IN THIS ISSUE:
*Events
*Volunteer Opportunities
*Internships, Jobs, and Beyond...
*In the Spotlight: A Glimpse into the Annual Volunteer Recognition Reception
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
Washington Park Growing Season
Saturday, March 21
9:00am
Washington Park (5531 S. Martin Luther King Dr.)
Brush off the snow, come out for some fresh spring air and chat with friends as preparation begins for the Washington Park growing season. For more information contact Madiem Kawa at 773-203-3418.
Social Impact: Speaking the Language of the Market
Tuesday, April 7th
4:45 – 8:00 pm
Harper Center – Room 104 (5807 South Woodlawn Avenue)
Are you interested in green building design or community development? Do you want to better understand public-private partnerships? Does the status of America’s Education System concern you? If so, please save the date for a conversation about these topics through the lens of business. The event will cost $10 for University of Chicago students. Please contact Hannah Bascom at hbascom@chicagobooth.edu with any questions.
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
Grand Boulevard Federation seeks volunteers to assist with child care needs on Friday, March 27th – Saturday, March 28th from 8:30 AM – 5:30 PM at 10 W. 35th Street. Interest is in volunteers who have an interest in early childhood, child care, and working with youth. You may volunteer for all or one of the days, or even for a half-day. Lunch will be provided. For more information contact Andrea Lee at andrealee@grandboulevardfederation.org.
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.
INTERNSHIPS, JOBS, AND BEYOND...
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
A Glimpse into the Annual Volunteer Recognition Reception
Klara Scharnagl, Staff Writer
At the end of each academic year, the University Community Service Center hosts its Annual Volunteer Recognition Reception to honor outstanding houses, groups, and individuals in service. Previous winners include Woodward House, recipient of the Turkington House Service Award, and Emma Boast, recipient of the Bernard O. Brown Service Award, both in 2008.
Priyanka Kumar, former RA of Woodward house, stressed the fact that she “had a wide variety of students participate,” and “what is important to note is that the participants were NOT necessarily the same kids that went on all the house trips.” The events that ‘Woodwardians’ participated in ranged from in-house to off-campus activities, from stuffing envelopes while watching movies in the house lounge for the Hyde Park and Kenwood Hunger Programs’ fall mailings, to spending five different Saturday mornings at the Living Room Café. “This experience,” explained Kumar, “gave students the chance to prepare and serve meals to the homeless and underprivileged living on the South Side of Chicago…by the end of the year we had volunteered at the Café five different times, with about 4-5 different students each time.”
Another event which Kumar describes as unique to her two years at Woodward was the participation in the Chicago Sun Times’ “Season of Sharing.” “The program works such that interested people request letters written to Santa by children living on the South Side of Chicago and enrolled in the Chicago Public School system,” explains Kumar. “Students [in Woodward] requested anywhere from one to as many as ten letters, and some even chipped in together to answer one or two letters as a group.” Once the letters were received, the ‘Woodwardians’ were responsible for purchasing, wrapping, and labeling the items requested by the children, and Kumar organized the delivery of the gifts. “In the end,” she says, “we had more than 22 students participate, and we answered almost 50 letters.”
“I hope,” Kumar says, “that the students got a sense of how easy it is to make an immeasurable impact on the community we live in and on the lives of others who are not as well off as we are.” These acts of service were done with great enthusiasm and the desire to help people in the community, or even to just get out and do something different; the reward was recognition of the diverse dedication to service. Emma Boast, winner of the Bernard O. Brown Service-Learning Award, embodies dedication to service.
As a part of her work with the Civic Knowledge Project last year, Boast took a course on Chicago’s urban ecology and infrastructure at Angelic Organic’s Learning Center in Woodlawn where she met Martha Boyd, AOLC’s Program Director. Through Boyd, Emma Boast met Rasha Abdulhadi who “suggested Boast apply for the Brown award and helped her draft a proposal that outlined strategy for building AOLC’s composting program.”
The award gave Boast “the opportunity to work from June to August at AOLC’s Urban Initiative,” where she helped manage the local composting program, learned the basics of maintaining an intensive organic garden, and researched green roof initiatives. “The Brown Award,” says Boast, “gave me the perfect opportunity to explore my interests in sustainable food production and urban planning and helped me deepen my understanding of Chicago’s local food movement.” Meeting other enthusiasts is a big plus along with “the day-to-day work in the garden and grounds, as I saw my physical labor pay off in the form of fresh, Chicago-grown produce.”
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
