Chicago Center for Urban Life & Culture

After his Chicago Internship Program: Ben’s Apprentice Highlight

Ben Cook, Housing 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 Ben Cook, Housing Coordinator talks about his experience with Chicago Center:

“My name is Ben Cook and I am the new Housing Coordinator at Chicago Center.  One of the great things about studying at Chicago Center is the group living arrangement at our new Boulevard building, here in Hyde Park.  Students experience firsthand life in a diverse, urban environment while they participate in academic internships, student teaching programs or social work practicums.  My job is to be a group living resource and support for students, to help ensure that every student gets the most out of his or her time spent living in Chicago.

I came to Chicago Center in the Fall of 2009 in part because I wanted to step outside of my comfort zone and to experience life in a big city.  More importantly, I came because I studied Sociology at my university and I found it fascinating, but abstract – it was disconnected from my experience.  My semester at Chicago Center was the most important part of my college education because it gave life to those academic concepts and ideas which I found so interesting.  It’s one thing to read about gentrification; it’s something very different to meet a community organizer who is actively trying to protect thier neighborhood’s way of life.  It’s one thing to study how immigration law affects immigrants; it’s something very different to have conversations with friends and family of undocumented workers who live in constant fear of deportation.  For a whole semester, I regularly met people who are on the front lines, fighting misunderstanding and intolerance.  The best part: Chicago Center watered nothing down.

But Chicago Center had a profound impact on me for another reason as well.  It introduced me to Renee, the amazing, beautiful woman who would become my wife.  Renee came to Chicago to participate in the student teaching program.  She and I hit it off right away during the intense week of orientation activities.  We love to reminisce about our first memories together – all of them at Chicago Center events: the Latin American Music Festival, the Chicago Architecture Tour, Barrel of Monkeys… Renee had an incredibly rewarding experience student teaching choir at two schools in Chicago Public Schools during her semester here.  It’s safe to say that we are both very appreciative of Chicago Center.  After my year as an apprentice, we hope to stay involved as alumni and friends of the Center.”

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

Chicago Newspaper Features Chicago Center’s Student Housing

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. 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.

Chicago Newspaper Features Chicago Center Student

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 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

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