University of Notre Dame LearnChicago! Program
This Fall, 13 students from the University of Notre Dame Multicultural Center spent a week with Chicago Center. From their first day of a Gospel Mass, Greek Lunch and Live Jazz, to learning CTA, visiting the American Indian Center, seeing amazing plays and touring Chicago neighborhoods, we gave them what one student called “one of the best weekends of my life!”
The students made a video of their experiences in the city. You can view the video here: Diverse City
Comments from some of the participating students:
“I feel I am much more knowledgeable about the ‘real’ Chicago. Only having visited Michigan Avenue, I never realized the city was so rich culturally. If I ever decide to go back to Chicago, it won’t be to go shopping, it will be to eat a great meal at the Nile Restaurant and catch some spoken word at Cafe Nine 17.”
“People fear the unknown. Before this seminar, I didn’t know a thing about Chicago’s neighborhoods. I would not have felt comfortable landing just anywhere in the city and knowing how to handle myself. After a week riding trains and buses to every part of the city, I almost felt at home. What I learned in Chicago wasn’t something you could draw on a map, point to in a statistic, or even cite in a paper. I learned about other people and that they are not so different from you and me.”
“Anyone can benefit from this program, because no matter how much you think you know about race, culture, or socioeconomic issues, the people themselves are the most important. By visiting Chicago, you step out of the text book, away from the statistics, and into the lives of real people.”
“The city is much larger, more complicated, more vibrant and with far more struggles & challenges than I imagined before….Analyzing is good, but I need to remind myself that there is reality behind it. I had assumptions about the way things work, which are wrong. I also realized that I CAN fit into a city.”