Available in PDF.

IMSA Kids Institute® Paves Way For Future

By Britta McKenna, IMSA Kids Institute Coordinator

Growing up can be hard work, but the IMSA Kids Institute® (KI) is growing up well. One of the Academy's premier programs, KI serves students from thoughout Illinois whileproviding exception opportunites for leadership and service for IMSA students and alumni.

Student Numbers Swell

Starting with the 12 students who began Science Explorers in 1998, KI has grown to serve more than 100 Academy students each year. KI projects also have grown to include elementary science camps, after-school programs, a mobile science assembly program, a summer music camp and an art camp recently unveiled this year.

Because of the increase in student participation over the years, KI activities now are integrated with other programs on the IMSA campus, including the Student Leadership Development Program and the Student Inq2uiry and Research Program.

IMSA alumni have played a key role in the development and growth of the KI programs offered. KI alumni stand proud—your original ideas from years ago now have taken flight and we are ready for the next generation of change.

Shifting Staff Creates Opportunities

Recently, the Kids Institute announced several changes to its staff.

Tracey Dosch, KI Science Advisor since October 2001, accepted a full-time biology faculty position at Waubonsee Community College in August. In addition, I am leaving within the year to be the Executive Director of the Batavia Main Street Program.

Fear not; a solid foundation has been set by hundreds of IMSA students with more committed students lining up at the door. In the interim, IMSA faculty and staff are pitching in to expand the definition of KI to include more key adults with specialized backgrounds in order to help projects flourish and take flight.

Giving Back to KI

Starting this year, the Kids Institude is now an option for gift designation through the IMSA Fund. This is a great opportunity for IMSA alumni to invest in something that was meaningful to them and to support KI's future.

Seeding the Future

With the help of alumni dollars, a KI mini grant program will be kicked off shortly to support the development of new or existing KI student projects.

Grants from hundreds to thousands of dollars will be awarded to deserving KI student projects. IMSA Fund gifts designated to KI will help seed this new mini grant program, so if you have been waiting for a reason to give, wait no longer.

Alumni and KI

How can you help the IMSA Kids Institute now that you are an IMSA grad?

If you are interested in being part of the first ever KI Middle School Science Symposium on February 26, 2005, go to the Web site at www.imsa.edu/kidsinstitute and fill out the form either nominating a dynamic alum to present or signing yourself up as a volunteer (registration, day of logistics, planning, etc.).

Two other Saturday summits also are in the planning stages—topics will be leadership in the spring and math/technology next fall. We are looking for alumni with vision to share your work with the next generation of learners and their teachers and parents. Email me at britta@imsa.edu or call (630) 907-5879 if you would like more information.

In addition, KI always is looking for alumni to help with summer camps. These are paid positions, so next spring when you are lining up summer jobs, check with us to see what help will be needed.

Alum Teachers: Get Connected to KI

Are you an elementary school teacher looking for a way to connect your classroom with IMSA? If your school is within an hour's drive, IMSA on Wheels could present a science assembly to your students. Your 4^th or 5^th graders also could participate in our Mars Online program and come to IMSA in May with class projects for our Mars Fair.

If you teach in Illinois (elementary or middle school) and would like a free DVD of KI's Kevin Bock the Science Jock, email me or call to request a free copy.

You don't teach? Then get involved by encouraging a neighborhood kid or family friend to attend a KI activity.

Getting involved with IMSA and KI is only a click away, so what are you waiting for?

In addition, KI currently is looking to hire two Specialists: one technical and one in the sciences. My chair will soon be vacant, too. Alumni looking for dynamic work in education: please check www.imsa.edu/working for these job postings.

Reflections: My Summer With KI and Student Leadership Development

By Donielle Newell '00

Do you remember the things that you wanted to change while you were at IMSA? Does that great idea from your senior year that you did not pursue ever float back into your head? Do you still think that idea has potential?

This past summer, I discovered that my ideas not only had potential, they had the power to make a difference.

I spent my summer working at IMSA evaluating current programs and looking for new growth opportunities in the Kids Institute (KI) and Student Leadership Development (SLD) programs.

