UIC Magazine Fall 2022

Fall 2022

Connecting Alumni and Friends to the University of Illinois Chicago

Saving Our Cities Climate change threatens urban areas — but UIC researchers are working to mitigate its harms and adapt to its consequences.

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UNIVE RSIT Y OF ILLINOIS CHIC AG O

PHOTO: JOSHUA CLARK BFA ’08

IN THIS ISSUE

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Saving Our Cities

Climate change threatens urban areas — but UIC researchers are working to mitigate its harms and adapt to its consequences.

BY CINDY KUZMA

PHOTO: UIC ENGINEERING/JIM YOUNG

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Breaking Barriers

Break Through Tech at UIC advances gender equity in technology.

BY STEVE HENDERSHOT

PHOTO: STEVE WOLTMANN

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Fire Up, Flames!

With a new facility and a new conference, student-athletes advance in competition and community.

BY BRIDGET ESANGGA

Call Me Mister

A powerful pathway for young men of color to teach and mentor launches its first class of changemakers.

BY TED GREGORY

3 FROM THE CHANCELLOR

4 UIC TODAY Major gifts, accolades and breakthroughs.

@UICAlumni @UIC_Alumni @UICAlumni go.uic.edu/linkedin go.uic.edu/connected advance.uic.edu

ADVANCE.UIC.EDU

10 IGNITE: The Campaign for UIC beats its boldest goal.

40 UNIQUELY UIC A selection of notable alumni achievements.

43 LETTER TO ALUMNI Reflecting on the value of a UIC degree.

44 CLOSING NOTE Xavier Pacheco BDes ’22 designs for social justice.

CONTENTS

PHOTO: JOSHUA CLARK BFA ’08

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CONNECTING ALUMNI AND FRIENDS TO THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS CHICAGO EDITORIAL BOARD Jacqueline Carey Sherri McGinnis González Caryn Schultz Korman Jessica Olive Tom Wamsley MANAGING EDITOR: Bridget Esangga DESIGNER: Ethan G. Brown COVER DESIGN: Ethan G. Brown ADVANCE.UIC.EDU CONTACT INFORMATION: UIC MAGAZINE: uicmag@uic.edu UIC ALUMNI ASSOCIATION: 312-413-8272, uicalumni@uic.edu OFFICE OF THE VICE CHANCELLOR FOR ADVANCEMENT: 312-413-8272, advance@uic.edu ADDRESS CHANGES: 312-413-8272, uicmag@uic.edu

Next.

Supported by a strong leadership team, I have worked to accomplish just that.

We are engaged in searches for new deans at the College of Business Administration and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. We joined 20 of the nation’s top research universities in founding the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities, a collective devoted to increasing opportunity in higher education for the country’s largest minority group. Led by our Office of Community Collaboration, we opened innovative neighborhood centers pairing strategic programs and services with community-based research and equity-focused interventions in Chicago’s North Lawndale and Auburn Gresham communities. And our research activity flourished to a record-breaking $460 million in awards, including a new $25 million grant with Argonne National Laboratory and others to study climate and urban science.

At the same time, we identified areas we could polish and improve. We started processes to strengthen human resources services and reorganized student affairs.

Some areas of our undergraduate student success units have also been reorganized to ensure a more dynamic and connected experience for students, particularly exploring ways to support our Black students and those from other underrepresented groups.

Together, we have forged ahead, emboldened by an unwavering belief in UIC and its mission.

Now, we stand at an inflection point with our new chancellor, Marie Lynn Miranda, soon arriving to lead our university. It is a time of change, of course, but it is energizing to consider where we can go and how much more we can achieve. I trust the force will guide us to new frontiers.

UIC is incredibly well positioned to be to demonstrate success and impact education, research and health care; to drive economic mobility and address long-lingering disparities; to engage our communities; and to emerge a model of public higher education in a world-class city. When our tenth chancellor arrives, I will hand off the baton and return to my role as provost even more inspired by UIC’s transformative power to change students’ lives, advance knowledge and create community impact.

It is, after all, what UIC pledges to do and a mission our university fulfills time and again.

— JAVIER REYES INTERIM CHANCELLOR UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS CHICAGO ADVANCE.UIC.EDU

chancellor@uic.edu 312-413-3350 chancellor.uic.edu

FROM THE CHANCELLOR

Since July 1, I’ve held the baton, the temporary steward of our fast-charging enterprise until our newly appointed Chancellor Marie Lynn Miranda officially joins us on July 5. My task over these many months has been clear: to maintain stability, ensure continuity and advance all existing plans connected to our academic, research and service mission.

PHOTO: JOSHUA CLARK BFA ’08

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or the last seven years, Chancellor Michael Amiridis guided UIC with an enterprising vision and an enthusiastic, collaborative spirit. His leadership propelled UIC’s rise in so many ways, from student enrollment and research awards to national rankings, from community outreach to alumni engagement, from creating the UIC School of Law to shepherding the largest capital campaign in UIC history. This summer, however, Chancellor Amiridis embarked upon a new adventure as president of the University of South Carolina.

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UIC TODAY

The newest clinical building on the University of Illinois Chicago’s campus opened to patients Sept. 26. The Specialty Care Building, at 1009 S. Wood St., is the new home to Illinois Eye and Ear at UI Health, which previously was located at 1855 W. Taylor St. It is also the location of the new Bruno and Sallie Pasquinelli Outpatient Surgery Center. The building is projected to serve 600 to 800 patients per day.

PHOTO: JOSHUA CLARK BFA ’08

UIC Rises to Top 45 Public Universities in U.S. News ‘Best Colleges’ Rankings The University of Illinois Chicago’s status among the country’s top public national universities continues to grow as the institution rose four spots to tie for 42nd in the 2022-2023 U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges rankings. UIC also landed among the top 100 national universities by jumping six spots to tie for 97th in the publication’s latest rankings.

UIC’s undergraduate nursing program moved to ninth in the nation, a leap of 10 spots from the previous year’s ranking.

Computer science, engineering and business each earned places among the nation’s top 100 undergraduate academic programs.

The university’s commitment to diversity, to the social mobility of its students, and to providing an affordable education also was recognized in the national rankings.

PHOTO: JOSHUA CLARK BFA ’08

UIC is 11th among top performers in social mobility, a category based on enrolled and graduated students who receive federal Pell Grants awarded to students whose total family incomes are less than $50,000 annually.

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COURTESY OF: ALLIANCE OF HISPANIC SERVING RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES

UIC TODAY

UIC’s other notable rankings include a tie for 23rd in ethnic diversity, a tie for 37th in economic diversity and 45th in least debt, a new category that considers whose students graduated carrying the lightest debt load. — Brian Flood

New Alliance to Increase Hispanic Graduate Students and Professors UIC and 20 of the nation’s Hispanic Serving Institutions that are also top-tier research universities have formed the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities to increase opportunity for those historically underserved by higher education. By 2030, the alliance aims to double the number of Hispanic students enrolled in doctoral programs at U.S. universities and increase the number of Hispanic professors by 20%.

The Alliance universities are working on several initiatives, including a project funded by a $5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to conduct crossregional research and train doctoral students in Latino humanities. A second initiative, funded by the National Science Foundation, expands opportunities for Hispanic students in computer science. — Sherri McGinnis González

FALL 2022

UIC Report Examines Chicago’s Population Shifts Since 1950, Chicago has lost nearly 1 million residents, and a new report written by UIC researchers takes a closer look at Chicago’s shifting population patterns over the past century.

The report, “Shifting Population Trends in Chicago and the Chicago Metro Area,” was commissioned by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and written by researchers from UIC’s Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy. It identifies distinct periods of population growth and decline for Chicago’s three largest racial and ethnic groups.

PHOTO: FAN WANG

While white residents moved to Chicago in the early 1900s, the report finds, they left the city in droves during the mid-20th century as the city became a focal destination for Black migrants relocating from the South. Chicago’s Black population peaked in 1980, around the time that the region’s Latino population started to expand.

Much of Chicago’s recent population decline is directly attributed to the loss of the region’s working-class residents and its shift toward a more white-collar population base. — Brian Flood

Social Justice Initiative Portal Project Earns $1.5M Grant The Portal Project of the Social Justice Initiative at UIC will receive a one-time $1.5 million grant by the Marguerite Casey Foundation for its work bridging the worlds of social justice scholarship and social movements.

