Upcoming Events
Below you will find upcoming events conducted by America’s Urban Campus with its member institutions and other civic and business groups, including World Business Chicago.
Our Past Events
Below you will find summary and images of the events conducted by America’s Urban Campus with its member institutions and other civic and business groups.
2022 Events
2021 Events
ThinkChicago Homecoming 2021
ThinkChicago’s fall flagship event ThinkChicago Homecoming 2021 took place November 4th-6th. Top-tier university students from across Chicago and the country received a behind-the scenes tour of Chicago’s thriving tech and innovation sector in a three-day hybrid immersion event. Read more about the event here!
Chicago Treasurer's Office Virtual Financial Services Career Fair
This fall America’s Urban Campus partnered with the City Treasurer’s Office and other partners for an exciting multi-company virtual job fair that connected job seekers with leading employers in the financial services industry.
ThinkChicago Advanced Degree Exchange Fall 2021
The fall of World Business Chicago’s ThinkChicago flagship event exclusive for advanced degree students and PhD professionals. Participants recieved a behind-the-scenes tour of Chicago’s thriving tech & innovation sector through a hybrid, immersive experience. This flagship event was led by World Business Chicago, Chicago Biomedical Consortium, the University of Illinois System (Technology Entrepreneur Center/TEC, Discovery Partners Institute/DPI, VPEDI), GET Cities, and P33. Click here to learn more!
National Black MBA Association 2021 Conference
The 43rd Annual National Black MBA Association Conference was held September 14-18, 2021, here in Chicago, IL. America’s Urban Campus partnered with NBMBAA to help provide student volunteers for the event. Students were able to choose their own time slot and had networking, workshops, one-on-one interview prep, and professional development opportunities. Student volunteers also had the chance to upload their resumes into a job-seeking portal and attend the conference with a job interview set up. Students did not need to be members of the NBMBAA or enrolled in an MBA program to participate.
ThinkChicago Week 2021
ThinkChicago’s annual summer flagship event for more than 200 selected students (community college, undergraduate, and graduate students) who were interested in launching their careers with innovative Chicago companies/startups. Selected participants, who were majority students of color and representing 40 universities/colleges across 23 states, heard from various keynote speakers, panels, and attended networking sessions to explore the city’s innovation scene. Learn more here!
ThinkChicago Advanced Degree Exchange Spring 2021
ThinkChicago’s first exclusive event for grad students and PhD talent connected top-tier talent with rapidly growing Chicago companies & startups. This three-day, virtual event from June 8-10, 2021 provided a behind-the-scenes tour of Chicago’s thriving tech & innovation sector for nearly 200 top-tier university students and professionals. Selected participants gained access to a series of keynote speakers, panels, and networking sessions with local companies and startups. Learn more here!
2020 Events
ThinkChicago Chicago Idea's Week 2020
October 27-29, 2020, ThinkChicago invited 300 top-tier college students from across the country to take an (ALL VIRTUAL) behind-the-scenes tour of Chicago’s tech ecosystem and access to Chicago Ideas – the city’s leading ideas platform. Chicago Ideas speakers shared their thought leadership on a variety of topics ranging from leadership and life’s lessons to science and technology, to the most pressing issues of the day and the most creative insights in entertainment.
2019 Events
AUC Sciences Career Fair and Symposium
America’s Urban Campus and four co-sponsors held its first joint career fair and symposium for AUC students on October 29, 2019, hosted by the University of Illinois at Chicago. The Career Fair focused on jobs and internships in the hard sciences and social sciences, career areas that individual institutions often have difficulty in attracting large numbers of employers. This pilot event was a great success, attracting 22 employers and 220 undergraduate, graduate students and alumni from 11 AUC members. The employers were impressed both by the quality of the students and the fact that so many universities were represented. During the career fair, AUC organized a symposium featuring six speakers on a range of subjects from career opportunities in water and environment, to opportunities with the federal government to the importance of demonstrating soft skills in the interview process.
CityAge - Build the Future
America’s Urban Campus and DePaul University were both sponsors and supporters of the organizers of “CityAge Chicago: the Future of the American City,” held at the Union League Club on October 24, 2019. Nearly 150 attendees, representing a cross-section of the Chicago design, business, academic and non-profit communities explored many topics related to the development of economic activity, infrastructure and talent in the Chicago of tomorrow. This conference took place at a critical juncture in Chicago’s development history–with a new mayor seeking to provide a balanced strategy to growth in the neighborhoods and the central business district–even as a number of mega-developments begin to take shape just outside the central core of the City. Discussants argued for application of an equity lens to the next generation of development projects in the city. David Baker, Executive Director of America’s Urban Campus participated in the panel: Idea City, discussing the role of Chicago’s universities in generating the diverse talent pool so needed by industry.
Students’ Hackathon by Paypal
The weekend of October 11-12, 2019 nearly 100 students from America’s Urban Campus institutions, plus a few from other schools, participated in an overnight Hackathon organized by PayPal and its affiliates, Braintree and Venmo. The event took place at Braintree’s Merchandise Mart offices.
The Hackathon was specifically designed to attract a diverse and inclusive group of students from across the city, making sure students interested in IT from all our schools felt welcome. AUC helped PayPal market the event through its network of Career Services Offices and contact with student organizations at the schools.
After working all night and into Saturday, the teams presented their solutions to the judges–representatives from PayPal, Braintree and Venmo, many of whom stayed all night to mentor the students. Three winning teams took home cash prizes and commitments from PayPal to their charity of choice. Five additional teams won charitable donations for the strength of a particular aspect of their solution (e.g. impact, creativity, implementation)
On The Table
2018 Events
Campus Meets Community
“In 2018 and 2019, AUC partnered with Illinois Campus Compact, local universities and community organizations in one-day workshops to explore the issues surrounding the collaborations and research projects in Chicago’s neighborhoods. The discussions led to deeper understanding among the parties regarding both the positives and areas needed for improving trust, communications and authentic partnership to support communities, students and faculty working on the projects.”
2017 Events
Forging Partnerships to Stem the Tide of Violence
AUC has run or co-sponsored a number of important events since 2016 to help fulfill its mission. These events range from a one day workshop: Forging Partnerships to Stem the Tide of Violence, to two annual sessions, “Campus Meets Community” with the Illinois Campus Compact
