River Currents

Chloe Bruce is a continuing student at IVCC and an editor for River Currents who finds it very strange to write about herself in third person. She has also submitted some of her work for the 2024 issue. In her free time she loves listening to weird music, playing Pokémon and The Legend of Zelda video games, writing poetry for her many creative writing classes, and creating all sorts of art in all sorts of mediums. She is currently working on getting her Bachelor’s degree in English and hopes to get her Master’s in Library and Information Science and become a school librarian. A band geek for life, Chloe also sometimes plays piano, and used to be in her high school’s marching band and percussion ensemble. Chloe lives with her awesome mom who has superior taste in music (thanks, Mom!), and two silly 11-year old cats who definitely don’t act their age. She is currently putting off doing a lot of homework to write this short bio, and in case you’re wondering, she’s listening to some Animal Crossing music with rain sounds as she works. She’s just under the minimum word count for this biography, too, at 199 words.

Zoe Kidd is a freshman at IVCC and graduated from LPHS last year. She plans to attend The University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana in the fall and major in English. With these plans, she hopes to go into editing for publishing companies after graduating, so she can work alongside authors in the final production of their work. Her passions have always lied with literature and poetry, and being an editor in the River Currents journal has allowed her to collaborate with her peers on showcasing local poetry, prose, and art. She is very glad she was made aware of this journal so she could do what she loves. In her free time, she enjoys listening to old music and watching old movies.

Meet Lauren Moreno, a first-year college student with a passion for visual arts and computer science. Born and raised in Ottawa, Illinois, Lauren developed a strong sense of love and curiosity for photo and video editing from a young age. Whether it’s immersing herself in a video game or envisioning a new edit, she finds inspiration within the intersection of art and technology. She began her educational journey at University of Colorado Boulder where she majored in Computer Science. The beautiful campus fueled her passion further as renowned professors broadened her perspective on what it is like to be a computer scientist. Now, as she continues her journey closer to home, she brings with her the lessons and insights learned at CU. Looking ahead, Lauren plans to pursue a career in the computer science field as a user experience designer and video game developer.  Lauren hopes to bring a fresh perspective to River Currents as the Visual Arts Editor, and is eager to connect with her peers and community through the beauty of art. She looks forward to giving local artists a platform to showcase their unique works

Brayden previously served as the Editor in Chief of the Streator Township High School yearbook for 2 years. He also commercially manages websites for small businesses in Illinois. This experience made Brayden the perfect fit for helping redesign and launch a new fully digital edition of River Currents. As Webmaster, Brayden’s innovative approach to website management ensures that River Currents isn’t just another college publication, but a dynamic platform where student submissions come alive, and readers can engage with the content in new, meaningful ways. Brayden is excited to see all of the amazing things our contributors will do in the future both while at and after graduation from IVCC. He is super excited to be part of River Currents and working to ensure its publication well into the future. 

Prof. Lee is ever-grateful to witness and platform the creativity and passion of the River Currents student staff each year—may each of them continue to elevate the creative pursuits of their communities for many years to come. She teaches composition, creative writing, and literature courses in the English department at Illinois Valley Community College.