A record seventeen iSchool master's students were named 2020-2021 Spectrum Scholars by the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services. This "Spectrum Scholar Spotlight" series highlights the School's scholars. MS/LIS student Kyra Lee earned her BA in creative writing with a minor in business administration from Southern Illinois University.

Hadley So, a freshman from the San Francisco Bay area, is interested in ethically harnessing technology's potential to help society and the world. According to So, the iSchool classes he has taken so far have helped him analyze problems in new ways, and his professors' wide range of backgrounds and perspectives "keep the lessons interesting and relevant to modern issues."

MS/LIS student Ari Negovschi has been selected to receive the 2021 Nancy Mysel Legacy Grant from the Film Noir Foundation. The purpose of the $5,000 grant is "to enhance or benefit a student's film restoration/preservation or moving image archive studies." Negovschi earned her BFA from California Institute of the Arts' Film and Video Program and worked in various fields, including the film industry, before deciding to pursue a degree in library and information science (LIS).

A paper coauthored by Ruohua Han, iSchool doctoral candidate, and Linqing Ma (Renmin University of China) has been named one of five finalists for the Best Short Research Paper Award at iConference 2021. The winner will be announced during the conference, which will take place online from March 17-31.

For MS/LIS student Eunice Kang, receiving the Carl Volkmann Scholarship from the iSchool allowed her to focus on learning and "taking advantage of all the opportunities that the University has to offer," while also lightening her financial burden. Kang realized soon after earning her bachelor's degree in advertising from the University of Illinois that she did not belong in that field. After spending time teaching English to lower income children in Korea, she decided to pursue a career where she could help children.