In 1890, the women and men of what we now know as Illinois Institute of Technology responded to a call for action with a brilliant academic program fused within the context of the city of Chicago, calling forth visionary and courageous individuals to join this institution. And each year, for the last nearly 130, the women and men of this university have shouldered and welcomed the responsibility to provide a space and a place in Chicago to provide educational opportunities to the world’s next generation of leaders, many of whom hail from the humblest and most modest of backgrounds.
Simply put, we help people discover and bring to life a sense of inspiration and purpose as leaders – and in their lives generally. As a community, we help each member of Illinois Tech to weave that sense of inspiration and purpose together with a commitment to a lifelong journey of learning and a lifelong journey of creative work. As a university community, we want ongoing engagement with an academic, experiential learning and leadership curriculum that is inspiring, integrated and flexible, so that our students and alumni are enabled to direct their careers, contribute to their communities, and thrive within their chosen organizations in ways that allow each to be creative, abundant, sustainable, resilient, evocative and regenerative.
Inclusive. Diverse. Community. Our dedication to these core principles drives our efforts to serve as Chicago’s destination as a talent hub and accelerator, and leads us to create academic and research centers, experiential learning opportunities, and innovative programs that are needed in Chicago and the world to address our most challenging and epic problems. We take responsibility for the collective vision as it emerges from our history, our current context within Chicago, and throughout the world.
Why are we different?
Because as Illinois Tech,
- we have an authentic and unique Chicago-based based perspective to offer within the fields of architecture, business, design, engineering, science, the human sciences and technology
- we believe that deep, meaningful and sustained partnerships drive exponential, synergistic and systemic change
- we offer our resources and knowledge freely and humbly with a feeling of confidence that others including employers, donors, and other stakeholders will find resonance within our mission and vision, and join with us
- we choose to offer our gifts particularly to university students – and young people of Chicago, but also, and in addition, to senior managers or emerging and successful entrepreneurs
- we dedicate and commit ourselves to offer our gifts to underserved communities in Chicago and around the world
- we seek to always be a respectful and welcoming community
- we understand that each individual is connected to a family, to neighborhood, to community, to a city, to a nation, and to the world, and that the world is connected to a nation, to a state, to a city, to a community, to a neighborhood, to a family and to an individual
We seek to be an inspired hub and accelerator for talent – and dreams, for all.
Gerald Doyle
Vice Provost
Office of Student Access, Success and Diversity Initiatives & Career Services
doyle@iit.edu
A note of thanks:
I am most grateful to the review and contributions of colleagues and associates who have provided constructive and inspired feedback to earlier versions of this brief essay including Scott Downs, SASDI Fellows Program & Vice President Enterprise Agility Advisory at Temenos+Agility, James Sison, Senior Major Gift Officer, Stuart School of Business, and to Pat Grow, Director of Finance, Office of the Provost. They have enriched and added to the thinking and focus of these ideas, a work in-progress; the failures and what remains to be developed and unfolded remain entirely my responsibility.