SSouthland College Prep only suburban high school on U of I System statewide leadership tour

Southland College Prep only suburban high school on U of I System statewide leadership tour 

RICHTON PARK, Ill. — University of Illinois System President Timothy L. Killeen and the chancellors of all three U of I universities will visit Southland College Prep Charter High School Wednesday, September 23, as the only suburban high school selected for the 2026 Invested in Illinois State Tour.

Southland is one of only four high schools among 12 stops during the four-day statewide tour. The other Chicago-area high school stop is Lindblom Math and Science Academy in Chicago, with the remaining high school visits downstate.

Southland College Prep has earned Exemplary designation from the Illinois State Board of Education, the state’s highest recognition, in six of the past seven years, placing it among the top 10 percent of schools statewide.


Killeen will be joined at Southland by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Charles Isbell, University of Illinois Chicago Chancellor Marie Lynn Miranda and University of Illinois Springfield Chancellor Janet Gooch. They will be part of a delegation of nearly 25 U of I System leaders and staff spending two and a half hours at Southland meeting with students, staff and administrators, touring the school and discussing opportunities for future partnerships.

“It is an honor to have the leadership of the University of Illinois System visit Southland during this year’s State Tour,” said Southland CEO Dr. Blondean Y. Davis. “Having the president and chancellors of our state’s premier public university system come to Southland to listen to our students and explore ways that we can work together is an extraordinary opportunity.”

The annual State Tour was the brainchild of Killeen, who launched the initiative in 2021 to bring U of I System leadership into communities across Illinois to strengthen existing partnerships, forge new relationships and hear directly from the people and communities the System serves.

Killeen, who became the 20th president of the U of I System in 2015, has announced that he will step down June 30, 2027, at the conclusion of his current contract.

The 2026 tour, themed Invested in Illinois, is designed to demonstrate the U of I System’s investment in communities throughout the state and identify opportunities to build and strengthen relationships in education, economic development and other areas.

“One of the great joys of this tour is traveling the state, seeing its beauty and witnessing the talent and ambition of Illinois students shine in communities as varied as the state itself,” said Deneen Gillespie, Assistant Vice President, Strategic Communications and Marketing of External Relations and Communications for the University of Illinois System. “The president and our chancellors come with a clear mission of informing students and their families in communities across Illinois that there is not only a place for them at one of our three universities, but a clear pathway to get there and a commitment to keeping it affordable.”


The visit builds upon an existing relationship between Southland and the University of Illinois System. Southland freshmen visit the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus each year and approximately 80 Southland graduates currently attend the System’s three universities in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield, according to Robert Lane, Southland’s Director of College Admissions and Alumni Affairs. Lane estimates that close to 200 Southland alumni have graduated from the U of I System.

“Our students’ relationship with the University of Illinois begins well before their senior year,” Lane said. “Our annual freshman visit to Urbana-Champaign allows them to experience a major university campus early in high school and begin imagining themselves there.”

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