Outside of class :)

 

Hello, this is Maria again! I just wanted to write a little about life here outside of the classes and internship! First, if you love to run outside with a great view such as this....

then this program is for you ;) It was around 50 degrees here on Monday, so I got to go on a nice jog outside, right along the lake. The sun was out when I first started my run, so it was absolutely beautiful :) You don't even remember you're running! (okay...maybe after a little while you do) I cannot wait for it to get warmer and stay warm, so I can do this much more often :)

This weekend, I was able to do many awesome things with the other students in the program. Right after Core couse ended on Friday, we went and got deep dish pizza! We went to the original Uno's downtown, and it was absolutely delicious. We are now thinking of making it our Friday tradition. Sounds great to me!

On Saturday night, we all went over to one of the Logan Square apartments. We all brought a type of snack and just chilled and ate for awhile. Then we headed down to this place called Cafe Mustache, where they had live music. It was a super chill, hispter place. I loved it, and the music was awesome. I honestly could have sat there for hours! Logan Square is many of those little, cute cafes. It is a much more vibrant community than Hyde Park because there are many young people that are starting to move back into the neighborhood.

 

Lastly, this morning, my roommate and I went to the church called St. Sabina, where the well-known Father Pfleger preaches. All I can say is wow. It was not the normal church experience I have had in the past. It was an almost three hour service, full of music, praising, and lots of preaching. It was incredible. Father Pfleger is well known throughout Chicago for many things, but probably the most recent is his action against gang violence. He recently started a basketball league, where gang members participated in friendly competition. I could write pages about things Father Pfleger has done because he has been so involved. I became interested in going to his church after we happened to see him last Friday at City Hall during Core class. I hope to visit other churches throughout the city during my stay here!

                                               

Jail, Yale, and an improv class?

Hey all, this is Maria writing :) This week for Seminar class, we watched Charles Dutton's one man play, From Jail to Yale.  IT WAS AWESOME! In short, it is just Charles Dutton speaking about his life and how he ended up such a successful actor after spending so many years in jail. He also did a few scenes of Shakespeare, where we were able to see his acting skills :) But it was such an interesting story, and he was a such a great storyteller. He had me laughing the entire time! The benefits from the play went to the Chicago Youth Leadership Academy. Dutton has such an inspiration to help the youth in the city and stop the violence that has stricken Chicago. He even did a special performance for the youth of that school. Great night and great experience!

For ISP this week, we had an improv class! Like what?! It ended up being SO much fun. I had friends and siblings involved in improv throughout high school, but I never had a chance to do it. But now that I have experienced it, I want to do more! I may even sign up for some beginner's classes here in the city :) Going into the class, I really was just thinking it would be a fun time. While it was an absolute riot, it also taught us a lot about ourselves. It really got us thinking about how we perceive others and how not to judge ourselves. It also taught us how to just listen to others without always thinking of something to say back, which can often lead to us not hearing what they were saying in the first place. Such a good afternoon.

Thats all for now :)

Meeting Joe Moore

 In core course this week we met with Joe Moore, the alderman of the 49th ward in the city, for those of you who don't know what an alderman is, it is the second most powerful person in the city after the mayor. Chicago has 50 wards which is represented by 50 alderman. Joe Moore is a great guy, we had the chance to ask him questions about his job and his views about the current issues in the city and he made some really interesting points. We went to City Hall and got to see the City Council Chambers, Mayor Rahm's office and the press room :), pretty exciting stuff.

Press room

Joe Moore talking to us in the City Council Chambers

Author: Tsiry R.

Visiting schools

Hello all,

This week in my seminar class we visited with some really great entrepreneurs that have started their own school from scratch. We had the opportunity to meet with Daniel Ryan, the founder of The Children's School, which is an independent school that focuses on progressive education as a teaching method. We also met with Ari Frede, the founder of Orange School, he was a really cool guy and very energetic. And finally we met with Sarah Elizabeth Ippel, the founder of the Academy for Global Citizenship. We got an opportunity to ask questions and actually converse with all three founders about how they started their business, what challenges they faced, what kept them going etc... I think for me the Academy of Global Citizenship was the most fascinating because at this school they don't just teach you about academics but also about how to life a healthy and sustainable life. The school cafeteria (pictured below) only serves organic food either grown from their own garden or imported from other nearby local companies. Also the students get to raise chickens and plant seeds of different kinds during the school year. The system this charter school has adapted in order to send into the world thoughtful and intelligent students is mind blowing. I would definitely like to see more schools like this one in the future. 

http://earth911.com/wp-content/uploads/
2011/02/AGC-lunchroom.jpg


Author: Tsiry Rabemahefa

Core Course (02/15/13)

On Friday, a lot happened!! We started the day with a trolley tour, which I would encourage you to do if you got a couple of hours in Chicago to spare. It was really informative and you learn a lot about the city from someone who is actually a Chicagoan. You find out about all these cool eating places and which parts of town to visit and the history behind it. Take a tour is you can!!

Then we watched a documentary called Louder than a Bomb, it is about four high school seniors that are competing in this slam poetry contest call Louder than a Bomb. This movie is very inspirational and I strongly urge you to watch it. At the end of the movie I think most of us were kind of ready to take a nap. But surprise, surprise here comes one of the main characters from the movie (one of the high school student poets), Lamar Jorden, this was such a surprise to everyone that we were all speechless. And to top it all off he performed for us. Such a great way to start the weekend!!

One of Lamar's poems: Lamar Jorden "Blink"

Author: Tsiry R. 

