Morton College and Illinois Institute of Technology

Over the past year, Morton College and IIT have significantly enhanced our relationship. In Spring 2009, Ms. Luvia Valentin, Retention and Transfer Coordinator — Title V Department, and Ms. Marlena Avalos-Thompson, Coordinator of Cohort Programming — Academic Advising Center, at Morton College initiated a series of conversations about how the two insititutions might more proactively work to develop and improve the pipeline of students from the community to Morton College and then on to Illinois Institute of Technology. Throughout these conversations, we have moved significantly forward in extending relationships among a variety of offices including financial aid, admission, international student centers, and minority student affairs as well as academic units.
The development of a comprehensive recruitment and transition program will allow Morton College to identify highly qualified students for transfer to IIT. This partnership will allow IIT to enhance its orientation and academic advising programs for these students, ensuring the highest level of success.
Our goal is to develop a unique partnership among our institutions which will serve as a model program for other urban community colleges and universities; a partnership which provides a strong and confident message to secondary school students, resuming students, international students, immigrant students and undocumented students that there are strong, vibrant and developed pathway programs to support an individual's goals and aspirations.
Our goal is to develop an institutional partnership built on the foundation of a community of strong professional and personal commitments by the staff and faculty at each institution.
At IIT, the Office of Undergraduate Admission is committed to partnering with Ms. Valentin — on a number of initiatives, including but not limited to:
- A series of one-stop admission and review sessions at Morton College
- A Morton College day at IIT's two annual IPRO days on campus in Fall 2009 and Spring 2010
- A reserved number of Undergraduate Research Summer Scholarships with a $5,000 stipend for Morton College students
- Merit-scholarships of up to $12,000 per year for Morton College students
- Phi Theta Kappa Scholarships of $5,000 per year for Morton College students who are members of PTK
- An annual symposium of Illinois community colleges, including the City Colleges and IIT to explore further initiatives to enhance our relationship

A final note: At IIT, we very much value the contributions that the Morton College faculty and staff make in the education of their students who matriculate at IIT. Morton College students have successfully matriculated after completing their Associates degree or after completing a semester or two at Morton College. Each of these students in their essays mentions the specific role that Morton College has provided in their transition to IIT.

For additional details about the transfer admission process, please contact Mr. Ryan Nelson, Assistant Director and Coordinator of Transfer Admission at nelsonr@iit.edu. Mr. Nelson is able to answer questons from domestic and international transfer students.

For information on the transfer process to IIT, visit our Transfer Students page.