Category: News

2026 ReUNIon: Oct. 23-25, 2026

Close-up image of a building pillar.

We’re thrilled to invite you back to our annual gathering from Oct. 23-25, 2026, proudly hosted by the Uni High Alumni Association (UHAA) Board of Directors in collaboration with the Uni High Advancement Team.

This special weekend is a wonderful chance to reconnect with other alumni, and both current and former faculty.

Lunch on the Lawn is a boxed lunch event scheduled for 12-2 p.m. on the east side of the school. Be sure to RSVP to ensure a meal.  

Even if you don’t plan to attend Lunch on the Lawn, please still RSVP , no later than Monday, September 28, 2026. Your response ensures we can make the weekend as enjoyable and welcoming as possible for everyone. 

Additional events:

  • Informal gathering hosted by the UHAA Board on Friday, Oct. 23. 7-10 p.m. in downtown Champaign at Bentley’s Pub .
  • UHAA Annual Meeting, Saturday, Oct. 24, 11 a.m.-12 p.m. at Uni High in room 106N.

If you haven’t heard from us and would like to be added to our email communications, please email us at unihighadvancement@illinois.edu.

If you’re planning a milestone reunion during the weekend and would like assistance or support in some way, we encourage you to contact us at unihighadvancement@illinois.edu. If you believe your class should be having a milestone reunion, but haven’t heard anything from your classmates, feel free to contact us at the above email address. 

ReUNIon weekend hotel room blocks:

Country inn & Suites Holiday Inn (two night minimum)
602 W Marketview Dr, Champaign, IL 61822 Phone: (217) 355-6666
One King Bed (with sofa bed): $179 per night
Two Queen Beds : $179 per night
Booking link: Uni HS Alumni

Reservations must be made on or before Sept. 25, 2026. 

Please note that the University of Illinois football team will host Oregon that weekend. Because of the home football game, most local hotels do not offer room blocks. Individual rooms may still be available, but we encourage you to book your accommodations as soon as possible, as hotels are expected to fill quickly.

Sign-ups for Uni High prospective family meetings now open

Please join us for a Uni High 2027-2028 prospective family meetings by signing up online for a meeting. Sign up here!

  • Nov. 3, 7-8 p.m. on Zoom 
  • Nov. 18, 6-7 p.m. at Martens Center (1515 N. Market St., Champaign)
  • Dec. 10, 6-7 p.m. at the Champaign Public Library (200 W. Green St., Champaign)
  • Jan. 7,  6-7 p.m at  Phillips Recreation Center (505 W. Stoughton, Champaign) 
  • Jan. 13,  7-8 p.m. on Zoom

Uni students, staff honored at screenwriting competition

Uni students with a faculty member pose for a photo at the Pens to Lens gala.

Several Uni students and staff were honored on Aug. 15 at the Pens to Lens Gala held at the Virginia Theater in Champaign. Pens to Lens is an annual K-12 screenwriting competition for students in East Central Illinois, culminating in a red carpet premiere of locally produced short films from the winning entries. Uni student screenwriters included seniors Irene Kim (“The Collision”) and Emma Tong (“The Collision”), sophomore Eva Gleason (“Roadblock”) freshman Gloria Kruse (“The Misadventures of the Prince”), and subbie Nayan Gundiah (“The Croissant,” written while a student at Franklin STEAM Academy). Senior Max Wang and Uni social studies teacher Ben Leff shared their acting talent as the stars of “The Collision,” and Uni staff member Yuan Bian served as a production assistant to the film “Airplane Store.” Congratulations to all!

Dr. Nancy Latham named interim director

Uni High welcomes Nancy Latham as interim director and principal beginning Aug. 17. Latham recently completed her term as the chair of the Uni High advisory board, and she brings more than three decades of experience in education to the role. She is a research associate professor emeritus in the College of Education at Illinois, and previously served as associate dean for undergraduate programs in the College of Education and as executive director of the Council of Teacher Education. Uni is excited to have Latham’s leadership as the search begins later this year for a permanent director and principal.

Uni welcomes new staff members for ’26-’27 school year

In addition to 68 new 8th grade students and nine transfer students, Uni is welcoming three new staff members: Lisa Acton, the 504/MTSS (multi-tiered system of support) coordinator; Al Craig, P.E. department, and Chris Dodd, Math department. We’re looking forward to another successful year

Two Uni alumni featured speakers at U. of I. events

Two Uni alumni were at the U. of I. in speaker roles during April.  Uni is proud to see Uni High alumni leading, giving back, and inspiring the next generation.

Balázs Bognar (’96), Uni’s 2024 Rising Star Award recipient, spoke as part of the School of Architecture’s lecture series. Bognar is a partner at Kengo Kuma and Associates Architecture. 

