In 2008, life was good for Charina Illescas Brooks. Born and raised in the Philippines, she had married Daniel Brooks, a North Carolinian, in 2001. She struggled through two years of paperwork, but she and their 1-year-old daughter, Nikki, … Read more

  Technically, he was trespassing, but Claudio Battaglini didn’t care. It was a Saturday morning, the door was unlocked, and he had come on a mission to peek inside this glimmering new building on the campus of the University of … Read more

Christopher Payne has a favorite brainteaser that never fails to stump the countless students and colleagues he has shared it with at Carolina. “My riddle for folks is that I am a UNC graduate, but not a Tar Heel alum.” … Read more

Faydene Alston grew up in Pittsboro with four brothers and sisters and looked forward to starting a big happy family of her own when she got married at the age of 31. “I was determined to be a mom,” Alston … Read more

Ernest Williamson played football with Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice in the 1940s and went on to play in the NFL with the Washington Redskins and New York Giants. James Spurling met him working at a service station on Airport Road … Read more