A new dual credit course for high school seniors in Menard and Sangamon counties will be offered by the University of Illinois Springfield's Teacher Education Department.
The goal is to encourage more students to become teachers.
This is the second year UIS has offered dual credit courses to area high school students.
The new course being offered is titled "Foundations of American Education." It counts toward general education credits for those students who attend UIS to complete their bachelor's degrees.
The dual credit Teacher Education course costs $50, plus the cost of a textbook.
This story aired on WAND TV 17 on August 29, 2018.
Read the article online.
Thursday, August 30, 2018
Wednesday, August 29, 2018
UIS awarded first hub in statewide innovation network
The University of Illinois Springfield, through the recently acquired business and social innovation incubator Innovate Springfield, will house the first hub of the Illinois Innovation Network, state and local officials announced Tuesday.
The announcement comes months after state legislators appropriated $500 million in seed money to the U of I system-led initiative, which will have hubs across the state connecting to the Chicago-based Discovery Partners Institute.
The goal is to accelerate economic growth statewide through research and innovation.
“We could not be more pleased to be playing a key role to help facilitate this milestone moment in our collective history,” UIS Chancellor Susan Koch said. “I am confident the Springfield hub will be a smashing success.”
The university took ownership of Innovate Springfield on Aug. 1. It will be supported initially by $1.5 million seed money over the next three years from the university, city of Springfield, the Land of Lincoln Economic Development Corporation and the Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln.
Koch said the university has submitted a proposal to the DPI, which will likely tap into that $500 million for “a significant investment in building and expanding” the hub in downtown Springfield.
For now, the incubator will continue to be located at 15 S. Old State Capitol Plaza, but it is widely expected that it will move in the near future to a larger location somewhere else downtown.
While Mayor Jim Langfelder has pushed for the university to have a presence on the YWCA block at Fourth Street and Capitol Avenue, the university has yet to commit to a site. But no matter where the permanent home of the Springfield hub ends up being, university officials believe it has the potential to transform the city’s economy along with the broader region.
“Together, though, this effort will make Springfield part of a network that will be home to literally hundreds of world-class researchers, thousands of students and partners at top universities and corporations,” said U of I system president Timothy Killeen. “It will give this community access to the very best intellectual power that we can muster in every discipline.”
Killeen said the network has the potential to “foster pioneering discovery that will not just rival Silicon Valley, but leapfrog it.”
This story appeared in The State Journal-Register on August 28, 2018.
Read the entire article online.
The announcement comes months after state legislators appropriated $500 million in seed money to the U of I system-led initiative, which will have hubs across the state connecting to the Chicago-based Discovery Partners Institute.
The goal is to accelerate economic growth statewide through research and innovation.
“We could not be more pleased to be playing a key role to help facilitate this milestone moment in our collective history,” UIS Chancellor Susan Koch said. “I am confident the Springfield hub will be a smashing success.”
The university took ownership of Innovate Springfield on Aug. 1. It will be supported initially by $1.5 million seed money over the next three years from the university, city of Springfield, the Land of Lincoln Economic Development Corporation and the Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln.
Koch said the university has submitted a proposal to the DPI, which will likely tap into that $500 million for “a significant investment in building and expanding” the hub in downtown Springfield.
For now, the incubator will continue to be located at 15 S. Old State Capitol Plaza, but it is widely expected that it will move in the near future to a larger location somewhere else downtown.
While Mayor Jim Langfelder has pushed for the university to have a presence on the YWCA block at Fourth Street and Capitol Avenue, the university has yet to commit to a site. But no matter where the permanent home of the Springfield hub ends up being, university officials believe it has the potential to transform the city’s economy along with the broader region.
“Together, though, this effort will make Springfield part of a network that will be home to literally hundreds of world-class researchers, thousands of students and partners at top universities and corporations,” said U of I system president Timothy Killeen. “It will give this community access to the very best intellectual power that we can muster in every discipline.”
Killeen said the network has the potential to “foster pioneering discovery that will not just rival Silicon Valley, but leapfrog it.”
