Owen Hickey

Owen Thomas Hickey; Youngest of 3 kids & youngest grandchild of 20, born to two 1st generation Irish Immigrants. A University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign graduate, while achieving a bachelors degree in Organizational Communication with a double minor in Business Administration & Recreation, Sport, & Tourism. Attended the University of Illinois in pursuit of playing on the biggest stage in college football. Big 10 football taught necessary life qualities like discipline & commitment. Always been a determined & disciplined student athlete with a lot of life experience in many fields. Father & Grandfather built over 120 homes in the Chicago-land area before both becoming Mechanical Engineers for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. Mother was an Accountant for Cook County, born on the south side of Chicago, father from the North side. Both Grandparents immigrated from Ireland. Have traveled all over America & Europe & experienced many cultures. Blue-collar mindset, earn everything, & expect nothing. Have the drive & passion necessary for greatness & the discipline to achieve excellence. Worked in various fields & eager to tackle new opportunities. Words from a mentor to live by; "Put your head down, work your tail off, & one day you'll look up & like where you're at. It's not about what you do, it's how you do it."

• SERVICE: Over the course of High School & College, I have participated in more than 200 Hours of voluntary community service for service programs like Special Olympics, NEDSRA (Northeast DuPage Special Recreation Association), the local food pantry as well as other service organizations. Service work allows me to give back to the community & put other people's needs before my own. My eagerness to participate in community service voluntarily comes from my religious & moral foundation to help those in need & to be bigger than myself.
• MUSIC: Growing up, I dabbled in many musical instruments playing everything I could get my hands on. I played the recorder & the piano in elementary school, soon to follow was the cello & the trombone beginning in 5th Grade. I enjoyed both for a year but I chose to focus on the trombone in junior high. Over the next three years, I was first chair trombone in the symphonic band as well as in the extracurricular jazz band. Come high school, I chose to focus on sports rather than music, but did not lose any love for the arts. I have also sang in a German-American Choir the age of 3 & am still involved in it to this day. Being apart of this group has allowed me to immerse myself into the German culture as an Irish kid who would be clueless otherwise. The group gets the privilege of traveling across Europe every 3-5 Years to showcase our singing talents as well as a little reward for our hard work over the years. I've been on 4 singing trips touring places like Germany, Italy, Ireland, Austria, France, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Denmark, Switzerland, The Netherlands, & Belgium.