IN THIS ISSUE:
*Events
*Volunteer Opportunities
*Internships, Jobs, and Beyond...
*In the Spotlight: Reverse Perspective on Community Service
SAVE THE DATE: 12th Annual Volunteer Recognition Reception
Monday, May 18th 2009
AVRR brings together community partners, students, faculty, staff, and administration to celebrate the hard-work, dedication and exemplary service in the community throughout this academic year. Nominations are now open for the following awards:
• President’s Volunteer Service Award
• Perry Herst Prize
• Faculty Service Award
• Staff Service Award
• CSRSO Award
• Turkington House Award
• Community Partner Award
Visit ucsc.uchicago.edu for award descriptions, eligibility and nomination forms.
EVENTS
UCSC Study Break
Thursday, March 12
8:30pm-10:00pm
Reynolds Club (McCormick Tribune Lounge)
Learn more about UCSC’s events and programs while eating free peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Also featuring live entertainment courtesy of Shower Songsters, Voices in Your Head, and Men in Drag!
Breaking the Silence: Torture Survivors Speak Out
Thursday, March 12
5:00pm-8:00pm
Thorne Auditorium (375 E. Chicago Avenue)
Northwestern University School of Law invites students to come watch the film, “Breaking the Silence”. The film interviews torture survivors from Africa, The Philippines, South America, The Middle East and the U.S. It also examines the political issues and current US legislation regarding the use of torture. Following the film, a panel discussion will be held to discuss torture and efforts to end it.
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
Volunteer in Africa is organization in Ghana which offers volunteer work and volunteer travel programs anytime year round to Ghana, Africa. Their program promotes sustainable development, international cooperation, friendship and understanding in Ghana. Volunteering includes opportunities in orphanages, schools, media/journalism, and HIV/AIDS. For more information: http://www.volunteeringinafrica.org/ghana.htm
Each One Teach One is a nonprofit organization that caters to under-performing and underserved students on the south side of Chicago. As a Coach Volunteer, you will work with targeted students for the entire semester; tutoring, teaching, and cultivating logical thinking and problem solving skills, so that they may begin to work through their math challenges with minimal assistance. It should be noted that all of our Coach Volunteers are adept in high school-level mathematics. For more information, contact Janisse Norman at Each1Teach1@UReach.Com or 877.274.1284.
March 14th, 2009
The Chicago Metro History Education Center invites you to make a difference in students’ lives by volunteering to judge at a History Fair event this spring. As a judge, you will evaluate exhibits, documentaries, performances, or research papers on topics in Chicago history produced by students in grades 6-8 or 9-12. For registration information contact Chicago Metro History Education office at 312-255-3661 or e-mail them at info@chicagohistoryfair.org
INTERNSHIPS, JOBS, AND BEYOND...
Due: 03-12-2009
The Urban Institute Summer Academy for Public Policy Analysis and Research provides a unique and challenging learning experience for minority college students who are interested in careers in public policy research. Their eight-week summer program will give students between their junior and senior year of college the skills and exposure crucial to obtaining highly competitive entry positions in the field. To apply see http://www.urban.org/uisa/apply.cfm
Due: 03-15-2009
The University of Chicago Public Interest Program (UCPIP) is an alumni-driven University initiative providing opportunities for graduating College students to embark on careers that will have a positive impact on both specific communities and our larger society. Through one-year fellowships at partner organizations, young alumni of the University will bring their considerable skills, creativity and commitment to bear on substantive projects with direct relevance to crucial public interest and public service issues. For more information, email Max Brooks at mbrooks@uchicago.edu or visit http://chicagostudies.uchicago.edu/engage_UCPIP.html
Due: 03-15-2009
The Fellows Alliance is a year-long paid fellowship program committed to building religious pluralism and organizing interfaith activities on campus. IFYC provides mentorship, a network of peer colleagues, access to a national network of interfaith youth work organizers, internship and professional development opportunities. Contact Hafsa Kanjwal for more information at hafsa@ifyc.org or at 312-573-8926.
