Progress Updates
Formulate partnerships in higher education and industry to expand access opportunities for IMSA students around the state.
March 2024
President Glazer met with Dr. Greg Larnell, IMSA alum and UIC professor, about CLED student success in math, and potential pathways IMSA could collaborate with UIC on research in this area. We have placed 70 students for research in summer programs (SRELO) throughout the state. Funding has been provided through numerous grant sources that prioritize access to CLED students.
In addition, we are finalizing the development of a partnership tool that will help us to rank order partner prospects within higher education and industry based on different variables, such as impact around the state, economic feasibility, supporting a high need, and more.
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February 2024
SRELO has partnerships with 6 external groups with the addition of Southern Illinois University, Discovery Partners Institute, University of Illinois-Chicago and Kane County Forest Preserve. We have had over 150 students express interest, and we are able to provide approximately 40-45 scholarships for the residential programs based on grants we have received this year. Other efforts related to Theme 4 include:
● OPA is collecting alumni information through a survey to understand career pathways, and the role IMSA has played in their development. 31 alumni respondents indicated they live in Illinois and are working in higher education, and some with specific interest in SIR mentoring.
● We are currently planning to run a Chicago-based summer program for students in grades 5-7 in collaboration with CPS and National Louis university. The program is funded by an innovation grant from the SPM Endowment.
● The Center for Teaching and Learning is planning to develop four courses for Dominican University to assist students with essential mathematical skills.
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January 2024
We have been finalizing our summer research program options available to our students. We are pleased to report that we have more than doubled the options compared to last year (over 50). In addition to continuing partners from last year, we have also added Southern Illinois University-Carbondale (residential), University of Illinois-Chicago (commuting), Kane County Forest Preserve (commuting), and Discovery Partners Institute (online). As these programs grow, we intend to invite external students in 2025 to participate in a future research program so they can earn an IMSA research credential.
We are also exploring pathways where students outside of IMSA can participate in IMSA-led or co-led research programs starting in 2025. For example, we met with Chicago Out of School Time to explore recruitment of CPS students. In addition, we met with FermiLab to develop an in-person program with students from other schools. Last, we have begun thinking about ways in which students can be invited to IMSA for a short experience, such as during intersession or for a second semester, as beds become available.
December 2023
Four non-IMSA students and two adults are moving forward with our pilot course (Object Oriented Programming) for hybrid learning, making an IMSA course available to students across the state of Illinois. The students in this course were required to complete an assignment in advance to demonstrate readiness. West Aurora High School is also interested in using modules from the course to enrich students taking AP Computer Science where their teacher would be a participant in the course.
We are finalizing agreements with UIUC, WIU, SIU Carbondale, and potentially others to host students in the summer of 2024 for a research experience (now called SRELO, previously referred to as PROMISE 2.0). Grant funding from the IMSA fund and TC energy have been provided to support scholarships for CLED students.
IMSA will be hosting a robotics workshop on April 1, 2024, for middle and high school teachers from CPS and other city schools in collaboration with the Discovery Partners Institute (DPI).
Barrington Price, Dominican’s Vice President of Student Success and Engagement, visited IMSA’s PROMISE program. As Dominican opens their Chicago campus in the Pilsen neighborhood, we would like to explore offering our outreach programming there in the future to broaden our impact. Dominican is a Hispanic-Serving Institution.
We are currently exploring summer outreach programs at National Louis University for summer 2024 or summer 2025. The opportunity would allow us to reach more elementary-aged students in Chicago and provide their college students with early field experiences in teaching.
November 2023
Through partnerships with higher education, community colleges, local schools, and STEM organizations throughout the state, IMSA has the potential to cast a broader net, to elevate an IMSA education everywhere, and impact educators and students significantly throughout the state of Illinois, building capacity in each area served. Our desire is to make higher education more accessible to IMSA students and our network of IMSA opportunities.
A team of colleagues are currently working on …..
- Increased summer research and internship opportunities that may be credit-bearing
- Analyzing and developing a tool to evaluate the impact of potential partnerships
- Identifying dual credit course offerings and potential courses offered by external institutions for our course catalog
- Identifying additional SRELO (PROMISE 2.0) criteria, locations, and programming for the summer 2024
- Identifying and connecting alumni and alumni parents who work in higher ed in Illinois
- Promoting non-residential student enrollment in our hybrid, dual enrollment object-oriented programming course offered in the Spring 2024 semester
- Establishing student outreach programs in another location by involving/training preservice educators as interns
- Engaging in partnerships that can attract diverse talent to PROMISE and IMSA