As a member of the inaugural group of student leaders of the Kids Institute, it was amazing to see current IMSA students take the program to a new level. I thrived on delving deeper into these two programs that had personal meaning for me because they were part of my experience as an IMSA student.

But, my opportunities to contribute to IMSA did not end with Kids Institute and Student Leadership Development. I also participated in a summer navigation session, helping parents and students begin to make the transition to IMSA. In addition, I spoke with the new class of sophomores and challenged them to make the most of their IMSA experience.

Overall, I believe the time I spent at IMSA this summer helped me to understand where IMSA is now. Additionally, I found that my experiences as a student coupled with my post-IMSA experiences helped me to more clearly articulate my ideas for the focus and long-term goals for IMSA, and seeing these ideas valued and integrated into new plans and strategies was one of the most rewarding contributions I believe I made at IMSA.

Reengagement with IMSA also presented me with a new challenge: I want to find more ways to get involved with IMSA, to give back to my community and to give back to the State of Illinois.

As I prepare for a career as a leader in the education field, I know I will continually draw on my IMSA experiences and work to create collaborations between my work and the work of the Academy.

As an alum, your role as a pioneer for IMSA also could be just beginning. Think back to the ideas you had, the experiences you would like to share and the programs you believe you could enrich or improve. The opportunities are there. You just need to challenge yourself to find your own way to reconnect to IMSA and make it happen.

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You…

IMSA thanks all alumni who have assisted the Academy in various ways in recent months. Just a few examples follow.

Donielle Newell '00 for your contribution to the IMSA Kids Institute® and Student Leadership programs during the summer of 2004.

David Kung '89 (pictured below, second from right) for your inspiring Convocation address and Drew Massey '99 (below, rightmost) for your lovely piano selections to open the new academic year (pictured with IMSA Principal Eric McLaren and IMSA President Dr. Stephanie Pace Marshall).

Ben Chelf '96, Sam Choi '89, Josh Gerlick '99, John Hoesley '89, David Joerg '89, Jennifer Ellis Ward '93 and Sam Yagan '95 for their help in assessing candidates for the IMSA TALENT (Total Applied Learning for Entrepreneurs) Project Director position.

Charlie Ballowe '97, Adam Gibson '96, Josh Levin '96, Doug Pratt '97, Kristen Pratt '04, Sendhil Revuluri '90, Scott Stiefel '04, and Alice Zhao '04 for assisting at IMSA's move-in day this fall, welcoming students and their parents to campus.

Julie Dowling '99 for joining IMSA's staff as a hall coordinator/resident counselor, James Valadez '99 for your interim service as an admission counselor focusing on minority recruitment and Scott Swanson '90 for joining IMSA's CNS staff as application developer.

Neal Groothuis '97 and Matt Zanon '97 for their help with various IMSA website development work.

Mark Armantrout '89, Winjie Tang '94, and Ani Vallabhaneni '99 for planning and coordinating your respective Class Reunions this past summer; and Patty Sullivan '95 for volunteering to coordinate this coming summer's events.

Sam (Sara) Benson '91 for sending copies of nine Lonely Planet travel guidebooks she has authored and David Kung '89 for donating 10 new books including novels, poetry and science fiction stories.

From the IAA President

Doug Pratt '97 milamber@imsa.edu

Three thousand people can do a lot of things.

They can raise tons of money for good causes. They can influence critical decisions. They can help many, many people.

Working together, 3,000 people can be a powerful force. It just so happens, IMSA has more than 3,000 alumni.

Individually, IMSA alumni can donate money, influence decisions and help the students, faculty, staff and mission of IMSA. But to really make an impact, we have to show up together.

And yes, one of the first steps is giving money. I know economic times are tough. And I know fully a third of the people who get this newsletter are still in school and do not have extra cash lying around. I am not asking you to fund guest speakers yourself or to buy residence hall or science lab naming rights. That is what working together is for.

However, if every IMSA alum gave $20 (that's trading pizza for Ramen twice a year, for those of you counting that way), we would raise $60,000. That is someone's salary. That is a lot of lab supplies. That is real money.

