IN THIS ISSUE:
*Events
*Volunteer Opportunities
*Internships, Jobs, and Beyond...
*In the Spotlight: U of C Students Prove “ArtShould" Matter in Neighborhood Schools
EVENTS
Indoors Chicago Bears Tailgate
Sunday, October 25
12:00pm
St. Thomas the Apostle, School Gym (5467 S. Woodlawn)
St. Thomas the Apostle hosts an indoor tailgate for the Bears vs. Bengals football game. $10 donations include all you can eat food and one beverage ticket.
Community Organizing 101
Sunday, October 25
4:00pm – 6:00pm
Harper, Room 150
Southside Solidarity Network presents part 1 of a three part introduction to community organizing in the tradition of Saul Alinsky and Barack Obama. This week’s session is entitled “Relationships.” Dinner is also provided. Email mhopwood@uchicago.edu to register or visit southsidesn.wordpress.com for more information.
Public and Social Service Program Kick-Off
Wednesday, October 28
6:00pm
Ida Noyes Hall
Kick-off a full year of programming focused on public and social service careers. Learn about the 2009-10 Public and Social Service Programs and network with alumni in the non-profit and public sectors. With questions, contact Dillan Siegler at dsiegler@uchicago.edu.
Invisible Children Film Screening
Thursday, October 29
7:00pm
Stuart 102
Come to the Invisible Children documentary screening on Thursday October 29th at 7pm! The roadies will be here from San Diego to show the most updated documentary on the peace talks in Northern Uganda. Food is provided!
Zócalo in Chicago: “What Does Immigrant Integration Mean Now?”
Friday, November 6
2:00pm
Navy Pier (600 E. Grand Ave)
Over one million people became legal immigrants last year, and another million — a record number — took the oath of citizenship. As pressure mounts for Barack Obama and Congress to enact immigration reform, writers, advocates, and political experts visit Zócalo to ask what — beyond mere legal status, paperwork and oaths — is required to make immigrants feel like a part of American society.
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
Volunteer for the Chicago Academic Games League (CAGL), a math competition for middle school youth on the University of Chicago campus once a month. Teach the students once a week for 1-2 hours and be there to support them at the tournaments. Training starts next week. For more information contact Boryana at boryanalevterova@gmail.com
Training-to-Transition needs people to conduct mock interviews as well as panelists in the areas of Creative Art & Culinary & Entrepreneurial, Medical, Health & Fitness, and Construction. For more information contact Raven Moore at rmoore@umojacorporation.org
Pershing West Middle School is looking for volunteers to judge science fair projects in late November. Everyone is invited to be a judge for the science fair regardless of majoring in science. For more information, contact Eve Ewing at elewing@cps.edu or 773-534-9240
Would you like to make an invaluable contribution to the life of an individual? Warm, personable older woman needs support and training in basic computer skills in order to find employment. Could bring her laptop to you or work over the phone. For more information, e-mail Keith at dipplek@uchicago.edu
Math tutors are needed for a class of boys at Madison Elementary School (74th Dorchester). For more details please contact Susan Peters Susan.Peters@uchospitals.edu 773-702-5037
INTERNSHIPS, JOBS, AND BEYOND...
Students Serve, a national 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, is accepting applications for service project grants. Any college student with an idea about how to address a local, national, or global problem can submit the online application at StudentsServe.org.
National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness is launching Resolve to Fight Poverty at the Resolve 2009 conference at Loyola University in Chicago on November 5-8, 2009. To register, visit http://www.studentsagainsthunger.org/conference
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
U of C Students Prove “ArtShould” Matter in Neighborhood Schools
Anna Tenuta, Staff Writer
At the start of the 2009-2010 school year, U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan sent a letter to school and education community leaders around the country stressing the importance of arts as a core academic subject in public schools.
"The arts can help students become tenacious, team-oriented problem solvers who are confident and able to think creatively," Duncan, who previously served as CEO of Chicago Public Schools, wrote in the letter. "These qualities can be especially important in improving learning among students from economically disadvantaged circumstances.”
As the Obama Administration continues work on education reform with some focus on the importance of the arts, University of Chicago students have launched a new project to take matters into their own hands.
The Community Service RSO appropriately named ArtShould, is made up of ten UofC students passionate about art. Once a week, they head to Ray Elementary School to teach a visual arts after-school program to about twenty kids. The students range in age from six years to eleven years old.
“When ArtShould was getting started, we all got together and defined ‘art’ as a tool which anyone can use to digest other things in life,” explained Alex Spacht, a second-year director of ArtShould. “Art has always been something we go to to understand what is going on with us, and that is what we are trying to share with the kids.”
For the young students at the Ray School, art may help with issues in their home life or academics, but it may also develop into a passion.
“Each week, we work with things that are everyday materials, showing the kids that they don’t have to have canvases or oil paint to create art,” explained Natasha Davis, a third-year director of ArtShould. “We’re showing them that you can make art wherever you are with whatever material you have.”
This week, the kids are continuing a lesson on primary colors and introducing words to tell a story with both image and text. Some construction paper, old magazines and a few glue sticks are all the kids need. Once the students enter the classroom, they are anxious to begin their art projects. One eight-year-old third grade boy holds up his picture and enthusiastically says, “My art is cool.”
The UofC student teachers engage in one-on-one conversations with each of their students, filling a great desire for attention at the end of the day from many of the kids. While working on their projects, the kids chat excitedly, sharing materials and asking questions about everyday things.
“When is your birthday?” asks one nine-year-old girl. When one student starts to draw himself as Batman, the questions quickly turn to “What are you going to be for Halloween?”
Still in its definitive stages, ArtShould has grown by leaps and bounds since it was imagined last year. Davis, who co-founded the organization, explains that there are two separate goals for the organization: “to create an arts community for UChicago students and to share our passion with kids in the community who may otherwise not have the chance to make art”.
With support from the University of Chicago Women’s Board, ArtShould is now an established weekly program at the Ray School, but the directors hope to expand it further.
“We started with Ray [School] because their funding for arts was cut a lot last year so they were very open to the idea,” explained Will Larsen, a second-year who is also a director of ArtShould. “There was not only space there, but a desire for the program.”
Davis, Larsen, and Spacht share in their goals to reach out to other CPS elementary and middle schools soon to spread the voice and impact of art.
On her collage, one of the nine-year-old girls, who says she likes to get to come to ArtShould after school to “have fun and use color”, decides to cut and paste words to write a riddle about her image: “You live in it and you can always come back even if you leave. It is big. It is nice.”
The answer to her riddle: home.
To learn more or get involved in ArtShould, please contact Natasha Davis at davisn@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
