Engage Community Newsletter

Letter from the Editor
by Kathryn Jackson
Student Employment/Federal Work Study Coordinator

It’s April in Chicago. Sometimes that feels like Spring, some days it feels like Winter. That’s April in Chicago. Yet, there is an undeniable sense that change is coming…or has begun. We know that the Spring semester will soon end. We will stop grabbing our jackets and “just in case” gloves, and carelessly wander out to find a patch of grass to host our lunch breaks, reading escape or few moments of reflection. And just as we begin to relax with the thoughts that summer is near, change will confront us, again.

If you’re a student, that change will mean preparing for final exams, end of semester projects and perhaps a move “home”–where ever you are spending the summer. For professionals, we see summer as a time to work hard during the day and then get out to enjoy the evenings. In our communities, summer in the city can be a noisy and diverse mix of neighborhood festivals, ice cream trucks and late night music from cars, apartments and side walk cafes. After a long winter and what seems like a protracted Spring season, I think we are all ready to “Spring Forward”!

Spring at Loyola

This edition of the Center for Experiential Learning’s Engage newsletter is dedicated to all the ways we are moving or “Springing” forward in our lives and our programs. There is something for everyone to look forward to whether your interest is internships, service-learning or what happens to our students after they leave Loyola Chicago (see “Volunteer + Internship + Research = Amazing Job and Future Opportunities”)!

So whether you are sitting in the lawn, at the beach or in a bus, joins us on a journey through stories about how our programs and initiatives continue to impact our community, students and alumni! If Engage is on your blog roll and you’re reading this from your smart phone, go outside and enjoy it in the sunshine—just please don’t step on the tulips!

To Do List
by Louise Deske

Academic Internship Coordinator

As the academic year draws to an end, now is a good time to clarify your ambitions, reflect on your unique accomplishments and imagine the possibilities! Life offers student’s many options but deciding what to do next doesn’t happen overnight! Maybe you are ready for an internship, off-campus job or need to prepare to enter the full-time work force! Regardless, here are some helpful links and resources to help you move through your “professional” TO DO LIST:

Identify your passion(s): Assess your interests & skills with the help of a career!

Seek support: Ask faculty, family and friends for professional contacts to expand your Network.

Move forward: Take chances – the only constant in life is change. Be ready for disappointments – don’t be side-lined by them. Be resourceful and resilient. Explore your possibilities.

Reflect (often): “We do not learn from experience. We learn from processing that experience.” – John Dewey

Prepare for Finals: Develop a strategy for studying; utilize the resources of the Tutoring Center (http://www.luc.edu/tutoring/) and Writing Center (http://www.luc.edu/writing/)

Focus on Volunteer/Service Opportunities: Connect with University Ministry (http://www.luc.edu/ministry/serviceandjustice.shtml)

Search for an Internship, Summer or Full-Time Position: Visit the Career Development Center (Sullivan Center, Suite 295, LSC) or use RamblerLink (http://www.luc.edu/career/RamblerLink.shtml)

Prepare for Graduate School: Use the resources of the Career Development Center (http://www.luc.edu/career/graduate.shtml)

Plan for International Travel: Visit the Office for International Programs (http://www.luc.edu/studyabroad/)

Celebrate your Graduation: Congratulations! (http://www.luc.edu/commencement/)

Enjoy your Summer 2010!

Alumni Affirmation

by Patrick Green
Director, Center for Experiential Learning

Tina Dragisic (CAS ’09) currently works as a Research Associate at Children’s Memorial Hospital. As a student at Loyola, she involved herself in multiple student organizations on campus, but also focused on her love of science. As a double major in Biology and Psychology, she engaged in research programs, but also pursued programs related to her passion for social justice. She is currently in the process of applying to medical schools.

During a short visit to her alma mater, she sat down with me in the Center for Experiential learning, and shared how her Loyola experiences contributed to her future goals and career plans.

