School of Information Sciences

Scholarship recipient balances coursework and military career

When Rob Callahan isn't participating in an online class, he is out flying helicopters. First Lieutenant Callahan flies H-60 Blackhawks as an aeromedical evacuation officer in the U.S. Army. 

"I have been fortunate to have commanders and supervisors who support my off-duty education," he said. "Since classes are held at the same time each week, I do my best to shape my schedule so I am available for the live sessions. When unavoidable conflicts arise, my professors are both understanding and accommodating, and Moodle recordings help me keep up to date."

Callahan is currently working on his MS in information management (MS/IM). He is the recipient of a scholarship that focuses on recruiting exceptional students, which is made possible through contributions from alumni and friends to the iSchool's Annual Fund.

"Receiving a recruitment scholarship helped make my decision to accept a spot in the MS/IM program. Graduate school is an investment of both time and money; knowing that the iSchool thought I was worth their time and money is a big confidence booster," Callahan explained.

Originally from New York City, Callahan earned his AB as a College Scholar at Cornell University, where his coursework focused on enlistment motivations and his senior thesis addressed civil-military relations at Cornell. He wanted to gain a better understanding of the information-driven systems he uses every day, so he decided to pursue an information science degree. He chose the iSchool for his graduate studies because of its excellent distance learning program.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Haricombe establishes scholarship in gratitude for fulfilling career in librarianship

As a teenager helping her mother sort books in the public library in Stellenbosch, South Africa, Lorraine Haricombe (MSLIS '88, PhD '92) didn't realize that one day she would become a recognized leader in the field of librarianship. As director of their hometown library, Haricombe's mother influenced her daughter's career path and instilled in her a love of learning.

Lorraine Haricombe 2026

BIG: Solving real problems for real organizations

Students in the Business Intelligence Group (BIG)—the experiential learning consultancy program affiliated with Associate Professor Yoo-Seong Song's Applied Business Research courses (IS 494 and IS 514)—spent the spring semester working directly with organizations across industries, including health care, financial services, aviation, gaming, community services, and higher education. 

Business Intelligence Group (BIG) student consultants smile on the steps of Foellinger Auditorium with Associate Professor Yoo-Seong Song

Cao and Liu receive Best Paper Award for FreeOrbit4D

PhD student Wei Cao and Assistant Professor Yaoyao Liu received a Best Paper Award at the 4th Workshop on Generative Models for Computer Vision, which was held during the 2026 IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR). 

Wang group receives ICWSM Best Dataset Paper Award

A paper from Professor Dong Wang's Social Sensing & Intelligence Lab received the Best Dataset Paper Award at the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM) held in May 2026 in Los Angeles, California. According to Wang, the paper was accepted in the first review round, which had an acceptance rate of 4.7 percent (14 of 298 submissions). 

Adler and Wang to present at RESPECT 2026

Associate Professor Rachel Adler and Informatics PhD student Olive Wang will present their work at the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education Conference on Research on Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT), which will be held in Chicago this week.

School of Information Sciences

501 E. Daniel St.

MC-493

Champaign, IL

61820-6211

Voice: (217) 333-3280

Email: ischool@illinois.edu

Back to top