Money Museum for ISP class

Hi all, this week was our first full week and it was one of the most interesting week I have had during my college years. I think that for each of my classes we went for a field trip and visited a lot of cool places. One of those places was the Money Museum for my ISP (independent study project) class. It was really mind blowing, I guess the most amazing part for me was the money box (pictured below). This box contained $1,000,000 in dollar bills and weight 2,000 pounds!!! 

Another interesting thing that I saw at the museum was the $500 bill (on the right side). Imagine if we still had $500 bills today, I am sure that would have made quite some difference.

This next pile of money was worth $1,000,000 as well but in $20. I would encourage anyone visiting the city to drop by this museum, it is really fascinating and it is FREE!!

Author: Tsiry R.

First Official Week!

Hello all! This is Maria writing again! It’s been a super exciting week, and I cannot wait to share it with you! First, I will start by saying I got an internship!! That’s a huge relief off my shoulders. I will be interning at an organization called Girls in the Game. Girls in the Game is an organization that teaches young girls how to live a healthy lifestyle. I will be involved in a lot of organizational stuff as well as getting some hands on experience and interactions with the girls! I cannot wait! Because I have not started my internship yet, I had this past Monday and Wednesday free. I got a chance to explore my own neighborhood (Hyde Park) and go to Chinatown. I am proud to say I ate my entire meal in Chinatown with only chopsticks J I had never done that before, sooooo I was pretty proud of my myself.

Some of the beautiful buildings at the University of Chicago!

 

                On Tuesday we had our seminar, where we learned about Peace Circles. Peace circles are a type of restorative justice practice that is being implemented throughout Chicago, especially in the schools. It was a really rewarding experience full of trust and respect. I definitely felt closer to the other students in my seminar. This experience sparked my interest, and I would love to learn more about Peace Circles and restorative justice during my time in the city.

                On Thursday, we had our ISP (Independent Study Project). For the first part, we went to Mikva’s Challenge. Mikva’s Challenge is an organization that challenges high school students to become active in the political process.  For the second part, we went to a rally against Women’s Violence. We got to participate in a flash mob there! Even though we did not know the dance very well, it was pretty cool! There were a couple speakers after the flash mob and then everyone marched a couple miles to a dance party. SO AWESOME.

Two girls from the program learning the flash mob dance!

 

                On Friday, we had core class. For the morning session, we went on a trolley ride throughout parts of the city. We went to the west loop, Bridgeport, and Taylor Street, just to name a few. It was a heated trolley, so it was nice to stay warm and be able to see parts of the city J For the afternoon session, we discussed the demographics of our neighborhoods. It was interesting to learn things about where we are living. Hyde Park is such a cool and interesting place, which you could see just by looking at the maps. After discussing the demographics, we watched a documentary by Oprah called Louder Than a Bomb. It is about Chicago high school students that work hard throughout the school year to compete in a spoken word poetry competition. The documentary was really amazing and made me look at poetry in a different light, as something that can be therapeutic. However, by the time the film ended, it was already 5 pm on a Friday night. To top if off, they said that we were going to discuss the film after. I was so ready for a nap! But instead of discussing, one of the students from the film walked through our door! I was so surprised and overwhelmed! I thought he walked right out from the TV! So that made the extremely long day totally worth it J We had a chance to ask him questions and learn about where he is now. Once again, SO AWESOME! 

I feel like this has been a really long post, so that is all for now! I cannot wait for all the adventures planned for next week :)

 

New Ambassador: Maria

Hey all!

 

My name is Maria Wagenhofer, and I am a Chicago Program ambassador, specifically for the urban studies aspect.  Just a little about me: I am currently a sophomore at Valparaiso University, majoring in psychology, with an urban studies minor. I am hoping use my psychology major to continue to grad school in either counseling or social work. But I’m still a little unsure, so only time shall tell J

I am SO excited for the rest of the Chicago semester to get underway. We just finished a week of orientation, which was jam packed with lots of new information. But I loved every second of it. I also had an interview for my internship! We have two days set aside every week for us to be involved as in intern for a company or organization. It is a great way for us to dive deeper into our interests, while learning more about the city. We also take a core class, a seminar, and have an independent study project, but I will go into more details about those as the semester goes on. J  

That is all for this post. I am going exploring in my neighborhood tomorrow so I hopefully have lots of things to talk about in my next post! Until then J

Orientation Week (not boring at all)...

When I heard orientation week my mind was already thinking about long boring talks about things that you will learn eventually anyways. But surprisingly, orientation at the ACM Chicago Program is far from boring. The first couple of days were getting to know each other days which I thought was very productive, then the other two days were meant for you to learn about the classes you will take and what you will be doing over the course of the semester. I think can speak for many of the students when I say that there was a lot throw at us this week but at the same time it was exciting stuff that I think we are all looking forward to doing. The classroom setting and method of learning here is very different (in a good way) from the learning methods I have had in the past. I am really looking forward to a great semester of fun and hard work throughout the progression of this program. 

New Ambassador!!

Hello everyone,

My name is Tsiry Rabemahefa and I will be one of the Ambassadors for the Chicago Program this spring semester, which means some of the posts you will read will be from me. Just a little bit about myself, I am a senior at Concordia College in Moorhead MN and I am majoring in both Biology and Business. On the Chicago Program, I am on the Entrepreneurship track for both my ISP and seminar. 

Fun facts about me would be that I am originally from Madagascar. I am also able to speak 3 languages fluently and a couple of more not so fluently :). I enjoy cooking, reading, walking (when it is sunny outside), listening to music, meeting new people, and a bunch of other fun stuff I can't think of right now. Well that is a little bit about myself and I am looking forward to sharing my experiences here in Chicago and at the ACM Program with you all. 

Hope you have a great rest of your weekend :)