The Chicago Center for Urban Life & Culture was founded in 1970, and since then has helped thousands of college students make Chicago their classroom. The Chicago Center serves students from more than 30 liberal arts colleges and universities by providing practicum opportunities in all academic majors as well as urban teaching and social work in Chicago.

The Chicago Center engages students with urban resources, realities, and issues through a first voice pedagogy which uses the city directly as a teaching resource.

Upon arrival, students share apartments in the heart of Hyde Park (1327 E. Hyde Park Boulevard). They receive a one – or two-week course in the culture of the city, attending a variety of different religious services, plays, music, venues, museums, and festivals throughout the city.

After touring of the city, students are steered towards an internship that will challenge their particular academic interests.

StreetWise has hosted six interns from the Chicago Center in the last three years, including Brenna Daldorph, whose  August 5, 2009 cover story won ‘Best Feature’ at this year’s North American Street Newspaper Association (NASNA) awards.

Rachel Sylwestrzak, the most recent intern, told us about her experience with the Chicago Center and interning at StreetWise.

“I was interested in publishing, and StreetWise was one of the contacts that the Center game me.” Sylwestrzak said. “It wasn’t the exact idea I had in mind, but I thought that working here would challenge me, in addition to giving me an inside look at a lifestyle that I hadn’t really been exposed to. I’m glad I came here, because it worked out great. One thing that was kind of big for me – I live in the suburbs, and we don’t have public transportation. One of the things the Center stressed was how to use the CTA to get around the city. So, it’s made me more comfortable when I have to go out to different locations for stories,” She continued.

“I got to cover a few city hall meetings, which is something I’d never got to do before. It was very interesting and definitely something I will remember from my experience here in Chicago.”

Sylwestrzak concluded, “The Chicago Center is very supportive of the internship. I like how they let us take charge of the experience. It’s been a perfect fit.”

Marit Ehmke interned at StreetWise through Chicago Center in January 2009. Reflecting on her experiences, she said, “I learned a lot of new things, met a lot of great people, and experience what life in Chicago is really all about. Working at StreetWise reminded me of how important it is to help out in when, where, and any way you can.”

For more information about the Chicago Center for Urban Life & Culture, visit www. chicagocenter.org, or call 773.262.1313

The Chicago Center, located here in Hyde Park, could very well be the most important neighborhood institution you’ve never heard of.  Tucked away in the office space at 1515 E. 52nd Pl., the center has spent four decades bridging the gap between urban communities and those that attend university with an eye to studying them, teaching in them and otherwise working in those places.  Scott Chesebro, who heads the center, describes it as having more in common with, for example, a living abroad program than with a more traditional urban studies format.

We don’t think of ourselves as a service learning program.  We don’t think of ourselves as a vista-type education program [We are] an urban education program that utilizes the city and its resources as an educational tool,” Chesebro said.

Students at Chicago Center, who come from over 30 colleges largely in less urban settings and in many cases from across the Midwest, are given crash courses in navigating public transportation, exposed to the diversity of neighborhoods throughout the city and are challenged to deal directly with the people who are represented by the studies and statistics that often are the main fare of such majors as sociology and urban planning.

It is this quality, which Urban Social Work Practicum Director Arvis Averette describes as “a reliance on first voices,” that sets the center apart from many other kinds of programs.

“It’s like study abroad in Chicago,” Chesebro said. “It functions more like a study abroad program than it does a service learning program or an internship program that a student might do while they’re at the University of Chicago.  Maybe they do an internship at the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club, but they’re still living on campus, they’re still going to classes every day. They’re just doing a volunteer experience in the neighborhood.”

Averette contrasts this to other learning environments related to urban studies.

“Many of the academic things that one does in school-you look at the community and study it, look at the statistics and so forth. But here- the separation from the other programs I’ve been aware of – is this reliance on having people from that community who are very responsible people, who know the community and speak to it to the students in a learning fashion,” Averette said. “For example, if we are going to deal with Bronzeville, we would invariably talk to Tim Black or Harold Lucas who are the reigning experts on these areas.”

By all accounts, students currently at the center give high marks to the approach.

Student Ryann Bird, who comes from a small town in rural Nebraska and attends school in Lincoln, said her initial impression of the South Side of Chicago was, like many people, based on pretty unreliable source of information.

“I’m from a really tiny town in Nebraska with 5,500 people.  My parents, they knew everything they see on TV about the South Side of Chicago.  I was nervous at first,” Bird said. “But Hyde Park is really safe and homey…it’s not like the media portrays it at all.”

Bird is interning at the DuSable Museum of African American History, which she gets to via public transportation each day from the apartment building the center recently purchased for its students.  Student Beth Izzo, who is teaching second grade at Beasley Elemetary on State Street, said the shared living quarters have been a big help to her as a student teacher.

‘It’s good to live with other student teachers so we can talk about our experiences, which always helps,” Izzo said, “It’s nice to have that support system.”

Chicago Center is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a full day of events this Saturday, Nov. 6, culminating in an evening at Carnivale.  For more information, call Althea Conyers at 773-363-1312 or visit chicagocenter.org

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. 52^nd 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 40^th 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.

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 7^th through 8^th 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 40^th 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

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.

After graduating first in his class at Two Rivers High School in 2005, LeGreve went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish and physics with a minor in secondary education, graduating in December, he said.

