IN THIS ISSUE:
*Events
*Volunteer Opportunities
*Internships, Jobs, and Beyond...
*In the Spotlight: Calumet Quarter
EVENTS
University of Chicago’s Red Cross Club Blood Drive
Thursday, February 5
10am-3:45pm
Ida Noyes
With more than 38,000 blood donations needed every day, do your part to help thousands by donating blood. Please visit www.givebloodgivelife.org, or send an e-mail to rgrooms@uchicago.edu to set up an appointment time. Be sure to include your full name, e-mail address, and preferred times.
4th Annual Food and Clothing Drive
Friday, February 6
Women’s game at 6:00pm; Men’s game at 8:00pm
Ratner Athletics Center
As the Maroons host Brandeis basketball, fans should bring clothing and non-perishable food items to benefit a local pantry. Each article of good clothing, each non-perishable food item, or $1 is good for 1 raffle ticket to WIN AN iPOD! The house that brings the most items also wins $100 dollars. Support your maroons and the Food/Clothes Drive.
Chicago Wilderness Conference: Wild Things 2009
Saturday, February 7
UIC Student Center East (750 South Halsted)
This day-long conference features 70 large and small group discussions with the region’s best experts, most dedicated volunteers, and anyone interested in nature. There is special focus on empowering citizen scientists, stewards and advocates with information, networking and good ideas. If you have questions, call (847) 328-3910 ext. 21. [Note: student registration is $15]
AYUDA-American Youth Understanding Diabetes Abroad, Inc. Information Session
Wednesday, February 11
7:30-9:00pm
Ida Noyes, West Lounge
AYUDA hosts an information session for volunteers interested in working with children from low income communities in Belize or Ecuador, many of whom suffer from alienation and preventable complications as a result of their diabetes. For more information contact Danielle Ennis at ennisd@ayudainc.net or Kendra Hennig at khennig@ayudainc.net
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
UCSC and Cultures in Action invite you to become a tour guide for their Investment in Diversity Program, which gives FREE campus tour to Chicago-area, first generation, low-income, and underrepresented junior high and high school students! Show off U of C and give back to the community! Apply online by: February 6, 2009. Questions can be directed to Lauryn Nwankpa (lauryn27@uchicago.edu).
Chicago River is looking for 20 – 30 volunteers to participate on the day of the Chicago River Student Congress. Activities include workshop registration, student sign-in, closing ceremony prep, and more. All volunteers will receive event t-shirt, breakfast and lunch for helping out. Times are from 7:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Contact Cynthia Fox at (312) 939-0490 ext. 13 or via email at cfox@chicagoriver.org to learn about what opportunities are still available.
Angelic Organics Learning Center will be offering workshops for young people at the Museum of Science and Industry part of Black Creativity Month, and need some help from volunteers who are interested in gardening, composting, and/or education. Volunteers with all levels of expertise (skills or experience in gardening or composting are helpful but not essential). If you are interested, contact Thea Carlson at thea@learngrowconnect.org or 773-288-5462.
Students are needed to help with set-up for the “Taste of Hyde Park,” a fundraiser for the Hyde Park Transitional Housing Project, a charitable organization which provides help for homeless families. The event will take place on Saturday February 21, 2009, starting at 6 pm, at Hyde Park Union Church, 5600 S. Woodlawn Ave., but students are needed at 3pm. For more information, contact Susanna Rudofsky radbusa@yahoo.com.
Volunteers are needed various activities on the days of the blood drive. This is a very rewarding opportunity! One blood donation can save three lives. So, whether you’re donating or volunteering, participating in the blood drive is a fulfilling experience. If interested in volunteering for the blood drive, contact Russell Grooms at rgrooms@uchicago.edu.
The University of Chicago Folk Festival is seeking volunteers, and has been entirely volunteer run since 1961! As a volunteer, you get to help make the 49th Folk Festival, February 6-8, 2009, a truly fantastic event, listen to some excellent traditional music, and volunteers get a FREE TICKET to a festival performance for every three hours worked. Help of all kinds is needed, including stage and sound crew, CD vending, ushering, selling cookies, and schlepping. To volunteer, please visit: http://uofcfolk.org/2009/Volunteer2009.html, or email: folkfestvolunteers@googlemail.com .
INTERNSHIPS, JOBS, AND BEYOND...