What were your key experiences at Loyola either in or out of the classroom?
The thing I remember most is that I did research, but I was also very involved in social justice events, like Hunger Week, Amnesty International, American Medical Student Association (Loyola Chapter). I related my passion for medicine and health care to social justice.

Tell me more about the research – what did you do?
I fell into research, and did not really know what it was at first. I began my sophomore year volunteering in a biology lab. Then I became a Mulcahy Scholar [part of the Loyola Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program – LUROP]. I worked with Dr. Lucas and was able to work on my own research projects. I learned so many different skills beyond bio-chemistry like developing a research poster. We were treated like graduate students—it was really cool.

Tina as a LUROP participant and undergraduate student.

Then you moved on to an internship—what was that position?
I worked at Children’s Memorial Hospital in a research lab, and took an academic internship course [UNIV 390 Organizational and Community Leadership] in the summer. They were surprised at how much I knew from my research experiences at Loyola. I worked in that internship in the summer of 2008 from May through August. It was a great experience and I felt like I became a part of the lab. I even presented my research at the end.

What happened after that internship?
I kept in contact with the staff there [Children’s Memorial Hospital], and I currently have a paper in review for publication. I am third author, so I am quite excited.

Did this internship and research experience influence your professional role now?

That is how I got the job I have now. There was a job opening in the neurobiology lab, and through the recommendation of my internship supervisor, I got it. I now work as a Research Associate in Children’s Memorial Hospital.

Tina at her full time position at Childrens Memorial Hospital, Chicago, Illinois

How have you stayed involved with social justice?
I do not differentiate science, healthcare, and social justice. To me, healthcare is the most basic form of human rights, so that is why I am involved in science. My research helps humans and helps society – it is part of social justice.

What advice do you have for current Loyola students?
Go do what you are interested in. I like science and social justice, so I am doing both together. Do what you are passionate about. Also ask for advice, from professors or others. I have always asked and gotten some great answers.

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Students from all LUROP programs will participate in the Undergraduate Research Symposium on Sunday, April 25, 2010, from 1-4 p.m. in Mundelien Auditorium. This symposium allows students from across the university to showcase their research as they would at a professional conference. Students display the results of their study on posters and answer questions posed by attendees, including Loyola faculty, staff and other students. All student, staff, faculty and community members are welcome to attend! Admission is free! For more information, on the Loyola Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (LUROP) Symposium visit us at at http://www.luc.edu/lurop/undergrad_symposium.shtml.

Engaged Learning

by Chris Skrable

Service-Learning Coordinator

Every semester, over 1,200 Loyola students head out into the community to provide valuable voluntary service in connection with one or more service-learning classes. These courses, which are offered in every school (and as a part of most majors) here at Loyola, enhance students’ academic and professional development by complementing in-class academic content with reflective engagement in the community. They also provide students an exciting opportunity to learn about the broader Chicagoland community.

The Fall 2010 semester will feature over 40 such courses in departments ranging from Anthropology to Theology. (A full list is available on the Center for Experiential Learning’s website, www.LUC.edu/experiential.)

Here is a select “sneak peak” of what to expect this Fall semester:

• Mentor a middle-schooler! Students in Dr. Julia Pryce’s class (Social Work 361) “Positive Youth Development,” study the theory and practice of mentoring relationships while serving as a mentor to South Side youth at Donoghue Charter School through the GirlPOWER! Program (also developed by Dr. Pryce). Although the class lasts only a semester, students will continue their mentoring relationships through the entire academic year, providing much needed support to an at-risk student.
• Welcome a family of refugees! Dr. Dan Amick’s class (Anthropology 361) “Refugee Resettlement,” matches pairs of students with newly arrived refugee families that have recently been resettled in Chicago. Students help their families with some of the endlessly complex tasks of adjusting to a completely different country, culture, and way of life…while learning invaluable lessons about what binds all of us together as members of one human family.
• Save lives! Beginning in the Fall 2009 semester, Loyola’s popular EMT – Basic certification program is now a credit-bearing experience! Students enrolled in HEM 100, “Emergency Medical Technician – Basic” learn all the skills and knowledge necessary to serve on ambulance and ER crews, then put their knowledge to the test in 32+ hours of field service.
• Preserve the wisdom of experience! This Fall, Philosophy instructors Dan and Kathy Vaillancourt will again offer students the opportunity to explore philosophical aesthetics by focusing on the memoir art form in their PHIL 167, “Philosophy of Aesthetics – Civic Engagement” course. In collaboration with Mather Lifeways, students will engage with area seniors to artistically present the wisdom and beauty found in their life stories…thus preserving their hard-won life lessons for future generations.
• Visit Vietnam! New for the Fall 2010 semester, the Center for Experiential Learning and International Programs Office have unveiled UNIV 292, International Service-Learning. The course’s inaugural presentation will take place at Loyola’s newly established center in Vietnam, and will invite students to learn about Vietnamese culture, social policy, and justice issues while engaging in direct service work on behalf of local Vietnamese community organizations and NGOs.

