UIS begins planting 1,000 Japanese maple trees

The University of Illinois Springfield is planting Japanese maple trees on its campus.

UIS plans to place the first 100 near the UIS-LLCC bike trail.

The trees were donated by Davidsan's Japanese Maples, a business in New Berlin.

The donation is being made to honor more than 30 years that Springfield has had a sister city relationship with Ashikaga, Japan.

This story aired on WICS Newschannel 20 on April 27, 2021.

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UIS students could study at newly proposed Chicago research center

University of Illinois Springfield students would have a chance to study at a proposed new public-private research center near downtown Chicago, UIS Chancellor Susan Koch said Thursday.

The University of Illinois announced plans for the Discovery Partners Institute on Thursday. 

According to the university, the new research institute would be developed on a site along the Chicago River in the city’s south loop neighborhood, where researchers will work with students and businesses to support “next-generation innovation and workforce development.”

The development company Related Midwest donated the land.

The U of I hopes to complete a plan for the research center next year. The plan will include a timetable for opening and other details of the $1.2 billion institute, which will be operated principally through private donations and partnerships with business and industry.

Koch said Thursday she was excited about what the prospects of the facility could mean in attracting students to UIS and preparing them for the workforce.

The institute, she said, would work similarly to a study-abroad program, where UIS students would spend a semester or more in Chicago. Students in numerous majors could potentially utilize the facility, including computer science, management information services, data analytics and information security, she said. “The sky is the limit on what the possibilities will be,” Koch said. 

Northwestern University and the University of Chicago are partnering with the U of I on the institute. U of I president Timothy Killeen said in a statement the center is intended to bring together faculty, students and companies to collaborate on research and turn it into new products and companies.

This story appeared in The State Journal-Register on October 19, 2017.

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UIS gets grant to study rivers in Illinois, Brazil

The University of Illinois Springfield is one of eight institutions to receive an Innovation Fund grant from the Coca-Cola Foundation, and the school plans to use the $25,000 to help students study and compare river ecosystems in Brazil and Illinois.

The grant will help fund a joint project between UIS and the Universidade Estadual de Maringa (UEM) in Brazil.

Students and faculty from the two universities will study two of the world’s great rivers, the Paraná and the Illinois.

According to UIS, nine students and six faculty will be involved in the summer of 2017, with plans to increase that number in the future. Faculty and staff from UIS and UEM have been collaborating for 10 years on similar projects.

UIS associate professor of chemistry Keenan Dungey, professor of biology Michael Lemke and international programs director Jonathan GoldbergBelle submitted the grant-funded proposal along with their Brazilian colleagues.

“Students are going to learn how to measure the ecology of the rivers, water chemistry and microbes, plankton, and compare the state of the Illinois River to the Parana.” “The Illinois River has been impacted by human agriculture and industrialization for more than 100 years, whereas the region of the Parana has had a lot less impact and three national parks help to preserve the river,” Dungey said.

The $25,000 grant is part of the Coca-Cola Foundation-sponsored competition “100,000 Strong in the Americas.” The grants recognize initiatives to create partnerships between higher education institutions and Latin America, with the goal of increasing study abroad in the field of environmental sciences, with an emphasis on water.

The eight grants awarded in 2016 will help 115 students to study abroad and prepare them for the 21st-century workforce.

This story appeared in The State Journal-Register on November 12, 2016.

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UIS recieves grant from Coca-Cola Foundation

The University of Illinois Springfield is receiving a $25,000 grant from the Coca-Cola Foundation. 

The Innovation Grant is in recognition of the Schools partnership with the State University of Maringa in Brazil, and their study abroad programs focusing on environmental science.

The school says the money will be used to create additional student research opportunities.

This story aired on FOX 55 on Thursday, November 10, 2016.

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Japanese students get science lesson at UIS

It was the first time in a boat for 11 Japanese high school students studying aquatic ecology at the University of Illinois Springfield last week.

This week, their studies would show them why it may not be a good idea to swallow the water should they fall out of the boat.

The students and two teachers from Ashikaga Boys High School in Ashikaga, Japan, are at UIS for a Science Academy Program funded by the Japanese government. During the weeklong trip, which began Thursday, the students are learning sampling techniques, fundamental water analysis and basic molecular biology and how it relates to conservation.

Ashikaga has been Springfield’s sister city since 1990, and UIS is hosting a group of science students from the same 600-student high school for the third year.

This story appeared online in The State Journal Register on July 13, 2015.

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Studying abroad increasingly popular with college students

This past fall, Kaitie Devlin learned what it was like to live and study in a foreign country.

Devlin spent the semester in Brussels, Belgium, as part of the Global Experience Program offered at the University of Illinois Springfield, where Devlin is a junior communications major.

The university allows students to select where they would like to go.

"I chose Belgium because I am focused on being a journalist, and the International Programs at UIS recommended Belgium," Devlin said. "Belgium, especially Brussels, is really a gold mine for anyone trying to become a journalist because the city is filled with them."

It's interesting politically and it's worldly, she said, and as a reporter, there are "colorful pieces to cover all the time."

In recent years and with a more global society, studying abroad has become increasingly popular with college students across the United States. In the first issue of its White Paper series, which examined trends in American study abroad programs, the Institute of International Education found that in the 2004-05 academic year, 205,983 students took classes in another country.

That trend is evident at local colleges as well.

UIS began offering study abroad opportunities to its students 15 years ago. At the time, few students were interested. Now, the university is at "a plateau of about 50 to 60 students," said Jonathan GoldbergBelle, director of international programs.

Study abroad was spotlighted by The State Journal-Register on January 26, 2015.

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