Now, some of us can only give $5. And some of us can give $5,000. I'm asking you to look in your wallet—and your heart—and decide how much you can give…and give it. Together, IMSA alumni have raised almost $1 million. This year, give what you can to put us over that mark and well on our way to the next million.

Beyond donations, we have to pool our time and talent to make a difference. One alum returning to campus to speak to students is great. Thirty help make Intersession happen. One alum talking about their college helps. Fifty make a college fair. One alum recruiting the best and brightest student they know to come to IMSA makes the Academy stronger. Two hundred and fifty alums doing the same thing will fill an entire class—3,000 can populate IMSA with the leaders of tomorrow for 12 years.

That is the positive impact we can make together. So far, individual alumni have done great things for IMSA and should be proud of what they have accomplished. But now it is time for collective acti! on. Now it is time for IMSA's alumni to come together and let IMSA, its students and its supporters know that we care. And that together we are going to make a difference.

Contact Doug at milamber@imsa.edu to find out how you can help or to share your questions, comments and ideas. To give to the IMSA Fund, visit www.imsa.edu/giving.

Board of Trustees Update

By Andrea Croll '97

Here's a recap of several important IMSA Board of Trustees decisions this fall:

A new graduation requirement has been created for students. Beginning with the Class of 2007, all students are required to demonstrate competency in research and inquiry by fulfilling a no-credit graduation requirement. While approximately 75% of students currently participate in the Mentorship and Inquiry programs, this requirement will be tied to research completed as part of specific classes designed to integrate a research component into the curriculum.

IMSA's student fee structure has been modified to better reflect the economic needs of students and their families. The fees that each student is required to pay are now based on his or her family's total annual income. There are six tiers with the lower income tiers correlated to those of the free and reduced lunch program in Illinois public schools and the top tier for students whose families have an annual income greater than $200,000.

IMSA's FY2006 budget request to the Illinois State Board of Higher Education (ISBHE) is intended to restore the budget to FY2002 levels (prior to the major budget cuts of that year). The increase in revenue for this year is intended to fund salary increases, preventative facility maintenance, new technology for learning and the IMSA Excellence 2000+ (E2K) program.

scenes from The IMSA Fund's First Annual Donor Recognition Event

The IMSA Fund for Advancement of Education's Step Builders Giving Club inaugural donor recognition event brought approximately 175 donors from FY 04 and early FY 05 on campus for an open house in the new state of the art science wing. Donors were able to talk with staff, student, alum and parent volunteers about the many giving options within the IMSA Fund as well as participate in several hands-on demonstrations and activities presented in the areas of science and technology.

Above, Matt Zanon '97 manned the IAA's table along with Jason Orloff '90 and Neal Groothuis '97 (not pictured). Below, physics teachers Dr. David Workman and Laura Nickerson '92 perform a demo for eager onlookers.

IMSA Alum Debuts Breakthrough Device for Cancer Detection

EADevices, Inc., the brainchild of IMSA Class of 1999 graduate Joshua Gerlick, emerged as the newest biotechnology sensation to open the NASDAQ Stock Exchange on Friday, August 6, 2004 in an internationally televised ceremony.

The company's featured product, the EANeedle, combines circular ultrasonic energy with thin, interchangeable needles to provide a solution for difficult, early-stage biopsies. The needle is less invasive than current biopsy technologies and will result in fewer complications, providing patients with earlier opportunities for cancer detection and treatment.

Opening the NASDAQ is a real testament to our advisors, partners, and employees who have dedicated themselves toward growing our company into a market leader for biopsy retrieval devices, said Gerlick, chief executive officer of EADevices.

EADevices, Inc. (www.eadevices.com) began as the vision of Gerlick and two of his fellow graduate students at Carnegie Mellon University who adopted a promising technology from Indianola, PA-based, Medrad Inc. In under a year, the company became one of the most talked-about and promising biotechnology startups in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area.

The founding trio then entered 11 business plan competitions in an effort to prove their venture and raise start-up funding. In May 2004, EADevices defeated 29 teams of entrepreneurs from around the world to win the 2004 MOOT Corp. competition, widely hailed as the most prestigious of international business plan competitions.