The Portal Project, launched in 2021, focuses on three topics: abolition, economic democracy and climate justice and will culminate in a national conference and book publication.

PHOTO: MARY HANLON

“Over the past year, the Portal Project has convened nearly 200 scholars, artists and activists to explore the meaning of justice in the 21st century, centering those communities most impacted by various forms of injustice,” said Barbara Ransby, director of the Social Justice Initiative and founder of the Portal Project.

“This generous grant will allow us to deepen and expand our work in creative and meaningful ways,” said Ransby, the John D. MacArthur professor and chair in Black studies, gender and women’s studies and history. — Carlos Sadovi

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UIC is partnering with four Chicago-area university research centers to create a new data science institute funded by a five-year, $10 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Other partners include the Illinois Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago and the University of Chicago.

More than 50 faculty members from the five institutions and nine researchers from Google will support work focused on three themes: highdimensional data analysis and inference, foundations of machine learning and data science and society.

UIC TODAY

The institute will include areas that traditionally are not represented in data science, including mathematical logic, economics and law, according to Lev Reyzin, principal investigator and UIC professor of mathematics, statistics and computer science.

— Brian Flood

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PHOTO: RODOLFO “RUDY” LOZANO ARCHIVES

COURTESY OF: PROFESSOR LEV REYZIN

Collaborative Data Science Institute Receives $10M NSF Grant

Library Honors Alumnus With Digital Exhibit UIC Library is hosting a digital exhibit celebrating the Pilsen activist, labor organizer and UIC alumnus Rodolfo “Rudy” Lozano.

The digital exhibit shows a portion of the physical exhibit currently on display at UIC’s Richard J. Daley Library, “A Search for Unity: Rudy Lozano and Coalition Building in Chicago,” which ran through Dec. 16, said David Greenstein, lecturer in special collections and university archives.

The exhibit is made up of papers, photographs, posters and other memories about Lozano, who was murdered June 8, 1983, when he was 31. Greenstein curated the exhibit with Peggy Glowacki, former manuscripts librarian, and Elena Bulgarella, assistant archivist.

— Carlos Sadovi

UIC ranks among “Best of the Best” for LGBTQ students.

— LGBTQ-FRIENDLY CAMPUS PRIDE INDEX, 2022

FALL 2022

Marie Lynn Miranda Named Chancellor Marie Lynn Miranda, the former provost of the University of Notre Dame and a leader in the drive to make higher education more inclusive, has been named chancellor of the University of Illinois Chicago and a vice president of the University of Illinois System.

PHOTO: MIKE FAN

Miranda will take office July 5, 2023, as the 10th chancellor of UIC. She will succeed Chancellor Michael Amiridis, who became president of the University of South Carolina in June.

BIGGEST GOAL, BEATEN.

PHOTO: JOE COMPEON

PHOTO: ELIZABETH MONGE

Seven years ago, we launched IGNITE: The Campaign for UIC to forge the future of public, urban education.

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t was our boldest goal ever: to raise $750 million to redefine student success, empower faculty, drive discovery, connect with communities and advance racial and social justice and health equity.

We called you to envision a better path ahead. IGNITE is our shared determination to celebrate differences and not be bound by circumstance. It is the audacity to say we’re the ones who will care for this city and cure disease for the world. It is a promise to fulfill our academic, research, service and justice mission better than ever — and form a stronger foundation.

You answered that call. You rallied around our vision to create a better path ahead.

And because of you, IGNITE surpassed its goal, raising $803.4 million.Thank you for contributing to this monumental, record-breaking effort.

Our student body is among the most diverse in the nation, and two-thirds of our students are Pell Grant eligible. Your generosity breaks down barriers and enables UIC students to realize their own potential and strengthen our society as they graduate and bring diversity and fresh perspectives into to the workforce. At the same time, your gifts will allow, for generations to come, UIC to recruit world-class faculty who drive our standing as a premier research university and empower them with the resources to become foremost in their fields, inspire curious minds and train engaged citizens.

With your support, those faculty members, and many to come, join UIC’s effort to lead discovery that promotes social equity through health care, education and research. We are unraveling disease, urban life, the environment and so much more.

They push us to do bigger, bolder and more critical work; ask more questions; tackle bigger problems; and seek knowledge in places others overlook. And, we bring all of this to the streets. With your generosity our students, faculty and staff can embed themselves in neighborhoods and organizations and partner with residents and communities to solve problems, enrich lives and promote social mobility.

We charge into the future a university providing the broadest access to the highest levels of intellectual excellence, dedicated to public service and creating knowledge that transforms the world. Much work lies ahead, but let us take this moment to celebrate you. Your generosity will continue transforming lives as UIC delivers on the campaign’s promises long into the future. — Daniel P. Smith BA ’03

Climate change threatens urban areas — but UIC researchers are working to mitigate its harms and adapt to its consequences.

By Cindy Kuzma

T

his past September, a supercell rainstorm soaked Chicago. Nearly five inches of rain flooded streets, basements and even the Soldier Field sod. Social media filled with snapshots of overwhelmed infrastructure — urban geysers caused by air trapped in sewers, cars stalled in deep water, basement rugs floating in drainage backup.

PHOTO: U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

The storm’s strength — and impact — demonstrated the extreme realities of climate change. Chicago and other urban areas, where more than half the world’s population reside, face many current and future challenges. By 2050, an estimated 800 million city-dwellers will be at risk of flooding and 1.6 billion vulnerable to chronic extreme heat.

If trends continue, Illinois summers could be as hot as Texas summers by 2080, says UIC climate scientist and Associate Professor Max Berkelhammer. And like most other urban challenges, the risks are greatest for those with few resources.

“Climate exposure will be worse in lowincome areas, unless we proactively do something about it,” he says.

But cities are also known for innovation and activism, and among the concrete and skyscrapers, the UIC community is heeding the call to action. Scientists huddle in their labs or head to the field, measuring climate conditions and developing solutions to its consequences. Administrators pilot sustainability programs, while public health experts join forces with engineers and urban planners, working to fight environmental racism — and students both learn and hold leaders accountable.

UIC is Chicago’s largest university with a downtown campus, and — as both a research 1 university and a Minority-Serving Institution — its faculty, students and staff won’t leave its neighbors defenseless.

They’re committed to tackling climate change head-on — and building a socially just, sustainable urban future.

Native plants dot the landscape of UIC's urban campus.

Understanding the Impact

The five-year, $25 million Community Research and Climate in Urban Science (CROCUS) project — led by Argonne National Laboratory, with $6 million going to UIC scientists — involves installing towers above the tree canopy and sensors below, in trees and soil. With them, Berkelhammer; co-lead Miquel Gonzalez-Meler, professor and director of undergraduate studies in the biological sciences department; and their team will measure variables such as soil and atmospheric carbon, soil moisture, temperature and radiation.

Even the casual observer can tell a concrete city block feels hotter than a tree-lined street next to a park or on a lakeshore. However, climate models don’t drill down to that level of detail. CROCUS will fill in missing pixels, documenting current conditions and developing higherresolution urban-centric climate models for the future.

The first instruments will go up in key South- and West-Side neighborhoods by next summer, with more to follow.

Periodic significant campaigns will bring researchers with large radars and other tools to generate 3D maps of atmospheric properties over the city, like heat islands and squall lines. Once collected, the data will drive action: “The next step is: What decisions can we make to generate a more livable city — one where exposure to climate is not determined by how wealthy a neighborhood is?” Berkelhammer says.

In typical UIC fashion, the interdisciplinary grant includes the School of Public Health and departments such as biological sciences and Latin American studies, and will engage community partners, including the Puerto Rican Agenda, Greater Chatham Initiative and Blacks in Green.

Together, researchers and citizens will

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PHOTO: JOSHUA CLARK BFA ’08

Berkelhammer has traveled from Antarctic ice sheets to Rocky Mountain peaks to observe atmospheric conditions. Now, a new U.S. Department of Energy grant brings him back within city limits to study climate change.

shape research questions and discuss solutions — urban farming might work in one neighborhood, while others favor treeplanting. “We are thinking about this as a community problem, not imposing research onto neighborhoods,” Berkelhammer says.

Another interdisciplinary UIC team is also working with communities to provide new data — in this case, to map exposure to environmental hazards.