For more information about these and other service-learning courses, visit the CEL’s website, or contact Service-Learning Coordinator Chris Skrable (cskrabl@luc.edu, 773.508.2380).

Trending
By Joanna Buchmeyer
Community-Based Federal Work-Study Coordinator

“One of the most challenging components of an alternative break immersion (ABI) for students is not the trip itself, but struggling with the question of the new awareness gained when they come back,” said Patrick Eccles Loyola’s ABI coordinator.

Patrick Eccles, ABI Coordinator

Alternative break immersions, an increasingly popular learning experience for college students, are an opportunity for students, faculty and staff to immerse themselves in a marginalized community to serve and walk in solidarity with that community. In 2009, an estimated 65,000 college students in the United States participated in an alternative break

Each year, Loyola facilitates about 14 domestic and four international immersions that take Loyola students around the country and South and Central America. The process of walking in anothers shoes, even for a short period of time, can be a transformative experience in itself. But as Eccles said, the real struggle of this experience for many ABIers actually begins after the trip ends.

This past March a group of nine Loyola students lead by Rise Nelson-Burrow of the Department of Student Diversity and Multi-Cultural Affairs and Qiana Green from Academic Advising, embarked on a newly added ABI that retraced the steps of the monumental 1961 Freedom Rides.

The ABI participants traveled to important landmarks remembering the plight of the Freedom Riders. [To learn more about the Freedome Rides and Riders, click on the link to the left and a short video will play.]

From Chicago to Cincinnati, Nashville to Birmingham, and Montgomery to the trip’s end in New Orleans, these students explored the Civil Rights Movement, community organizing, non-violent activism, the history of slavery, racism and student mobilization.

Throughout the trip, the student’s reflected about their experience and captured it in a blog. Among the many issues that these students were grappling with on their journey, there was an overall theme expressing a sense of a need for action, as well as an anxiety about returning to Loyola.

Each student comments about facing the facts of racism, ageism, institutional oppression and their own ability to be strong enough to do something upon their return:

• “From this trip I learned that the journey to freedom is everlasting and the battle is never won. We will always be in the “struggle” and I plan to be in the forefront for the rest of my life,” Alesia Vargas-Martin.
• “The legacy of previous generations who gave their lives to the cause is enough to encourage and inspire me to give my life so that theirs would not be in vain,” Nicole Davis.
• “She [Ms. Curtus, New Orleans activist] reminded me that my youth is a blessing. I got time to be old, but my youth is limited. Thanks to her I will do the best I can to take advantage of my youth to do good for myself, those around me, and my community,” Pedro Portillo.
• “As a college student, my purpose is becoming clearer and clearer. I now know that change is within my power and that my age is not a factor. If everyone had waited for the opportune moment to resist, no change would have happened,” Spencer Stachler.
• “Are any of the students these days capable of committing ourselves and risking everything? And on top of that what are we even going to fight for? Loyola is so troubled that even trying to tackle that as an institution is starting to make me think that it might be even better just to transfer. But I really don’t want to. I want to make a difference like the Freedom Riders, but it will be entirely too hard for just one person. As soon as I get back I want to start changing something. I have to start changing something,” Nia Lewis.
• “In Nashville, we got the chance to visit Fisk, Tennesee State, and Vanderbilt. I saw the many short comings of Loyola, and I questioned why I even went to Loyola. I would love to come back from this experience and a list of things we as a student community would want from Loyola. I’d want to carry out an action,” Raj Escondo.
• “I am confident that we are going to take an important message back to our friends at Loyola. I just hope that we can keep our commitment to fighting racial injustice the best ways that we know how when we return,” Serena Curry