Nick Sansone (’01), an attorney with the Public Citizen Litigation Group, presented at the YMCA Friday Forum + Conversation Cafe on People v. Power: Litigation as a Strategy for Social and Economic Justice.

New Fund Highlight: The Yang Family Modern Media Fund


Uni is pleased to announce the Yang Family Modern Media fund, established by Alan Yang, Diane Hatcher, Elaine Pan, and Eric Yang in honor of their parents, Kwang-Shi and Randy Yang.

The family believes that in today’s world, effective communication is a superpower, and that journalism has evolved beyond print and broadcast channels. They hope the fund is used to support student efforts to develop strong journalistic storytelling skills, particularly in the areas of social media and podcasting.

“Our hope is that the fund is used to enable Uni students to develop strong voices and critical thinking, combined with the practice of storytelling, and that through well-researched storytelling, students learn to see multiple perspectives and find the common ground that unites us instead of the rhetoric that often divides us,” the family writes. Elaine, who spent her early career in journalism, writes, “It is a great sorrow to see the state of newspaper journalism today. My personal hope is that somehow the world figures a way out from spin, fake news, and worst of all, AI. Uni students, if you’re listening, take advantage of the Modern Media Fund and get to solving this scourge of our lifetime!”

The fund is in honor of their parents, Kwang-Shi and Randy. Kwang-Shi spent his career in the U. of I.’s Electrical Engineering Department supporting various research and teaching programs, and Randy was a special education teacher in Urbana. All four children attended Uni, ultimately pursuing careers in medicine, technology, communications, and biotech.

They recall their time at Uni as a formative time, with the camaraderie of their schoolmates, the non-traditional teaching methods, and the inclusive nature all playing important roles in their development.

“Our parents prioritized the importance of family and working together, and we have passed that legacy onto our children,” they write. “We are continuing this legacy by working together to provide a program that can make a significant and impactful contribution. Uni provides the perfect opportunity to build impact from the future leaders of the world.”

The family hopes this gift inspires other “legacy families/siblings” to give together as a group to multiply the impact of their donations.

Faculty present at international lab school conference


Uni High faculty members along with a U. of I. staff member and a pre-service teacher presented this year at the International Association of Laboratory Schools conference in Finland. The trip was funded in part by Uni’s Innovations in Learning Fund. The Uni/U. of I. contingent shared that in addition to their presentations (listed below), they took advantage of opportunities to learn about the Finnish education system, observe the wide range of ways that lab school philosophies are implemented, and made connections with other lab school teachers from around the world.

Uni social studies teacher Andrew Wilson presented with a U. of I. preservice teacher, Alexander Paul, on building intrinsic restraint among students as a means of curbing cognitive offloading and/or surrender.

Uni social studies teacher Melissa Schoeplein presented about Uni’s annual oral history project with WILL/Illinois Public Media as part of the conference’s Student Voices strand. The talk was titled, “Empowering Youth Storytellers and Media Makers: A Lab School’s Annual Oral History Project.”

An interdisciplinary team of Uni teachers (Emily Buhnerkempe and Leah Avila, math, Lisa Evans, fine arts, and Melissa Schoeplein, social studies) presented
on their recent collaboration with the University of Illinois’ Siebel Center for Design to create human-centered design (HCD) projects for their Uni classrooms. The presentation focused on what Human-Centered Design is and gave examples of how it could be implemented into different lessons. Human-Centered Design (HCD) uses a creative collaborative problem-solving approach to tackle complex, real world challenges.

Buhnerkempe also presented a poster session titled “Design Thinking Meets Data Thinking: Engaging Statistics Students in Real-World Research Through HumanCentered Design.” The poster highlighted a statistics project developed for students at Uni that uses the Human-centered design (HCD) framework to teach students about data collection and analysis. In collaboration with the University of Illinois Child Development Laboratory (CDL), Siebel Center for Design, and faculty in Statistics and Data Science, high school statistics students pursued authentic research focused on children ages 6-weeks to 5-years.

Evans also delivered a poster presentation recapping Uni Design Lab — an 8-year partnership with Dr. Cliff Shin from the Industrial Design Department of the School of Visual Arts at U of I. University of Illinois Director of Threat Assessment Moni Marcelo and Uni High Assistant Director of Student Life Bridget Hughes presented “From Compliance to Excellence: Partnering to Build a Model Threat Assessment Team in a Laboratory High School”. The session offered attendees a comprehensive look at behavioral threat assessment as both a preventative framework and a collaborative practice

University of Illinois Laboratory High School
1212 W. Springfield
Urbana, IL 61801
Email: uni-communications@illinois.edu