JOHN: The entire band charged onto the field and celebrated with the players. I, like,
helped pick Lovie Smith up. Uh, a really, 
really, really cool experience. ZOE: Hello, and
welcome! My name is Zoe, and I am so
excited to be interviewing exceptional
Illini from all across campus so that
you can get an inside look into what
it's like to be a student at Illinois. Be
sure to subscribe so you never miss a
video, and also let us know in the
comments who you'd like to hear from
next. Today, I am sitting down with John. 
This guy is impressive; he just graduated
with his degree in political science and
econ, and this next fall, he's gonna be
starting law school. But, for the year
before that, he's interning with Governor
J.B. Pritzker. I got to hear all about
John's travels to Vienna and the rest of
Europe, and also about his experience
with the Marching Illini. So, I really
hope you enjoy! Thank you for joining me
today! I'm so excited to interview you,
because I'm a big fan of your work with
the Marching Illini. I love the Marching Illini so much!
And, I guess... Well, first, you should introduce yourself and say what your major is and
where you're from and all that good
stuff, and then I would love to hear a
little bit about that. JOHN: Alright, so my
name is John Grosboll. I was a
senior, I just graduated from the U
of I, and I was a double major in
political science and economics in the
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
I'm originally from Petersburg, Illinois, 
which is a really small town right
outside of Springfield. It's, like, twenty-five 
minutes, and it's a town of about, you
know, 3,000 people, so very small. ZOE: And, what instrument do you play? JOHN: So, in
the band, I play the alto saxophone. I've
been a member of the Marching Illini now
for the past three years, and I've been a
member of the basketball athletic bands for four years. ZOE: So, I'm imagining that at least
a small percentage of people
watching this video are at least, you
know, play an instrument [and] might be
interested in joining the Marching
Illini, so maybe you want to just
talk about what the process was like for
auditions, and what did your experience
with them has been? JOHN: Sure, yeah. So, it's a
pretty straightforward audition process. 
I actually didn't audition as a freshman.
I didn't think that that's what I wanted
to do. I didn't really have much of an
experience in high school with marching
band, but when I decided freshman year
that "You know what? I'm gonna go for it
next year!" It's in the spring, there is a
playing audition. So, you go in, 
or you can send in a video of you
playing certain tunes, certain scales, and
then, if you do good enough, you get
invited to camp, which is a week before
the whole school year begins. You go to
camp, you learn all the, you know, Big Ten, 
cool looking steps. You learn about our
culture, you memorize our eight traditional
fight songs, and if you do well, then they
make final cut,  and then the final band
is set for the year. Yeah it's a good
process. It's, um, it's competitive, but I wouldn't say it's,
like, really stressful or anything like
that. ZOE: Sweet, so you guys played every home
football game, and then you guys went to
some away games this year. Could
you tell me a little bit about the away
game at... was it at Michigan State
that you guys? Okay. JOHN: Yeah, so if
anyone who follows Illinois football
knows, you know we've had some down years recently, at least during my time here. So,
never been to a bowl game or
anything like that, and you have to get
six wins to make a bowl game, at least. So, 
we went to Michigan State, and the band
was scheduled to go. So, we went to the
game. Traveled with the team... We had five
wins, needed one more, and they set us
up on the sidelines, like right by the
end zone. So we were all crammed in there, 
watching the game, and all of a sudden
we're down by like twenty-eight points. We're just getting, like, creamed in the first half,
and then we start chipping away, chipping
away at the lead, and we end up coming
back. And it ended up being the largest
comeback victory in Illinois
history. We won the game and, like, last
final seconds, the entire band charged
onto the field and celebrated with the players. I helped pick Lovie Smith up.
A really, really, really cool experience, 
and it was what clinched a bowl game. And
then, for the bowl game, we traveled out
to... The entire band got to go to Santa
Clara and play the San Francisco 49ers
NFL stadium. You know, we didn't win the
game, but it was a really, really great
experience out there in the Red Box Bowl.
ZOE: That's so awesome that the whole band
got to go. I mean, how many pieces is the band?
We are 375 in total, so that is
instruments, you know, guard... So, flags, the
dance team (the Illinettes), and then staff as well. So, we're 375... Yeah, and it was a
major... We had a lot of donors come
forward and help the entire band go, so
it's been so long. We couldn't just leave
people behind, so it was a really big
thing. We're really thankful to all be
able to have gone. ZOE: For sure, especially as a
senior; that was probably nice to have
finally have a bowl game. JOHN: It was a special
year, that's for sure. 