The Freedom Ride blog can be seen in full here.

So how is it that these Loyola students, nine among the 65,000 “ABIers” a year in the United States, can do something positive for their community upon their return home?

“I’ve seen many students find ways to form close bonds to their host community when they return home,” said Eccles. “Students will do presentations in class about issues they’ve been introduced to during their ABI , they’ll form close bonds to their own ABI, or the Loyola ABI community in general. Quite a few students do a year of service, like the Americorps, after graduation back at their host site.”

For more information about Alternative Breaks at Loyola, contact Patrick Eccles at pecceles@luc.edu or http://www.luc.edu/ministry/abi.shtml

Guest Blogger

by Kevin Richards, Special Events Director, EdgeAlliance, Inc.

The Loyola University Community-Based Work-Study Student Employment Program has been a God send for my community-based agency EdgeAlliance.

“EdgeAlliance’s mission is to create housing with life progressive services for people living with HIV/AIDS.”

Federal Work-Study students play a direct role in the success or failure of our mission. For the past four years, I have worked with work-study students from the University of Chicago, Illinois Institute of Technology and Loyola University. Of all these noteworthy universities, Loyola University Chicago has sent EdgeAlliance our best student employees. Loyola students work with clients and also help us in so many other critical ways.

EdgeAlliance

Of those students, sophomore Megan McCoy, really stood out for the professionalism and standards of excellence she brought to the job. Megan’s hard work and service enabled us to meet and exceed our goals in the areas of event management and volunteer administration. Her organizational and creative skills helped make one of our biggest events a huge success.

Megan had several responsibilities at EdgeAlliance as well as supervising 7 direct reports and volunteers. She handled each job with a maturity that was way beyond her 19 years. For example, on the day of a large event, Megan personally supervised 10 volunteers for set-up. Megan’s performance that day helped ensure the success of the event which will enable EdgeAlliance to make up a significant portion of funds that lost from a very important federal grant.

Thanks to Loyola University’s Federal Work-Study Program and the caliber of its students, EdgeAlliance is able to serve one of Chicago’s most vulnerable populations: those individuals and families living with HIV and AIDS. The work-study students’ impact is huge and we will always be most grateful for their time, dedication and skill. They are literally helping to save lives!

By Joanna Buchmeyer
Community-Based Federal Work-Study Coordinator

You know that saying, “If I had a penny for every time ______ happened, I’d be a rich woman”? Well, I should really start keeping track. If I had a penny for every time I’ve heard a community organization talk about the transformation they’ve seen in a Loyola work-study student or volunteer, I’d not necessarily be a rich woman, but I’d be a woman able to buy a lot more fancy lattes from Metropolis without a twinge of guilt.

This edition of the Center for Experiential Learning’s Engage newsletter is dedicated to highlighting all things transformative here at Loyola. To illustrate my point (and to get a penny for my latte fund) Tonya Patterson from the Youth Organization Umbrella (YOU) stopped by the CEL over winter break to meet with me. YOU ,a holistic after school and neighborhood-based organization located in Evanston, employs 42 Federal work-study students and counting. As Tonya and I got to talking, she mentioned how amazing it is to see the metamorphosis of work-study students as they tutor and mentor youth at YOU. Students come to the organization, she said, with an idea of the world and their place in it, one formed by previous experiences. But through their experience and work at YOU, they typically leave with another. Tonya has even gone on to hire volunteers and work-study students post-graduation, who have positively transformed and shown dedication to their mission, for full time positions.