EADevices also won additional money from eight other business plan competitions, raising over $350,000 in total competition winnings.

Their product, the EANeedle, utilizes circular ultrasonic energy to gather biopsy samples from areas such as the soft tissues surrounding the breast and lung that are easily damaged by conventional biopsy procedures.

Energy dissipated at the tip of the needle acts much like a hot knife through butter, Gerlick says, piercing through layers of tissue and the tumor. This allows surgeons and radiologists to focus on guiding and controlling the needle, rather than forcing it through the tissue.

Gerlick holds an MBA and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with University Honors from Carnegie Mellon University.

I believe it was IMSA's program and driving motivation to me as a student at IMSA that has led me to where I am today, Gerlick said.

Opening the NASDAQ is a real testament to our advisors, partners, and employees who have dedicated themselves toward growing our company into a market leader for biopsy retrieval devices.

IMSA Honors Two Cherished Community Members

Mary Van Verst, 1937–2004

Mary Van Verst joined the IMSA community on August 18, 1987. For more than 16 years, Mary was a valued member of the IMSA Chemistry team. During her long teaching career at IMSA, she developed an Organic Chemistry curriculum that was, as IMSA President Dr. Stephanie Pace Marshall said, really more a department into itself rather than just two classes in an independent study.

In addition to her passion for chemistry, Mary created and led IMSA students after school in learning about Nuclear Magnetic Resonance imaging. In order for students to learn about NMR from the experts themselves, Mary recruited scientists outside of IMSA to volunteer their time in this effort. This was a truly unique and rare learning opportunity for students at the undergraduate level and was another example of, as Dr. Marshall said, Mary's profound respect and deep affection for her students and their abundant potential.

Mary's impact on her students was evidenced throughout the years by the many notes she kept from them. One of these included the following:

I hope I can pursue my career with as much dedication, enthusiasm, and fervor you showed, because you showed me that you should always love what you are doing, in order to give it your best.

The following is an excerpt from Mary's memorial service on September 26, 2004, read by IMSA President Dr. Marshall:

Mary was a teacher's teacher. She was an expert. A master. A disciplined and caring mentor.

She knew the quiet joy of inviting students to deeply engage in and experience the wonders and mystery of science and its connection to the human experience.

Above all else, Mary saw her life's work as using science to invite students into a live and loving encounter with ideas, and from this live encounter, new connections were made, imaginations were stirred, perplexities were exposed, insights were shared, and young minds were altered forever.

Daniel Eidson,1950–2004

Daniel Eidson joined the IMSA community on August 7, 2000. During his career at IMSA, Dan was a valued member of the IMSA Residential Life team. For the past four years, he served as a Resident Counselor and Student Council Advisor to IMSA students.

In addition to his role here at IMSA, Dan also held leadership roles outside of IMSA, serving as Executive Director for the North Central District (Illinois) for High School Student Councils and also on the board for the Illinois State Association of Student Councils.

IMSA Principal Eric McLaren said that the IMSA community and its students will miss Dan's contributions to Academy campus life.

As executive director of the North Central District for High School Student Councils, Dan shared his passion and deep knowledge of student government and leadership with IMSA students,said IMSA Principal Eric McLaren. At IMSA, we place a high value on student leadership development and we will always remember Dan's ability to empower students to make a difference in the world around them.

Volunteers Needed To Help Students With College Selection

Are you looking for a way that you can help current IMSA students? Helping them navigate the college selection process is one easy option that needs alumni support.

IMSA's annual Spring College Fair will be held on Saturday, April 16, 2005. IMSA alumni are asked to contact their college or university's admissions office and encourage them to attend the fair. Let them know you are an IMSA alum and see if there is anything you can do to help at the fair that day.

Every school's admissions strategy is different, so their reactions to your offer will vary. Some schools already will be sending someone and will not need any other help, but will appreciate your contacting them. Others may want you to attend to help talk with students and relate IMSA to your college. Others may provide you with admissions materials and ask you to represent your college yourself.