This story appeared in The State Journal-Register on August 28, 2018.
Read the entire article online.
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
UIS acquires downtown’s Innovate Springfield
In a move that’s been alluded to for more than a year, the University of Illinois Springfield has acquired Innovate Springfield, the downtown social innovation and business incubator founded in 2014 to spur economic growth in the capital city.
The incubator, 15 S. Old State Capitol Plaza, was officially turned over to the university on Aug. 1. City and university officials, including U of I system President Timothy Killeen, will announce the acquisition at a press conference on Tuesday.
The move immediately bolsters UIS’s downtown presence and gives the university a solid foundation on which to apply for one of several statewide innovation hubs to be established as part of the University of Illinois system-led Discovery Partners Institute.
The incubator has received a $500,000 funding commitment for each of the next three years. The city of Springfield and Land of Lincoln Economic Development Corporation will contribute $100,000 each, with the Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln chipping in $50,000.
With local support locked down, the University of Illinois has agreed to match the funding with an additional $250,000 per year for the next three years.
“This will have more of an impact on the university coming truly more into the community than I think anything since the founding of Sangamon State University,” said John Stremsterfer, president of the Community Foundation.
“To have a sign on the building that says ‘University of Illinois Springfield’ is a great symbol, but I think the substance of work that will be created here, and hopefully in a bigger, more robust facility soon thereafter, is really exciting for the city.”
The incubator was founded in 2014 as a subsidiary to the Community Foundation, but UIS was “always squarely in my mind to be an ultimate repository for Innovate Springfield,” Stremsterfer said.
Though UIS has been a member of Innovate Springfield since its founding, conversations about the university taking over operations began in earnest in late 2017. And once the things got rolling, it was a fairly smooth process.
“They’re already successful,” said UIS chancellor Susan Koch. ”... One of the first things our team is going to do is work with them to expand the impact of what they are doing.”
Stakeholders say the university’s takeover will provide the incubator programmatic support, sources of startup talent, talent to help guide and mentor entrepreneurs, access to the U of I system alumni network and additional financial resources.
This article appeared in The State Journal-Register on August 27, 2018.
Read the entire article online.
The incubator, 15 S. Old State Capitol Plaza, was officially turned over to the university on Aug. 1. City and university officials, including U of I system President Timothy Killeen, will announce the acquisition at a press conference on Tuesday.
The move immediately bolsters UIS’s downtown presence and gives the university a solid foundation on which to apply for one of several statewide innovation hubs to be established as part of the University of Illinois system-led Discovery Partners Institute.
The incubator has received a $500,000 funding commitment for each of the next three years. The city of Springfield and Land of Lincoln Economic Development Corporation will contribute $100,000 each, with the Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln chipping in $50,000.
With local support locked down, the University of Illinois has agreed to match the funding with an additional $250,000 per year for the next three years.
“This will have more of an impact on the university coming truly more into the community than I think anything since the founding of Sangamon State University,” said John Stremsterfer, president of the Community Foundation.
“To have a sign on the building that says ‘University of Illinois Springfield’ is a great symbol, but I think the substance of work that will be created here, and hopefully in a bigger, more robust facility soon thereafter, is really exciting for the city.”
The incubator was founded in 2014 as a subsidiary to the Community Foundation, but UIS was “always squarely in my mind to be an ultimate repository for Innovate Springfield,” Stremsterfer said.
Though UIS has been a member of Innovate Springfield since its founding, conversations about the university taking over operations began in earnest in late 2017. And once the things got rolling, it was a fairly smooth process.
“They’re already successful,” said UIS chancellor Susan Koch. ”... One of the first things our team is going to do is work with them to expand the impact of what they are doing.”
Stakeholders say the university’s takeover will provide the incubator programmatic support, sources of startup talent, talent to help guide and mentor entrepreneurs, access to the U of I system alumni network and additional financial resources.
This article appeared in The State Journal-Register on August 27, 2018.
Read the entire article online.
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