Archive for the ‘Student Highlights’ Category
July 13th, 2010
This week’s edition of the Hyde Park Herald showcased Chicago Center’s new student housing. Click the image to check out the article “Chicago Center raising digs dough” on the Hyde Park Herald Website, or read the article below!
Chicago Center raising digs dough
By DASCHELL M. PHILLIPS
Staff Writer
The Chicago Center has begun fundraising for its new Hyde Park student building.
The Chicago Center, which is a Hyde Park-based non-profit organization at 1515 E. 52nd Pl., offers programs that expose college students to city living and world cultures. The center has cooperative agreements with about 40 colleges to act as a host to students who want to study any subject in an urban area.
The center’s newly purchased student housing, which is located on the 1600 block of Hyde Park Boulevard near Kenwood Avenue, is a three-flat with five bedrooms on each floor, which has 3,300 square feet. Each floor can house up to eight students so the building can hold up to 30 students total. The property also has a garden level where a study, recreation and laundry room will be added
Each residential floor is named after the center’s principal founders Don and Unice Shatz, Phyllis Cunningham and Jim Bertucci. The center is planning to make plaques with the founder’s names for each floor.
Scott Chesebro, executive director of the program, said the center once owned a building at 5004 S. Blackstone Ave., but sold it in 1992 “because it was too small for the program’s purposes.”
Although the program went on to rent several apartment units in the neighborhood, Chesebro said that they always intended to purchase another housing unit, so when the center’s real estate agent called to tell them about the property, which once served as housing for students of the Zavarian religious order, they moved quickly, purchasing the property on Dec. 21, 2009, and moving in on Jan. 5, 2010.
“This building represents more than a building – it’s how our students relate to one another and community,” said Althea Conyers, marketing and public relations director at the center. “The students will learn what it means to live as a community.”
Chesebro said with all the students living in one building they won’t feel isolated and the center will have an easier time dealing with issues of safety and maintenance.
“Since most of the students come from rural areas their colleges and parents will feel better knowing they are together in a central place,” Chesebro said.
Conyers said weekly student staff meetings and other workshops also help students feel secure and gain confidence in their areas of study.
Kevin Renderman, who completed his urban teaching practicum at Kenwood Academy in April, was a part of the first group of students to live in the new student housing property. He said he enjoyed the level of support he received. He was especially grateful for the education seminars and other professional and lifestyle support classes given through the center.
“In the [education seminar] class we would just talk about our week and our experiences and when problems arise we would talk them out and get advice and lesson plan ideas from each other,” Renderman said.
Shortly after the property was purchased, the center received a $200,000 loan from the Illinois Facilities Fund for remodeling. Now the center is reaching out to alumni and friends to make donations toward maintaining the property.
Donators can sponsor the upkeep of a room for $1,000 or have their names inscribed in bricks for the garden for $200.
The Chicago Center is gearing up for a weeklong celebration of its 40th anniversary in November. In addition to the purchase of the student housing property, the organization has a new logo and Web site.
For more information about the Chicago Center, call 1-800-747-6059 or 773-363-1312 or email info@chicagocenter.org.
May 14th, 2010
This week’s edition of the Hyde Park Herald showcased Chicago Center Student, Kevin Renderman. Kevin is from Millikin University, he participated in Chicago Center’s Urban Teaching Practicum during the Spring 10 semester and student taught at Kenwood Academy in Hyde Park. Click the image to check out the article “Student as Teacher” on the Hyde Park Herald Website, or read the article below!
Student as Teacher
Chicago Center student taught at Kenwood
By DACHELL M. PHILLIPS
Staff Writer
Although Kevin Renderman is a Chicago native he never traveled too far outside of his tight-knit Irish Catholic neighborhood of Mount Greenwood until it was time for him to attend Millikin University, an undergraduate, Presbyterian institution in Decatur, Ill. Once he decided he was interested in teaching in the city, Renderman found the Chicago Center for Urban Life & Culture’s Urban Teaching Practicum as a great help.
