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About Candice
Candice Nicole Solomon graduated in May 2003 with a B.A. in English and a B.A. in Rhetoric, she continued on at UIUC to obtain her M.S. in Library and Information Sciences in 2004, with her curriculum focus in the Design and Evaluation of Information Systems and Services. Currently, she is employed as the Coordinator of PC Support at the College of Veterinary Medicine at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. In her spare time she teaches Tae Kwon Do, sings, dances, makes collages and serves as the Section 50 Chair and Discover Course Coordinator of Alpha Phi Omega.

At age 27, Candice is the oldest of four children and serves as a wonderful role model for my younger siblings. Jamaal is no longer hanging around in Champaign since he enlisted in the Air force. He spent a year or so traveling around the world performing with Tops in Blue and now is stationed in Japan. Omar recently graduated with an associates degree from Prairie State College and attends Eastern Illinois Univeristy. Omar is very active at EIU and enjoys playing and watching sports. Last but not least, Rashida is a junior in high school. She enjoys track, fashion, cooking, chatting online and talking on the phone.

About Jason
William Jason Strutz is a 28 year old database administrator / application developer / designer for CITES Classroom Technologies. Born in the balmy Midwest, on Valentine’s Day no less, Jason has lived in Champaign his entire life (and is dying to leave). He obtained a bachelors degree in Computer Science from the University of Illinois, graduating early, and then made up that extra time by taking forever to earn his Master’s Degree from the same institution in Computer Engineering. Jason has a younger brother David who also recently graduated from UIUC.

Jason enjoys fantasy sports, regular sports, sports related video games, and naps. And of course, no day would be complete without a game of Slingball, or Sling-Some-Other-Object. Occasionally, Jason will find a book, which he will try to read while Candice tries to be entertained.

About Candice and Jason
Candice and Jason pledged the same fraternity (wait, before you get any ideas, it’s Alpha Phi Omega, a coed service fraternity) in Spring of 2001. Jason was a first-semester grad student and TA, while Candice was a Junior attempting to pad her resume, even though she was already the busiest person on the planet. Jason made light of this fact one day, quipping that one needed an appointment just to get some face time with her. So, they scheduled a lunch meeting at Legend’s, a local bar and grill.

Although she didn’t know at the time, Candice was about to be late to her first date with her future fiancé. She was working for the campus computer help desk, and lost track of time – a practice which continues to this day. 20 minutes late, she strolled into the restaurant with that patented big-honking smile on her face, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Today, Candice and Jason live in lovely house in Savoy, IL and somewhere between work and recreation they are expecting their first child in February 2008!

family collage