Keeping his eye on the ball

EAST PEORIA — Three-time student trustee, an honor society international officer and now a State of Illinois student laureate, one Illinois Central College student continues to exemplify what one can do when you set your mind to it.

Since 1975, the State of Illinois has awarded more than 1,000 Illinois college students this prestigious title, but a mere 24 of those have been community college students due to a single annual award being offered in that category since 1993. None of those students had come from ICC, until now.

When Trevor Mileur walked into Springfield’s Old State Capitol building on November 1, he was about to be the first ICC student ever to be honored by the state as a Lincoln Academy Student Laureate. This was far from Mileur’s first achievement as a student, but it was the highest honor yet earned by this student who has reshaped his life path in a few short years.

Mileur felt that this award was also different in that it wasn’t something that he had or could have actively tried to acquire.

“A lot of the students didn’t really know what it was completely,” Mileur said. “It’s not something where you are working for that, and you know what your goal is so you’re going after it; you don’t say ‘oh, I’m going to go for student laureate.’ You’re chosen, so it’s a really neat deal. We were all very humbled by the event. Especially me, being the only community college student there.”

Mileur partially attributes his being selected to his involvement with the Illinois Community College Board, which selects the annual community college laureate, as a student activist. But he also acknowledges the invaluable influence that ICC has had in his life recently.

“I love ICC, and everything that I’ve done here wouldn’t have been possible without support from my professors and the administration,” Mileur said. “I’ve achieved a lot, but without them I don’t know where I’d be.”

Mileur didn’t always have so much success in his life. Having been raised in the Peoria area with an unstable home life, Mileur said getting personal mentors who inspired him was key in motivating him to aim high in life. And when it came to success in college, Mileur had more advice than simply to do your homework.

“It was a decision of mine to stay [at ICC] for four years. I wouldn’t recommend that to anybody unless they thought that that was the right path for them,” Mileur said. “What I do recommend is not rushing through college and ICC because you want to hurry up and get out or hurry up and get your degree… I want to get out and transfer, but I know that there are so many opportunities here. Why waste that just because I want to go?”