Chicago.com
Born and raised in England, British fashion designer Amy Helliwell moved to Chicago this summer to join the team as Fashion Editor. Her love of fashion combined with her adoration of shopping sets to bring Chicago.com all it needs to know within the shopping and fashion sector of the city.
Amy studied Fashion Design in the North East of England for 4 years, accomplishing internships with high profile fashion contributors such as Alexander McQueen and Harvey Nichols. This led her on to completing a foundation degree in which she hopes will open many doors into the fashion industry.
Whilst she is not shopping and keeping up with the latest trends, Amy likes to spend her time working out and visiting local attractions. At night she can be found in the hippest of bars and night clubs striving to meet new people and is most likely to be seen on the dance floor.
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Bela Zecker spent the first two years of her life beachside in Rogers Park before heading to Evanston to settle down. Luckily, the suburb is still connected to Chicago by a CTA thread, and she used this lifeline frequently as an adolescent craving big city excitement. Now, as a journalism and international studies student at Northwestern University, she still utilizes the El to take her to all of the best festivals, cultural events and concerts the city has to offer.
When she’s not studying or writing, Bela works at a late night café saving up money for more concerts and travel to as many places as she can manage. She also has a nerdy affection for learning foreign languages, editing, flowers, Eastern philosophy, kittens and art nouveau.
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Vinnie Rapponi was born and raised in Bridgeport in the South side of Chicago. Vinnie got his start in comedy at Riddles Comedy Club Open Mic in 2003. These days he’s no stranger to performing on stage and in front of a camera. You can catch him doing stand up at Joe’s on Weed St., Cigars and Stripes, Riddles Comedy Club, Senese’s, Funny Bone in Detroit, Rhinos in Plainwall Michigan, and the Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase and more. One of his biggest accomplishments was opening for Johnny B and the Leisure Suits at the Rosemont Theatre in front of 4000 people.
Vinnie won 1st place for Chicagocomic.com Comedy Competition of 2004 and has since hosted shows for Funny Fem, Hammerhead Productions, as well as performing with the Mikey O Cultural Madness tours. Over the past year and a half, Vinnie has stretched his acting chops with the longest running Chicago play, Tony and Tina’s Wedding. When he’s not pretending to be a wise cracking Italian guy on stage, he’s working full time with Chicago.com.
You can check out his latest work at Chicago.com/blog and Chicago.com/videos to see what he’s up to and to learn more about your favorite Windy City. Got a question about where to eat? Ask Vinnie. Got a question about where to take your girl for a nice night out? Ask Vinnie. And if you want to know why Chicago rocks, Ask Vinnie. Vinnie knows.
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Tom Ledford spent the first years of his life in Lakeview, before migrating to Lincoln Park at the age of 9 to be closer to school. From then on, besides a one-year sojourn in Bavaria, he spent the rest of his childhood in Chicago. He is excited to have returned to urban life this summer from the vast suburbia of New Jersey, where he will be a sophomore at Princeton University in the fall. If anything, his passion for Chicago has only been reinforced by the past year he spent on the Eastern seaboard.
In his spare time, Tom enjoys journeying across Chicago by foot and CTA and sampling the amazing food the city has to offer. This summer, he plans to frequent as many of the numerous festivals around the city and you will likely find him in attendance at the Millennium weekly concert series. As a staff writer for Chicago.com, he hopes to be able to show readers the events and amenities that truly make Chicago as a world-class city.
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Jarred Trost is the lead developer at Chicago.com. He holds a B.B.A. In Marketing from Loyola University Chicago. He has over a decade of experience developing Internet based businesses. He has previously served in the United States Peace Corps as a small enterprise development volunteer.
Jarred moved to Chicago for college and never left. He enjoys exploring the city and biking on the lakefront trail. You can find him working on his computer in coffee shops during the day, and chasing Chicago's best bar specials at night. He thoroughly enjoys being photographed next to the Bulls cheerleaders.
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Srdan Latinovic is a sports-loving fanatic, who also happens to enjoy the art of writing and reporting as well. He grew up in Bosnia and Croatia before moving to Munich, Germany at the age of 14. He spent four years in this great Bavarian city before he and his family decided to move to Chicago in search of a better life. Almost 12 years later, he and his family are still residing in the Chicagoland area.
Srdan has an Associate Degree in Dental Laboratory Technology and a Bachelor’s Degree in Sports Journalism. The three things he enjoys in life the most are hanging out with family and friends, watching sports and playing any sport where there is a ball involved. His favorite sport is soccer and he religiously follows almost all the major European leagues. Srdan hopes to learn more about Chicago as a staff writer for Chicago.com while utilizing his sports knowledge, and hopefully share all these fantastic experiences with the readers.
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Katie is a born and raised Minnesotan girl. She grew up 10 minutes away from the Twin Cities and when college came around desired for bigger and better cities.
College brought her to DePaul Unviersity where she recently graduated with a B.A. in Journalism and two minors in Applied Psychology and Media and Communications. During her time at DePaul, Katie wrote for the school newspaper, as well as reporting for the school T.V. presence. She freelanced for a local paper in MN, and held internships at NewsRadio 780 WBBM, WFLD Fox Chicago and Chicago Sun-Times. She hopes to be able to continue her career in Chicago.
When she is not writing and reporting, she enjoys reading, shopping and exploring the city. Aside from enjoying Chicago's many museums and shops, she loves music and theatre so many hours are spent in Chicago's theatre district.
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