Information for the Media
The Chicago Pre-College Science & Engineering Program (ChiS&E) is a national leader in K-12 STEM education. The multi-year program is rigorous but friendly. ChiS&E emphasizes algebra and other mathematics to prepare students and their parents to thrive at top universities and research centers.
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Expert Interviews
Kenneth Hill, ChiS&E’s frounder, president and CEO, is a subject matter expert on secondary school STEM education and on using a family-centered approach that prepares students to excel at leading universities.
ChiS&E By the Numbers
ChiS&E in the News
2008: Year of founding
3,972 students served since its founding
200% year-over-year enrollment growth from 2000 to 2024
80% of students go on to pursue a STEM major in college
100% college acceptance rate since its founding
The Engines of Change: Chicago Program Puts Young Minds on Fast Track to STEM Chicago Tribune, April 29, 2025
Two ChiS&E alumni, Angelise Bunton, a pre-med major at Spelman College, and Kenneth Burnett, a nuclear engineering major at the University of Illinois, describe the program’s impact on their lives during an interview with WBBM Radio in February 2025. Also on the segment is Jeffrey Johnson, ChiS&E’s Summer Program Coordinator.
ChiS&E in Brief
Founded in 2008, the Chicago Pre-College Science and Engineering Program (ChiS&E) is a national leader in K through 12 STEM education.
Classes meet Saturdays during the school year and week days for 4 weeks during summers in select Chicago schools.
What sets it apart from other extracurricular programs is its multiyear math focus with hands-on learning and analysis, its parent-as-coach teaching model and its partnerships with universities and laboratories that has led to students attending Yale, Purdue, Howard, University of Illinois, Spelman and other top schools.
With the program’s building block approach, kindergartners learn algebra concepts, and by 12th grade they’ve studied physics and calculus. Students become inventors and experience the wow of designing bridges, creating products, programming computers and learning from actual scientists and researchers.
ChiS&E’s partners provide instructors, research labs and are role models for students, especially important for those underrepresented in STEM. Partners include the University of Illinois, the University of Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory, Fermilab and Chicago schoolteachers and principals.
“ChiS&E really gives you the footing to take off. They’re putting the fuel in the rocket ship, and I’m the rocket ship. ChiS&E brought me my first exposure to college campuses. It’s a big reason I’m even at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign now. Every year we came here for a program called Engineering Open House. We walked around the campus and all the engineering programs were showing off projects they’d been working on and really encouraged you.
In showing me that, ChiS&E really opened my eyes to the possibility of engineering. And I know that I would not be where I am if it wasn’t for ChiS&E. So I would tell those parents that ChiS&E opens the door for your children to succeed. And all it takes is for you to take your child to one program, three days a week in the summer or one Saturday during the school year. It really, truly can change their children’s lives.
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A Closer Look at ChiS&E’s Advantages
The Chicago Pre-College Science and Engineering Program (ChiS&E) focuses on math, scientific analysis and hands-on learning. In this program, students do more than perform basic experiments. At a young age, students become comfortable with algebra, geometry, physics, computer programming and calculus. Those are the building blocks students use in class to design bridges and create inventions.
ChiS&E parents are full partners, even if they know little initially about STEM. The program succeeds because ChiS&E values parents’ role as their child’s lifelong teacher and counselor. ChiS&E parents don’t just drop off their kids. They’re in the classroom, learning right alongside their child in the primary grades as study partners. And with ChiS&E’s college-planning support, parents of juniors and seniors learn how to answer, “What’s the right college for my child, and how do we apply?”
ChiS&E is a 360-degree training ground for the next generation of innovators. Students rise above grade level, thanks to ChiS&E’s deep relationships with research universities, scientific laboratories and Chicago school teachers and principals. College students and professors share their knowledge and love of science and engineering with ChiS&E students. . Scientists and researchers listen to and talk with students about how they work toward finding solutions. Students become master presenters of their work and themselves.