2009 Humanity in Action Fellowship
Due: 02-12-2009
The HIA Fellowship brings together university students from the United States and Europe for a rigorous, interdisciplinary inquiry into human rights, diversity, and minority issues. Students participate in the five-week fellowship in one of six different countries: Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, or the United States. Check out humanityinaction.org
Chicago Studies’ Calumet Quarter
Due: 02-13-2009
The Program on the Global Environment announces a one-quarter, intensive, experience-based program in environmental studies during the Spring Quarter, 2009. Open to all College students by application, students must enroll in all four courses simultaneously. http://pge.uchicago.edu/undergraduates/calumet.shtml or contact calumet@uchicago.edu for more information.
**Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellowship**
Due: 02-15-2009
Sponsors six-to-nine month fellowships for recent college graduates (including graduate students) in Washington, DC. Fellows serve as full-time junior staff members working on peace and security issues, at participating organizations. Includes a stipend of $2,100 per month and health insurance, plus travel expenses to Washington DC. For more information: http://scoville.org/.
Dr. Angela Perez Miller Scholarship 2009
Due: 03-27-2009
Named after the late Dr. Angela Perez Miller, who dedicated her life to the rights of Latinos in education and health, the scholarships are offered to first-year college students who are enrolled in an institution of higher learning in the amounts of $1000. To receive the application or if you have any questions please contact Melissa Gonzalez: (773)542-7077, melissa@latinospro.org
Federal Work Study (Off-Campus)
UCSC seeks out and posts part-time and summer work-study positions with Chicago area nonprofit and public sector organizations. Opportunities are geared toward identified interests and skills of our College, graduate and professional school students. View this list for the most current off-campus works study positions.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Calumet Quarter: Understanding Chicago's Environment
Rachel Cromidas, Staff Writer
This Spring, University of Chicago students can take part in an intensive study abroad-inspired program without ever leaving the Midwest—at least, that’s the idea behind the Calumet Quarter. This quarter-long Environmental Studies program aims to immerse students in the Calumet region, which extends from The South Side to Indiana along Lake Michigan, through concrete field work in such areas as “Prairie Ecosystems” and “Economic Evaluations of Ecosystems.”
“A lot of students aren’t from Chicago,” said Justin Borevitz, assistant professor in the department of ecology & evolution, so the program was designed to help students get to know the Chicago environment, “with a focused curriculum around the place and its history. [The Calumet Quarter] is a way for them to really understand the social sciences and the natural sciences together as a system.”
The Calumet region has been shaped by urban development over the past two centuries, and is host to significant levels of biodiversity. These traits make it an apt place for ecological research in the urban environment, Borevitz said.
“Its important for our science students to know that cities are very social organisms and kind of sloppy. They absorb a lot of nutrients and discharge a lot of waste.”
Borevitz is teaching a course about examining the prairie as a model ecosystem. Other classes will analyze pollen from local wetlands, scrutinize the use of economic methods to evaluate ecosystems and guide policy decisions, and listen to Chicago community leaders discuss the Calumet region from diverse perspectives.
David Hays, assistant director of the University Community Service Center and a Chicago Studies spokesperson, thinks the Calumet courses will have an important impact on beyond teaching environmental science. “It focuses on the Chicago area as a partner in the learning process—so this is a way to imbed academic studies in Chicago, not just the University.”
Hays, who supervises the UCSC-sponsored Days of Service, said the Spring Quarter Day of Service, usually hosted during Earth Week, will focus on the environment and possibly incorporate the Calumet Quarter’s areas of study.
The University has a history of studying the southern tip of Lake Michigan, from the Point to the Indiana Dunes, according to Hays since, the botanist Henry Cowles led students on fieldtrips around the Midwest—particularly the Indiana Dunes—in the early 1900s. Thus, the Calumet Quarter is part of both a tradition of Chicago-focused environmental studies at the University and emblematic of the recent push to integrate more coursework with the topic of Chicago via the interdisciplinary Chicago Studies Program launched last year.
According to Dean of the College John Boyer, who spearheaded the creation of Chicago Studies, Borevitz’s comparison of the program with Study Abroad is apt. “Many students study the culture and history of cities in our Civilization Abroad courses,” Boyer said at the launch event for the Chicago Studies Journal, “but it’s incredibly important that our students have just as many opportunities to understand and enjoy their home city, Chicago.”
Students can apply for the Calumet Quarter program at http://pge.uchicago.edu/undergraduates/calumet.shtml. The deadline to apply is Februrary 13. More information can be found at http://chicagostudies.uchicago.edu.
The University Community Service Center (UCSC) fosters the development of civic-minded students by providing substantive community service opportunities through community partnerships based on mutual trust and respect. If you have questions - how to get involved as a student or how to connect to students as a community organization - please contact us.
University Community Service Center
5525 S. Ellis Ave., Suite 160
Chicago IL, 60637
Tel: 773.753.4483
Fax: 773.834.1160
ucsc.uchicago.edu