Renderman said he decided he wanted to become a math teacher his junior year at Marist High School, but once he got into college he changed his mind and began to pursue a degree in physical education because he “didn’t want to be stuck in the classroom eight hours a day.”
Faced with the choice to student teach in Decatur or Chicago Renderman chose Chicago and said although he is a native he has learned so much more about his hometown through participating in the Chicago Center Urban Teaching Practicum.
The Chicago Center, which is a Hyde Park-based non-profit, offers programs that expose college students to city living and world cultures. The center has cooperative agreements with about 40 colleges to act as a host to students who want to study any subject in an urban area.
“The center’s experiential learning philosophy, which allows students to learn through first-person experience, is what attracts many of the students to its programs,” said Althea Conyers, marketing and public relations director at Chicago Center. “Unlike most higher education institutions in Chicago, the students who attend are encouraged to live, work and study in all part of the city.”
Renderman, who started the program Jan. 5, said he saw parts of Chicago he’d never been to before and learned about Chicago’s architectural history.
Renderman was also part of the first group of students to live in the Chicago Center’s newly purchased student housing. The new building, which is located on Kenwood Avenue and Hyde Park Boulevard, is a three-flat that can house up to 30 students. The program formerly had long-term leases on several apartments in the neighborhood. Renderman lived in one of the units with seven roommates.
Renderman said that he’s enjoyed the level of support he has received during his time here.
“I heard a lot of bad things about [Chicago Public Schools],” Renderman said. “When I told people I was coming here they would say, ‘Oh sorry,’ but I have not had any problems.”
On Jan. 11 Renderman started teaching three 7th through 8th grade PE classes and two health classes at the Kenwood Academy, 5015 S. Blackstone Ave. He was also the assistant coach for the freshman basketball team.
He said that Kenwood teachers were great mentors and that principal Elizabeth Kirby and assistant principal David Barain were great influences.
He said the Chicago Center’s weekly education seminar with Nancy Friesen has also provided a great deal of support.
“[Friesen] has been a teacher for over 25 years and is a great mentor,” Renderman said. “In the class we would just talk about our week and our experiences and when problems arise we would talk them out and get advice and lesson plan ideas from each other. “
After completing the Urban Teaching Practicum on April 30, Renderman returned to Millikin to prepare for graduation on May 16. He said that he is considering teaching in Boston for a short time but after that, becoming a CPS teacher on a permanent basis is definitely a goal for him.
The Chicago Center is gearing up for a weeklong celebration of its 40th anniversary in November. In addition to the purchase of student housing, the organization has a new logo and Web site. For more information about the Chicago Center, call 1-800-747-6059 or e-mail info@chicagocenter.org.
d.phillips@hpherald.com
March 5th, 2010
Out of His Comfort Zone
TR native gets taste of big city life by student teaching in Chicago
By Cindy Hodgson • Herald Times Reporter • March 2, 2010
Josh LeGreve, back right, long-term substitute Spanish teacher in the Mishicot School District, helps students set up their personal accounts on the Edmodo Web site so they can converse with Justin Gerlach's English students in Argentina. LeGreve is filling in for Gerlach, who took a leave of absence from teaching in Mishicot to teach English to Spanish-speaking students in Argentina. He is helping, from left, sophomores Jacob LeFleur, Nathan Krcma and Andrew Schwerma. In the background is senior Kiyanna Faulks. (Sue Pischke/HTR)
MISHICOT — When it came time to do his student teaching, Two Rivers native Josh LeGreve decided not to go the usual route.
LeGreve, 23, said most of his fellow students at Ripon College choose to student teach at a nearby school, such as in Ripon, Oshkosh or Fond du Lac.
“I wanted to move out of my comfort zone,” he said. “I wanted to push myself as a teacher.”
