Welcome Home! Or at Least, Welcome Here

Well, the first week in Chicago went off without a hitch. But, hey, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start with some introductions.

My name is Sara. I'm a Junior Studio Art Major at Hanover College. I'm in Chicago to learn more about the world in the context of a real metropolis, seeing as I've never lived in a town with a population of more than 3,000 people. Now, that may worry you, dear reader. Sure, these near two weeks have been somewhat of a culture shock for me. However, for lack of better terms, I was spoiling for a fight with something new. With something different. I was willing to place my bets on good luck in Chicago. And I got it in spades. I mean, just look at my apartment building:

 Pensacola Place

That's a big difference from a 3-bedroom farmhouse on a dirt road. But, it's exciting to me. I love the raw newness. I love just being here. Just seeing something new, getting a new context for analysis of the world around me. I mean, the city is just so alive. The breeze sizzles with conversation, the smell of food, a whiff of Lake Michigan (and sometimes some nastier scents, but we'll not dwell on that).

And man, have things ever been packed in the way of scheduling. Orientation was so fast-paced and exciting. If I hadn't already been running on the compounded energies of that excitement, nervousness, and caffeine, I would have crashed and burned like a paper airplane in a volcano (or something more poetic, fill in the blanks). But, I think my favorite event was the city scavenger hunt. Basically, we had to run around in groups of 3 or 4 and take different modes of transportation (buses, the L, the good ole bipeds) to explore Chicago. So, you learn some practical knowledge (ie: buses aren't scary, bus drivers know everything, postal workers can direct you anywhere, etc) and some personal knowledge (you get to know how your teammates handle stress really really well after about the 4th time you get lost). Here's some of my favorite places:

The Center on Halstead (That's Sam, he's cool)

Cubs Stadium (I'm the ginger on the left)

This is just a fun picture of Sus on a Divvy Bike, enjoy

and the Art Institute

There's some really cool stuff hanging out in Chicago, if you're unaware. Come visit. Or, you know, come stay for a term or something. I recommend it and I've been here less than a month. 

Speaking of cool things in Chicago, I'd just like to bring up my internship (my interview went swimmingly, thanks to the workshops we did in orientation *thanks*). I work at the Chicago Urban Arts Retreat Center. It's a really fun place that works to promote peace and equality on a local and global scale. Right now I'm working on connecting with local youth groups to participate in the (free) Peace by Piece Youth Fashion Show. Kids get the chance to create fashions that promote peace while connecting with their community in a positive way. The event is on September 28th at the Gorilla Tango Theater. (By the way, if you know any youth groups that might like to participate or would like to sponsor a group, you can email me at winess15@hanover.edu.)

Another fun place to visit is the Museum of Contemporary Art. My ISP class took a visit there this week. That was really fun and amazing (also, it's free on Tuesdays, crazy right? Bet you can't guess what day we went). Some of the art we saw really made an impression on me, so I highly recommend making the trip (especially on a Tuesday, if you catch my drift).

I'll update you guys again ASAP with more of my adventures in the Second City. Now, it's bedtime for this student.

Yours,

Sara Wines

I don't want to leave Chicago!

This was wrote on Friday, May 17th.

Well, the program is officially over! We had our last activities yesterday, ending with an internship workshop and a boat ride in the afternoon. There are no words for how great of an opportunity and experience this semester was. I developed close relationships with many of the students, and it was very tough saying goodbye. We really helped each other grow as individuals throughout the program, and I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people.

I am currently writing this from my apartment, which I am not quite ready to leave yet. I am leaving later this evening. My apartment and the apartment below us had such a great time living together. There was always something going on, so there was never a dull moment! It’s going to be weird not staying up to the middle of the night procrastinating on homework with some of them or not having our weekly apartment meetings on Monday night. I have definitely valued my experience here and will miss 1447 E 52^nd St. L  Some of the girls are staying through the summer, so I will be able to come back and visit, which makes saying goodbye a little easier!

I am so glad I chose to do the Chicago semester. I was a little apprehensive at first and really missed my home school, Valparaiso University. While I do still miss Valpo, I am so thankful I did decide to have an experience off campus. These experiences are ones I will remember and cherish for the rest of my life. If you are debating on whether or not you should study off campus, DO IT!!!! You will learn so much about yourself and have a great time in the process.

Here is a picture of all of us!

 

Thank you so much for letting me share my experiences with all of you! I hope you enjoyed reading about everything we did this semester :) The ACM Chicago Program is AWESOME. :)

 

 

 

Author: Maria W.

This is it!!

Boat tour to top it all off!!

Hello everyone,

This is it!!!

Yesterday was

the last of the program and I feel like time just flew by. I am sad to leave Chicago and the friends that I have made here. But I want to reflect back on this semester and share some of the highlights that I had in each class that I took.