In the 1960s, communities overburdened by the toxic side effects of progress — such as smog, metal dust and untreated waste — began an environmental justice movement, says Associate Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Michael Cailas. Early efforts to seek restitution failed because largely poor, minority communities didn’t have data to win court cases.

Now, as part of a larger trend in smart mapping, UIC researchers have developed tools called Midwest Comprehensive Visualization Dashboards to quantify and display inequities. The project began about three years ago, when leaders at the Southwest Environmental Alliance asked Cailas to investigate the impact of a proposed McKinley Park asphalt plant.

He and his colleagues recognized a bigger problem. Yes, one plant could emit toxins that pose health risks and decrease quality of life. But the real issue stems from cumulative exposure. “Adding one

additional source of hazards to an already huge list — I don’t think it’s fair,” Cailas says. So, they used EPA data to plot out burdens surrounding K-8 public schools. (Children are most vulnerable; plus, their racial backgrounds tend to match the wider population.)

The resulting smart maps allow activists to understand on-the-ground realities — and enlighten regulators, politicians and policymakers. For example, Cailas and several colleagues — including Associate Professor of Civil, Materials and Environmental Engineering Sybil Derrible — were asked to write a report about a scrap metal recycling facility on the Southwest Side.

Using Midwest Comprehensive Visualization Dashboards, the report plotted one neighborhood school, John Greenleaf Whittier Elementary; it was already within a mile of a rail yard, an asphalt plant, a brownfield and five Toxics Release Inventory facilities, known to produce harmful chemicals. Afterward, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a letter to Sims Metal Management mandating emissions reporting.

“It wasn’t the report alone — but the report had an outcome,” Cailas says. And these efforts to inform environmental justice will only become more critical as climate change adds further stresses to overburdened communities, Cailas says.

FALL 2022

Engineering Solutions Policy matters, but technology also drives progress. Meenesh Singh, assistant professor of chemical engineering, takes inspiration from natural processes like photosynthesis to design systems that capture carbon dioxide from the air and from chemical plants, trapping or reusing these greenhouse gases before they can accelerate warming.

PHOTO: SCOTT COLLINS COURTESY OF ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY NGINEERING.

That’s exactly what his lab has developed.

One technology removes cement from concrete and recycles it without releasing any carbon. New grants from the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation will fund similar work, including using industrial waste to create concrete that captures more carbon than the manufacturing process emits.

PHOTO: JENNY FONTAINE

The production of four materials produces substantial amounts of carbon dioxide, Singh says: cement, which accounts for 8% of global emissions; the fertilizer ammonia; ethylene, used to make plastic bags; and methane. “If we can make technologies to reduce carbon emissions in these four types of chemical synthesis, we can make a huge impact,” Singh says.

Cynthia Klein-Banai Ph.D. '10

A Legacy of Sustainability

Sensors installed as part of the Community Research and Climate in Urban Science project.

Since stepping into her role as the first associate chancellor for sustainability in 2008, Cynthia Klein-Banai Ph.D. ’10 has put UIC’s commitment to sustainability to action. Now, she’s retiring, and her successor, Andy Mitchell, began as the assistant vice chancellor and director of sustainability this September.

Klein-Banai guided the development of the Climate Action Implementation Plan, setting UIC’s goal to become sustainable by 2050. She developed a giving program, Growing Green for UIC; launched an internship program that served more than 300 students; and started a program to teach faculty how to integrate sustainability into their courses. Forty-six fellows from 29 departments have instructed more than 3,300 students on sustainability in their fields.

Klein-Banai began efforts to move away from fossil fuels that Mitchell will continue. He says he aims to build on Klein-Banai’s legacy and his experience in leadership roles in the clean energy industry.

He’ll update the Climate Action Implementation Plan with an eye toward issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. “Solutions to sustainability and the climate crisis are going to require input from everybody, or they won’t work for anybody,” he says.

“UIC is really the place to take in that diverse perspective.”

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In September, Singh’s lab published a groundbreaking paper in Cell Reports Physical Science outlining a method to convert carbon from industrial exhaust into ethylene, making that process carbon-negative, too. And earlier in 2022, their publication in the journal Energy & Environmental Science described an “artificial leaf” device, made with inexpensive materials, that captures carbon at a rate 100 times as fast as current technologies. It’s powerful enough, when stacked, to capture carbon from the flue gas of coal-fired power plants, but efficient and affordable enough for homes and schools.

And Singh’s technology isn’t staying in the lab. UIC is surrounded by industrial facilities and startups, easing the path to commercialization. In partnership with industry, Singh hopes to scale up a pilot plant for turning carbon into ethylene in the next year, and to bring personal-sized carbon capture devices to market in the near future.

Meanwhile, in his lab, Matthew Daly, assistant professor of civil, materials and environmental engineering, is working to better understand materials like metal alloys to improve their strength and resilience. “Metals are heavy,” he says. “What I do is try to find materials and strategies to basically lighten structures, without compromising the properties we rely on.”

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PHOTO: JIM YOUNG/UIC ENGINEERING ENGINEERING.

UIC Engineering student Rohan Sartape with a Migration Assisted Moisture Gradient CO2 capture unit.

For example, lighter cars mean better fuel economy — more miles per gallon for gaspowered vehicles, or per charge for electric cars. However, it’s still important that they’re engineered to ensure passenger safety during a collision.

Earlier this year, Daly received a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development Program award from the National Science Foundation to pursue this work. His goal?

To prove a theory that it’s not just the blend of elements that make an alloy strong or weak, but that the way atoms are organized within the material makes a difference to the way it withstands stress, or doesn’t.

In a way, it’s like baking, he says: “You can put eggs, you can put flour, you can put sugar together, but you’re not necessarily going to make a cake unless you do it in the right order.” Eventually, this work could help industries design stronger, lighter-weight materials, which will enable engineers to do more with less.

FALL 2022

PHOTO: ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR MAX BERKELHAMMER ENGINEERING.

Sensors installed on UIC’s campus as part of the Community Research and Climate in Urban Science project.

That atmosphere also proved a powerful draw for the new dean of the UIC College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs (CUPPA), Stacey Swearingen White, who came this fall from the University of Kansas. “CUPPA’s mission of promoting just, resilient and livable communities really spoke to me,” she says — and serves as fertile ground for climate solutions.

Building resilient cities will involve weaving new technologies into larger systems.

That’s where UIC visionaries like Derrible, who’s also director of the Complex and Sustainable Urban Networks laboratory, come in. His goal is to use climate models to rethink engineering problems.

native plants. The planters’ strategic placement slows traffic, so pedestrians, bikes and drivers can safely share space.

The green infrastructure better manages stormwater, boosts biodiversity, decreases air temperature and encourages economic development.

Campuses are well suited to serve as sustainability laboratories, she says, testing out new strategies in areas such as landscaping, transportation and procurement. As an urban institution, UIC has unique opportunities. “Our actions affect the city, and the city’s actions affect our campus. I find it really interesting to think about ways we could leverage that role to explore mutually beneficial solutions,” she says.

Take roads, a key focus area for Derrible.

In the past, they were designed with trenches and drains to carry rainwater away. In a large metropolis like Chicago, drains lead to sewers, which become overwhelmed in storms (as in September).

But using materials such as permeable concrete and pavers with gaps instead allows stormwater to seep into the ground below, preventing flooding.

Derrible believes environmental injustices are partly rooted in engineers doing their jobs to optimize one factor — say, traffic flows — without considering human costs. However, he sees a brighter future, one in which engineers study moral philosophy and cooperate to right wrongs and build resilience.

Even CUPPA faculty and students who don’t specifically focus on climate change must consider its implications.

Transportation experts have to account for effects of new fuel sources on cars and mass transit; affordable housing scholars now ponder the need for air conditioning to prevent heat-related deaths.

It’s ambitious — but UIC is the perfect place to pursue it, he believes. “When you put very talented faculty together with academic freedom, in a large city, and inspired by all those younger generations of diverse and driven students, it’s a perfect combo,” he says.

Like Derrible, White appreciates UIC’s emphasis on collaborations and will encourage joint projects to solve environmental problems. “I feel strongly that climate change is a topic that absolutely requires interdisciplinary approaches,” she says. “There are technical solutions, political solutions and behavioral solutions, and we have to be doing all of it.”

