x Foreword Each day I drive about twenty-five miles to go to the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA). It’s where we spend time nurturing and igniting interest for high school aged students around the state interested in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). While those disciplines are an attractor, the academic environment stimulates curiosity and a sense of investigation in all subject areas. It’s not the type of school most people experience. Sure, we have classes, but the nature of learning is not about knowing the same knowledge, but rather an approach to thinking, exploration and creation so that students can lead their learning of different things. Students do projects within and outside of classes, and the school schedule is structured to support both pathways. IMSA is not just a school, but also a second home to almost all of us. The students reside there which is quite unusual for a public school. We offer an experience uniquely different from high schools throughout the state, providing an invaluable resource to communities that can’t create specialized curriculum for uniquely capable and motivated students in STEM. The students stay overnight, and their residential life experience engages them in socio-emotional and leadership development, not to mention learning how to do some essentials like laundry, shopping, and service in the community. When I am on my drive to IMSA, and when students go on trips off campus, we cross a bridge over the Fox River. I’ve crossed that bridge countless times. In fact, if I take a different route to school, I cross another bridge over that same river. You can drive five miles to downtown Aurora and cross even a larger bridge, along with a lot of businesses and community activity along the perimeter. You begin to realize the Fox River is important to our community, and then when you
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