For Dashawn Cason, a government and litigation associate at Heyl Royster who’s first experience with a courtroom was his own adoption at nine years old, a home isn’t just a place where you live. And while he has lived lots of places in his young life—Chicago, Cahokia, Alton, Covington(GA),Indianapolis, St. Louis—Peoria’s the one that’s always felt the most like home.

“I think it was blessing,” he says warmly of discovering Peoria when he came to Bradley University.

A first-generation college graduate, it was a high school guidance counselor that pointed Dashawn in Bradley’s direction. After getting accepted to a whopping ten schools, as well as a summer leadership program, Dashawn chose two campus visits—one of which was our very own home of the Braves!

“It really spoke to me,” Dashawn says of the experience. “I think I made my decision that day.”

Even now, he describes his time at Bradley as “transformative,” and while there he became quickly ingrained with the local community, thanks to summer internships at the Convention & Visitors Bureau and holiday breaks spent with close friends, who happened to be long-time Peoria natives. Even when he was at law school in St. Louis, the draw remained strong, and he would visit frequently.

“Peoria isn’t too big to put people off or be prohibitive,” he explains, while discussing the area’s unique balance between urban scuttle and pastoral tranquility. “You can’t really go wrong here.”

The congested bustling of downtown St. Louis became Dashawn’s backdrop for several years while he finished law school and worked as an assistant city attorney. But a surprise call from an old Peoria mentor—and a windfall opportunity at his current firm—beckoned him to return to his “home”.

Dashawn’s mouths spreads into a wide smile. “Peoria has always been familiar to me.”