Even if you cannot attend the fair on April 16, make sure to encourage your college or university to attend so IMSA students have the broadest range of schools to interact with at the fair.

You also can help out from the comfort of your hometown by volunteering for the IAA University Host Program. If you live in a college town—anywhere from New York to Honolulu—you can lend a hand to a fellow member of the IMSA community by volunteering to help current students and new alumni when they come to town.

University hosts can help in a variety of ways, including picking up students/alums from local airports, train stations and bus depots; offering a place to stay during visits or other short periods; taking students/alums out for meals; connecting them with people in the community and at the local college or university who can help with specific areas of college life (academics, jobs, financial aid, etc.); or just providing a friendly face who understands IMSA and how to transition into life after it.

If you are interested in becoming an IAA University Host, contact IAA Cabinet member Charlie Ballowe '97 at hangman@imsa.edu. gman@imsa.edu. Be sure to include your name, e-mail address, which schools are, by your account, within a reasonable distance and anything specific that you are or aren't willing to do.

Look for ways to help IMSA students pick the college and career that is right for them in the Spring issue of IMSAlum or at www.iaa.org.

IMSA TALENT to Support Budding Science and Technology Entrepreneurs

By Catherine C. Veal, Vice President for Advancement

Think talented teenagers can conceive, design, develop, test, evaluate and market ideas and products to change the world? IMSA does—and in 2004–05 IMSA willlaunch its Total Applied Learning for Entrepreneurs (TALENT) program, thanks to donor Virginia B. Cherry.

In brief, IMSA TALENT will provide on-campus, off-campus and virtual learning experiences and resources to stimulate and encourage entrepreneurial applied science and technology projects by IMSA students and other talented Illinois students.

TALENT also will support their understanding of the entrepreneurial process required to take a concept from idea to market.

IMSA's commitment is closely aligned with The Illinois Coalition's goal of driving economic growth through science and technology, according to John Maxson, Coalition president.

Traditional educational institutions prepare students for traditional jobs in business, education, government, and the arts, Maxson said. Today's graduates will be faced with broader opportunities, including many in the world of entrepreneurship. Young people need an early orientation to this new world, where they can be the benefi ciaries of their own creativity and energies.

Alumni Perspectives

IMSA alumni agree and see TALENT as one way of ensuring that IMSA remains at the forefront of science, mathematics and technology education.

Currently students with potentially commercial ideas not only lack the means to explore the idea, but also lack training in the basic building principles needed to take a product to market, said David Joerg '89.

Joerg knows firsthand the struggles and rewards of doing so, having been the president and co-founder of Vindigo (www.vindigo.com) which makes personal navigation tools and applications for today's most popular handheld devices.

It will be interesting for students to explore how scientific discoveries create new business landscapes and allow new companies to take over—and examples where upstarts are beaten back when established players quickly adapt, Joerg said. The impact of IMSA TALENT will be students who are wise beyond their years in the ways of the business world.

Jennifer Ellis Ward 93, wishes TALENT had existed when she was at IMSA. Two of the hardest parts of being a scientist learning to be an entrepreneur are that business thinking is very different from thinking as a scientist and getting funding for good ideas is very difficult, she said.

A founding scientist of Meiogen Biotechnology, Inc. www.meiogen.com

To translate their idea from lab to clinic and get promising drugs to market, Meiogen was born. The company's proprietary products and methods center on cytokine-related neurological diseases like Down Syndrome, Alzheimer's and AIDS dementia. While the science is going really well, Ward says attracting venture capital can be taxing.

Unfortunately, many investors do not feel that a drug for Down Syndrome is very marketable. We are trying to change that misperception, she said.

Ben Chelf '96 is one of the founders of Coverity, Inc. (www.coverity.com), which provides state-of-the-art source code analysis technology. His work was featured in the April issue of Linux Magazine (www.linux-mag.com). The technology is considered breakthrough because it can efficiently detect many types of bugs in real systems such as Linux.

Through starting a company, I learned so much about how technology can be taken from academia and applied in the real world, Chelf said. The fact that IMSA is now taking steps to assure that students ten years my junior can learn these same lessons is encouraging. Initiating the TALENT program solidifies my belief that the Academy is on the cutting edge of educating our future leaders to guide Illinois, our nation and the world.

