Four Lake Forest College graduates returned to campus for Homecoming weekend and shared how the school shaped their careers and kept them tied to the community.

The alumni, profiled by Lake Forest Love writer Jillian Beaster, ranged from the Class of 1961 to the Class of 2021. Their stories trace a through-line of small-campus mentorship, local work experience and lasting friendships rooted on the North Shore.

Taylor Moore, a 2021 graduate who grew up in Chicago and attended Lake Forest Academy before enrolling at the college, said she arrived expecting to study biology. Conversations with psychology professors changed her direction. Moore went on to serve on the executive board of the United Black Association (UBA), work at CROYA and Ferentino's Pizzeria in Lake Forest, and earn the college's Rising Star award as a freshman. She has spent the five years since graduation teaching Algebra 2 in Chicago Public Schools and completed a Master of Education in educational psychology with a concentration in neuropsychology from Ball State University in May 2026.

Ellie Shuda, Class of 2016, used the college's Self-Designed Major program to create a fashion history major alongside economics. Professor Janet McCracken spotted Shuda's interest and encouraged her to design the major, Shuda told Beaster. Her senior thesis examined conspicuous consumption in the fashion industry. Through the college's In the Loop semester, Shuda interned at the Chicago Board of Trade and lived in a college-provided apartment downtown. After seven years at Wafra, a New York private equity firm, Shuda moved back to Illinois and works at Lightbank, a Chicago venture capital firm. She serves as social chair for the Class of 2016's 10-year reunion.

Eric Markey, Class of 2001, was recruited to play football and said the cross-class friendships on the team sold him on the school. He interned at a futures trading firm in downtown Lake Forest during his senior year, then spent more than a year there before moving into finance and banking. He lives in Glenview and still presents to economics and business classes on campus.

Markey still visits campus. He told Beaster he brings his son and daughter to the college cafeteria on days off from school. "They like it because they kind of feel like college kids and they get to see where dad grew up," Markey said.

Jean Johnson, Class of 1961, came to the college from Mundelein after meeting her future husband Gil Johnson, who was a year ahead of her at the school. She became president of Gamma Phi Beta sorority and the Panhellenic Society, majored in speech and completed her student teaching at Everett School in Lake Forest. The school offered her a teaching job right after graduation.

Johnson recalled the dining hall dress code of the early 1960s and the pencil skirts she sewed for classmates through her 4-H skills. She told Beaster her years at Lake Forest College were the best of her life.

Forester Athletics posted on X after the weekend wrapped up, writing that "Foresters came back, showed up, and made it a weekend to remember."