ILSTU Technology Student Ambassadors

RSO Feature of the Month! Construction Management Student Association (CMSA). They even won 1st place for the RSO Parade Award for their amazing float this past weekend for Homecoming 2021!

*RESCHEDULED for Oct 2nd*

We are hosting our first tailgate party this Saturday, Sept 4th at 1-3 pm! We are so excited to see everyone there as we celebrate the first football game of the semester! Come out and join us!

Welcome back to Wisdom Wednesday! Have we got some wisdom for your brains today from our SRE ambassador coordinator!

What is your name and major(s) taught?
My name is Matt Aldeman, and I teach in the Sustainable & Renewable Energy and Engineering Technology programs.

What advice do you have for students to be successful?
So this is advice for current students, right? In that case, I think I have two main pieces of advice for students to be successful. The first is to get involved in activities and groups. They serve several purposes: they help you get to know other students in your area, which is beneficial socially and can also help because you can ask them course-related questions. They also tend to result in team projects, which are great for talking about in future job interviews and resumes (doing well in classes is great, but it’s often the stuff outside of classes that is really the most beneficial). They also help you interact with faculty outside of class time. My second piece of advice is to make an effort to get to know your instructors. Ask questions in class, go to their office hours, email them, ask them for advice, etc. We like to interact with students, so it’s not a bother when students come to us.

Hello and welcome to another week here at ILSTU! This Major Monday we are featuring Technology and Engineering Education (TEE)!

What is your major all about?
Technology and Engineering Education is all about teaching future educators the basics of all of the other technology majors so one day they can go and teach in middle and high schools. Students take classes from the Computer Systems Technology, Construction Management, Engineering Technology, and Graphic Communications Technology to equip them with knowledge from each area and a few classes to explore what topics interest them most, usually what they want to teach in the future. In addition, students are prepared to teach with the great teaching classes from the College of Education.

Does your Major have any affiliated RSO's?
Our affiliated RSO is TEECA, Technology and Engineering Education Collegiate Association. TEECA works to share and better resources for technology and engineering education. It also helps organize and run STEM based competitions for students ranging from elementary school to high school.

What are some job opportunities in your major?
The demand for technology and engineering teachers has never been higher in Illinois or across the United States. Most Technology and Engineering Education majors secure teaching positions before graduation. Our overall job placement rate is nearly 100 percent. The majority of our graduates go into teaching right after graduating. Topics they are licensed to teach in are computer aided design, woodshop, automotives, graphic communications, construction, and manufacturing. Most students who do go into shop and automotive usually supplement the courses at ISU with automotive classes at Heartland Community College.

Is there anything new you would like to highlight about your major?
This coming Spring 2022 class has that largest student teaching class in over ten years!

That's awesome to hear! We are lucky to have such an amazing opportunity to train some of our favorite teachers growing up! We all have that one tech teacher that inspired us to follow this technology career we have chosen, we are happy TEE is an option for our students!