Putting It All Together

From there, it’s a short step to make roads an even more valuable community asset. For instance, Derrible helped model a 2016 redesign of a section of Argyle Street in Uptown. Permeable pavers were paired with stormwater planters, which capture and cleanse runoff while fostering

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Associate Professor of Civil, Materials and Environmental Engineering Sybil Derrible is the director of the Complex and Sustainable Urban Networks Laboratory at UIC.

Hoping for Change While eco-anxiety — a fear of environmental cataclysm — is a rational response to climate change, many in the UIC community retain hope. A large part of that, they say, comes from the passion and determination of students.

Planning, by its nature, is an optimistic activity, White points out — after all, if a better tomorrow weren’t possible, there’d be no need to plan for it. She hopes the ability to make a difference in cities, and against climate change, encourages even more students to pursue degrees at CUPPA or in related programs.

Opportunities to study climate change continue to expand at UIC — the School of Public Health, for instance, just announced a new climate and health institute, a twoyear program in which undergraduates and graduates can receive special training in the public health impacts of climate change.

Derrible says that while loss and change are inevitable, his work offers him a biggerpicture view of the potential for humans to respond and adapt. “We’re really resilient, as a species,” he says. “We’re going to argue, we’re going to fight, we’re going to have to change and mature as a society — but we’re going in the right direction.” ●

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PHOTO: JIM YOUNG/UIC ENGINEERING

PHOTO: UIC ENGINEERING/JIM YOUNG

UIC College of Engineering Computer Science sprinterns on their first day at Morningstar. (L-R) Wiktoria Zielinska, Chenille Lawrence, Jessica Alba, Nadia Taiym and Trish Le.

BREAKING BARRIERS

Break Through Tech at UIC advances gender equity in technology.

By Steve Hendershot

T

he emergence and ascent of technology companies is one of the defining trends of this century: Alphabet (Google), Apple and Amazon are valued in the trillions, and tech companies dominate the list of the world’s fastestgrowing brands, with Tesla, Salesforce and PayPal leading the way, according to a recent Interbrand report.

With all that growth and success comes lots of jobs — good ones. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that employment in the computer and information technology sector will grow 15% between 2021 and 2031, and that the median wage will be more than double the national average.

But there’s a catch: women aren’t sharing in the wealth. A key reason is that there are far fewer women opting to study techrelated disciplines in college. Women hold just 23.1% of technical roles, according to a 2021 Deloitte report.

“Among the folks who are opting in, there is a significant skew toward men,” says Amita Shetty, director of Break Through Tech Chicago, a national program housed at UIC that aims to increase gender equity in tech both by recruiting more women and nonbinary individuals into computing disciplines and also by connecting them with professional opportunities early in their academic careers.

College students in general are flocking to computer science courses. The number

of computer and information sciences bachelor’s degrees in the U.S. more than doubled between 2000 and 2018, the most recent year for which data is available, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), while the number of students earning a bachelor’s degree in computer science grew more than four times faster than the overall increase in all degree programs between 2009 and 2015, according to a National Academy of Sciences report.

But too few women students are coming along for the ride. While the number of men earning computer and information science bachelor’s degrees has grown this century by 134%, according to the NCES, the increase among women is only 50%.

The explanation for the disparity starts with exposure, Shetty says: “If you’re asked to pick a major, if you’ve not had the right experience or no experience at all in high school or community college, how could you possibly show up and say, ‘I want to do data science?’” asks Shetty.

That’s where Break Through Tech comes in. Founded at Cornell Tech in New York in 2016, its initial efforts were notable successes, as the number of women majoring in computer science and related disciplines jumped 61.5% at the City University of New York, and the number of women students who graduated with computer science and related degrees increased by 95.4%.

That success inspired a plan for nationwide expansion, and in 2020, UIC became the first Break Through Tech location outside New York. To lead it, UIC hired Shetty, a senior vice president at global transportation company GATX Corporation.

At GATX, Shetty co-founded and led an employee group designed to bring more women into the organization and help retain and promote them once there. Shetty quickly recognized that limited supply was perceived to be a leading obstacle to the company’s pursuit of gender equity, including in tech.

“Surely, it can’t be that women aren’t going to undergraduate institutions, and surely it can’t be that the computing options don’t exist. So my call to action was to figure what I could do, and what UIC could do in Chicago, to alter that supply of talent,” says Shetty.

Two years later, Break Through Tech Chicago efforts already are paying off. About a hundred students have participated in Break Through Tech Chicago’s sections, and hundreds more have taken part in other Break Through Tech programming. For students like Trish Le, Break Through Tech Chicago provided a new sense of what’s possible.

In that course, as Le performed a computer science rite of passage, creating a program that executed the message, “Hello, World,” something clicked. In the process, Le’s career trajectory took a dramatic turn as she changed her major to data science.

“Things just made sense in that course, and it was so much fun,” Le recalls. Upon seeing “Hello, World” on the computer screen, “I felt this rush of adrenaline, and I remember just being so happy, like, ‘Wow, this is magical — I can make something happen.’”

Le is now pushing full speed ahead toward a career in technology, just like fellow Break Through Tech Chicago student Charlotte Andry. Andry’s interest in computer science dates back to her senior year in high school, when on a whim she took a computer science elective. Still, before enrolling in a Break Through Tech-sponsored course, Andry wasn’t convinced she belonged.

An encouraging class filled with other women and nonbinary students helped her overcome those doubts.

PHOTO: UIC ENGINEERING/JIM YOUNG

But biology failed to capture Le’s imagination — at least not in the same way as an introductory computer science class sponsored by Break Through Tech Chicago. Le signed up for an all-remote version of Program Design 1 in the summer of 2021 after receiving an email from Break Through Tech Chicago offering a tuitionfree seat in the course — a tailored version of the course designed for women and nonbinary students who did not consider computing as their original discipline, taught by a female professor, and with a class size of approximately 40 students, roughly one-third that of a typical section at UIC.

PHOTO: UIC ENGINEERING/JIM YOUNG

Third-year undergraduate student Trish Le came to UIC from Northside College Prep, one of Chicago Public Schools’ elite, selective enrollment high schools.

Le entered UIC as a biology major, a precursor to med school, on a career path “that was what everybody always told me to do,” Le says.

PHOTO: UIC ENGINEERING/JIM YOUNG

Break Through Tech’s Formula: Community and Connection

Sprinterns completing projects at their various Chicago employers.

“I generally gravitate toward women anyway, because for me that’s where I feel it’s easier to connect, put myself out there and ask questions,” she says. The unique culture of Break Through Tech Chicago “automatically makes people really comfortable and gets them feeling like they can be successful,” Andy says.

That Break Through Tech Chicago community has drawn almost 500 students since its inception in 2020.

Of course, not all students need a demographic critical mass in order to feel like they belong. But many do benefit, and bringing them together into one of the Break Through Tech Chicago classes can serve as, well, a breakthrough.

“I’ve just heard so many stories about ‘It was only me in the room,’ and people saying they didn’t have the base of support or the experience or exposure to computing, technology and all the fields that are associated with high-powered careers and lots of opportunities for growth,” says Elena Lathos, director of community development at Break Through Tech Chicago.

Lathos worked as a program coordinator within UIC’s computer science department for 18 years before helping launch the Break Through Tech Chicago initiative in 2020, and says that prior to Break Through Tech, the dearth of women in computer science courses was palpable.

“You could just feel the discrepancy — the difference between what it looks like to walk around on campus, compared to what it looks like when you go into a computer science classroom,” Lathos says.

Disrupting that dynamic has a powerful effect, even for a computer science professor who never felt out of place in her own long and distinguished academic career. Shanon Reckinger, who taught the Break Through Tech Chicago sections that included both Trish Le and Charlotte Andry, says “I was honestly shocked at how comfortable I was, because I’ve never had

a problem with being the only woman. But when I got into class and started talking to all these students, I couldn’t believe how relaxed I was. So I can’t say that there’s anything I understand about it, but I do feel more naturally comfortable.”

That comfort level, along with relationships formed through collaborative projects, fosters a sense of community that Reckinger says is helpful when it comes to working past the obstacles and frustrations that are inevitably part of mastering computer science, data science and other tech disciplines.

“They’re forming this extremely strong bond with this very small group of people who have similar interests and similar experiences, and I’ve already seen how much it benefits them as they go through the struggles of being a student. They have each other for very real help, and also for support because they’re all going through the same thing together,” Reckinger says.

