Illinois Tech is committed to empowering students to make a successful transition from high school to college by providing a framework through which each student is able to find their support network within the Illinois Tech community, to maximize the use of all resources the university has to offer, to develop a deeper sense of self-awareness and self-efficacy in order to make highly impactful life decisions, and to create a highly individualized plan to realize their desired college experience.
Using a combination of individual and group meetings, First-Year Experience (FYE) mentors will introduce and discuss topics that are relevant to new students during both their first year of college and throughout their academic tenure at Illinois Tech.
First-Year Seminar
During each student’s first year, they will participate in one group seminar to learn more about important campus success tools. Such as:
- Suitable—our mobile student engagement platform
- The Individualized College Plan
- The College Blueprint tool
First-Year Mentors
Mentors will facilitate events for the first year. In addition, student mentors will facilitate a small discussion group for peer networking across majors and interpersonal skill building. In addition, these student mentors will check in with each of their first-year mentees throughout the year to address any questions and to provide guidance for students to aid in knowledge gaps about the Illinois Tech campus as well as help students build more awareness about their needs as new college students.