In May of this year, a group of 16 newcomers to UUCUC took part in a Pathway to Membership class together, and 13 decided to sign the book and officially join the congregation as voting members. We will be celebrating these newest members during this Sunday’s service, and you can start getting to know them by reading their short introductions here. Be sure to say hi when you see them at church!
Autumn Haskins
Autumn lives in Milford, IL with her fiance, Dalton, and three cats, Muffin, Eggo, and Maple. She started working for UUCUC in February 2023 and is loving it! She graduated from Indiana Wesleyan University in January with her Bachelors in Communications. Autumn is an avid reader and spends almost all of her free time nose deep in a book. She also loves board games, anything Disney related, video games, traveling, and crocheting. She loves chatting and getting to know new people! You can always find her in the kitchen on Sundays doing dishes!
Alice Smith and dust
Alice is a hyper-midwestern trans woman, general nerd, and activist. She works an extremely boring manual labor job and spends most of her time trying to keep up with her polycule. After a lifetime of trying to make Catholicism work in conjunction with her anarchist politics and queer identity, she came to the UU church determined to do her best for her community, adapting the ideals and beauty of her Catholic heritage to a framework that centers social justice and UU principles.
dust is a writer and programmer who currently finds and sells overlooked treasures at the Idea Store in Urbana’s Lincoln Square Mall. After growing up and attending university in San Diego, California, they moved to Urbana-Champaign for graduate school in 2021 and have lived here since. They are currently working on a novel and studying for a master’s degree in statistics. dust is proudly transgender, nonbinary, and polyamorous, and in their free time they enjoy cooking for and spending time with Alice and their other partners.
Alice and dust met in the fall of 2021 during times of great personal hardship for the both of them. With each other’s love and support, they have found a place in the thriving Champaign-Urbana transgender community and built a home for themselves and their nesting partner, Alessa. They are thrilled to be part of a congregation that embraces them for who they are.
Mabruka Yazidi & Naima Yazidi-Bennett
Mabruka moved to Urbana in the summer of 2019 to work at Carl as a Breast Imaging RN Navigator and Naima goes to first grade at Yankee Ridge. Mabruka always knew that once Naima started having those philosophical life questions they would join the UU and so here they are. They are both very excited to become a part of this community.
Kim Smith
Kim recently moved to Urbana from Western Kentucky. He never thought for a moment that he would ever join a Church, but he found the UU Church and read about the covenants and tenets and couldn’t agree more. Kim is proud to be accepted as a member and knows the congregation will make and has already made a positive impact on himself as well as everyone. He plans to do his best to help in that regard.
Michael and Connie Cochran
Michael and Connie moved to the area from Memphis, Tennessee a few months ago. Michael enjoys reading good books, experiencing nature, and good (or mediocre) coffee. Connie enjoys reading, heritage crafts, and video games. They live in Champaign with their cat (Weezer) and two dogs (Winnie and Waylon).
Jessica Shortz & Sean Hughes
Jessica and Sean moved to Champaign from Seattle in August last year. Jessica is a software engineer at the university. She loves community building, board games, and planning things. If you see her out and about, always feel free to say hi! Sean is a game designer at Undead Labs in downtown Champaign. He enjoys rocks, board games, plants, and baking.
Az Guan [prefers no online photo]
Az grew up in California and is currently a grad student at UIUC. They enjoy board games, ttrpgs, and all things fantasy and sci-fi. Also, they will talk a lot about transit if you get them started. They have been around for the past year or two in person and online and are excited to continue to get to know everyone!
Neil & Anne Pradzinski
(Photo and intro to come)
Roxie Howard
(Prefers no photo or intro)