May is Mental Health Awareness Month, a reminder that prioritizing our wellbeing is a year-round practice. 💚
Across the University of Illinois System, students, faculty, and staff have access to free and low-cost mental health support at every campus — including counseling, peer communities, and crisis resources.
This month, take a moment to check in with yourself and with those around you. See the linkin the first comment below for even more help.
Anytime crisis support is just a call or text away. Contact 988 to speak with a skilled counselor.
Happy International Nursing Day! Across the University of Illinois System, nursing students balance rigorous coursework with hands-on patient care — and when it's over, they celebrate in a way that's anything but conventional.
For more than 40 years, graduating BSN students have marked the end of their undergraduate journey with a pool jump. What began at the University of Illinois Chicago has since spread to our campuses in Urbana-Champaign and Springfield, growing into an exciting student-led tradition passed down through each graduating class.
Though its exact origins remain a mystery, the jump signifies a chance to wash away the stress of finals season and celebrate the transition into life as a practicing nurse. While students in the 1980s jumped in wearing swimsuits and nursing aprons, today, students take the plunge in their scrubs.
Congratulations to all our graduating nurses! 🎓🌊
Last week in Rome, the University of Illinois System joined government officials, NGO leaders, youth innovators, and the chief creative officers of @ferrari and @astonmartin for the European Innovation for Sustainability (@eiis.eu ) Summit. The cross-sector mix was rare, and the conversations reflected it.
President Tim Killeen delivered the inaugural keynote, centered on an urgent challenge: accelerate the work to build a more "thrivable" world. Important to this work is the convergence of progress across health, socioeconomic, and environmental conditions that together allow people and communities to thrive. This approach, articulated as one of the University of Illinois System's core pillars, is well underway at the System, where our three universities are partnering with government, industry, and civic partners to drive meaningful change.
Other key themes also defined the week:
Progress moves at the speed of trust. Trust is what sustains partnerships and enables long-term solutions.
Young people need hope, not just preparation. Universities have a responsibility to help students believe a better future can still be built.
Art and the humanities belong at the center of sustainability. Artists translated the keynote into a live visual display as it unfolded, a reminder that creativity is inseparable from the work ahead.
The path forward is clear. Three priorities will define it: harnessing new technologies, shifting from planning to doing, and inspiring the next generation to believe progress is possible.
Today, we celebrate the mothers who balance more than most people see.
The ones who show up fully — for their work, their students, their research, their colleagues — and then go home and show up again.
What you carry, and what you give, moves us all forward.
For real stories that inspire, uplift, and endure, read more:
🌺https://ow.ly/v5q050YWEoo
🌼https://ow.ly/8z8Q50YWEom
🌷https://ow.ly/uvOc50YWEol
An advocacy-packed April saw our system making impacts both in Washington, D.C. and across the state of Illinois. Use the links in the first comment to catch up on the news with Stay Connected, and subscribe to get it in your inbox every month.
Earth Day’s theme this year is Our Power, Our Planet. We didn’t name it, but it fits. Across the University of Illinois System, researchers, educators, and students are powering work to preserve our planet.
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is developing the world’s first microreactor on a university campus — advancing clean energy research and the system’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. https://ow.ly/zsxh50YNGtU
University of Illinois Chicago engineers have developed a plant-based bioplastic that biodegrades in about a month — a sustainable alternative to conventional plastic bags, which can take hundreds of years to decompose. https://ow.ly/b82v50YNGu5
A University of Illinois Springfield researcher is using a National Science Foundation grant to study how often-overlooked urban water systems affect ecosystems, extreme heat, and public health across U.S. cities. https://ow.ly/X8V150YNGtS
The Illinois Innovation Network powers sustainability work across Illinois — through EnergySense, which delivers energy efficiency solutions, and Sustaining Illinois seed grants that collaborative research at the state’s public universities. https://ow.ly/KQ6a50YNGu4
Each year, @gradcollegeillinois showcases the creativity and intellectual diversity of their students with its Image of Research competition. These awe-inspiring pictures show aspects of research that are most important to the students.
See this year's winners and the full gallery at the links in the first comment 👇
Last week, the University of Illinois System sent a delegation to Washington, D.C. to meet with our federal legislators and advocate for our education, research, health, and economic development missions. 🏛️
We're grateful for their time, attention, and continued support of the system's initiatives.
Not all generations learned the importance of exercise. It’s a big part of this recent University of Illinois Springfield graduate’s life. Jadyn Zafirri uses her degree to help patients get healthier doing cardiac rehabilitation and stay active after their sessions end. 🏃♀️💓
Read more about Jadyn's work at the link in the first comment.
Nutrition sciences major Brianna Guerrier came to the University of Illinois Chicago as a transfer student — and found more than she was looking for.
Since joining the Student Leadership and Civic Engagement Association and holding active membership in a selection of clubs, she has been nominated twice for the Chancellor’s Student Service and Leadership Award, which recognizes outstanding student engagement across Chicagoland.
“She’s probably in the top 5% of students I’ve seen in over 20 years that have really sought out opportunities, not just in nutrition, but in the university community and surrounding areas,” said Kirsten Straughan, clinical assistant professor and director of UIC’s Nutrition Sciences undergraduate program.
Read more about how @thisisUIC makes it possible for Brianna to seamlessly combine her passions for advocacy, volunteerism, and nutrition at the link in the first comment.
The University of Illinois System doesn’t just study public health — we practice it.
From applying millions of dollars toward health research, opening access to healthcare for more residents, and investing in improving the entire food chain, the U of I System's commitment to health and well-being has never been stronger.
Learn more about our commitment at the link in the first comment. 💪
Illinois educates them. And Illinois keeps them.
74% of University of Illinois System graduates stay in-state to build their lives, careers, and communities — not by default, but because Illinois gives them every reason to. The jobs are here. The networks are here. The opportunity is here.
When talent stays, communities grow, economies compound, and the state’s future gets built by the very people trained to build it. That’s not just education. That’s a return on investment that spans generations.
Read more in our 2025 Annual Report, at the link in our profile.
