ICCTA Distinguished Alumnus Award

A high school dropout at age 16, a single mother at age 18, Peggy Kirby was the first in her family to enter college.

"If there had not been a community college readily accessible to me, I would never have acquired the confidence or skills to apply for my first office job," she says.

That job was an entry-level accounting position at theElgin Courier News.

Thanks to her mentors at Elgin Community College, she moved up the ranks to vice-president/general manager of three daily newspapers and, finally, publisher of the daily paper where she had started as a billing clerk.

Peggy Kirby accepts the ICCTA's
2003 Distinguished Alumnus Award.