Core Course – through this class I was able to really become a Chicagoan, the various topics (education, transportation, small businesses etc…) that we covered in this class are things that I wouldn’t have even pay attention to if not because of this class.

Seminar, Entrepreneurship – this class was interesting for me personally because the students in this class became really good friends and so united. I really enjoyed visiting companies like Groupon, Red Frog, and Threadless. And although it wasn’t an easy process, I also enjoyed writing a business plan for my final project.

Internship, Teen Living Programs – Mary, my supervisor and the rest of the administrative staff at TLP were the best people I could have worked with. This organization is doing great work with youth and homelessness in Chicago and I am glad I was a part of it even if it was just for a couple of months.

ISP, Entrepreneurship – Robyne is the best professor, friend, counselor anybody can have!! This woman has a way of helping you think through your ideas and provide great advice. I am very thankful to have had this Independent Study experience with her. I ended up interviewing a lot of people who were involved with social enterprises in Chicago and I have gained so many connections. I have also gained skills that I can apply as I move to Minneapolis and entre the social enterprise scene over there. I am so thankful for this experience.

I really, really, really enjoyed my time here in Chicago and I am sad that it is over already but I know that someday I will be back so this is not goodbye for me, it is see you later Chicago!!

Author: Tsiry R.

Cease Fire Charity Team!

Well, we have officially completed all the work for our Seminar classes! For my Seminar class, we had to create a human rights campaign. My group decided to do something with the violence in Chicago, after watching the film, The Interrupters. The film is about the organization Cease Fire, who go out to some of Chicago’s toughest neighborhoods to fight the violence going on there. My group contacted Cease Fire and asked about how we could get involved. They said that they would need the most help in the fundraising aspect of their organization. So my group put our heads together to try and come up with ideas that could fit Cease Fire’s needs and what we needed to do for our project. We ended up coming up with the idea of creating a charity team in Cease Fire’s name for the marathon this coming October. We were able to get in touch with the marathon and create a page online where people can go to donate to a specific runner in Cease Fire’s behalf. Currently, I am the only runner for the team because I am the only one in the group that is registered for the marathon. We are searching for more team members through the connections I have made by running with different running clubs. We have also sent out emails to the individual donor list at Cease Fire to inform them of our project and show them how they can help out. We have also put the information on a flyer to send out. So far we have raised $75! And the page had only been up for about 48 hours! So coooooool. Here is a link to the site if you wanted to take a look at it and maybe donate…. J

www.crowdrise.com/ceasefirechicago

Cubs Game!

Hello! This week we went to the Cubs game as a group! It was a lot of fun, and the Cubs won! What are the chances we caught a winning game?! Small joke! I’m so glad we got a chance to go to Wrigley and see them play! Here is a picture of Becca and me reacting to a call. (Okay…maybe we weren’t actually upset)

                                                               View from out seats!

Author: Maria W.

Busking Out!

Chicago is very well known for it's very vibrant street musicians, some who have even gone on to become nationally and internationally known. Some famous Chicago buskers include Crystal Bowersox (Winner of American Idol) and R. Kelly (RnB legend, if i say so myself). But first of all, what exactly is busking? Busking means to play or perform entertainment in a public place, usually while soliciting money.

Last week Saturday, my team and I set out to find and meet street performers and listeners for a project we are doing for our business and entrepreneurship class. We started off on south Michigan street, hopped on the red line where we met Mrs Kanye Resa West, a singer who has been doing it for a couple years now. She had a lovely voice and she did a couple song covers that kept her audience (people riding the red line train) entertained and willing to stick around for more.

On our way to Logan Square while riding the red line again train, we found Martial, who was currently being filmed for a TV show. The show was documenting his life as a busker, and we even got to make an appearance. He was very friendly and willing to talk, he played the guitar like he knew it at the back of his head, very talented man he was.

Our last encounter was totally unexpected. We were on State and Lake ready to head back home to Hyde Park when we heard loud pounding noise coming from down the street. We quickly rushed down to see where the noise was coming from and surprisingly found two young men hitting buckets and pans like drum sets. I'm sure you're thinking, "What a racket" but this was the opposite. The two guys in unison entertained the growing crowd with so much energy, I couldn't believe they were just using plastic buckets and old pans to create good music. They were called the Chicago Bucket Brigade and they really were the life of the party.

So as you walk on the streets of Chicago and ride the trains, take a minute or two to appreciate the talented street performers that this great city has to offer, you never know, they just might make it big. 

By Ema Bassey

Core Course - ACM Pipeline 3.0

Another unique and exciting experience with core course today. We went to this event where we helped high school juniors with the brain storming process of a college essay as well as sharing experiences that we have had in college.

