IMSA and the IMSA Alumni Association invite you to connect with fellow alumni and celebrate IMSA as the 2009 Intel Schools of Distinction “Star Innovator” at the following regional events! Alumni gatherings provide an opportunity for alumni to catch up with fellow IMSAns, meet people from other class years, and learn about developments at the Academy.
All events are free, but RSVP is requested. Families are welcome!

March 27 – Austin Alumni Gathering
Join Suzyn Price, VP for Advancement and fellow alumni for a casual gathering in North Austin!
Saturday, March 27, 2010
3:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Threadgill’s – North Austin, 6416 N. Lamar, Austin, TX
Complimentary appetizers and soft drinks will be served.
Please RSVP by Wed, March 24 on Facebook or email cjohnson@imsa.edu.

Durham, NC Area Alumni Gathering
Join Cathy Veal, VP for Strategy and Innovation, Jennifer Spuehler, Director of Development and fellow alumni for dinner in Durham!
Sunday, March 28, 2010
5:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Tyler’s Taproom, 342 Blackwell St, Durham, NC
Complimentary dinner and soft drinks will be served.
Please RSVP by Wed, March 24 on Facebook or email cjohnson@imsa.edu.

San Francisco / Bay Area Alumni Gathering
Join IMSA President Dr. Max McGee, VP for Advancement Suzyn Price, and fellow alumni in the Bay Area!
Saturday, April 10, 2010
12:00 – 6:00 pm
Hosted by Jennifer Girotti Karp ‘90 and family
1039 Annapolis Drive, San Mateo, CA 94403
Complimentary appetizers and soft drinks will be served.
Please RSVP by Tues, April 6 on Facebook or email cjohnson@imsa.edu.

Save the Date for IMSA Alumni Weekend!
July 23-25, 2010

I would like to invite you to participate in an effort to assess our relationship with IMSA. On a pragmatic and delicious level, you will get a free meal in addition to spirited conversation!

As alums, the state legislature expects us to provide a return on their investment in our education. I believe this can take many forms, from intangible to more concrete acts, but legislators are often focused on only one aspect: money. Given the relatively low financial burden for us to attend IMSA, this makes sense. If alums do not show an interest in donating to the Academy after they graduate, should Illinois continue to fund the institution, and should IMSA provide significant financial backing for programs to support the alumni community (such as regional events)?

I am arranging two focus groups to discuss why alums do or do not make financial contributions to IMSA. As part of these conversations, we will discuss the relationship between alums and IMSA through time, as well as past communications from IMSA to alums. Don’t worry if you’ve never donated. In fact, I think that can make the conversation richer. These focus groups are sponsored by the IMSA Alumni Association (IAA) and only IMSA alumni are invited to participate. Feedback from the meetings will be shared with the IAA cabinet and select IMSA staff. No names or identities will be shared with anyone beyond the focus group participants.

The groups will meet at 6 p.m. on March 9 and March 10 at Silver Spoon Thai Restaurant (710 North Rush). If you are interested in participating, please RSVP to mcknisley@gmail.com by Monday, March 8, at 5 p.m. Indicate your preferred date in the email. If we have more than approximately six participants for each group, we will discuss adding another date.

Feel free to contact me with questions.

Best,
Matthew Knisley
IAA President

“The Ecology in Early Human Evolution: The Role of the Tropical Forests”

Widely accepted theories of early human evolution hold that human
ancestors developed when Ice-Age climate change created huge savannas
in the tropical forest belt of Africa. The idea is that a rainforest
ape species ventured out in the savanna, developing stone tools and
big-game hunting to survive there. In fact, all Paleolithic humans
are assumed to have been big-game hunters adapted to the savannas,
steppes, and tundras throughout the world.

However, careful paleoecological and bioarchaeological research now
show that early human ancestors mainly lived in tropical forests.
Tropical savannas are rare until later, after humans had developed
fire and began to deforest in some areas. Furthermore, most
Paleolithic humans lived by broad-spectrum foraging, not by big game
hunting, which is dangerous, costly in effort, and of low and
unreliable returns.

