music of the 60s, and their vision and talent met with success as the group has sold albums and toured regionally. But the driving purpose of their band is brotherhood.
“Through highs and lows, deaths and births - we've been together to support one another,” Braden said. “One of the greatest privileges of my life has been to see these guys grow into the men they are today.”
Red Scarves plans to release its final album in 2026 as the band members move into new phases in life, but they expect to continue to make music and friendship together for decades more.
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During Homecoming 2025, members of the Sanity Circle Family came to campus to celebrate their friendship and connection to their alma mater, but they also came to potentially add some new Titans to the family. A handful of high school juniors and seniors, all of whom grew up as cousins in the Sanity Circle Family, joined their parents to tour campus and talk about their plans for the future.
“It’s a smaller community where I know I can make friends,” said James Scott, III, of his interest in IWU. “I really like all the nature on campus, and I can do pre-law while playing guitar.”
Nicole beamed as her son spoke of his vision for himself. “That’s how I know that this is still the place for us,” she said, echoing what she wrote in her letter to the University.
“We share this letter not only to commemorate our reunion, but also to offer a message of encouragement: Illinois Wesleyan University provides far more than an education. It cultivates resilience, community, purpose, and the kind of deep, sustaining relationships that define a life well-lived. We are living proof of the enduring value of the Wesleyan experience.”