I was assigned four high schools students, 3 of which were juniors and 1 was a sophomore, I think this experience was very empowering for me. I felt that being able to help these students have a glimpse of what a liberal arts education is and telling them not just about the pros but also about the cons was very enriching for me. The purpose of the event was to help the student go through the brainstorming process of writing a college application essay and how to go about the writing process eventually.

Many of the students I worked with were very open and willing to share their experiences. I was able to here so many fascinating stories and able to share my own story as well. I really like the small group opportunity that we all had, this made it possible to connect with the students on a more personal level and it was easier for them to share and vice versa.

I really enjoyed today!!!

Author: Tsiry. R

ISP update - social enterprises

This week I had the chance to meet and talk to a lot of people from different social enterprises in Chicago. And next week will actually be even more exciting as I am putting together this Independent Study Project.

Here are just two of the organizations that I have had the opportunity to learn more about and actually visit this week.

Inspiration Kitchen: this organization is interesting in so many ways, it is a social enterprise under a parent non-profit organization called Inspiration Corporation. What they do is that they provide a cooking training program for people who have been struggling to find a job for different reasons such as having been incarcerated, got kicked out of their home etc.... After my interview with Margaret I actually decided to eat there and try to food and it was delicious. The price was amazing cheap for the food quality that I got and I was very please with the service.

Dinning area at IK

                           

Reception Area

This is the deliciousness that I got to eat!!

                           

Next Door: this is another social enterprise under a bigger corporation, it is listed under State Farm. Next Door is a free space for anyone to come to work at, it is completely free and provide a cafe where you can order drinks or even a light meal. It has a very relaxed and friendly feel about it and I would recommend checking it out. It's a great space!!

Cafe

Working people

Author: Tsiry R.

Empowered Through Us

Hello everyone,

Very, very, very busy week for us here at the ACM Chicago Program. There is only three weeks left before the program is over and two of our classes actually end next week, including seminar. For our final project in this class we are supposed to come up with a business plan for an actual company and do all the necessary research to see if it is a valid market or not.

My company is called Empowered Through Us, it is a for profit social enterprise that is based on the idea of crowd sourcing. ETU is a platform for people from all over the world (but more specifically for women), to help empower one another hence the name of the organization. As part of my project I have developed a website that gives you an overview of the organization, why it exists and how you can help.

Please feel free to visit my website and send me some feed back if you want.
Here is the link to the website: http://empoweredthroughus.weebly.com/

Cheers!!

Author: Tsiry R.

How is it almost May already?

Wow, these past few weeks have been super busy! With the end of the program in three weeks, we have been working hard on our final projects for each of our classes. Here are a few updates on my classes:

For seminar, we are currently working on our human rights campaign. My group is working together with Cease Fire (also known as Cure Violence) to create some kind of fundraising project. In the recent events with the Boston marathon, we came up with the idea of creating a Cease Fire charity team for the Chicago marathon to help prevent violence in Chicago. We sat down with Cease Fire and discussed the possibility and they loved the idea! So we are going to spend the next week researching how to become a charity team and organize all the different components of it. It may be too short of notice to get it all figured out for this coming marathon, but hopefully we can kick start it for next year!

For Core class, we are working on our asset mapping projects. Throughout the entire semester, we have been exploring our neighborhoods (Hyde Park and Logan Square) and looking at all the different assets they have to offer. Such assests include restaurants, business, cultural events, influential people, etc. We are now working on combining all the different assets into a presentation to present to the class! This coming Friday, we are working with high school juniors on their essay component of their applications to college. It should be fun! This past week, we had to pretend we were had children in the Chicago Public Schools and had to decide where they would go to high school. It was a very time consuming and stressful process! My "son" was a talented dancer who did not receive very good grades at school. I had to take all that into consideration when looking at all the different schools. I ended up deciding to have him audition for a charter school that focused on the arts. Unfortunately through a random drawing, he was not accepted into the school. Even though it was all fake, I still felt really upset at the whole process! I cannot even imagine how it would feel to actually be in that situation.

My independent study project is....getting there. I really just need to focus and sit down to write out my paper. I have ran with four different running clubs and sat down with the president of Girls on the Run, a super awesome after school running program for girls in the city. Now I just need to compile everything I have learned and create a final product out of it! That is my goal this week :)

We only have two more weeks left of our internships. I have really been enjoying my time at Girls in the Game. I have two after school sites that I coach at, and I absolutely love the girls. They are so great, and I have such a fun time with them! I have also been working on reaching out to community organization about promoting our Super Saturday event. I have spent the last three months researching all the community organizations in our eight target communities. It has been such a long process, but I love seeing the finished product being put to use! I think I ended up with around 200 different organizations.

I think that is all the updates I have for now! I will definitely post later in the week! Hopefully with pictures after our Cubs game on Wednesday!

Author: Maria W.