It’s not just the small class sizes, community and unique demographics that make Reckinger’s Break Through Tech Chicago sections unique. The classes also regularly spotlight computing career opportunities, highlight potential specializations, and show how technology can fit into multidisciplinary efforts such as DNA analysis or social-science research.

Andry, for example, had a lightbulb moment when combing through data from Divvy, a Lyft-owned bike-share system that operates in Chicago and Evanston, Illinois.

As she worked to identify and visualize ridership trends such as the most popular drop-off and pickup locations, as well as the times of day when ridership peaks, Andry gained a new sense of technology’s everyday application.

This semester, Andry is working for Reckinger as a teaching assistant, helping to pass on her growing love of computer science to another cohort of Break Through Tech students.

Trish Le, meanwhile, is pushing forward in a different way — by taking the Break Through Tech Chicago experience off campus.

PHOTO: UIC ENGINEERING/JIM YOUNG

From Classroom to Corporation Trish Le decided to enroll in the next class toward her data science major last fall — and once again, Break Through Tech Chicago managed to change Le’s career plans. This time the catalyst was a Sprinternship: a three-week, paid internship with a corporate partner, facilitated by Break Through Tech Chicago and designed to advance gender equity in the tech workforce.

Sprinternships are unique because the companies don’t vet specific students; it’s a team-based approach, and the program is designed to occur early in each student’s academic career. It’s an immersive experience designed to give students a taste of what a tech career might look like, while also helping companies build a pipeline of diverse tech talent by hosting and inspiring students as they attempt to work together to solve real technologyoriented problems.

Le went for it, joining four other UIC students assigned to Chicago-based financial services firm Morningstar, Inc. (Morningstar is among two dozen companies to participate in Break Through Tech Chicago’s Sprinternship program, including Cisco, Optum and KPMG.) Le’s team learned full-stack development within those three weeks, using Javascript to code a website that helps Morningstar advisors customize the investment advice they offer clients. The team succeeded, and Le moved on to a more traditional 10-week internship embedded within the technical operations team inside Morningstar’s managed portfolios division.

In the process, Le parlayed an entry-level internship into a genuine career-track opportunity. Le continues to work with Morningstar, and is eyeing a position within the company’s two-year, full-time Morningstar Development Program after graduation.

That sort of arc is precisely what the Sprinternship program is designed to achieve — for the students, and also for the participating companies. The gender disparity that exists in undergraduate computing courses stretches into the industry as well, where women occupy only a quarter of what Pew Research calls “computer jobs.” Companies that participate in the Sprinternship program are not only working generally to boost gender equity in tech, but also to enhance the diversity of their own pipelines.

“The companies who buy into Sprinternships understand that these students can actually filter through to a full-time internship or a job opportunity,” says Amelia Jackson, associate director of career development at Break Through Tech Chicago.

Sprinterns on their last day at Morningstar

Indeed, 70% of companies that participated in the 2022 Sprinternship program offered either a full-length internship or a full-time job to at least one participating student. In many cases, the matches happen quickly: almost half of the participating 105 students were offered an ongoing placement by the conclusion of the three-week program by their host.

Building on the success of the Sprinternship program, the next step is to establish deeper corporate partnerships that expose students to experiential learning over a longer duration and bring forward innovative solutions to companies, similar to the efforts being led by UIC’s Innovation Center, which offers corporatesponsored classes, labs and programs. The idea is to begin exposing Break Through Tech Chicago’s students to the specific culture, technology and challenges facing these companies while the students are still on campus during the academic semester, before sending them to continue their work on-site — perhaps as the prelude to a full-time tech internship or job.

“You’re making it less intimidating and helping students feel confident when they finally get there,” says Mark Hallenbeck, a member of the computer science faculty at UIC and director of both the Caterpillar and OSF Healthcare labs at the UIC Innovation Center. “That’s a big barrier that can keep a lot of people from entry.”

Break Through Tech Chicago is only a couple of years old, but already has succeeded both in drawing more women and nonbinary students into UIC’s computing disciplines, and in preparing those new students for tech-career success.

For Reckinger, the computer science professor who leads many of the Break Through Tech Chicago sections, the greatest thrill is seeing the emergence of a close cohort of Break Through Tech Chicago students who are gaining confidence, skill and cohesion, as well as clarity about the career path. When Reckinger noticed some of her Break Through Tech Chicago students posting photos of themselves hanging out socially, including current teaching assistants such as Charlotte Andry, “Honestly, it brought tears to my eyes,” Reckinger says.

“They are such incredible computer scientists already, and it’s happened so fast.

That’s what I just can’t believe, is just how little it took for them to go from having no idea what computer science was to now teaching other people.”

For Andry, teaching the next wave of Break Through Tech Chicago students is a natural way to pay forward the benefit she received through the program. She knows every rising computer science student will face the occasional gut-check moment. “I’m trying to little-sister them, like ‘Yes, it may be hard now, but it’s going to get easier — the more you continue to work at it, the more progress you’re going to make.’”

That’s the blueprint — not only for students, but also for an industry that is hungry to improve its gender diversity, and that’s turning to Break Through Tech Chicago for help. ●

Fire Up, Flames!

With a new facility and a new conference, student-athletes advance in competition and community.

By Bridget Esangga

PHOTO: STEVE WOLTMANN

KICKOFF

UIC’s men’s and women’s soccer leveled up this season with a brand new, $5 million state-of-the-art facility that includes a natural grass soccer field, press box, scoreboard, LED screen and a stadium that accommodates more than 2,000 spectators against a backdrop of Chicago’s skyline.

Flames Field is “the finest collegiate soccer facility in the Chicagoland area,” according to UIC Athletics. Top international teams, including Liverpool AC, Barcelona, AC Milan and Manchester United have chosen it for training when visiting Chicago.

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF UIC ATHLETICS

SERVE

Between classes, practice and competition, student-athletes made time to advance causes they care about. Opposite page (top to bottom): UIC women’s tennis Head Coach Shannon Tulley, along with several players, distributed fresh, culturally appropriate food at the Pilsen Food Pantry. Women’s track members refueled runners at the Chicago Marathon. Men’s tennis members volunteered at the annual Light The Night event, hosted by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. This page: UIC’s softball team helped set up and umpire the regional bocce ball tournament for Special Olympics.

PHOTO: STEVE WOLTMANN

Visit uicflames.com for tickets, merchandise and news and information about Flames Athletics. Follow the Flames on social media platforms @uicflames.

SCORE

UIC men’s basketball began its inaugural season as a member of the Missouri Valley Conference. In his third season at the helm of the men’s basketball program, Head Coach Luke Yaklich balances returning talent, veteran transfers and freshmen as the program enters a new era. Jace Carter and Filip Skobalj return for their sophomore seasons, anchoring the returning core for the Flames. Griffin Yaklich and Jaden Brownell, who redshirted a season ago, also return to add depth to the UIC bench. Five true freshmen will be counted on to play significant roles for the Flames, including guards Stephen Clay, Jalen Jackson and Christian Jones, to go along with post players Cameron Fens and Bessanty Saragba.

Transfers Tre Anderson and Toby Okani look to bring experience to the talented and youthful squad. ●

PHOTO: JOSHUA CLARK BFA ’08

CALL ME MISTER

A powerful pathway for young men of color to teach and mentor launches its first class of changemakers.

by Ted Gregory

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The Need for Male Teachers of Color

arly in his first semester at UIC, Reon Gillespie was struggling as a business management major.

Before college, he thought it was a practical career path. Once in college, his heart wasn’t engaged by that choice.

The initiative that inspired Gillespie to stay in college and lead a middle school classroom was launched at UIC in 2018, the first year he arrived on campus. It is known as Call Me MISTER. On May 6, 2022, Gillespie was in the first graduating class of UIC MISTERs.

He had dropped two classes and was considering dropping a third. He was unsure he was going to get through the semester and go on to become the first in his family to graduate from college.

MISTER is Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models. Its objective is to draw more men of color into elementary school education in urban schools to diversify the teaching workforce in the important early grades.

Then Gillespie received a text from his former high school principal.

“I’ve got an opportunity for a full-ride scholarship for you,” he recalled the text stating. “Are you interested?

Yes or no?”

Desperate, Gillespie leaped at the chance. It almost didn’t matter that the scholarship was for aspiring teachers, although his teachers at Butler College Prep had mentioned to him several times that he would make an effective instructor. He always dismissed the suggestion outright.

