destinya bold plan for our future manifest>>> - Illinois Institute of ...

manifest: contributing to
the community
One of IIT’s goals in the Challenge campaign was to renovate and update
the Main Campus, making it more attractive to students. An ancillary goal
was working with community, city, state and private resources to facilitate
improvements in neighboring areas.
IIT has helped the community plan for a more vital 35th Street business
corridor. The university has become a resource for academic initiatives in
nearby schools—providing tutors for high school students, rewiring classrooms
for the Internet, and designing the Digital Media Center for the
educational needs of local schoolchildren.
IIT’s involvement in local schools extends to the Young Women’s
Leadership Charter School, located on the Main Campus, and to the
Wendell Phillips Academy, in which the university has a deep commitment.
It now includes special preparation of IIT students with the
university’s new Department of Mathematics and Science Education. This
program gives students an education minor that prepares them for a
teaching certificate at the secondary level. Accreditation of the program is
expected for 2002. Neighboring schools provide IIT students with an
opportunity to teach and learn at the same time.
The local community also includes Michigan Place, across the street from
the IIT residences, where townhomes are selling at market prices upward
of $400,000.
HELPING KIDS EXCEL MASTER’S DEGREE STU-
DENT CHRISTOPHER SAVIO PINTO HELPED FIFTEEN
6 TH-, 7TH-, AND 8TH-GRADERS FROM NEARBY DRAKE
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BUILD A COMPUTER AS AN
AFTER-SCHOOL PROJECT. ONE OF THEIR BIGGEST
CHALLENGES: COSTING OUT PARTS TO KEEP WITHIN
BUDGET. IT TOOK THREE AND ONE-HALF MONTHS TO
A GOOD NEIGHBOR GREG WASHINGTON (ABOVE), PRESIDENT OF THE GRAND BOULEVARD FEDERATION,
CONSIDERS IIT AN IMPORTANT RESOURCE FOR THE LOCAL COMMUNITY. “WHEN WE WERE ASKED TO FORMULATE
A BETTER HUMAN SERVICE DELIVERY SYSTEM FOR ILLINOIS,” HE EXPLAINED, “IIT WAS THERE WITH HELP. AS A
MEMBER OF THE FEDERATION, IT HAS HELPED US WITH EMPLOYMENT AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ISSUES. IT
HAS HELPED US DESIGN A WELFARE-TO-WORK INITIATIVE, STUDIED LOCAL AIR QUALITY SO THAT WE COULD
APPRECIATE THE EXTENT OF ASTHMA AS A HEALTH ISSUE IN OUR COMMUNITY, AND STOOD WITH US IN
ADDRESSING THE INTERESTS OF PUBLIC HOUSING RESIDENTS.”
BUILD THEIR DREAM COMPUTER.
35 ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY