Imsa by the Numbers
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ANNUAL REPORT 1 FY19_IMSAFund_AnnualReport.indd 1 12/12/2019 2:14:24 PM The IMSA Fund for Advancement of Education is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation established as a separate corporate entity for the purpose of benefiting, performing the functions of, and carrying out certain charitable, educational, literary, and scientific purposes of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA). The fund is governed by a member Board of Directors. The primary function of this board is to raise funding and oversee the distribution of the IMSA Fund’s assets to enrich the Academy’s educational programs. Private sector contributions provide the “margin of excellence” resources necessary to ensure the Academy’s continuing development as an exemplary educational laboratory and resource for schools and teachers throughout Illinois. Dr. José M. Torres IMSA President OFFICERS AND Dr. Erin Roche Chair of the Board of Trustees COMMITTEE CHAIRS Member of Executive Committee Jacob Plummer ’96 President Executive Chair Dr. Paula Olszewski-Kubilius First Vice-Chair of Board of Trustees Member of Executive Committee E. Glenn Rippie, J.D. Vice President Treasurer Ms. Carey L. Mayer Finance Chair Second Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees Ross Hemphill, Ph.D. Secretary Ms. Kathleen Clarke Governance Chair Member of Executive Committee BOARD OF DIRECTORS Dr. Alfred Tatum Member of Executive Committee Kevin B. Brookins Michael C. Fountain OF TRUSTEES IMSA BOARD Troy Henikoff Mr. Eric R. Brown Taylor L. Smith Dr. Jerome “Jay” Budzik Richard R. Tung ’93 Dr. Steven T. Isoye Sam Yagan ’95 Dr. Luis Núñez IMSA FUND BOARD OF DIRECTORS IMSA FUND BOARD Dr. Marsha R. Rosner Dr. Rebecca L. Sherrick Dr. H. Steven Sims 2 | 2019 IMSA FUND ANNUAL REPORT FY19_IMSAFund_AnnualReport.indd 2 12/12/2019 2:14:24 PM STUDENT LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT IMSA STUDENT STORIES AND WORDS OF THANKS Gifts from the IMSA Fund allowed 27 students to engage in “As a wing guide, I attended the NSLDC convention in New meaningful leadership development experiences, including York in order to take my leadership skills to the next level. regional and national conferences. Once we arrived, I had the opportunity to attend breakout sessions that focused on social justice issues. The information TEDx Naperville I gained has allowed me to bring a variety of new programs “The positive qualities the speakers displayed during their to my wing. Also, as I analyzed the facilitators, I picked up presentation has made a substantial impact on me. I know skills for facilitating which I use to hold programs as a wing I will become more outgoing and open-minded on how to guide. By being a part of the conference, I have become a more approach problems, and a more unique thinker by expanding effective facilitator. I am extremely grateful to the IMSA Fund my perspective on everything, from the little things such as for providing me with this opportunity.” a small homework assignment, all the way to large, global - JOSEPH BERTRAND ‘20 problems, such as pollution or finding an everlasting energy source.” - ABHIRAM THATI ‘21 “The NSLDC conference was an incredibly rewarding experience for me. I was able to have courageous conversations with people that I couldn’t have had elsewhere, National Student Leadership which really broadened my perspective and allowed me to Diversity Convention in New Jersey learn a lot. In addition to hearing new perspectives, we were “My experience from going to the NSLDC convention in able to share with universities in the surrounding about New York broadened my views on how to communicate, programs we have in place at IMSA that have been helpful for approach, and analyze difficult situations that arise between us. With that, we were able to help other universities as well as students that focus on accepting diversity. After networking get ideas to solve problems related to diversity and inclusion with students from various universities all around the state, on our own campus.” - MARISA PATEL O’CONNER ‘19 I was able to understand how inclusive and diverse the IMSA environment currently is. It really made me proud of the “As a LEAD facilitator and a wing guide, I greatly benefited student environment I am a part of. Additionally, getting from attending the NSLDC. It opened my eyes to a whole insight on how to address topics such as gender, micro new world of diverse people and ideas. When I came to IMSA, aggressions, and activism burnout were a few of my favorite I was exposed to a lot of new people and ideas, but NSLDC discussions. I look forward to implementing activities and took that a step further. It was interesting to see how much presentation styles into the PME/IMSA educational curriculum, perspectives vary from different places in the country. Further, in hopes of improving how students approach and deal with specifically regarding my leadership roles on campus, there these topics.” - MIRELLA ELDRIDGE ‘21 were a lot of things for me to take away. I attended a workshop on how to facilitate a conversation on diversity. This taught me a lot about how I can guide conversations both in my LEAD classroom and more casually in my wing.” - CHRISTIAN BARRET ‘19 A team of 25 IMSA students planned and hosted the very first student led TEDxYouth@IMSA event on November 16, 2019. This leadership experience created space for the voices of youth. 