ZOE: Very cool, and are you apart of any, um... You
said you're in basketball band as well? Did you play any games from this year? 
JOHN: Well this year, this
year was a great year. We were actually... 
It's a bummer, we were all set to, you
know, go to the Big 10 tournament and the
NCAA tournament before all this happened.
But, you know, it was a great year. We... I
think my, like, favorite memories is just,
basically, the last half of the season, 
every single game was sold out because
there was so much excitement. So, they did
things where, you know, it was "Orange Out,"
were everyone wore orange. And, I guess the game that stands out the most was the
last game of the year against Iowa. It was
senior night, you know. We kind of had a
rivalry with Iowa all year long, and we
won in the last final seconds, and, just,
there's the energy in the arena which is
great and it was a really good way, you
know, to finish things out. ZOE: That's so
exciting!
JOHN: Yeah, we've been needing some good
years in football and basketball. ZOE: That is awesome. So,
going back to school stuff. So, you
studied political science and econ, and
you just graduated. So, let's let's go
chronologically. So. you came in DGS,
correct? 
JOHN: Yeah, that's right. I didn't really
know what I wanted when I came in
freshman year. So, I joined the Division
of General Studies, which is its own
college, and I think it's like the second
largest amount of like... College
with the second most freshmen,
I guess. Yeah, so it was a really good experience. They
gave me a chance just to knock out some
general education courses, and kind of
explore. I pretty quickly latched on
to political science and economics, and,
like, a year into the program, decided to
switch over permanently. ZOE: Great. Yeah, it's
a good opportunity to explore and take
classes that you maybe wouldn't have
even known that you were interested in. I
mean, I sure didn't know what I
envisioned for my four years my first
semester on campus. That's awesome! JOHN: Yeah,
well, I mean, I came from
a small town, and it's, like... We didn't
even have econ in my school. So, it's like
I didn't even know what that was, so I
had to come here, you know, to take some
classes and explore it.
DGS was great for that, yeah. ZOE: Great, and
now you're on the law school! Or, I guess,
tell me about your post-grad plans. JOHN: Okay,
so I have been... I've been admitted
and accepted my admission to the
University of Michigan Law School, but I
deferred a year, so I will start in the
Fall of 2021. You know, I've been a
lifelong Illinois fan, so going to
Michigan's a little, you know, a bit of a
bummer, but it's a great school and I
loved the campus. Yeah, but for the year
before that, I decided to take kind of a
gap year, and I will be a Dunn Fellow in
the office of Governor J.B. Pritzker in
Springfield. So, I'm from the Springfield
area, so I'll be living at home, working
in his legislative affairs office in the
Capitol building. 
So, that's dealing with legislators,
answering questions, tracking bills, 
helping, kind of, craft his legislative
agenda. So, it'll be really great. ZOE: Yeah it
sounds like a great experience, important
work. You really got it all set up,  
that's so fantastic! JOHN: It worked out somehow.
ZOE: Yeah, and I'm sure that that's
something that a lot of people are
thinking about right now. The
immediate future for freshmen who are
about to start college, and then also
seniors graduating. I mean, everything is
so uncertain: These uncertain times, as we
are so constantly hearing But, yeah, it sounds
like you're you're pretty well set, so
congratulations for, like, having your
hard work pay off. That's really great!
JOHN: Yeah, thank you, thank you ZOE: Of course. So,
could you tell me about Vienna and the
trip or the class associated with that
trip? JOHN: Sure, um, yeah. So, I've always wanted
to study abroad. I've always... I really
like traveling, it's something I've been
lucky enough to do a lot, you know, in my
life. So, I also wanted to study abroad
though, and get that experience, but I
never wanted to miss a basketball season
and never wanted to miss a football season. So,
I was like "Okay I need something... Maybe
something smaller, maybe a summer trip or
something."  So, this program was called the "European Union and Governance," through
the Political Science Department, and it... 
You had eight weeks here on
campus, and then you had four weeks in
Vienna, Austria. And we lived in a dorm, a
residence hall out there, and we visited... 
Took classes in one of their
universities they have. Got to visit all
sorts of international organizations
like the United Nations, met with U.S.
diplomats, who are like, you know, people
who, you know, do some serious
negotiations. And a bunch of other
organizations, as well. It was a really
good experience just to live in Vienna;
it's one of the great European cities. 
You know, going to museums and parks and
cafes and things like that. And then, when
the program ended, I actually stuck
around for, like, another week in Vienna, 
and then I started traveling. I went
north. So I went to Munich, then up
through Germany. So, Nuremberg, I went up
the Rhine River, saw a bunch of castles, 
went to Cologne, and then I ended in
Amsterdam. Then I flew home from
Amsterdam. So, it was a great experience.
