Educate and Engage

Educate Local

We connect our teacher-candidates with opportunities in diverse settings within our service region. Some visit Chicago's Altus Academy, mentoring and providing academic support to students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

Others visit the Rockford Public Schools to participate in Dynamic Models of Instruction programs. Middle Level Teaching and Learning majors lead team-building experiences for local middle schoolers. Special Education majors travel to Hope D. Wall School in Aurora, a school for children with disabilities.

You can practice your teaching skills close to campus.

You can improve the lives of our neighbors.

Engage Local

DeKalb and the northern Illinois region are brimming with opportunities to apply what our students are learning. Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education (KNPE) students assist at the Chicago Marathon, the Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle, Chicago's NASCAR Street Race and at DeKalb's Oak Crest Retirement Center, where they facilitate an exercise program for residents.

Graduate students in Counseling serve clients at our Community Counseling Training Center while a variety of majors deliver reading support to K-12 students at our Jerry L. Johns Literacy Clinic.

Educate U.S.

We provide real-world learning in classrooms outside Illinois. Candidates work and live alongside mentor teachers to experience the academic climate and home-school-classroom connections.

Our longtime partners in the Houston Independent School District in Texas provide select students with an intensive, week-long classroom experience. Candidates have returned to Texas for student-teaching opportunities, and many of our NIU graduates then were recruited and hired – and some have been honored as teachers of the year.

You can learn and teach outside Illinois.

You can explore some of your industry's top facilities.

Engage U.S.

KNPE students have traveled to Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Tennessee and Wisconsin to experience or assist at the Women's NCAA Basketball Final Four, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the U.S. Olympic Training Center, the Sport Marketing Association Case Study Competition, the Midwest American College of Sports Medicine Quiz Bowl, the Milwaukee Bucks Sports and Entertainment Career Workshop, the Abominable Snow Race, the SHAPE America National Convention, the National Collegiate Sport Sales Competition and more.

Educate Global

Students flew to Indonesia and East Africa, specifically Kenya and Tanzania, to "replace judgment with curiosity."

They visited amazing schools, all thriving with great amenities or steep challenges, while engaging in reflection, discovering self-assurance, demonstrating resilience and gaining motivation. Their work to teach English included guiding students in journaling to describe childhood experiences, daily lives and aspirations for adulthood. One alumna returned so energized that she successfully applied to become a Fulbright Luxembourg English Teaching Assistant.

You can teach English on the other side of the world.

You can travel the world to learn from other cultures.

Engage Global

KNPE students traveled to Tanzania to promote gender empowerment and social change through sport. Others have flown to Belize to train sports coordinators from throughout the country.

Sport Management students went Down Under, where they toured Australian professional sport organizations, local sport clubs, universities, a UNESCO facility, an active living program and fitness classes. They also attended presentations to learn more about their host country, including race and ethnicity in its sports and sport governance.