Elevate Your Future
Through Armour Academy
Our unique Armour Academy for Experiential Learning and Student Success combines the guaranteed access to real-world experiences of Illinois Tech’s one-of-a-kind Elevate program with personalized guidance from engineering industry mentors.
We offer a world-class engineering education intentionally designed for your personal success. Whether you know exactly which area of engineering you’d like to explore, or if you are undecided, expert guidance from industry mentors will help you find the right path for you.
Hear Dean Kenneth T. Christensen explain why the Armour Academy and industry mentors help our engineering students find the best pathway to their success.
Industry Mentor
From day one at Armour, you will be paired with a professional engineer who will serve as your mentor throughout your time at Illinois Tech. They will be available to help you figure out your engineering path and goals. They’ll also connect you with the range of opportunities available to you through Elevate and other Illinois Tech programs that will contribute to your future job success.
And your Armour Academy industry mentor will work with you to create a holistic, individualized academic and career plan that will help you embark on the right engineering career path for you.
Guaranteed Access to Experiences Through Elevate
Through our one-of-a-kind Elevate Your Future program, Illinois Tech guarantees all students will have access to hands-on experiences that make for a truly distinctive and personalized education.
Armour students engage in internships, leadership training, research, competitions, and more. These experiences will empower you with the industry-ready skills to be successful, regardless of your career path.
Personalized Plan
Armour Academy offers an individualized approach, which recognizes that all students enter college at different starting points and with different goals in mind. Armour Academy mentors will work with you to identify your goals and design a path to achieve them.
This plan is holistic, helping you determine not just your academic path but also how you want your experiences outside the classroom to shape your overall success. And your mentor will be with you every step of the way.
We want to ensure you get the most out of the Illinois Tech experience, whether you arrive with specific goals in mind or are still exploring the engineering field. We also want to help you understand the breadth of opportunities an engineering degree can prepare you for, both in and out of the engineering industry.
Meet Our Team
Melanie Jones
Armour Academy Professional Advisor
Departments: Biomedical Engineering, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Gabe Martinez-Rekitzke
Armour Academy Professional Advisor
Departments: Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering; Mechanical, Materials, and Aerospace Engineering
Armour College creates exceptional engineers by defining a broad set of characteristics that encompass next-generation engineering skills.
An Armour education strengthens their minds, developing their technical excellence, intellectual dexterity, and a data-informed mindset, which ensures they have the acumen and flexibility to reach the top of the field and remain there as the industry changes.
An Armour education strengthens their hearts and entrepreneurial mindset and prioritizes their skills as inclusive practitioners with strong guiding principles, thereby allowing Armour graduates to break new ground and ignite change to improve the industry and society at large.
These characteristics combine to maximize the impact of the Armour Engineer, who graduates with industry readiness, learned resourcefulness, and the skills to become a purpose-driven leader.