This fall, Gillespie started as a sixth-grade English and language arts teacher at Wentworth Junior High in Calumet City. He is set to become the boys’ basketball coach in October.

“I definitely was one of the bad kids when I was in elementary school,” Gillespie said. “But I think all I needed was someone to sit me down and say you can do this. Now, I’m asking myself, ‘who can I be to help the kind of kid I was back then?’”

Part of a growing national network that includes more than 40 colleges and universities across the U.S., UIC’s MISTER initiative provides tuition, pays for books and offers housing assistance, academic and emotional support, program mentors, summer leadership institutes and professional development, among other aid.

“It’s one of our most exciting programs in the college,” Dean of UIC’s College of Education Kathryn Chval said, adding that the need for male teachers of color is “huge” in Chicago. “Meeting and working with these young men, just spending time with them, seeing how they’re growing, building confidence, learning how to network, is really exhilarating.”

Evidence that substantial effort is needed to boost the number of male teachers of color comes down to three often-cited statistics: 2% of the nation’s K-12 teachers are Black men and 2% are Latino. About 54% of public school students are non-white.

Beyond the numbers, research suggests that more Black teachers — especially more Black male elementary school teachers — may help reduce Black male student dropout rates and achievement gaps between them and white students. Research also shows that Black students are more likely to be placed in gifted programs if they are taught by a Black teacher.

Decoteau Irby, director of UIC’s Call Me MISTER initiative, said the reasons Black male elementary school teachers are important often emerge in the essays of young men applying to the initiative.

“It’s typically because they’ve had someone who they could really identify with,” said Irby, an associate professor of educational policy studies. “Sometimes it’s a coach. Sometimes there’s someone in high school.

Most of them were people of color — often males of color — who had a tremendous impact in shaping these young men’s education trajectory.”

Had they been absent from the students’ lives, Irby said, the young men say they never would have applied to college.

“And, so a lot of their stories are, ‘I want to go into elementary education because if I would have had that person as an elementary school student, they would have transformed my elementary school experience and given me a sense of possibility, a sense of encouragement. I want to be that coach, that teacher who provided that extra support and said you should go to college.’”

Beyond role modeling and mentoring, the other reason applicants state for choosing teaching is that contrary to popular perception, young men want to work in “helping professions” that give them a sense of purpose, Irby said. He noted that three UIC MISTERs, including Gillespie, have switched to urban education from other majors.

Call Me MISTER has made its strongest impact in its home state, where the program has expanded to 28 two- and four-year institutions.

Outside of South Carolina, Call Me MISTER is in 10 states and on 15 campuses — including one established in 2021 at Chicago State University, Jones said.

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PHOTO: JOSHUA CLARK BFA ’08

Call Me MISTER was established in 2000 at Clemson University as a response to high numbers of Black incarcerated men and low numbers of Black male teachers, said Executive Director Roy Jones, an education professor at the South Carolina school.

FALL 2022

Reon Gillespie was among the first to graduate in the College of Education's Call Me MISTER program.

The Transformation of Decoteau Irby Call Me MISTER came to UIC after then-Dean of the College of Education, Alfred Tatum, spoke at a MISTER conference at Clemson in 2015. In 2021, Tatum became provost and vice president of academic affairs at Metropolitan State University Denver.

“I went in that room, and it was electric,” Tatum recalled in a 2018 Chicago Tribune interview. “There was nothing like it. I left Clemson on fire. MISTER became a glue that we rallied around.”

Irby joined the UIC faculty in 2015. When the UIC MISTER initiative was launched in 2018, Tatum turned over its day-to-day management to the young faculty member. It was a role that resonated with Irby.

Born and raised in Greenville, S.C., Irby lacked a strong father figure in his life. Determined to attend college but lacking the financial resources, he planned to enroll at the local technical college and earn an associate’s degree while delivering pizzas to pay for school.

Then an encouraging guidance counselor, one of the few Black faculty members at his high school, gave Irby an application for a full college scholarship through an organization called Save Our Sons. After a grueling competition, Irby won the scholarship.

He attended College of Charleston, participated in Black Student Union, earned his bachelor’s in economics and “had the time of my life,” largely because he was free from the stress of paying for college.

Throughout his time at College of Charleston, professors encouraged him to go to graduate school.

When he went to Temple University for grad school, professors encouraged him to earn his Ph.D. “What drew me to take on the MISTER’s role,” he said, “is that I knew the transformative potential that an initiative like this provides for students who otherwise might not go to college and if they do go are the least likely to graduate.”

“If I have an opportunity to contribute to the College of Education in a way that makes it a place where males of color can come, succeed and graduate,” Irby added, “I want to be part of it.”

ADVANCE.UIC.EDU

UIC’s MISTER Coordinator Jeniece Fleming, a former school counselor, came to the job through her interest in teacher-student interactions. She is especially intrigued by those interactions with underrepresented or marginalized students. She came to UIC to study that topic for her Ph.D. Since working with Call Me MISTER, she has shifted her research focus to what motivates Black and brown men to become teachers.

“Teaching is a very gendered field,” Fleming said. “If we need more men and, specifically, Black and brown men, in those spaces to influence our students early on, we’ve got to do more to capture their attention and get them into the field. We also have to do a better job of re-describing what it means to be an educator and what the benefits are of being an educator so that the field isn’t so gendered.”

Seven students were selected in the initiative’s launch, buoyed by a vital $300,000, three-year grant from the IMC Chicago Charitable Foundation.

IMC was drawn to the initiative for several reasons, Foundation Executive Director Lisa Wiersma said.

Those included the compelling impact a teacher of color can have on a student and the importance of a diverse teaching workforce so that every student can see themselves as an academic.

“The opportunity to invest in a program that is part of a larger national community and conversation about teacher diversity was also important to us,” Wiersma said. In addition, IMC was impressed with Irby’s drive to establish UIC’s MISTER initiative with limited resources.

Most impressive, she said, was the dedication and focus Irby and Fleming show in supporting each student and preparing them “for a successful and meaningful career in teaching,” Wiersma said.

Alan Aburto was among the first seven MISTERs. The first in his family to attend college, Aburto said he had known since childhood that he wanted to be a teacher.

He joked that all he needed for fun as a kid was a white board and dry erase marker.

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PHOTO: JOSHUA CLARK BFA ’08

In a May interview with UIC today, Aburto said “everything felt very real” when he received a red and blue striped tie that is a symbol of entry into the MISTER initiative. Over the years, MISTER provided him with crucial support and a forum to ask questions and raise concerns, he said.

It also deepened his commitment to teaching, making him think about “what little seeds I can plant that can really change students,” he said, “especially those that need it the most.”

Aburto added that Call Me MISTER “pushed me to think about how I could positively impact the lives of children by not only being a teacher, but by being a mentor and role model.”

Emerging Stronger Post-COVID Irby already was confronting funding challenges and the challenges of persuading young men of color to enter the women-dominated ranks of elementary school teachers — an especially difficult undertaking in recent years, when the profession has come under intensifying criticism.

Then came March of 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to lockdowns, and dealing a severe blow to the fledgling initiative.

MISTER shifted to an almost entirely online format, which disrupted the culture that had provided

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students with crucial face-to-face personal support — including office meetings with Irby or academic advisors, and regularly scheduled gatherings where the MISTERs could discuss leadership, personal development topics and individual issues and even hear from a guest speakers. The gatherings also strengthened the bond among the MISTERs and their commitment to the profession.

Alan Aburto was among the first seven MISTERs.

The pandemic led several MISTERs to request academic leaves during COVID for mental health and financial reasons, Irby said.

In addition, the shutdown hampered recruitment, which typically includes high school visits and celebration rallies announcing a student’s selection as a UIC MISTER. Reon Gillespie remembered missing the camaraderie, competition and communication — the productive energy of the MISTER culture, he said.

“It threw a lot of things off, held things up and kind of disbanded everything,” Gillespie added. “A lot of things fell through the cracks. It felt kind of barren, almost like, ‘where’s the love?’”

MISTER Ja’Waun Williams said COVID was “a major flip and a major challenge.” Like Gillespie, he missed the face-to-face interactions and took “awhile” to adapt.

For him, organization was critical.