LeGreve decided to do his student teaching in Chicago through a partnership Ripon College has with the Chicago Center for Urban Life & Culture. Read More
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January 25th, 2010
Here at Chicago Center, we want to give you the best picture of what a great comprehensive Chicago internship program can be like and what it can teach you. So we plan to regularly bring you descriptions of our student practicums written by the participants themselves!
By understanding former students’ experiences in their Chicago internships, you can also understand the benefit a Chicago Center practicum can bring to your education, career and life. This week, Dave Reid from Willamette University, talks about his time with the Chicago Center.
Dave’s Chicago Internship Experience
Dave participated in the 2009 Fall semester Urban Academic Practicum. He spent three days a week working in his internship at the Austin Polytechnical Academy, where he worked as a teaching assistant to high school students. One day a week, he took part in our Chicago Communities and Cultures Seminar, and one day a week he took a Directed Studies course. Students are asked to keep an academic journal while participating in Chicago Center, here’s what Dave had to say in his journal summarizing his Chicago Center experience:
Dave Reid works with high school students in his Chicago internship.
Read More
March 3rd, 2008
Faina Polt, Fall 2007 Student, shares this poem:
Poem for the South Side
There is a skill in knowing you
that I have yet to master.
With a bitter kindness
in your veins,
my mouth is full of salt when
I press my fingers to you and
feel the hot, thready
pulse of life
gritty and jumping
beneath my touch.
More than breathing,
you are a way to live
and so many lose themselves
in your concrete oceans,
cracked sidewalks, porches,
and bus stops.
This is a love letter to you
who loves so many lightly she has
no energy
to love just one full
and deep.You spread your passion
so thin
you can’t even warm
yourself.
Oh, burning city,
blooming and breaking,
speeding by
outside the dirty windows.
I know it’s wrong
to beg your love,
but you light secret fires in me,
in places I didn’t even know
lacked light,
and I can’t help but add
another hunger
another voice to the chorus of
so many already
on their knees.
February 25th, 2008
Ami Regier of Bethel College sent this photo she took during her LearnChicago! program last month. She writes, “I love this picture of Jose’s face with Emiliano Zapata’s face. Jose did a very important, compelling portrayal of how significant public art is to communal identity and history and growth.”
Students took a walking mural tour in Pilsen, a neighborhood in Chicago.
May 11th, 2007
The following is a student journal entry at the end of the semester:
How do you wrap up and summarize a life-changing experience? I shall do my best.
Upon my arrival, I had no idea how the Windy City would change this sheltered, shy girl into an independent, strong woman. It was as though I dropped myself in a completely new, harsh environment and I had to adapt to the new living conditions. I didn’t realize a change; it just sort of happened. One minute I was amazed at the amount of diversity and how wonderful it felt to be in a place where everyone can find a niche, and the next I was becoming part of the diverse population. I was creating my own space.
Though I did not have my traditional educational experience, I learned so much that will be forever valuable to me. Having the opportunity to be out in the city was something that worried me at first: how would talking to a bunch of random people and looking at some murals be worthwhile as a class? But actually experiencing the different cultures that exist within Chicago had a profound effect–actually seeing people from different walks of life and partaking in different cultural programs allowed me to understand the city more than a textbook could. Though I may not have filled notebooks with facts and figures, I was able to gain valuable life experience.
I had no idea that Chicago was going to have all of this microcosms of different cultures scattered throughout the city. It’s like Epcot at Disney World – you can visit different places around the world in just one area. Except it’s not Disney; there are no commercialized, carefully crafted mini-countries. There are actually authentic communities for people to experience as much of native culture as they can within a U.S. setting. Actually being able to go to these different places allows you to experience different cultures in a first-hand way.
I grew up while I was here. Living in a city like this makes you aware of everything: safety, race, self-sufficiency, etc. Living in the bubble of a small, private liberal arts college shelters you from a lot of what the world is like and actually being removed from that comfort zone shows you the capacity for growth that you actually have.
