July 11, 2025 Local Stories in and Around St. Joseph, Illinois

Sweet Home Alabama

Eve Owens knew she wanted to go South.


So when she was trying to decide where to go to college she visited a lot of SEC schools.


But she found her future home in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.


“In the end, Alabama was the best school for me,” she said. “The first time I visited the campus I felt I fit in with the people there and the campus was so beautiful.”


Owens, St. Joseph-Ogden High School’s co-valedictorian, is carrying on a family tradition because her older sister, Olivia, also attends the University of Alabama. It was Olivia who called Eve to tell her to check her email to see if she had been accepted to Alabama.


“When I saw that I had, I told my family and we were all super excited,” Eve said.


Eve said her parents, Melissa and Don, were extremely happy because they love the school and the fact that both girls will be attending the same school.


Eve plans on majoring in psychology on the Dental track and hopes to one day own a dental practice in North Carolina.


While she has big plans for her future, Eve said she will take numerous memories and lessons from St. Joseph-Ogden with her into adulthood.


Eve said SJO taught her to try new things.


“Don’t miss out because you don’t want to have any regrets,” she said.


Eve said that while she is looking forward to her graduation trip to Germany and starting school at Alabama in the fall, she will miss the town she grew up in.


“I’ll miss all of my friends and all of the people in my class because I grew up with them,” she said.

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