Karri Christiansen:  

Life After 10 years as a full-time community journalist, I was until recently a freelance writer for the Chicago Tribune and the Riverside (IL) Landmark newspaper. I have been working on my first novel for about three or four years. I am a member of Pilgrim Congregational Church in Oak Park, where I sang for the Gospel Choir for about a year. For about two years, I volunteered for an HIV/AIDS organization in Oak Park, where, until May 2005, I lived with my husband. We now live in Naperville. I currently am a freelancer for the Sun-Times Media Group, covering the Kane County Board/Forest Preserve District, primarily for the (Aurora) Beacon-News and the (Elgin) Courier-News. In spring 2002, I flew to Singapore to visit Debbie (Miller) Chan, a 1987 North grad and friend of 25 years. College As a freshman, my first roommate turned out to be obsessed with the color green and, as far as I could tell, constantly drunk. My second roommate was the complete opposite, put up no decorations whatsoever, didn't drink at all and studied constantly. As a sophomore, I changed my major from business to journalism, began working for the college newspaper, the Northern Star. I also worked part-time retail at home on the weekends. Looking back, I didn't have very good journalism professors, and learned/acquired most of my reporting skills at the Star. I wouldn't say my college experience was bad -- I became closer to my twin sister, Kelli, over those four years -- but I wouldn't recommend NIU to an...Expand for more