Lindblom Math and Science Academy students sat in a semicircle with some of the University of Illinois System’s top officials, notebooks in front of them and pens in hand. The goal: a discussion in which the university establishment listened as prospective pupils asked questions and shared their ideas for improving the path to higher education.
Englewood-based Lindblom served as the launch of the University of Illinois System’s annual tour Tuesday, giving students, parents and school faculty members face time with leadership from all three campuses — including Tim Killeen, who helms the U. of I. system.
This marks the sixth year of the “Invested in Illinois State Tour,” which aims to help leadership at all three of the system’s campuses — Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield — deepen connections to stakeholders by traveling around the state to businesses, community colleges, high schools and other locations, to listen to people’s needs and priorities when it comes to the college application process and higher education accessibility.
Inside Lindblom, university leaders playfully lobbied on behalf of their campuses to a group of more than a dozen participants, who fired inquiries back about courses, postgraduation job success rates, campus accessibility and culture, and more.
More Top Picks Best Travel Drones
While questions spanned from campus disability services to how racism is handled, concerns were met with reassurance from university officials with promises of advisers, academic support programming and mental health resources.
Lindblom senior Alexia Banks asked leadership at the meeting how those on campus balance academic work and social life. The meeting helped make the university’s processes feel more transparent, Banks said, making the decision of choosing where to apply to and attend college a bit easier.
“Having people who really know the school be able to answer these questions, and then give their information out to parents and students to be a resource for when it does come time to apply to colleges — because that time is now — it just makes them so much more accessible and the ability to apply to college so much more accessible,” Banks said.
Born and raised in Chicago, Banks said she wants college to offer her a new lifestyle than she had growing up. That desire is driving the colleges she’s considering, including leaning toward going out of state for higher education.
“I would want it to feel like a different experience, and if they were able to offer me that while also making it affordable and having the major and minors that I would like and the clubs that I would be interested in, that would push me towards going to these specific schools,” Banks said. “At the end of the day, I really just want to find a fit for me and where I feel like I belong. And if it does happen to be in Illinois, it happens to be in Illinois.”
The tour kicks off at a high point for the University of Illinois System, which has seen a boost in undergraduate enrollment this fall. Earlier this month, University of Illinois Chicago touted its highest enrollment numbers in the school’s history for the second consecutive year, with over 37,000 students for the fall 2026 semester, while the U. of I. Urbana-Champaign enrollment eclipsed 61,000 for the first time. The Springfield campus also saw a bump in first-year enrollment, though overall enrollment there dipped by 8%.
The tour’s purpose is mutually beneficial, U. of I.’s Killeen told the Tribune after Tuesday’s meeting. Students and parents can engage with university officials, learn more about the state’s public universities and ask questions, while university leaders can try to recruit Illinois’ best students, he said. Overall, the U. of I. system is seeing strong demand from college-ready students that it wants to stimulate and encourage, he added.
“Too many students are leaving Illinois who are college-ready, and often they don’t come back, so it’s a net loss of talent,” Killeen said. “We’re going after them sort of assertively, I would say, to make sure that they know that there are options that are suitable for them in their career paths and trajectories.”
For Killeen, who is embarking on his last tour before stepping down from the presidency role next summer as his contract ends, the event has offered insight into what families are looking for as they shop for schools.
“I think there’s always a need for more communication, more insight into this transition in the journey of education at large, and so when we come to places like this, we learn a lot,” Killeen said. “It’s better to actually interact with people who are thinking through these transitions in ways that can sort of enrich the whole discussion of the technologies that we can use, the software systems that are available, the onboarding aspect when students arrive on campus.”
For Lindblom’s Principal Starlet Banks (no relation), that educational journey did happen to be in Illinois. Banks grew up in Chicago and attended Whitney M. Young Magnet High School before choosing to attend U. of I. The tour, in her view, is useful for parents, who typically play a major role in supporting their children’s postsecondary education and also need opportunities to learn about the process.
More Top Picks Snapper Xd 82v
“The parents have to have that information to be able to help their students have an informed conversation,” Banks said, adding that typically college representatives and high school leaders partner to “kind of bookend students” during their college applications process.
“We’ll give you some information (and) we want to also give your parent information so that you all can make a decision that makes the most sense for the entire household,” she said.
Students need earlier access and exposure to college offerings in Illinois to better shape their futures, as early as seventh and eighth grade, Starlet Banks told university leaders during the meeting, adding that it empowers students to make a well-rounded decision about their futures after high school.
“Our students need that access to envision what their possibilities are, and so if you have a very limited scope of what you could do or what you could be as you get older … but the more access you have to opportunities, the more options you can consider, and then make an informed choice,” Banks said.