Eric McLaren, IMSA principal and vice president for academic programs, looks forward to IMSA's expanding role in nurturing budding science and technology entrepreneurs. We eagerly anticipate that more of our graduates and other talented Illinois students will follow in the footsteps of pioneering IMSA alumni like Dave, Jen and Ben,he said.

Notes on IMSA Computing and Network Services

shell.imsa.edu (neé Imsasun, Titan)

IMSA CIO Jim Gerry invites alumni to review his proposal for a next-generation, student- and alum-administered shell server. Notesfile users can view it in =cns.forum bn 1584 note 206; others are welcome to e-mail jgerry@imsa.edu for a copy.

Technology for Learning Initiative

Jim Gerry also invites alumni to share their thoughts on the potential of information technology in the classroom for his Technology for Learning Initiative.

myIMSA 3.0: Third Time's a Charm

The Academy's website for letting alums update their contact information and share what they've done since leaving IMSA, the myIMSA Alumni Directory, has underwhelmed its users since its debut. But myIMSA's star is rising: CNS has rid itself of some of the technical obstacles that made myIMSA less useful than it ought to be and has rethought whom to charge with engineering myIMSA.

An outside contractor, unaffiliated with IMSA, wrote myIMSA's current version, and CNS now knows in hindsight that the better choice would have been to hire alumni to develop myIMSA. This winter, CNS will make good on the lesson learned: by the time this issue of IMSAlum arrives in mailboxes, the consultancy of alumni Maciej Babinski '97 and Greg Dhuse '99, Helix Systems, will have been contracted to begin work on myIMSA 3.0.

As mobile alumni know, a change to one's address in myIMSA hasn't immediately meant receiving IMSAlum or other mailings at one's new address. myIMSA 2.0, because of CNS' and the outside contractor's oversight, was poorly engineered to export data to IMSA's central database of alum and donor information, Raiser's Edge or RE. Updates that alumni have made to their myIMSA entries don't make the jump to RE except when CNS and the Advancement Office work with an RE consultant to laboriously convert and migrate the data. This will soon no longer be necessary: myIMSA 3.0 will store all of its data in RE itself, and updates of contact information will be instantly available to the IMSA staff that mail IMSAlum.

myIMSA 3.0 will be also become part of IMSA's general website, www.imsa.edu, instead of lying elsewhere, which means that it'll be far easier for alumni to find.

Dr. Marshall and other senior leaders at IMSA consider having current information on alumni to be fundamental to a lot of what they want to accomplish in the near future at IMSA, including TALENT (see pg. 6), alum involvement in Admissions (pg. 8), alum involvement in the CAC (pg. 5), and fundraising.

New IMSA Courses at a Glance

By Eric McLaren, IMSA Principal

Starting this fall, IMSA students will have three new courses to choose from, including Music Theory, Applied Engineering and Science, Society and the Future (SSF and Music Theory are former courses which are being re-introduced).

Music Theory is open to any student with a solid music background interested in learning the principles of writing and analyzing music. Students will learn the elements of music theory, including intervals, chord progressions, harmony, transposition, voicing, arranging and ear training. The final project will be the arrangement and writing of a composition for full orchestra or concert band.

Applied Engineering is a one-semester science elective. It continues the study of physics concepts learned in Scientific Inquiries and other science electives. Students will study various engineering areas such as electrical, industrial, mechanical and nanotechnology controls, and sessions will take place at Northern Illinois University. Students also will complete a team project related to their studies in engineering, such as building and programming a robot for a specified competition.

The focus of Science, Society and the Future is on issues where science and technology interact with human health and welfare. The students are expected to address real-world issues in realistic problem-based learning scenarios. The problems fit under a conceptual umbrella that connects them in some way. For example the conceptual umbrella for Fall of 2004 is Environmental Regulations: Are the Benefits Worth the Costs? The overall goal of the course is to have students bring all they have learned from science, analysis, and ethics to bear on a current problem of significance. The class, along with its teacher Dr. David Workman, was recently featured in an Aurora Beacon-News article.