FALL 2022

PHOTO: JOSHUA CLARK BFA ’08

Ja’Waun Williams was also among the inaugural group to complete the Call Me Mister program at UIC.

“I probably had 20 alerts set on my phone,” Williams said. “Alerts and alarms were my best friends.”

Gillespie leaned heavily on the support that was available, including check-ins with Irby, Fleming, Tatum, family and friends via phone calls and texts.

“I owe everything to my support system and God,” he said. “I could not at all have done it by myself.”

While Irby was working to keep MISTER functioning during the pandemic, he realized that COVID revealed the initiative’s vulnerabilities. He set out to reinforce its infrastructure.

‘At the End, It Felt Empowering’

In January of 2021, he hired Fleming as coordinator and was given the formal title of director, which provided him more autonomy in running the initiative. The two colleagues wrote policies and procedures on many components of MISTER with an eye toward making it high functioning, Irby said.

Williams remembered commencement overwhelmed him with emotion.

“The goal was to build the kind of infrastructure where somebody who’s completely unfamiliar with the initiative can come in and learn and adopt these things pretty quickly,” he added.

In the end, the post-COVID Call Me MISTER is much stronger than the pre-COVID version.

ADVANCE.UIC.EDU

“It has made a huge difference,” Irby said of his and Fleming’s effort to reinforce MISTER, “because it moved the initiative from being ideas inside my head or things that I was doing that I might not have been telling people to having a thought partner and collaborator to get my and other peoples’ ideas written down and codified so that someone else understands what it means to actually run, support and sustain the initiative.”

The three “First Misters” at UIC who were able to navigate the journey graduated in May.

“Graduation for me, at least those last couple of years, wasn’t always guaranteed,” he said. “It was ups and downs, ebbs and flows, peaks and valleys.”

An events marketing business he started while at UIC flourished. As it grew, he shifted his focus to that career and didn’t view a degree as mandatory to his success.

He also experienced personal issues that complicated finishing his degree.

Sitting in Credit Union 1 Arena for the ceremony, Williams remembered being “Starstruck. That’s the one word I would use. It was like, ‘Wow, we’re really here.’”

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High Demand, Precarious Moment Today, he is using his degree in an unorthodox way: focusing his business on working with nonprofits supporting youth. A recent partnership with Project Love Chicago was a four-week basketball camp centered on education. NBA players, teachers and principals were guest speakers. Even Williams addressed the campers.

Although he has gone in a direction other than teaching, Williams said one important goal of his is to create a school.

“I started out thinking that I’d be a role model from a classroom,” he said, “where I could tell young Black and brown men that they could be teachers, but I want to expand our youths’ minds past that and help them understand what’s possible, not to limit themselves, and then show them how to get there.”

Funding for UIC’s MISTER initiative is at a precarious moment.

It faces the challenge of, as Irby said, “building the ship while it’s already at sea,” which provides little time for him and Fleming to engage potential funders.

It also can be difficult for donors to get onboard for a four-year commitment supporting a student from freshman year through graduation.

At the same time, demand for the initiative is strong.

Dean Chval said school districts throughout the state frequently call asking to recruit UIC’s MISTERs. Some districts also offer to send — and pay for — young men of color from their districts to enroll in Call Me MISTER. “I’m out there talking to foundations, individuals and families,” Chval said. “I’m willing to talk to anybody.”

Those looking to support UIC’s MISTER initiative can find an array of opportunities here.

During commencement, Gillespie recalled, he thought about his life journey — from being what he called “a delinquent” early in his school years to entering college, “I tell donors and prospective donors that I wish they changing his major, struggling through COVID and could attend commencement,” she said, “and see the taking multiple summer classes — to become the first way MISTERs’ families react with such pride and joy. in his family to graduate from college.

Then you can realize the true impact of a gift.”

“I thought about all the support I had,” he said. “All the experiences I had — good and bad — the people left behind. It was like my life flashed before my eyes when I crossed the stage. At the end, it felt empowering.”

Aburto is a sixth-grade dual language math teacher at Carson Elementary School in Chicago’s Gage Park neighborhood.

Honored with the UIC College of Education Dean’s Award of Merit, Aburto gave a short speech at commencement. He singled out his mother for her work, sacrifice and support during his journey. He thanked the College of Education “for being dedicated to social justice and equity” and professors who helped students grow as educators and introduced them to culturally responsive teaching. He encouraged the prospective teachers to create change.

The professors, he said, “made us realize that our work is not only about helping students succeed academically, but that we must also affirm students’ identities, and give them the tools that they need to fight the oppression that they’ve been under for too long.”

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Beyond seeking financial support, she said she is looking to enlist mentors for the MISTERs. While she and Irby work on funding, both continue planning to grow the initiative to three to five graduates a year and maintain a consistent enrollment of 20 MISTERs. UIC has 16 MISTERs this year. Chval and Irby also are working to make UIC’s College of Education the premier setting for males of color who want to become urban teachers.

Fleming said she would like to see the initiative also include funding to provide housing every year for all the MISTERs and allow MISTERs to travel abroad.

“Not only would that travel benefit them personally,” she said, “it might teach them how to better run their classrooms.”

Chval’s other priority for the initiative is to establish the college as a resource for other institutions to learn how to create pathways for men of color to become teachers.

“We don’t see ourselves as being the only ones doing this,” Chval said, “and we know that if we’re the only ones doing it, we’re not addressing the larger issue in Illinois or in the country.”

FALL 2022

Ja'Waun Williams (left) and Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton at UIC's Commencement ceremony this spring.

Optimism for a New MISTER On a Thursday afternoon in her office, Fleming was looking through the roster of MISTERs when she landed on one she finds particularly intriguing.

At a MISTERs’ orientation meeting a few days before fall classes, the freshman — Fleming preferred to maintain his confidentiality — told her that he completed his college and MISTER applications by himself. She asked him what motivated him. His answer: he had to get out of his neighborhood.

Fleming discovered that the young man was an honor roll student at his high school on Chicago’s South Side, that he saw himself heading down “a negative path” and decided to change.

But he lacked finances to pay for college.

He was unaware of how to register for classes and how to move in a dormitory.

He hadn’t done either. He simply had been aware of MISTER, applied, was accepted, and followed the directive to show up at the orientation meeting.

Fleming moved him forward. She helped him register for and attend classes. He is living on campus. She said his drive makes her optimistic about his prospects, even though she expects him to encounter more “bumps” than most freshmen.

PHOTO: JOSHUA CLARK BFA ’08

“I think he’s going to be fine,” Fleming said.

“I think that he will show us all how capable they are when they receive a little push, and a little support and guidance to keep them moving forward.

ADVANCE.UIC.EDU

“I can’t wait for him to be a teacher,” she added, “Right?” ●

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Cultivating Black Excellence COURTESY: AISHA EL-AMIN

Alumna Aisha El-Amin is the Associate Vice Provost for Student Success & Belonging at UIC.

A

isha El-Amin Ph.D. ’11 helps Black students, faculty and staff at UIC reach their potential by establishing policies and practices focused on equity and belonging on one of the most diverse campuses in the nation.

El-Amin arrived at UIC as a fourth grade teacher wanting to understand the policies she carried out in the classroom. Her passing interest turned into a passion for educational policy. “I decided this is more than just a class. This knowledge transformed me and how I thought of education,” says El-Amin.

UNIQUELY UIC

She enrolled in the Policy Studies in Urban Education program and earned her Ph.D. After spending six years at UIC as a student and 11 years working as an administrator, she says, “It feels good to be able to give back to a space that’s given so much to me and to students that look like me from diverse backgrounds. Their stories resonate with me.”

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One of her struggles was being told as a child that she did not have the intellect for higher education. “I believed it,” she says. After El-Amin graduated from a vocational high school, she joined the Army. She found her calling, first as a Drug Abuse Resistance Education officer in Department of Defense schools across Europe, and then as a mentor and leader for students. “I became really engaged and passionate about young people in education,” she recalls.

When the time came to re-enlist or leave the military, El-Amin knew she possessed intellect for higher levels of education, as earning her undergraduate degree while in the military taught her. She left to complete a master’s program at DePaul University and become an elementary school teacher, the job that eventually led her to UIC. El-Amin has led task force groups to talk about recruiting African American students. She launched a website for Black students as a central location for accessing all resources available to them.

