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A U.S. Marine veteran and former logistics officer, Matthew Vacca didn’t think twice about taking a break from his full-time job and heading straight into a conflict zone.

Get to know Vacca

Portrait of Matthew Vacca
Holiday music is inescapable this time of year, but if you’re tired of hearing the same old standards, you might discover a new favorite during Jon Solomon’s 35th annual 25-Hour Holiday Radio Show. Beginning at 5 pm EST on Christmas Eve, Solomon ’95 will spend 25 hours live on-air, showcasing his extensive and carefully curated collection of holiday music on WPRB-FM, Princeton University’s student-run radio station.

Tune in to Solomon's show

DJ jon solomon
Maryam Keshavarz never dreamed of becoming a filmmaker when she was a Northwestern student in the mid-1990s. The daughter of Iranian immigrants didn’t know that world existed.

Learn what inspired Keshavarz

filmmaker Maryam Keshavarz on the set of The Persian Version
Kevin Hoban ‘09 and Jordan Simkovic ‘09 make music as Captain & Cat, a musical duo producing educational songs and videos for kids. The duo recently won the 2022 John Lennon Songwriting Contest Grand Prize.

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Musical duo Kevin Hoban and Jordan Simkovic sit in front of a podcast mic smiling, with their guitars behind them.
Tim Hunter ’68 MD, a retired radiologist and professor emeritus who lives in Tucson, Ariz., has written the weekly “Sky Spy” column in the Arizona Daily Star for more than 15 years. He recently compiled his columns into a book, The Sky at Night.

Meet Hunter

Tim Hunter sits in a camping chair smiling, in front of a large telescope.
Kyra Kyles ’98, ’98 MS is CEO of YR Media, an educational center for aspiring music producers, podcasters, journalists and multimedia content creators. Kyles opened a new YR Media regional facility in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, offering training programs, paid internships and state-of-the-art audio and video production technology to young people from Chicago, Detroit and other Midwestern cities.

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Kyra Kyles stands in front of a mural with her hand on her hip.
After booking his biggest acting role yet, Charlie Oh ’16 felt an itch to be part of something that better reflected the contemporary Asian American experience. He wrote a play about a Korean family on an all-American road trip, incorporating themes of identity, assimilation and legacy.

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The cast of Coleman ’72 acts as if they are sitting in a car together.
Racheli Galay ’07 DMA is a founding member of Quartetoukan, a Jewish-Arab quartet whose music reflects the multicultural, multilingual society in Israel. A classically trained cellist who specializes in Jewish music, Galay has toured Israel, Germany and Spain with Quartetoukan since 2012, performing songs in Arabic, Hebrew, English and Yiddish that promote harmony and peace.

Read about Galay

Racheli Galay poses with her cello, smiling.
Whether you know her as NPR radio host Margaret Jo on Saturday Night Live or Cady Heron’s mom in Mean Girls, odds are you know — and love — Ana Gasteyer’s work. Last May, the actor, comedian and singer returned to campus and sat down with Northwestern Magazine’s Clare Milliken to discuss her own career and tips for aspiring artists.

Read the Q&A

Ana Gasteyer sits in a row of auditorium chairs, smiling with her legs crossed.
In 1973, two Northwestern students assembled the cast and crew of Northwestern’s first-ever Mee-Ow Show, originally conceptualized as a new outlet for creatives who felt limited by existing campus performance options. Half a century later, the show — and its ever-growing repertoire of successful alumni, from Julia Louis-Dreyfus ’82, ’07 H to Seth Meyers ’96, ’16 H — is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a spring 2024 reunion.

Go behind the scenes

Members of the 1977 Mee-Ow Show cast pose in front of the marquee at Evanston’s Varsity Theater, photo in black and white.