What’s in a name? For a vibrant nonprofit performing arts center on the border of Chicago’s Logan Square and Hermosa neighborhoods, the answer is ... everything.

If you ask Wanda Nguyen about her career plans, she does not hesitate with her answer: She will graduate from Northeastern Illinois University, attend dental school and eventually become an orthodontist, she says. And then she smiles.

As a professor in Northeastern Illinois University’s Department of Educational Inquiry and Curriculum Studies, Nicole Holland is passionate about the success of her students. But she knows firsthand that success in a university classroom doesn’t happen without plenty of preparation.