Compiled by Rachel Giese, Jamie Hunyor, and Michael Terrell

Jonathan Kaden applied for a position on the staff of Naperville Central’s Central Times as a sophomore last winter. After his interview, staff member Jonathan Leong met up with him by chance in the parking lot.

“He asked me ‘So what’d you guys think?,’ and we’re supposed to keep it a secret but I couldn’t help myself and I told him, ‘We really liked you man, you’re definitely in,’ and he was really, really happy to hear that news,” Leong said.

After finding his place on the staff this spring, Kaden joined his peers at the Ball State Summer Journalism Workshops this week to prepare for the upcoming fall. Making the most of their nearly four-hour drive home, fellow soon-to-be junior Mark Kim quickly realized why Leong and the rest of the staff were so eager to welcome Kaden to their publication.

“We were stuck in a traffic jam and it kind of got boring so we just started talking about our lives. We started to understand each other. I went home and was happy and kind of excited. One day passed and then my friend broke the news,” Kim said.

Kaden, 17, died Friday in his hometown. His death remains under investigation.

“After the news was broken I was kind of hysterical. I was on my iPod, and when I finally got on my laptop, I started breaking down in front of my entire family,” Kim said.

Kaden’s publication staff characterized him as a funny person. Leong, his workshops roommate, said Kaden’s sense of humor was prevalent even in the non-air conditioned Woodworth dorms.

“He slept on the floor because he thought it was cooler. He put his mattress bed on the floor because he was trying to be all scientific about it and he was like, ‘Oh, well, warm air rises’ so it would be cooler if he put his mattress on the floor,” Leong said.

Kaden not only bonded with his staff during the Five-Day Workshops, but he was also intent on improving his skill set.

“He was always asking questions because he wanted to be our front page editor. Journalism meant so much to him,” classmate Yasmin Gentry said.

While at the workshops, he took the Adobe InDesign class to improve his chances of being chosen for the position.

“I’ll remember Jonathan as the kid in my class with the headbands and the Dairy Queen T-shirts,” instructor Joe Humphrey said. “I enjoyed working with him on designs – he showed a real interest in making creative, compelling pages.”

Everyday Kaden wore a new shirt from his place of employment, Dairy Queen. He enjoyed the featured treat, the Dilly Bar, so much that it landed him his own nickname.

“Even on Facebook his name’s John ‘Dilly Bar’ Kaden,” Leong said.

Kim also described Kaden as warm-hearted; he planned to complete a documentary on his school’s Adapted Physical Education program.

“Our able-bodied students work with students with disabilities,” Naperville Central High School publications adviser Keith Carlson said. “We were in the early stages on planning that, and it was something I was really looking forward to.”

Although Kaden was newer to the staff, he still clicked with his peers.

“We always had our meals together with the staff and we would walk together,” Gentry said.

Everyone had their fair share of joking, including Kaden.

“He had this voice he did. He would pretend to be a Ball State tour guide. He was always making us laugh,” Gentry said.

In Naperville, the staff met Friday night and Saturday afternoon to swap stories and jokes to celebrate Kaden’s life.

“We’ve been making posters to put up in the office to remember his jokes,” Editor-in-Chief Christin Tang said.

While humorous, Tang said Kaden was more than likely to become the front page editor for the upcoming school year, with more responsibility to come.

“I think it’d be fair to say that all the seniors could have seen him as the editor-in-chief the following year.”

–

A memorial service will be held at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 4 in Pfeiffer Hall (310 E. Benton) on the campus of North Central College in Naperville . Friends have established a memorial Facebook page here.