Since a lot of assumptions about human nature derive from the old
evolutionary consensus, we can now significantly revise our ideas
about ancient and modern human behavior.

Thursday, February 18, 2010
4:30 PM – 5:30 PM
IMSA Pearson Lecture Hall

Dear IMSA community,

In recognition of the life and work of Scott Swanson, beloved son and friend, IMSA alumnus (Class of 1990), IMSA staff member, and recognized educational technology pioneer, the Scott Swanson Fund for Transformative Student Learning and Innovation has been established by Gail and Sherwyn Cotovsky (Scott’s mother and stepfather), and IMSA alumni Alyssa Bennett ’90, Michele Jonsson Funk ’90, David Gabrius ’90, Todd (Groner) Kopriva ’89, Tony Nuval ’98, Sandeep Paruchuri ’08, Michael Peil ’90, Sendhil Revuluri ’90, Mike and Jennifer Rudzinski, both ’90, Joe Shidle ’90, and Derek Wolfgram ’89.

This fund will support the purchase, creation and use of leading-edge and emerging technologies for transformative student learning and innovation at IMSA. Gifts will support student-driven projects in game-changing technology initiatives (such as the One Laptop Per Child initiative), advanced computing, new media, online virtual worlds, gaming, and CoolHub.IMSA collaborative innovation networks. All of these were near and dear to Scott’s heart, and all offer opportunities for students to connect/collaborate with and be mentored by IMSA alumni, faculty and staff. This was very important to Scott.

For more details or to make a contribution to this fund in honor of Scott, please visit the IMSA Fund website at www3.imsa.edu/giving/annual/alumni/swanson. You can also set up a recurring payment to make monthly contributions to the fund at www3.imsa.edu/giving/donatenow. Please call us at (630) 907-5040 for more information.

To review Scott’s tribute statement, visit www3.imsa.edu/alumni.

Sincerely,
Jennifer Spuehler

–

Jennifer Spuehler
Director of Development
Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
IMSA Fund for Advancement of Education
1500 W. Sullivan Rd.
Aurora, IL 60506
Ph. 630-907-598

Did you get a gift card for the holidays this year that you know you’re
not going to use? Well don’t lose that value – put it to good use by
donating it to the IMSA Fund! By working with our partner at
http://imsa.givezooks.com, we are able to take your unwanted gift cards
and turn them into cash that counts as your annual contribution to IMSA
and the IMSA Fund.

Want to hold onto your gift cards but still make a contribution? There are
still a few days left to make a gift in time for the 2009 tax season!
Visit our web site a www.imsa.edu/giving for all the details on ways you
can make a fast and simple contribution before the end of the year. Use
the online giving options at paypal, givezooks, or facebook to make your
gift in seconds.

Be Counted – Make your year end gift to the IMSA Fund!

Thanks and Happy New Year,
Jennifer

———
Jennifer Spuehler
Director of Development
IMSA and the IMSA Fund for Advancement of Education
1500 W. Sullivan Road
Aurora, IL 60506
630.907.5989
jspuehler@imsa.edu
www.imsa.edu/giving

Happy Holidays IMSA Alumni!
I hope you are preparing for a festive holiday season and an exciting new decade! But before you run off to your holiday parties and ring in the new year, I hope you will consider joining your fellow alumni by making a contribution to the IMSA Fund.

As you know, the IMSA Fund uses your contributions to support the students and faculty of IMSA, which allows the students to have access to equipment and opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable. Each year we set a participation goal for alumni giving. This year, that goal is 18% alumni participation by July 2010. We hope to be half way there by the end of December 31, 2009!

We need 252 alumni to make their gift this holiday season to reach that goal - Be Counted and make your gift today!!

A holiday appeal from IMSA and the IMSA Fund will soon reach you by mail. Please take the time to read it and send in your annual contribution before December 31. You can also visit the IMSA web site, www.imsa.edu/giving, to make a gift on-line and learn more about our giving options.