Anyone who is thinking about studying
abroad,
I'd recommend it, even if it's like a
shorter program like the one I did. ZOE: Yeah, definitely. I mean,
four weeks is significantly shorter than a semester, but it sounds like
you still got a ton out of it, and the
class beforehand was probably really informative, so yeah. Huh.
Any specific stories or memories
from that whole trip, even the trip
afterwards would be fine? 
JOHN: Okay, yeah. Here's, uh, this is from
the trip afterwards. I really wanted to
see some, like, German castles, you know.
I wanted to see these old, 
medieval castles, and I heard about this
one that was really good, like off the
Rhine River. So, I took a train by myself
to this castle. I get off in this small
little town, and there's just no one
there, no one at all. I don't... There's, like
one little sign saying "The castle's
this way!" So, I, like, start to walk, and before I know it, I'm in this trail by myself in
the middle of the woods, no cell
connection, and I'm just walking, hoping I
find this castle for, like, forty minutes. And
then, I just, like, turn a corner... Yeah, I
was getting a little concerned, but I
figured I was going the right way. It was
a great walk (ZOE: It said it was this way.). So, yeah, it said that. So, I turned a corner and then, boom, it
was just this massive, just gorgeous
castle, which was fully intact because it
was so high up in like the
mountains, in the forest, that, like, people
didn't find it or something like that, I
don't know. And so I toured that, and it
was a really cool experience. But, yeah, 
for a while I was like "Wait a minute.
I'm alone, in the middle of Germany, in a
forest, with no cell connection. This is
kind of concerning here." But, it worked
out fine, and it was one of the best days,
especially of, like, that trip 
afterwards. ZOE: What an adventure, that is so cool! Yeah,
I mean, it's totally metaphorical if you
let it be that way. You got to go off the
beaten path, and you don't know where
you're going, and then all of a sudden, boom
just a huge castle! That's fantastic!
Cool, yeah. Switching gears a little bit.
So you lived in a house in Urbana, and
I am interested in what you might say to
a freshman who's about to be living in
the dorms, has... The difference between
living in a house with friends from... Like,
how that's different from a residence
hall experience? JOHN: Sure, you know,
residence halls definitely have a lot of
pros to them. I met a lot of people, like,
on my floor, you know my roommates. I
lived in residence halls my first two
years, and I really enjoyed the Dining
Plan as well. Not having to cook your own
food is really good.But, the nice thing
about, like, the U of I community and the area is that
there's a ton of different living
options. So, I did Residence Hall, had that
experience for two years. Then, I moved
into an apartment over in Champaign,
which I tell people is kind of, like, kind
of got a small city, very lively
type of environment. And then, I had a few friends from band, and we're like "You know, let's
get a house!" So, we got a house over in
Urbana, which is brick roads, a much
quieter neighborhood, and it's been great. 
We have a fenced-in backyard, I've got a
grill. I'm actually here now, and I'm going to
stay around this summer. So, yeah, it's a... 
Living in a house is a great
experience. I'd recommend it to anyone. 
It's kind of a cheaper option too versus,
like, an apartment or residence
hall. But, I really did enjoy my time in
the residence halls, and it's uh... It's
something that everyone goes through and it
kind of brings people together that way. 
ZOE: Yeah, definitely. I'm still pretty close
with my roommate from freshman year and it's, like, an instant best friend,
maybe. Well cool, and so
living in Urbana... Okay, and I guess you
you already went into this a little bit, 
how Champaign is a little bit more
lively than Urbana, but, um, this... 
We have a question in the "Speed
Round" about this, but could you talk a
little bit about, like, downtown Champaign,
downtown Urbana, just like the general
campus area, Champaign-Urbana area?  JOHN: Sure,
yeah. So, there's kind of
three communities. You've got, like, Campus
Town, right in the middle, which, you know... 
Green Street, which is where you can find
all your, you know, restaurants and fast
food restaurants. or just local places.
Then you have downtown Champaign,  which is a probably the largest area, and it
has all sorts of restaurants. It's
got, you know, bars and grills. It's got barbecue
places, it's got some really fancy
restaurants as well. It's a very kind of
up-and-coming neighborhood. It's very
nice. It's a great place to go with
parents to get dinner. Yeah, 
Urbana is much smaller, you know, kind of
reminds me of my hometown a little bit. 