Save the Dates for Alumni Weekend 2005

For 2005, the annual IMSA Alumni Day is being expanded to Alumni Weekend! Mark your calendars to return to Aurora for an entire weekend of festivities and fun on June 17–19, 2005. The weekend will feature traditional Alumni Day activities, three class reunions and LUMEN, a new event for Alumni Weekend.

Traditional Alumni Day activities will be held on Saturday, June 18 at IMSA. The IAA Annual Meeting will be held in the morning and will include the election of new officers and cabinet members. In the afternoon, alumni, faculty and staff are invited to the IAA Faculty/Staff Tea. Later that evening, the Classes of 1990, 1995 and 2000 will celebrate their reunions. (Reunions may also be holding events on the evening of Friday, June 17.)

Moving from its customary January timeframe, LUMEN also will be a highlight of Alumni Weekend 2005. Expertise will be drawn from IMSA alumni, parents, staff, students, great minds and the people of Illinois in an effort to provide a broad range of perspectives and an exciting, respectful discourse. The new LUMEN Steering Committee is working hard to make this event a successful and exciting gathering for the extended IMSA community. Plan to attend LUMEN on June 18–19.

More information about LUMEN and the three reunions will be available in the coming months. The contact person and URL for each of these four events:

LUMEN

Jason Orloff '90— jjorloff@uwalumni.com
www.iaa.org/lumen

Classof 1990 15-year Reunion

Christopher Hage '90— christopherhage@yahoo.com
www.iaa.org/90/

Class of 1995 10-year Reunion

Patty Sullivan '95 pattys@imsa.edu
www.iaa.org/95

Class of 2000 Reunion 5-year Reunion

Coordinator TBA www.iaa.org/00

(Interested in volunteering to coordinate? Contact Doug Pratt '97 milamber@imsa.edu)

Admissions Volunteers Needed

By Amanda Leonard Shanbaum '96

IMSA and the IAA are seeking alumni volunteers for the admissions process for the Class of 2008. For every one of us, the decision to apply to and attend IMSA was a uniquely personal choice. As alumni, we have the opportunity to help future IMSA students and parents with these critical decisions.

We are proud to announce that for the third consecutive year a group of alumni representatives will be selected by the Admission staff to serve on the Application Review Committee where they will have a direct impact on the selection of the IMSA class of 2008.

The Office of Admission is under new leadership this year —Rob Sheinkopf is the new Director of Enrollment Management. Rob previously has worked in both college admissions and alumni relation roles and is enthusiastic about alumni involvement in the admissions process.

Below you will find a listing of volunteer opportunities that we still need help with for this academic year. Already this year, alumni have been involved with the admission process by writing alumni endorsed letters for the Admission Office and serving as volunteers for a talk to an alum service. We are hopeful that the list of volunteer opportunities will grow in future years!

Regional Informational Meetings

Meetings will be held in 22 locations statewide throughout the months of November, December, and January to give prospective students an introduction to IMSA. Meetings are hosted by the Admission Office. We would like to have one or two alumni present at each meeting to help field questions. As of press time, we are still in need of volunteers for meetings in December and January. Please see http://www.imsa.edu/admissions/gettoknow/info_meetings.php for dates and locations.

VIP Days

Two VIP days are being held at the IMSA campus on Sunday, November 14, 2004 and Saturday, January 29, 2005. We still are in need of alumni volunteers for the January date. Alumni volunteers will help field questions from prospective students and their families. Questions in the past have focused on how IMSA has prepared you for college and beyond.

Alum-Sponsored Applications

The Admission Office would like alumni help in identifying students who have the potential to succeed at IMSA. If you know a student who would benefit from an IMSA education and who would contribute to the IMSA environment, please contact the Admission Office at (800) 500-4672. Tell them you are an alum when you give them the name and address of the student. Please remember, we cannot make any promises to potential students! If you are interested in volunteering for any of the above activities please contact Amanda Leonard Shanbaum ('96) at penguin@imsa.edu for additional information.