She also launched “Black Excellence,” a podcast in which she interviews prominent Black alumni. Most importantly to her, she was the force behind renaming Stephen Douglas Hall to Frederick Douglass Hall, the first UIC building to be named after an African American man, and bringing in UIC’s first-ever Muslim chaplin.

“For me, it is about highlighting what I can do that will make this institution even better for the folks that come after me,” says ElAmin. “That’s what makes me most proud of those two things.” — Bridget Esangga

FALL 2022

OHEN

COURTESY OF MIGUEL PANIAGUA

ED C SY: CO

TE UR

Lifelong Dedication

W

hat Ed Cohen BS ’75 has realized, after a 50-year career, is when you apply to college, you’re signing up for an engagement that will benefit you throughout your life. It’s not something he considered when applying to, or attending UIC. It was Cohen’s dream to practice community pharmacy, which he did after earning his UIC degree. Twenty-five years into his career, when he was working for a chain pharmacy, he found himself wanting to broaden his involvement in the pharmacy industry.

His first step was reconnecting with UIC’s College of Pharmacy, which launched him into a decades-long journey of volunteering and advocating for pharmacy and UIC. Today, he is the UIC Alumni Association board chair, working with dozens of fellow alumni to build a foundation for and deliver value to UIC’s more than 300,000 alumni.

“I recently attended the College of Pharmacy’s white coat ceremony in the same room where mine was held 50 years ago,” said Cohen. “It reminded me of all my UIC education gave to me, and affirmed that my years of service to UIC are my way of giving back.”

— Jessica Olive

ADVANCE.UIC.EDU

Doctor, Teacher, Advocate

M

iguel Paniagua MD ’98 is a doctor who, among other things, advocates for medical students’ wellness and was recently named the vice president for medical education for the American College of Physicians.

As part of the RENEW Task Force sponsored by the National Board of Medical Examiners, Paniagua facilitated a discussion and production of scholarship around how high-stakes exams are valued and addressed the undue pressure on students that may be part of the reason for burnout and attrition.

Paniagua grew up in Illinois, helping at his immigrant father’s medical practice. That inspired him to become a doctor. The College of Medicine was a perfect fit with its diverse population.

At UIC, Paniagua found support and mentorship at the Hispanic Center of Excellence (HCOE). “I owe the HCOE everything in my career. Every time I get the chance, I go back to talk to students.”

HCOE honored Paniagua with the 2011 Alumni of the Year award.

His path from MD to his new appointment is rooted in his dedication to medical education and mentoring young doctors, like his mentor relationships at UIC. He shares his own lessons he learned while in med school. “You are expected to learn medicine where it matters: at a patient’s bedside,” he said.

While continuing practice and as an adjunct professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Paniagua looks forward to his 25th UIC medical school reunion, which will happen in 2023.

— Jen Cullerton Johnson

41

Alumni Exchange

Join us in the UIC Alumni Exchange Connect with experts and thought leaders from across UIC and chat with fellow alumni as you learn, grow, explore and even escape from the everyday with Alumni Exchange.

Register now:

GO.UIC.EDU/ALUMNIEXCHANGE

It was a rare opportunity to rebuild with you, our UIC alumni, in mind. We had tremendous support from UIC that allowed us to envision, and then create, a new alumni association. We began by listening to you, our alumni population and engaging alumni volunteers in the process. I’m proud of what we built over the last five years in answer to your needs. And not only did you speak up, but you dove in. We now have an extraordinary team of alumni leaders who comprise the UIC Alumni Board and a staff who all work to create meaningful ways for you to stay connected with UIC and with one another.

Today, many of you engage via the alumni admissions program, you network through UIC Connected, speak on campus, present in an Alumni Exchange, advocate, nominate your colleagues for awards, encourage professional development through career programming and alumni coaching and celebrate both our newest graduating students and our golden graduates who are celebrating 50 years of being UIC alumni.

And these are just a few of the ways alumni give back. We know you’re active with your colleges and clubs, and hire our talented students into the workforce every day.

Another discussion that has emerged over the past five years questions the value of higher education. We know, because we are privileged to see it every day, that an education from UIC changes individual lives dramatically, and many times the lives of entire families. We see how it can be a social elevator for our graduates that puts them on a path to improve the world we all live in. Higher education doesn’t just provide the academics, but allows students

uicalumni@uic.edu facebook.com/UICAlumni twitter.com/UIC_Alumni @UICAlumni go.uic.edu.linkedin go.uic.edu/alumni

to grow and develop their soft skills and gain the power and confidence they need to make a difference.

We know our alumni volunteers recognize the influence of their UIC educations because we see them dedicate so much back to UIC. And, we know alumni want the experience to be better, and perhaps easier, for the next generation. The next time you see a story about the value of higher education, I would ask you to reflect upon your own UIC experience and how it shaped you into the person you are today.

How would your life be different if you hadn’t attended UIC? Investing in higher education is never easy or inexpensive, but transforming a person’s potential and character is invaluable.

We will spend the next five years continuing to listen, while working to evolve and grow meaningful alumni engagement opportunities. As you reflect on your education, please also reach out to us and let us know about your experience and tell us how graduating from UIC changed your life. And, of course, tell us how our UIC Alumni Association can continue to provide value to you.

Thank you for your continued dedication to our great university.

— CARYN SCHULTZ KORMAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UIC ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

LETTER TO ALUMNI

F

ive years ago, in October 2017, we formally launched the UIC Alumni Association. Our goal was to provide services and programming that was of specific interest to UIC alumni across the globe. This was a welcomed shift; alumni relations had previously been provided by the University of Illinois System through the University of Illinois Alumni Association.

COURTESY: CARYN SCHULTZ KORMAN

Value

Change Agent

X

avier Pacheco BDes ’22 took first place for service design in the Global Design Graduate Show 2022 for his senior thesis project from UIC called Addressing the Homeless Community of Chicago. He was selected from nearly 6,000 applicants. Pacheco grew up in Aurora, Illinois, and discovered his calling at UIC. Here’s what he has to say about designing for social good and life after graduation.

CLOSING NOTE

FAVORITE UIC MEMORY? I was considered limited status in my first year, so I had to really prove in my first semester that I deserve to be in the program. There were only about 30 students in the program, and I found a group of friends who helped me boost my skillset and realize my potential. I give them a lot of credit for helping me through when I wasn’t as confident in my design skills.

We all helped each other in our different ways and had different strengths from each other.

WHAT WAS YOUR SENIOR THESIS ABOUT? Our senior yearlong thesis is meant to be a representation of who we are as a designer.

So I wanted to choose a topic close to my heart. In my sophomore year, I donated some clothes to a homeless encampment.

It occurred to me, “Where do these individuals sleep when it becomes really cold outside?” So I wanted to use what I learned during my time at UIC to try to address this overall issue. What started off as a research approach ended up growing into this overall service design. I want the award to shine more light on the issue.

COURTESY: XAVIER PACHECO

WHY UIC? I always considered myself a creative person. At the end of high school, I didn't have any idea of what I wanted to study.

I felt UIC’s industrial design program would be a great fit for me, and I ended up finding a career I’m passionate about and something that I enjoy day in and day out.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU? Right now, I work at Deloitte as a design analyst within the applied design group. It’s a research-focused group that helps clients deliver user-centered solutions. In the future, I’d like to open a design consultancy with my UIC classmates. We’re all interested in coming together and adding our skills to one consultancy, and feel we could be successful after gaining more experience. I’ve always been interested in using design for social good. I think design overall is a great catalyst for change.

— Bridget Esangga

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

CLOSING AD HERE

Inspire Tomorrow’s Students

Encourage the next generation of students to enroll at UIC. The Alumni Admissions Volunteer Program is flexible, allowing you to participate as your schedule allows and connect with admitted students through your preferred method of communication. Call, text or email admitted students during spring 2023 to help us grow our UIC family.

Sign up today at go.uic.edu/aav.

UNIVE RSIT Y OF ILLINOIS CHIC AG O

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HISTORY, MADE.

$803.4

million raised

138,406 gifts + 51,293 donors Highest participation,

ever.

The largest campaign in UIC history.

Boldest goal, beaten.

107.12% Of our $750 million goal.

IMPACT, CREATED. STUDENT SUCCESS

EMPOWER FACULTY

DRIVE DISCOVERY

CONNECT COMMUNITY

$117.1

$58.2

$278.8

$37.4

million

million

million

million