He is working as a long-term substitute for the Mishicot School District this semester, teaching middle school and high school Spanish.

LeGreve said he was one of five students from his college who chose to student teach in Chicago last semester.

Student teachers have to be approved by the center and by the Chicago Public Schools, he said. The center then matches them with a school and with a mentor teacher.

LeGreve was assigned to Kenwood Academy High School, which he said is “a very academically rigorous school on the south side.” He said it’s in the middle of the poverty spectrum.

Kenwood Academy is a seventh- through 12th-grade school with 1,800 students — twice the size of his college, LeGreve said.

The seventh- and eighth-grade portion is a magnet school for academically motivated students who come from a broad geographical area. The ninth- through 12th-grade portion is a typical neighborhood high school, although students who have attended junior high there can continue.

LeGreve needed a student teaching experience that included Spanish and physics, both in middle school and high school.

“Somehow they found it all in one school,” he said.

The big-city culture was something he hadn’t experienced before. Even the semester he spent in Spain was in a small town.

“I was small town boy through and through,” he said.

LeGreve said he believes without the Chicago experience he wouldn’t be as confident, flexible and quick-thinking in the classroom as he is now.

For one thing, there wasn’t as much technology to rely on, so he had to be more resourceful.

In addition, his students came from a different background than he was used to, which also stretched him.

“It really pushed me to get to know my students, to get to know what motivates them, and to get to know

what would keep their attention,” he said.

He learned, for instance, he had to be more direct in telling the students what to do, and that “for some of these kids, school is not their priority.” They may have other issues, like needing to help support their family financially.

Students at Kenwood had to pass through metal detectors to enter the school, and teachers and students had to wear photo ID badges. The students’ ID even had their schedule printed on the back, he said.

But despite the differences, “no matter where you are, the core necessities that kids need are still the same,” he said.

Specifically, they need to feel accepted and safe and like they’ve achieved something, LeGreve said.

LeGreve didn’t visit other schools during his semester of student teaching, but he had that opportunity in May when he participated in Ripon College’s “Maymester,” which is a short extra term at the end of second semester.

Because he knew he would be student teaching in Chicago in the fall, he participated in a weeklong Chicago excursion through the Chicago Center for Urban Life & Culture. He said he visited 10 or 12 schools as he learned how to integrate art into the classroom.

Prior to that, his only time in Chicago had been a trip to the Shedd Aquarium and Field Museum with his dad when he was in sixth grade, he said.

At the start of the fall semester, the student teachers moved in 10 days before classes began and had nine days of activities to help them acclimate to their new city, LeGreve said.

They learned how to use public transportation and how to carry themselves with confidence. They also went on architectural tours and to plays and music festivals.

“They took us to both extremes,” he said about the socioeconomic differences in the city.

LeGreve said the experience clarified something for him.

“Before I did the program, I had no clue where I wanted to teach,” he said. Now “I feel like I can teach anywhere and be happy. I would love to go back to Chicago, but I’m not pigeonholing myself into that.”

He said he is applying for positions throughout Chicago and also in Wisconsin.

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.

“I find it extremely difficult to start writing this assignment. Not because I have nothing to reflect upon or that I can’t find anything positive with my experience here. Rather, my entire experience in Chicago has been so life changing I find it difficult boiling my thoughts down to a simple answer. The Chicago Center experience has allowed me to gain a real-world perspective on my role and position within society by not simply explaining social systems with books and lectures, but rather through faces and personal stories.

I’m struck by how much my priorities and mindset have changed in such a short amount of time. The first voice pedagogy of the Chicago Center has helped give meaning and purpose to all of the theories I’ve read about (and honestly disregarded) in the past. Actually being able to walk around a housing project like Altgeld Gardens, and meet the people that live there is a drastically different experience than if I were to simply read about poverty in America and the residents of public housing. Meeting Cheryl Johnson made me truly invested in the both the successes and struggles of public housing residents.

The Chicago Center has provided my first academic experience in a long time where I’m actually self-motivated to learn everything I can in a short amount of time. The independent research project has provided a great vehicle for me to draw connections between all the themes I learned in my seminar course about poverty, race in Chicago, gentrification and resource distribution with my internship experience in the field of education. My project was a great culmination of how I’ve grown and how my understanding of social systems has become so multi-dimensional.

I think without my Chicago Center experience I wouldn’t have the goals and direction I now do. It’s helped me realize that I really do want to be a teacher, not in the suburbs where everybody has the same background as me, but rather in an urban environment where I can learn as much from the students as they can from me. Because in all honesty, that’s where most of my learning took place this semester. I don’t think I would have such a clear understanding of how much poverty, family, resources and the entire organizational structure of the city affect education and in turn the quality of life in certain communities without spending a semester wholly invested in Austin.

I can’t thank you enough for providing me with the opportunity to see, touch, hear and feel the City. This experience far surpasses any other of my life. But now, I have to return to the little bubble of my private, liberal arts school and wait for an opportunity to come back out here and further my learning once again. All I can say is that it is going to be a long year and a half.”

We’d like to thank Dave for telling us about his experience and letting us share it with our potential students and alumni! For more information on the program Dave took part in, and other similar Chicago internship programs, check out our Student Programs page. For more information on just some of the internships our students have worked in, see our Internships page. Whatever the area of focus is in your studies, we can find an appropriate internship to enhance your education.

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.

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.

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.

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.