3 FY19_IMSAFund_AnnualReport.indd 3 12/12/2019 2:14:24 PM INTERNATIONAL TREKS IMSA STUDENT STORIES AND WORDS OF THANKS ISSF 2019 - Singapore backgrounds on a world stage. I learned about different Singapore International Student Challenge-International cultures, to appreciate their values, their school systems, their Student Science Fair (SISC-ISSF) was held in March of 2019. academic lives and their higher education system. Students and faculty from 42 different countries attended the conference at National Junior College, Singapore. Three I learned how to interact, create and cultivate relationship IMSA students traveled to the conference to present a research with conference peers who came from diverse academic project on the “Pathological Interaction between Osteoporosis systems, career goals and cultural interests. I still nurture the and Alzheimer’s Disease.” They were chaperoned by Dr. Robert connections I made with my fellow conference attendees from Hernandez, Principal and Ms. Marti Shirley, Math Faculty. Russia, Singapore, and my group members Min, Charmain, Nicole, Jack, Jingyuan, Xinzhi, Vibhuti, and Li Ann. t SISC-ISSF, I presented my research project The conference promoted inclusiveness, STEM education, “Pathological Interaction between Osteoporosis research collaboration and cultural exchange. It provided a and Alzheimer’s Disease,” a collaborative research platform for empowering young scientists from around the “Awork I did at Rush University Medical Research Center, world like myself to use our scientific knowledge to meet Chicago. I won “Best Young Student Researcher” for my significant social challenges and take action to address the research presentation which was a rewarding title and one important global issues of our time. that came with a lot of hard work, time, and dedication to my project. The conference also paved a solid foundation by exposing and preparing my peers and me to be the future science leaders by I also won the group award for the design thinking and build connecting young scientists with leading science researchers challenge. The process of creating a functioning prototype and practitioners around the world. was a fruitful experience that taught me how to work with everyone’s strengths and weaknesses as well as their ideas I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. José Torres, the SIR and opinions so we could collaborate and work together department and the IMSA Fund for sending me on this life- effectively to build a final product. altering trip.” Attending the conference gave me a great opportunity to - SHRUTI SHAKTHIVEL ‘20 articulate and present complex scientific research work to a broad section of students and faculty from different Shruti Shakthivel ‘20, Emily Sallenback ‘19 and Xander Hall ‘20 and their chaperones, Dr. Robert Hernandez, Principal and Ms. Marti Shirley, Math Faculty, traveled to Singapore for the 2019 International Student Science Fair. 4 | 2019 IMSA FUND ANNUAL REPORT FY19_IMSAFund_AnnualReport.indd 4 12/12/2019 2:14:26 PM ’d like to thank the IMSA Fund for providing me with this wonderful opportunity. I couldn’t even hope to “Iproperly depict the incredible value of this experience in a brief letter, but I hope that, minimally, my appreciation comes through. First, this trip opened my eyes to the many different problems being faced across the globe. At IMSA, I was prepared by clearly understanding the UN’s recent global goals, but this trip made all of that so much more of a reality. Learning about how Singapore reuses their sewer water, because they cannot rely on imported water and rainwater alone, for example. Or the purely multicultural lessons – so many – one of which was from the Iranian students from Tehran, who were on their New Year break; they shared that when home for this holiday, one of their celebratory traditions is running over fire! I spent time talking with the principal of the Tehran school about an Iranian author – an author of a book I am reading for an IMSA class. So many of the students from other countries shared social media accounts with me, and planned to continue our friendship. I’m so excited to see how we all progress with our projects, and our futures. We had so much fun on our cultural night, where we exchanged food and gifts – everyone loved playing the American “bean bag” game and eating Hershey kisses. I tried a bunch of different food from other countries, including Vegemite from Australia.