It has some great restaurants as well
that I've been to, and it actually has
every year this thing called the "Urbana
Sweet Corn Festival," where it's just, like... 
Yeah, it's just like, you know, corn
everywhere, surrounding their big county
courthouse. And I went my freshman year
and got a bunch of corn and... So, you kind
of have, like, a small-town feel there.
Then you have Campus Town, which is just, 
like, students basically all just
students there, and then you have
Champaign, which is kind of a small city.
You know, lots of great food options. ZOE: Yeah, I love the food. Sweet Corn Festival, for one, it's just so
awesome! I love the Sweet Corn Fest
I go every year, it's my favorite.
JOHN: Yeah, it's a great experience, especially if you're, you know, not really from
Central Illinois. It'll introduce you to
the culture pretty quickly. ZOE: Oh yeah,
that's great, and food, yeah. I hear we're
the number two food town in the Midwest,
which I totally believe, And what are
some of the places you'd like to eat on
campus or near campus? Okay, yeah, so again... It's, like, kind of different places
everywhere. Over in Urbana, I really love
Black Dog barbecue, it's a really great
barbecue restaurant where you can get
pulled pork and brisket, things like that.
So, if you like meat, that's a great place
to go, although I know vegetarians that
like it too, somehow, so I don't know. Yeah, 
yeah, so that's that's a great place. In
like... On Green Street as I mentioned, 
which is right in the middle of Campus
Town, I really love Legends
Bar and Grill. They've got great
fish sandwiches and burgers and things
like that. There's a bunch of pizza
places in Champaign. I really like... Papa Del's comes to mind (ZOE: I'm just like "Papa Del's or no
pizza at all!"). Yeah, yeah it's a great
place to go get some deep-dish pizza...
Good thin crust as well. And then, 
there's another good place in Champaign
called - my parents and I always went
there - it's called Seven Saints, which is a
great place that has, you know, mini
sliders, like little burgers, salads, soups.
Just a really good place to go, maybe on,  
like, a game-day or something like that.
ZOE: Yeah, yeah so many great options, that's
good.
And you were also a Student Alumni
Ambassadors. What was that experience like?
JOHN: Yeah, so the Student Alumni Ambassadors
are a group of students on campus who...
From all parts of the campus. It's a
very diverse group, very involved, and
they helped plan large-scale events like
Homecoming, Illinois Sights and Sounds,
which, if you've ever seen, like, photos of
the freshman class.. It's like a big "I"
that they make in the middle of the field. 
That's Illinois Sights and Sounds that
Student Alumni Ambassadors run. A bunch
of other events as well. Like, "I Love
Illinois Week" and things like that. So, 
it's great. My favorite part about being
part of the group is just all the people. 
It's a lot of really, really great people
in that group, and I've met a lot of, 
as I mentioned, a lot of really awesome
individuals and had some really cool
experiences, you know, planning all these
events. ZOE: That's great, and I don't know
if this is related, but you also got to
hear President, or former President, 
Barack Obama, speak on campus. JOHN: Oh, it was
incredible. Yeah so he, this... It was
announced that he was going to come to
campus in the fall of, I think, 2018. I think that's right.
And he was getting an award of some type
from the university and they were gonna
auction off, you know, tickets for all
students, for students to go. So, there were
like, I don't know, 800 tickets available
and like, you know, 30,000 students
applied for these tickets. I actually, you
know, did not get one of the original
tickets, but I worked for one of the
other organizations I was in... It's the
Student Advocacy Coalition, and, you
know, we help advocate for the university
in Springfield. We message legislators, 
things like that, and they had us help,
like, walk people over. So, I walked, 
like, Treasurer Frerichs over to the
building. And for doing that, they gave us
a ticket, and we got to go sit and watch.
So it was a really great experience. You
know,
he's definitely an idol of mine, 
for sure, from Illinois, and I really like
his positive messages, and it was a
really, really cool experience. And there
were so many people on the Quad just, 
like, hoping to see him as he came out of
Foellinger Auditorium. And he popped into a local cafe called Cafe Paradiso, which I
love, and I actually had a friend that
was in there, and she just, like, hears
this voice, turns around and there he is, 
with Governor Pritzker as well. So, it was
a really cool experience, a really cool day on campus, like, for
everyone, even if you didn't get to go in
and watch him speak. ZOE: Oh, definitely! I
remember I was on that side of campus
when he was over at Cafe Paradiso. I was like "Oh, I just missed him." 
JOHN: Yeah, it was great. ZOE: Yeah.  absolutely.
