Architectural Boat Tour

 Last day at CP for Spring 2012! We ended the day with an architectural tour down the Chicago River and out onto Lake Michigan.

 Our tour guide was entertaining, the weather was beautiful, and you were a great group. Even the tour guide commented that the ACM CP group probably knew more about Chicago than he did!  We will miss you students of Spring semester 2012!

Miguel del Valle visits Chicago Program

This semester CP students were honored to meet with Miguel del Valle.   del Valle was City Clerk of Chicago until 2011, the first Latino elected to the Chicago City Clerk’s office.  Prior to his City Clerk position, del Valle was the first Hispanic Senator elected in the Illinois General Assembly where he served for 20 years.   In 2011, del Valle ran for the office of Mayor of Chicago. In the election he came in third in a field of six, with about nine percent of the vote.

del Valle spoke to CP students about an issue he is passionate about:  education.  He is currently chair of the Illinois P-20 Council.  The Council is working to improve birth to adulthood education in Illinois.  The goal of the P-20 Council is to increase the proportion of adults in Illinois with high-quality degrees and credentials to 60% by the year 2025.  del Valle talked about a curriculum designed to take students through all of their educational years, from pre-K through grad school.   

 

del Valle has been working for many years on issues facing Chicago Public Schools, including inequities in funding, and a lack of commitment to fully support neighborhood schools.  His first speech was to fight off an amendment to strip bilingual funding.  He ran for office to work on education issues; attempting to improve life for his constituents.

His first experience with the school system in Chicago was when he failed in the third grade.  He was born in Puerto Rico, and, at the time, he spoke only Spanish, and no one in the school could communicate with him.  He spoke of the importance of teachers, and the importance of supporting them.  “Effective teachers connect with students,” he said.  He remembers a particular teacher who saw potential in him, and inspired him.

He is passionate about making career options available to students.  He tells students there are many other roads available to them; if one doesn’t work out, “take another [road]; don’t stop, don’t go backwards.”

Cubs win!

CP students visited the friendly confines of Wrigley Field on Monday.  The weather was a little chilly, and an eerie fog began rolling in over the field in the last few innings.  But the Cubs beat the Braves, 5-1, and we all had a great time!

CP Pitch Presentations

Chicago Program Entrepreneurship students have been working hard to craft an innovative start-up business concept to present to an external review panel.  Each team came up with an idea for a new business startup,  a mission for the venture, market, a business model, industry analysis, a plan for testing the new business, and a positioning strategy. 

This week the business plans were presented to an external review panel.  The panel provided feedback for the student entrepreneurs.   

On the review panel were CP Director Robyne Hart, John Geis, COO of Dabble, Inc. a community marketplace offering classes across a range of topics; Candi Carter, former Senior Producer of the Oprah Winfrey Show, and CEO of her new production company, New Chapter Entertainment; Tyler Spaulding, co-founder of StyleSeek.com, a mass-personalization e-commerce platform; Lori Edwards, founder of Impact Challenge, offering business consulting; and Tom Cassell, adjunct faculty member of the Chicago Program.

Faculty from Beloit, Colorado College and St. Olaf visit Chicago Program

Chicago Program welcomed three faculty from ACM colleges April 18-20. Corina McKendry (Colorado College), Carol Wickersham (Beloit College); and Ted Thornhill (St. Olaf College) became Chicago Program students, as they toured Chicago’s neighborhoods, including visits to LVEJO (Little Village Environmental Justice Organization)  and Growing Power’s Iron Street Farm, an urban farm growing produce on the bank of the Chicago River in the Bridgeport neighborhood.  

The faculty joined Chicago Program seminar groups in a tour of The Plant , a vertical farm and food-business incubator housed in a former meat packing plant in the Back of the Yards neighborhood.  The goal of business residents in The Plant is not to waste anything.  Small businesses are raising fish and growing organic produce in such a way that waste from one operation is recycled into another. An anaerobic digester is in the works, which will use food scraps to provide heat and electricity for the building. 

The visiting faculty shared their expertise with the students as well.   Carol Wickersham led a workshop with Chicago Program students on learning experiences and how to transfer skills and knowledge between campus and community.   Professor McKendry led a discussion on sustainability with students participating in Chicago Program’s  Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Human Rights and Social Justice seminars.   And, Professor Thornhill lectured on "New Racism in the Post Civil Rights Era:  Interpersonal vs. Institutional Racism.:"