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
DOROT Internship
As a DOROT intern you will be exposed to the complex issues of aging, and gain experience in all aspects of DOROT's operations. Among many activities you may: visit with seniors in their homes, escort seniors to cultural events, doctor appointments or shopping, tutor seniors in computer use, and assist professional staff in the DOROT office with the planning and execution of programs. To apply contact Shayna B. Finman, Coordinator of College Volunteers at sfinman@dorotusa.org or fill out the online application at www.dorotusa.org
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Reversed Perspective on Community Service
*This quarter we have examined community service from its gains on the community around us. As Winter quarter ends, we wanted to share two organizations that stand out in the minds of our writers.*
The Brown Elephant by Rachel Cromidas
The Brown Elephant is not your grandmother’s thrift store. Located in the heart of Boystown, the shop sells everything from flower-printed ottomans to picture-frames and leather jackets. Their best items walk a fine line between shabby and chic, and would be absolute gems to find in any consignment outpost. But the Brown Elephant is consigning with a conscience—its proceeds go directly to the Howard Brown Health Center, the Midwest’s largest healthcare provider dedicated to the LGBT community.
The promise of social-consciousness and cheap goods makes the Brown Elephant exactly the kind of place second-year Bradan Litzinger wants to shop. He visited the store last month with other members of the Community Service Leadership Training Corp. to volunteer. but he first visited the Brown Elephant in the Fall, looking for a Halloween costume. He was dressing as Jake Blues of the Blues Bros, and needed an inexpensive black tie and suit coat.
“It really wasn’t that difficult to find those clothes,” Bradan said, “but the Brown Elephant really has things that you wouldn’t get anywhere else. I got a Yoda poster that was framed; it was pretty awesome. I go there when I want something that’s a little bit unusual.”
Of course, Bradan said it didn’t hurt that the store was raising money for a great cause. The Howard Brown Health Center has been offering its services to Chicago’s Gay, Lesbian, Bi and Transgender community since 1974. Now, they offer free, anonymous STD and HIV screenings, primary care services and substance abuse programs to more than 28,000 adults and youth each year.
Spending just a couple of dollars here can provide someone with a free flu shot or safe-sex kit. Maybe I don’t need a cookbook dedicated to pizza recipes (my dorm room kitchen just isn’t equipped), but I can’t think of many better reasons to spend a little extra when my budget is
tight.
Interfaith Youth Core by Mutisya Leonard
2008 recipient of the University of Chicago President’s Volunteer Service Award and A.B 2008 alum, Hannah McConnaughay, first went in to Interfaith Youth Core in the summer of 2007 as a Summer Links Intern. She returned upon graduation to a full-time responsibility and is today Program Associate for Outreach Education and Training. Interfaith Youth Core is a Chicago-based non-profit that promotes pluralism among youth of different religious traditions by empowering them to work together to serve others.
“Service work, if done right,” McConnaughay shared, “if done with humility, and an understanding that we are all at times in need of and recipients of public service, and with respectful consultation of the communities ‘served’, and with a thirst for listening to the stories of the people we encounter – will teach you more practically about the social world, what our political priorities should be, and how to meet logistical challenges. It informs too the abstract analytical work of the classroom, creating a conversation between the theory and practice of all aspects of life that makes you a better scholar, as well as an informed citizen.”
“Civic engagement is paying attention to what happens in places where people from different homes, cultures, and ideologies encounter one another, and responding to their interaction intentionally,” McConnaughay considers. “Thus defined, careers in business and journalism, may involve, if socially engaged, as much civic activity as politics and social service.”
“In my first year in Chicago,” McConnaughay recalls, “I was recruited to UCSC’s Community Service Leadership Training Corps, under Pamela Bozeman-Evans’ guardianship. At our first trip out, Pam brought us out to Belmont and Clark for ‘random acts of kindness’. We handed out coffee and donuts, and she educated us about the area, letting us know of the homelessness behind the affluence – that this place that some of us would return to, to go clubbing, had too a huge concentration of homeless youth. I return to that night all the time now that I live in Lakeview.”
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
