Arles Hendershott Love Paid Her Own Way Through College. Now She Funds the Students Who Come After Her

ROCKFORD, Ill. In the late 1970s Arles Hendershott Love covered every cent of her college costs herself, and it was hard going. She has never forgotten it. When she returned to Illinois State University for a reunion of TV 10, the student television newsroom where she got her start, she looked at her husband, Joseph Love, and told him she needed to give something back.

The result was the Hendershott Love Scholarship, which the couple set up in 2019 for a TV 10 student in the junior or senior year who is aiming for a media career. Lexi Muoghalu, one of its recipients, was paying for school on her own when the award came through in spring 2024. She later said the news left her almost unable to believe it and lifted a heavy weight. For a donor who once worked her way through the same program, that was the point.

Hendershott Love was part of the first wave of TV 10 students after the station opened in 1974, and she still describes the group as a close family. Her classmate Les Vann was moved by the same reunion and created a scholarship of his own. Other TV 10 and School of Communication alumni have followed, and the department now offers more than 20 scholarships. Her message to fellow alumni is direct: Illinois State helped make them who they are, and they should reach back and help pull the next class of Redbirds forward.

Her own place in TV 10 history became official on April 13, 2024, when she was inducted into its Broadcast Hall of Fame in Normal. The honor recognized her for clearing a path for women in media. When WIFR promoted her to news director in 1986, women held fewer than 5 percent of those jobs nationwide. Before that she had worked at WTVO as a reporter, photographer, producer and assignment editor, and she spent part of the early 1980s speaking to students in the Rockford Public Schools.

Springfield took note as well. The Illinois House of Representatives adopted a resolution congratulating her on the induction and praising a career that opened the way for women entering broadcast media. Proclamations followed from the Governor of Illinois, the Illinois Senate and the Rockford City Council.

That advocacy grows out of her day job. Since 2005 she has led fundraising at Milestone, Inc., the largest provider of services for children and adults with developmental disabilities in Northern Illinois, and by 2024 she had secured about $24 million for its programs. The House resolution also pointed to her years of community work, from serving on boards and advocating for legislation to organizing events supporting arts and culture venues, raising awareness of health issues and bringing help to people experiencing homelessness.

Some of her most effective community work was done with a partner on four legs. In 2011 the Loves adopted Keanu, a border collie rescued with three newborn pups and weighing just 27 pounds. Joe trained her, Arles worked alongside them, and Keanu went on to earn 81 titles and certifications. She worked as a therapy dog, including with people served by Milestone, where she could coax a word or two from people who had not spoken. During the COVID 19 pandemic she comforted clinicians, volunteers and National Guard members at vaccination sites, earning recognition from the Illinois Senate, United States Senator Tammy Duckworth and Congresswoman Cheri Bustos. She also served on the Rockford Park District's Goose Patrol, keeping geese off bike paths and golf courses.

When Keanu died in 2023 after a sudden illness, memorial gifts from hundreds of friends and state leaders became the Miss Keanu Love Excellence in Veterinary Medicine Memorial Scholarship Fund at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine. The Loves also gave to the school's Animals Need Heroes Too building campaign, named a learning pod in its Renk Learning Center and bought a memorial brick. Hendershott Love has since written gifts into her estate plan that will permanently endow Keanu's scholarship and create a second endowed scholarship in her own name and her late husband's, so that future veterinarians are supported for good.

Her curiosity has always run wide. Over the years she has belonged to the Society of Professional Journalists, the Illinois News Broadcasters Association, the National Association of Female Executives and the American Management Association, and she has supported the Archaeological Institute of America and the University of Chicago Oriental Institute. Outside work she travels, takes photographs and competes in dog sports. She still trains with Juno, a border collie who has become her steady companion.

Dynamo Times recognizes Arles Hendershott Love for turning a lifetime of community fundraising into lasting scholarships that open doors for young journalists and future veterinarians.