Unemployed at the time he came to a job fair at UIS in 2010, Tom Gebhardt, originally from Springfield, has now been a custodian for UIS for six years.

“I’m glad I came here. I’m glad I ended up here. It’s a great place,” Gebhardt said. “I am a custodian, but the faculty and staff I’ve met here treat me like everyone else, they treat me like family.”

The typical work schedule for a building service worker is from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., but Gebhardt has his scheduled arranged a little differently due to his status as an employee and a “nontraditional student,” as he puts it.

He begins work at 3:30 a.m. and ends his shift at 11:30 a.m., since most of his class times range from noon until later in the evening.

After getting hired at UIS, Gebhardt took advantage of the opportunities presented to him. Following a six-month probation period, he began classes to complete his undergraduate degree in art.

Gebhardt previously received an associate degree for business administration from Robert Morris University in 1996. According to Gebhardt, he has been enjoying being a student again, especially the “inclusiveness” of the other students.

“They kind of look up to me for my age, my knowledge, and my life experience,” he said, “but they give me a hard time for being my age too.”

Gebhardt has also met a lot of international students while attending classes, and he states that spending time with them “helps expand my knowledgee of the world around me.”

His work as a student and his love of art has led to his participation in the Art Student League (ASL). This semester, Gebhardt became the president of the ASL after serving as vice president in fall 2015 and spring 2016.

Gebhardt considers ASL a way to meet people from the school. “It’s also an encouraging environment with classmates and you can help encourage each other in projects,” he said.

To Gebhardt, ASL is really about “friendships and trying to get the full college experience.”

“It’s fun,” he said. “I have a good time with it.”

A recent event that brought attention to ASL, and also to Gebhardt, was the maiden voyage of a boat he created out of 175 feet of bubble wrap, wood, and Styrofoam.

This sculpture was for his Sculpture 1 class. The challenge for his boat was to take it across the UIS Pond. Roughly 25 people showed up as he paddled his handcrafted boat across the pond and back, only taking on a small amount of water.

Once this challenge was done, it was requested that he put his boat in the Homecoming parade. He reached out to those in ASL and no one was able to walk with him in the parade. He mounted the boat on a board and put a rope around, then pulled it through the parade.

“It was hard to pull,” he said, “but even harder to paddle across the lake.”

The sculpture is currently behind the Visual Arts Building.

When Gebhardt is not at the university, he’s busy doing household chores.

“I handle the honey-to-do list that my wife has for me, because we’re doing some remodeling. I still do art away from here, because I just enjoy it,” he said.

Gebhardt and his wife Valerie also spend time taking one-day road trips, going antiquing, visiting wineries, and being active in their church.

In his free time, Gebhardt also enjoys naps, bacon, watching NASCAR, and is a fan of the Cubs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Otherwise, he said, he’s not able to do much else, “since I’m really busy with school and work right now.”

Gebhardt has a goal with his life on campus. He said, “I really want to leave a legacy out here on campus, by sculpture or whatever I do.”