All right, and... So I asked you if there is, 
like, a person on campus who's really
made an impact on you, and you mentioned Barry Howser 'cause... And you're not
the only person who has said that. It sounds like he's kind of the... I mean, he's the
director of the Marching Band, I believe. (JOHN: Yeah, 
that's correct). Yeah, could you
tell me about "Barry is my Dad"?
I keep hearing that. JOHN: Well, yeah, he's like... You know,
he's a father figure, he really is. I
think someone made him a Wikipedia page,  and
it said, like "Children," and it said "His
two kids and then three hundred and
seventy five others," and that's just... I
mean, that's just the the vibe he gives
off. He's just, like, a fatherly figure. It's
someone who expects a lot out of
you. We want to be a really good band and, 
you know, hold up to that tradition we
have. But, at the same time, you know, he
realizes we just we need to have a good
time. You need to have fun. He realizes
everyone's at this time in their life
where they just want to have
good experiences and grow. and he really
really helps you do that. And he helped
me do that by, you know, allowing me to
have some leadership responsibilities in
the band. And I knew he would always
write me a letter of recommendation, or
sit down and talk with me if I needed
someone. Yeah and so this saying "Barry is my Dad" just kind of developed
years ago, 'cause of this kind of that, you
know, "dad vibe" he gives off, and it's, it's
all good. ZOE: Awesome, that's great! Well, now that you are a graduate and, you know, the semester is
over and we're all pretty much at home
(with the exception of essential workers),
have you been listening to or watching
or reading anything that's been bringing
you joy or or that you're super
interested in lately? ZOE: Um, you know, I try. I
try to listen to the news and stay up-to-date, but, you know, you can't listen to that
too long without getting kind of sad or
whatever. I've been... I really like
sports. I love sports. It's kind of, like, 
an escape for me. So I just watched... As a
Bulls fan, I just watched the ESPN 
documentary "The Last Dance," about Michael
Jordan and the Bulls and the 90s, and
that was a really, really great
documentary and I love that every
Sunday. Reading, oh man... People will
probably think I'm lame for this. 
I really like books, like those books you
were forced to read in high school, I
really liked them. So, I'm reading, like, "To
Kill a Mockingbird," and books like that right now, trying to get
back into reading a little bit more now
that I have time. Otherwise, though, you
know, I'm just trying to relax. I'm trying
to learn the guitar since I've got some
free time. I'm trying to work out as much
as I can. I just kind of enjoy my last
few, you know, weeks and months on this
campus right now.
ZOE: Yeah, well, a little emptier than a normal summer, but you still get to enjoy the Quad and,
yeah. Just enjoy being there... I mean, 
Champaign-Urbana is such  an
awesome place. JOHN: Yeah, no, it is, it is, and I've had a lot of
memories here, and I feel like I've grown
a lot here, and so... Just walking
around, you know. Other than just, like, the
pure beauty of it... It gives me a lot of
good memories and a lot of good feelings. 
ZOE: Awesome, so we're we're coming to the end of the
main portion of the interview. So, I guess my final, like,
question would be: What would you say to
somebody who is an incoming freshman?
They're kind of scared about what's
happening in the world, naturally, and
just worried for the future, and if you
could give this person a pep talk, what
would you say?
Sure...Well, first of all, I would tell them, like,
this isn't gonna last. We're gonna get
over this, you know, sooner rather than
later. And things will rebound and, to be
honest, I can't think of a better
place to kind of "weather the storm" than
college, you know? You're not out in the
workforce, you're not, you know, you're
just here here learning and you're with
a bunch of other people that are in the
same boat as you. And, to be honest... I
mean college is where, at least for me, 
I've grown tremendously. I've had so
many great experiences. I've learned what
I wanted to do and set me up for the
future. So, I just would say if, you
know... If you're worried about it, I
understand that, but college is a great
place to be, and even in this situation,
it'll still be great. So, yeah, I would
just say "Don't worry"
about that. In terms of, like, advice... I
know you asked about some advice I might
give, like, a high schooler. I would just
say "Enjoy every moment, you know, even
if it's a weird moment." Like, this where
you might have like some classes online
and some not, or, you know, it's kind of
weird going on, just enjoy everything,
because there's gonna be ups and downs
where you have to stay up real late
studying or, you know, maybe 
something didn't turn out quite
right like you wanted. And that's okay, 
and it's okay to feel bad. But just, like,
keep staying on the bright side and just
enjoy your college experience, because it
goes by really fast. ZOE: Oh, it sure does. 
Yeah, well, I feel better. I imagine that
that will help help them feel better, too. That's great!
