Chicago Center for Urban Life & Culture

After Her Chicago Internship Program: Whitney’s Apprentice Highlights

Whitney Voss, Administrative and Special Events Coordinator

The Urban Apprenticeship is an exciting opportunity we offer Chicago Center alumni that have just graduated college.  More than a job it offers opportunities for learning and skill development in a supportive urban learning community.

The apprenticeship started in 1990 and grew out of the mutual interests of Chicago Center alums to prolong their contact with Chicago Center and the Center’s interest in strengthening its staff and program.  It has exceeded expectations in both arenas and has become a great strength of Chicago Center. The Urban Apprentice usually spends one full year in residence at Chicago Center.  This month Whitney Voss, Administrative and Special Events Coordinator talks about her experience with Chicago Center:

“Hello! My name is Whitney, one of the six apprentices finishing up our final week at the Chicago Center! I am amazed by how fast the time goes by and sad to be ending this wonderful opportunity to live in Chicago. I am grateful for my time at the Chicago Center, and now feel equipped with the tools to take on any adventure that comes my way!

My hometown is Sterling Heights, Michigan, about a half hour north of Detroit.  I am an alumna of Albion College, Class of 2009, where I received a liberal arts education graduating with a degree in Interpersonal Communications and Dance.

I attended the Chicago Center my last semester at Albion, coming to beautiful snowy Chicago in January 2009 to participate in the academic term. To complete my credits to graduate, I wanted to find an Internship in dance in which I could learn the behind the scene facets of a dance company.  After interviewing with several theatre and dance companies, I was excited for the opportunity to work as a Development Intern at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, a contemporary company internationally recognized for their innovative, groundbreaking movement.  I was also lucky to receive the Kemper Arts Fellowship, a program that allowed me to extend my work into the city, gaining hands-on experience in arts management and non-profit leadership through promotion of diversity in education, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. Coming into a dance internship, I never dreamed that I would have the opportunity to gain a better understanding of inequality throughout our communities, but my time spent with Hubbard Street opened up my world and made me realize how much I still have to learn.

Working at Hubbard Street Dance gave me a taste of the struggles non-profits face and the importance of cultivating strong community-based partnerships. I also learned the ground work for fundraising and event planning, which is what I have been doing for the past year at the Chicago Center!

Participating in the Communities and Culture seminar as a student was probably the most invaluable experience I received while in Chicago.  Having the opportunity to be exposed to diverse urban neighborhoods forever changed the way I see and understand the world. Visiting the Southwest Youth Collaborative and meeting Camille Odeh is one experience that sticks out above the rest.    Meeting the at risk youth at SWYC made me realize the pressure on urban adolescents and the need for organizations and activities that give youth an outlet to be creative, get help with school, talk to mentors and meet friends.  Working with the youth at SWYC for my research topic, allowed me to personally interact with urban teens and gain a better understanding of how an activity like dance could keep youth involved and off the streets.   

I enjoyed my time as a student at the Chicago Center so much that I decided to apply for the apprenticeship program.  It was easy to fall in the love with the city and I really wanted to extend my time in Chicago.  I was excited to be chosen as the Administrative and Special Events Coordinator for the 2009-2010 year, and was even more excited to learn that I would be helping plan the 40^th Anniversary gala.    

Staffing the student’s events is one of the best parts of the job,  you continue to learn about the city and travel to hidden gems and neighborhoods that have so much culture and history.  A big part of my position this past year has been managing the Fall and Spring Fundraisers.  Donations and gifts play a big part in keeping a non-profit company running, and I was happy to manage two successful fundraisers, and hope to have laid the ground work for more successful fundraisers to come.  

Aside from providing administrative support for office function and maintenance, along with organizing and updating the Chicago Center database, I have most enjoyed working with my supervisor, Althea Conyers, on  planning  the 40^th Anniversary gala! Celebrating Chicago Center’s 40 years of service is a very exciting time, and I was proud to be a party of the planning committee.  The 40^th Anniversary celebration will be held on November 6, 2010 at Carnivale!  After viewing several different locations to find a venue, I am absolutely positive that we have found the perfect place to celebrate the Chicago Center and bring together four decades of alumni!  I cannot wait to celebrate the 40^th Anniversary and meet so many of you whose lives have been enriched because of the Chicago Center!

I want to say thank you to the Chicago Center for giving me the opportunity to work in the city and extend my time in Chicago for another year.  This experience has taught me so much about the different communities and cultures throughout Chicago, and the injustices in our society.   My time here has far surpassed my expectations, and I know that I have grown into a better person because of the Chicago Center!  A quote that has been heard several times this year perfectly wraps up my feeling about the Chicago Center.

I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I understand.                                                                                                                                                                                        -Confucius

Thank you for helping me understand.  I still have so much to learn.”

We’d like to thank Whitney for telling us about her experience and letting us share it with our potential students and alumni!

After His Chicago Internship Program: Kevin’s Apprentice Highlights

Kevin Zabel, Academic Program Coordinator

The Urban Apprenticeship is an exciting opportunity we offer Chicago Center alumni that have just graduated college.  More than a job, it offers opportunities for learning and skill development in a supportive urban learning community.

