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Personal Reflections / 12.20.17, José M. Torres

Personal Reflections

As 2017 comes to a close, I want to wish you and your loved ones happy holidays and a very happy New Year. For those who celebrated Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, happy belated holidays to you!

For this personal reflection, I want to take time to amplify our very important IMSA faculty. I have enjoyed the many one-on-one conversations with individual faculty members this fall. While I have not yet finished meeting with each one, I’m at number 42, my appreciation, esteem, and respect continues to increase for each of them. I have learned first-hand of their tireless efforts in teaching, …

Personal Reflections / 11.2.17, José M. Torres

Personal Reflections

Just as my last Personal Reflection was a little different in that I focused on our recent athletic accomplishments, this Reflection mostly focuses on my recent trip to Puerto Rico. But first, I am pleased and proud to announce that on Monday, October 30, IN2 was named a Chicago Innovation 2017 Award winner for the People's Choice Award. IN2 Steve and Jamie Chen Center for Innovation & Inquiry opened in 2017 as a model for U.S. education that empowers young people to transform their ideas into reality and solutions to the complex social challenges of our time through entrepreneurship and …

Personal Reflections / 10.20.17, José M. Torres

Personal Reflections

In a departure from focusing on academic achievements, innovation and operational topics, I would like to turn to our most recent athletic accomplishments in this Reflection.

On the field, the boys soccer team had one of its most successful seasons ever. They claimed the conference championship for the first time in program history, won a first ever 2A regional game and finished with a 16-3-1 record.

On the greens, IMSA sophomore T.J. Ptak advanced to the IHSA Boys State Golf Tournament and placed 65th. T.J. was the first golfer in IMSA’s co-ed program history to make it to state since …

Personal Reflections / 9.29.17, José M. Torres

Personal Reflections

Many of you know that I have family in Puerto Rico–mom, brother, and other extended family and you have been kind enough to ask me about their welfare. My mom and brother are physically safe. Through my mom, I have heard that my other family members are also safe. Emotionally and psychologically, my family and the people of Puerto Rico are suffering in ways that I have never seen in my 57 years of life. It breaks my heart to see through social media the devastation of the island. The desperation and stress levels continue to increase as the relief …

Personal Reflections / 8.23.17, José M. Torres

Personal Reflections

Welcome to the 2017-2018 school year! It’s a special Academic Year in that we begin the school year with a full budget! Over the past three years, our colleagues in public schools (K-12), who are under the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), began their school year with a full budget while IMSA and the rest of the universities, which are under the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE), began and operated most of the past two years without a full budget. We begin the school year with great energy fresh from a summer of alumni engagement, youth camps in …

Personal Reflections / 7.10.17, José M. Torres

Personal Reflections

After almost three years without a state budget, IMSA finally has a budget for FY 2018, which began July 1, 2017. On July 6, the House overrode the veto of the Governor on SB 6 with 74 votes (71 votes required). It is now law. The House overrode the vetoes of the other two budget related bills (SB 9: Revenue – 71 votes and SB 42: Budget Implementation – 71 votes). They are now law as well.

Personal Reflections / 6.8.17, José M. Torres

Personal Reflections

Congratulations on a successful completion of the 2016-2017 academic year! For this final reflection of the year, I wanted to share with you my commencement speech to the Class of 2017.

We have been celebrating our 30th anniversary this past year. Therefore, I want to reflect back on our first graduating class, the Class of 1989. The Commencement program included the following quote from Dr. Carl Sagan.

Personal Reflections / 5.4.17, José M. Torres

Personal Reflections

You should have seen them! On May 1, our seniors wore spirit wear for the college or university that they have decided to attend as part of “College Day” which capped off an eventful year for IMSA including the marking of our 30-year anniversary. The Class of 2017 is headed to institutions near and far from Northwestern University, the Illinois Institute of Technology and University of Chicago to MIT, Yale, Vanderbilt, and Harvard. Our students are counting down the days before they leave IMSA, their home for the past three years. Like a proud parent, I envision their lives full …

Personal Reflections / 3.13.17, José M. Torres

Personal Reflections

Have you ever wanted to “stop the world” and get out of the rat race? What if we could hit the “pause” button? For this reflection, I’m pushing the “pause” button from all of the budget and racial anxiety.

Earlier this week, I was reminded of the importance of "gratitude" while reading Naked Spirituality, a book authored by a friend, Brian McLaren. Brian illustrates the importance of appreciating what we have by reminding us of the Joni Mitchell song, "Big Yellow Taxi." The refrain of Joni's song includes, "Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've …

Personal Reflections / 12.23.16, José M. Torres

Personal Reflections

Today, the campus is growing eerily quiet as many IMSA students go "home" to their families for the winter break after completing final exams and the fall semester. I place "home" in quotations since recently I have been reminded by some of our alums that this "bunker" in Aurora becomes "home" to many students during their brief three-year stay.

I could have placed "family" in quotations, too, as we often refer to IMSA as a "family." And IMSA is a "family" and a "home" to many of us, both students and adults. We spend more "awake" time with our "family" …

Personal Reflections / 2.1.17, José M. Torres

Personal Reflections

Happy (belated) New Year! I appreciate that many of you share with me that you read and enjoy these personal reflections. I want to reiterate that these are my “personal” reflections. At times, it’s difficult to judge how much of my heart I want to open up via this medium and the level of risk that I can take in “reflecting” on what is occurring at IMSA and beyond. However, today I want to lean toward sharing more than I “ought to” in the spirit of communicating with “family.”

At the National level, President Trump in 2017 has created a …