University of Illinois Laboratory High School

Century Celebration $4M “Mini-Campaign” Success!

Thanks to our generous community, this brief campaign intended to finish the With Illinois campaign strong, and also honor the school’s milestone birthday, raised $5,008,823. -exceeding our $4M goal. Because of this support, we are able to continue building funds and initiatives related to equity, facility enhancement and innovation in learning and the student experience. What a great way to kick off Uni High’s next 100 years of excellence!

Truly special places inspire new ideas. But most of them only exist for a brief moment. The Best ones last for Centuries.

Uni High Class of the Century

A committee of alumni laboriously sifted through thousands of Uni alums as well as nominees collected over the past year to name the Class of the Century for Uni High. The committee eventually decided on the following categories for the honorees: Arts, Athletics, Activism & Philanthropy, Education, Global Alumni, Law & Public Service, Media, Science, Technology & Engineering, Uni High Faculty and Women Pioneers.

We are proud of all our alumni and realize we could expand this list easily, but as a start we would like to congratulate the Class of the Century. The 100 Uni Alums who were chosen for their work either while at Uni or since graduation can be viewed here.

Uni Design Lab “Jump Starter” made possible through the Frankel fund

Uni High has a mission to create and share innovative educational advancements. This opportunity to partner with the School of Art and Design at Siebel Center for Design is the latest in the continuing project to advance design education in secondary schools.

The Frankel Fund was created to “leverage the laboratory mission and connect teachers and students to the U of I and the greater community”. The focus of the collaborations is new technologies, emerging and leading-edge fields of study, and financial education.

“Jumpstarter” is a new iteration of the design education work that has been created by the collaboration between University Laboratory High School and Professor Cliff Shin of the Industrial Design Program at the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois. It challenges high school students to create a project from conception, (utilizing human centered design thinking process), through iteration and production, to marketing.

Uni High Pathbreakers program

Uni High Pathbreakers is a collaboration between University High School and the College of Education, which aims to ensure the success and sense of belonging of incoming Uni students from underrepresented backgrounds.

It provides opportunities for additional engagement and support for students, especially from underrepresented racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups and underrepresented schools/districts, during their sub-freshman year at Uni.

The program increases student confidence as they transition to Uni and facilitates the early formation of social connections to the school (to peers, older student mentors, and teachers) that will help them thrive throughout their five years at Uni. Uni High Pathbreakers has been made possible through The Chancellor’s Call to Action to Address Racism & Social Injustice research grant and the meaningful generosity of our Uni High Community.

Uni High Language and Math recognition 2023

Latin: Every year about 120,000 Latin students across the country take the National Latin Exam. This year 24 Uni High Latin students received a Gold, top 10% in nation, and 6 Latin students received a Silver, top 20% in nation. Uni also had four Perfect Scores!

French: This year, across elementary through high school levels, 43,752 students participated nationally in the National French Contest. This year, 10 Uni High French students received a Gold (95th percentile and above), 9 Uni High French students received a Silver (85th through 95th percentile), and 10 Uni High French students received Bronze (75th through 84th percentile).

Japanese: The National Japanese Exam serves as a diagnostic assessment of Japanese language skills including reading, listening, grammar, vocabulary, and cultural knowledge. The National Japanese Exam was available for Level 1, 2 and 3 Japanese students only. This year, 3 Uni High Japanese students received a Silver, 8 Uni High Japanese students received a Bronze. In addition, several teams of students from Japanese classes competed in the Illinois Japan Bowl and one team advanced to Nationals and was able to participate at the national level in Washington D.C. in April.

German: The American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) administers the yearly National German Exam to over 20,000 high school students of German. Students who score in the 90th percentile nationally obtain a gold medal. This year Uni High acknowledges the hard work of our 4 Bronze, 14 Silver, and 14 Gold medalists.

Spanish: Over 160,000 students in the country participated in the 2023 National Spanish Examination. Compliments to all Uni High Spanish students who participated this year, among whom 5 received gold, 5 received silver, 13 received bronze, and 20 received honor. Uni High also had 5 gold medal winners who attained national recognition for excellent performance on the 2023 National Spanish Examination.

ICTM: At Regionals, our team earned 1st overall and 1st for each team event and each individual event; a sweep! At State, our team earned 5th place overall, one Uni High student earning 1st place in the individual geometry competition.

The math department is proud of all the students who participated in the ICTM (Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics), American Mathematics Competitions, MathCounts, Purple Comet, and Math League Competitions. In addition, we commend the students who participated in a math research program with the Illinois Geometry Lab in June 2022, funded from the Frankel gift to Uni High.