New Chicago Campus to Focus on Workforce Development, Job Readiness

Work is moving forward on Dominican University’s Chicago Campus in Pilsen, which is scheduled to welcome its first cohort of associate degree students this August.

Workforce development and job readiness are at the heart of this new pathway with concentrations in high-demand fields of cybersecurity, certified nursing assistant, legal studies, and translation and interpretation embedded in the curriculum of the new liberal arts associate degree program.

“The two-year curriculum to be offered at the Chicago Campus is a carefully selected group of pre-existing courses already in implementation at the River Forest campus,” explained professor Dr. Gema Ortega. “We will create an environment of Caritas and Veritas in which students will have the space to grow as they join today’s workforce or transfer to River Forest to continue their studies after completing their associate degree.”

Using the “city as a campus,” students will have opportunities for hands- on learning and professional networking outside the classroom in the greater community. Partnerships with industries and organizations throughout the city will allow students to explore key subject matter in their courses in an immersive way.

In addition to an associate degree, the Chicago Campus will offer credit and non-credit workforce development certificates, adult degree completion programs and select graduate programs.

The new campus harkens back to the turn of the 20th century when the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters moved their college from Wisconsin to River Forest, leaders say.

“The history of who we are has always involved serving and providing educational access to historically marginalized communities,” said Dr. Barrington Price, chief executive officer of the Chicago Campus. “To me, this is the present-day way of doing that. We’re not moving out of the state, but we are moving into the city of Chicago to serve a population who are marginalized in terms of opportunities that can create mobility.”