Office of Community Affairs and Outreach Programs

The university, through the Office of Community Affairs, seeks to be the connective tissue linking the Illinois Tech community with the organizations, businesses, and individuals looking to make positive change in Bronzeville and the surrounding communities.

Illinois Tech is located in the Chicago neighborhood of Bronzeville, the center of African-American history on Chicago’s South Side. The community today is undergoing a revitalization driven by entrepreneurial African Americans who value its rich history and who are dedicated to keeping that history and its lessons alive.

Illinois Tech is honoring the Alpha Suffrage Club, the Ida B. Wells-founded organization that was the first to promote the right for Black women to vote in Illinois, with a marker on northern edge of its main campus. 

The community-based garden and ecological research center is designed to bring together neighbors, students, researchers, educators, horticulturists, and community scientists—all while honoring Nathaniel “Nate” Thomas, who established the trailblazing Early Identification Program for minority recruitment at Illinois Tech. 

While Illinois Tech faculty and alumni have made lasting impressions on Chicago’s skyline, many graduates left an impact on the city’s residential neighborhoods and the suburban cities and villages. Their designs are detailed in Modern in the Middle: Chicago Houses 1929–75, a book co-authored by Professor Michelangelo Sabatino.

Spend the summer with a computer science or applied mathematics research team in a College of Computing Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program. Registration is now open.

Illinois Tech alumnus Linxin Wen was frustrated that many of his favorite “mom and pop” restaurants in Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood weren’t listed on mobile food-delivery platforms. To fix that, he created the fast-growing Chowbus, a third-party food-delivery platform.

Through programs such as IPRO Labs, Illinois Tech aims to create meaningful connections between its students, faculty, and staff and community businesses and organizations to create innovative solutions to the real-world issues they face.

Illinois Tech is focused on making a positive societal change and has created the SoReMo (Socially Responsible Modeling, Computing, and Design) initiative to ensure that is done. SoReMo empowers students to create that change through a partnership with community stakeholders and subject matter experts from industry, academia, and government.

Providing opportunities for Illinois residents to upgrade their technical skills and boost their career aspirations is important to Illinois Tech. By partnering with TechReady Illinois, Illinois Tech will provide Illinoisans with the chance to complete certificate programs in highly sought disciplines at a discounted rate.

Students at Illinois Tech have demonstrated that they wish to make the world a better place, seeking an education at a university that aims to solve real-world problems. Their education isn’t solely in the classroom—student-led organizations such as Change@IIT are determined to make an impact through community service.