The apprenticeship started in 1990 and grew out of the mutual interests of Chicago Center alums to prolong their contact with Chicago Center and the Center’s interest in strengthening its staff and program.  It has exceeded expectations in both arenas and has become a great strength of Chicago Center. The Urban Apprentice usually spends one full year in residence at Chicago Center.  This month Kevin Zabel, Academic Program Coordinator talks about his experience with Chicago Center:

“For the past ten months, I have had the privilege to work at the Chicago Center as the Academic Program Coordinator. At the Chicago Center, we have three student tracks: Urban Teaching, Social Work, and Academic. Our students utilize our program for a host of reasons, of which a few most popular are opportunities to fulfill college requirements (e.g., student teaching placement, social work field work placement, or academic internship) in an urban environment, the diversity of Chicago, the opportunity to live independently in an urban environment, and the staff support that we provide our students. As class assistant to our academic, student teaching, and social work programs, I have come to better understand the inner workings of the various tracks, as well as the first-voice method of learning our program utilizes. By first-voice, I mean that instead of our student teachers reading about teaching strategies for urban classrooms, or our academic students reading about different communities and cultures in a textbook, our students get the opportunity to engage directly with our learning resources and individuals. For example, recently, our student teachers met directly with Greg Michie, an author and educator who has written several books on urban education techniques. Moreover, as academic class assistant, I have scheduled such events as a meeting with representatives from the Center on Halsted (LGBT center on the north side of Chicago), a mural tour of the Pilsen (predominantly Mexican and Mexican-American) community in Chicago, and immigration discussions with Korean American Resource & Community Center and Latino Organization of the Southwest representatives,  as well as attended such events as the Chicago Jazz Festival, Chicago Blues Festival, and Puerto Rican Day Parade with students. These events and meetings are just a few of the resources and events we typically utilize throughout our terms.

I attended the Chicago Center as a student during my Fall 2007 semester at Albion College. I grew up in a small, rural community and attended college in a very similar environment. As a result, I attended the Chicago Center in large part to experience living in an urban setting for the first time, but also for the wide range of internship possibilities that the Chicago Center provides. While these expectations were met, I found my experience to be so much more than the conventional reasons that students often choose to study off campus. Using public transportation and a sense of taking ownership of my internship were fostered by the Chicago Center, and provided skills that continue to benefit me to this day (e.g., comfort with navigating in a city environment, interview and networking skills). At the same time, through the class component of the experience, I was introduced to communities and cultures in Chicago that I never (or rarely) had the opportunity to interact with growing up or on my college campus. These experiences encouraged me to reevaluate my beliefs and opinions about different groups of people, and gave me a foundation with which to question the “truth” I had known growing up.

In addition to the class component of the program, I also interned at Merrill Lynch. I entered the program as a business and psychology double major, planning on a career as a financial advisor. Although I enjoyed the work provided me during my internship, I became disenchanted by the amount of salesmanship necessary to succeed as a financial advisor. The internship provided me an opportunity to engage one-on-one with professionals that had worked for years in the business, in some cases working at Merrill Lynch for over forty years. Their knowledge, as well as the opportunity to learn from their stories and experiences, persuaded me to focus exclusively on my psychology major field of study upon my return to school.

Upon graduation, I knew that I wanted to take a year off from school and get work experience. The Chicago Center apprenticeship provided the perfect opportunity to extend upon my experience as a student, while simultaneously honing valuable organizational skills and communication workplace skills that will aid significantly in my future work endeavors. In Fall 2010, I will begin graduate study in the social psychology Ph.D. program at the University of Tennessee (UT) in Knoxville. Working with our students as class assistant, as well as working with fellow staff members and class resources has provided me invaluable experience that will aid in my future research and teaching endeavors. In addition, the events and discussions I have been privy to both as a student and class assistant have forever affected the ways in which I form opinions about issues or groups of people. I feel privileged to work for an organization and with staff whom I respect very much, and I look forward to the new challenges that graduate school will bring. It is my hope that in addition to my fellow incoming Fall 2010 UT classmates, I can bring a fresh perspective to research and learning. Through my experiences as a student and as an apprentice, the Chicago Center has prepared me exceptionally well to accomplish this goal.”

We’d like to thank Kevin for telling us about his experience and letting us share it with our potential students and alumni!

After His Chicago Internship Program: Steve’s Apprentice Highlights

Steve Broadwell, Recruitment Coordinator

The Urban Apprenticeship is an exciting opportunity we offer Chicago Center alumni that have just graduated college.  More than a job it offers opportunities for learning and skill development in a supportive urban learning community.

The apprenticeship started in 1990 and grew out of the mutual interests of Chicago Center alums to prolong their contact with Chicago Center and the Center’s interest in strengthening its staff and program.  It has exceeded expectations in both arenas and has become a great strength of Chicago Center. The Urban Apprentice usually spends one full year in residence at Chicago Center.  This month Steve Broadwell, Recruitment Coordinator talks about his experience with Chicago Center: Read More