May 4th, 2007
This is a poem submitted by Rachel Gray, a student participant in Chicago Center’s LearnChicago! Program for Whitworth College’s Prejudice Across America trip, which spent 3 days in Chicago. The poem reflects on her South Side Tour with Chicago Center staff member Arvis Averette.
She writes, “This was the first poem I wrote after getting back from the Prejudice Across America trip and I was determined to change the world (the intellectual landscape of Whitworth, at least) with it…
Arvis’ Mythology
“Take a good look
at them. They’ll be mythology
soon.” Silent titans loom
grayer than the sky. Concrete stories
upon stories, stains
in the stairwells. Even eyes
closed can’t see black children play
in a packed dirt yard, even under a titan’s
watch.
Home is not soft blades
of grass poking tender pink
feet. It is not walking on
stainless precious plush
carpet (don’t eat on it). Home is
not sliding down polished banisters, or
playing pirates on the stairs.
Instead, it is making sure poorly
placed needles do not stab
tender pink feet. It is understanding
a moment alone could last
forever.
The Olympians have arrived.
A huge iron ball smashes into a living
room betrayed. Dustblood
sprays into the air (the heavy machinery
operators wear masks). Huge chunks
of walls float haphazardly toward
the ground. Off center, a sign
announces the invasion of
million dollar white people
condos.
Black people are tiny against the back
drop of a giant.
April 26th, 2007
Last night our student teachers (in the TeachChicago! Semester program) met with Greg Michie, a teacher and author. Michie wrote two books about his experiences teaching in urban schools, the acclaimed Holler If You Hear Me: The Education of a Teacher and His Students and, more recently, See You When We Get There: Teaching for Change in Urban Schools which profiles teachers of excellence.
January 26th, 2007
Tiffanie Beatty, January Term 2007 Student, shares this poem about her experience in Chicago.
I learned that in Chicago
I learned that in Chicago
Poetry is whats up and Chicago know it
I wish I was a chicago poet
I’d write a poem everyday and let Chicago know it
God, give me chance, I promise I won’t blow it
I’d run wit verbal balance
And that bring verbal malice
Cause I got verbal talent
Especially on them herbalics
But Im from the Northwest
So I get support less
Instead of the windy city
Im from the city of stress
A couple summers ago I gave my city my best
It was called “Say What?”
But on that open mic night, no one showed up
If I was in Chi-town, there would have been no where to sit
But I was in my town, so there was no one to spit
Maybe I didn’t have enough connections
Or maybe the flyer had the wrong directions
So I said fuck say what!
Fuck the say!
Fuck the what!
Then I heard you say
What the fuck?
But you don’t cuss, yeah me neither
I been called a poet, a prophet, and a leader
But if I put on a event, who’s gonna be there?
Like Mocha, Ugly and aqua moon
Stephanie Rose, Mars, Esteban Colon
Like Christopher Sims and Kimberly Lightfoot
I’m just tryna step off on the right foot
Just trying to make this next step right
Like that Iverson cross-over, I’m like left, right, left, right
Even J.O. got left, that night, right?
How am I gon talk about the greatest in his own city?
Especially if I don’t got my own city wit me?
Well, I don’t really care who’s the greatest
Or who’s your favorite
I got respect, but I’m not losing nathin
If that last word I said needs translation
I’m not from a different nation
But I’m from a different region
We speak a different language
So instead of nothing, we say nathin
Make it do what dowey my nig, yadidamsayin?
And these phrases probably just migrated north from cali
But when I hear this language it just brings something out me
For some reason it just gives me faith
There’s a need for culture but it needs a face
And first it needs a body
somebody’s that wanna be somebody
But these somebody’s might need somebody
To teach ‘em how to reach somebody
God, give me another chance, I promise I wont blow it
Poetry’s what’s up
I want my home to know it
I wanna be a Tacoma poet