As an alternate, we have introduced Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) this holiday season! EFT is a secure way to deliver your gifts directly and automatically from your bank to the IMSA Fund. As with online giving, EFT donations allow us to minimize administrative expenses. Visit the web site for details and to sign up!

Have a safe and happy holiday, and thank you for your support!
Jennifer

Hello IMSA Alumni, This year IMSA students working in the Energy Center have finished many details on the mobile Energy House and have shown it to hundreds of students and parents from the Aurora area. Other students are currently working on a large vertical shaft wind turbine/solar panel installation to power lights and low voltage electronics in the main building.

The third group is working on a continuous batch bio-diesel production unit. They are constructing it from a 2.5 gallon hot water heater. Last year the bio-diesel group received their stock oil from Sodexo (IMSA’s food service provider). This year Sodexo is selling their used cooking oil to a company off campus. What we were hoping is that over the holiday season some of you may be deep frying your turkeys. If you do not know what to do with the left over oil please securely bottle it and bring it to IMSA for students to use for their project.

The last request regards expertise you may have (or even passionate interest) in the above mentioned areas. We are using the new Coolhub@IMSA to collaborate with several experts and other interested individuals. Coolhub, although in the “alpha” stage, is very useful for blogging, sharing documents and schematics and video conferencing. If you would like to join one of these projects please send me an email. Have a great holiday season. Branson Lawrence IMSA Science Faculty branson@imsa.edu

“Noises Off!” is a play about a theatrical company that is putting on a poorly written British adult comedy while everything that could possibly go wrong goes wrong. Watch as doors open and close when they shouldn’t and pay close attention to where the sardines happen to be! So come see the mayhem unfold!

Starring:
Nick Reid – Garry/Roger
Katie Funderburg – Dotty/Mrs. Clackett
Nikki Sumaydeng – Brooke/Vicki
Francis Cocjin – Freddie/Philip
Taylor Rusen – Belinda/Flavia
Robbie Dawson – Selsdon/Burglar
Salvador Esparza – Lloyd
Brittney Hanson – Poppy
Joe Davidson – Tim

The event will be in the IMSA Auditorium at 7:00 PM on
Friday November 20th
Saturday November 21st
Monday November 23rd

And it will also be at 2:30 PM
Sunday November 22nd

Prices: $3 for students if purchased at Midday the week before performances or $4 for students at the door.
$5 for adults.
$3 for children.

Tickets to be sold during midday on Tuesday (November 17th), Thursday (November 19th), and Friday (November 20th).

We hope to see you there!

–
Salvador Esparza
Drama Club President
IMSA Class of 2010

Tonight is the night of the largest (and best) student run event of the year: the Diwali Show! The show will start at 7pm.
Please consider watching the show: http://students.imsa.edu/org/sasa . There will be two high quality streams (one up close, and one of the whole stage).

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us back or call us at (630) 999-8753, which directs to all the board members, if it is near the time of the show.

Happy Diwali!
Thanks,
SASA Board

St. Louis Alumni Gathering
Friday, November 6, 2009, 7-9 pm
Bar Italia, 13 Maryland Plaza, St. Louis, MO
Complimentary food and drinks available, RSVP is requested.

More details and RSVP info available on Facebook or Socializr.

Illinois vs. Northwestern Football, Tailgate, and Reception
Saturday, November 14, 2009, Game time: TBA
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Join the IAA to cheer on your favorite team as we gather for tailgating before the game and at a post-game reception.  The IAA is offering a limited number of tickets to the game at a discounted rate of $25 each (face value of $39).  To buy your ticket, contact Carolyn at IMSA at cjohnson@imsa.edu or 630.907.5041 before they sell out!  Tickets are non-refundable and are limited to two per person.

More details, including game time will be announced soon.  Event updates will be posted on Facebook and Socializr.

Carolyn Johnson
IMSA's Coordinator of Alumni Engagement
630.907.5041
cjohnson@imsa.edu