homecoming parade
2009 Parade Grand Marshal: Staff Sgt. Katherine Maglia of the Illinois Air National Guard
Katherine Maglia, a University of Illinois senior and a veteran of the Iraq war, was the grand marshal of the 2009 Homecoming Parade.
A painting major in the UI College of Fine and Applied Arts and a student in the University’s Institute of Aviation, Maglia has been a member of the Illinois Air National Guard since 2004. She has served two five-month tours to Iraq as a firefighter – in Ali in 2006 and in Baghdad in 2008.
Maglia plans to re-enlist in January 2010, and in hopes of making a career as a Guard pilot, will apply for a pilot officer position in March. If accepted, she will participate in officer training at Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas. Otherwise, she will have the opportunity to deploy to Afghanistan in 2010.
Maglia comes from an enthusiastic Illini family. Her father, Kenneth Maglia, graduated from the College of Engineering in 1981, and her mother, Mary Ann Niemcyzk Maglia, is a 1980 graduate of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. In addition, one of Maglia’s sisters, Ellyn, is a junior in the kinesiology program in the College of Applied Health Sciences.