And that’s not something solely unique to YOU. Currently the CEL works with several community partners who have hired Loyola alumni that worked or volunteered at their organization during their undergrad. Centro Romero, Community Shares of Illinois, the Howard Area Community Center, Heartland Alliance and LIFTChicago just to name a few. These former students were all impacted by their experiences working in the community, and have decided to dedicate themselves to working for social justice.

So please, read on to hear more stories of when learning changed these Loyola students (and be sure to send your pennies my way!)

By Tara Becker
2008 Loyola Graduate

My name is Tara Becker and I am a Jesuit Alumni Volunteer at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood on the southwest side. Our program consists of recent college graduates who live in community and work at Cristo Rey (Pilsen) and Christ the King (Austin). Cristo Rey is a private dual language Jesuit high school that aims to serve immigrant families in the area, and it’s unique for its Corporate Internship Program which all students work one day a week at a corporation to help pay for their own tuition.

Tara with her fellow Jesuit Alumni Volunteers

The Jesuit Alumni Volunteer Program is a two year service program dedicated to community, spirituality, simple living, and justice. Last year, I spent my time as a volunteer doing myriad tasks including driving a bus, coaching the girl’s varsity volleyball team, teaching freshman Technology, and working in Campus Ministry. As a second year volunteer I am now the Director of Campus Ministry. I work with student leaders to plan retreats and school liturgies, and still continue to drive a bus of course.

My time at Loyola directly impacted my desire to enter a post-graduate service program. The word experiential defines the education I received from Loyola. I majored in sociology and became passionate about social justice, and studying social problems. At the same time, I worked in the community and with people experiencing the social problems I was studying. Through Loyola 4 Chicago, I volunteered with several non-profits in Chicago. One was Sarah’s Circle, a drop-in center for women in Uptown, where I volunteered for three years. Not only did I learn more about the issues of homelessness, poverty, and the lack of affordable housing, I was able to build relationships with the women who came there. I was also able to take a service learning class at Loyola’s Rome campus and work with Jesuit Refugee Services while studying Human Rights. Even the non-service learning classes I took mandated that I spend time in the city of Chicago experiencing what I was studying.

One of the most transformative experiences for me in college was attending a summer service-learning program at La Casa de la Solidaridad in El Salvador. This program is directed towards students interested in medicine and public health. Students volunteer in a public hospital, and take classes in Public Health and Spanish while living in community.

Casa De la Solidaridad program in El Salvador

While I was serving in El Salvador I saw a lot of poverty and need. However, I felt that I was constantly receiving so much more than I was giving. People who had very little were willing to share everything with me, a foreigner who struggled with Spanish and who had really little to share. The faith, generosity, and kindness of the people I worked with, combined with education about the injustices in El Salvador, inspired me to want to give more of myself to work for justice. This experience undoubtedly influenced my decision to come to Cristo Rey.

When searching for a position I was very attracted to programs that worked with Latino immigrant families, and sought to provide quality education. Cristo Rey is a place that does all of those things. I now really enjoy being part of an amazing team at Cristo Rey that provides students with opportunities that they might not receive otherwise. I hope that our students will continue to work for justice as they move on to college and successful careers. It is especially my hope as Campus Minister, that our students are committed not only to their education, but their faith and service to others.

As a volunteer at Cristo Rey, I have been able to live out a call to serve others. I have tremendously enjoyed my year and a half of service so far. The volunteers, staff, and students that I work with truly follow the call to live a “faith that does justice”.

By Joanna Buchmeyer
Community-Based Federal Work-Study Coordinator

Writing, editing, filming, re-writing, planning, learning, researching, re-filming, all for nine minutes of clean footage meant to tell a story.

A year and a half in the making, Meredith Snyder and Loyola’s Chapter of Amnesty International created a documentary, funded by Illinois Campus Compact’s Raise Your Voice Grant, that asks a very relevant question: Is social justice happening on campus at Loyola?

“None of us had any film experience,” said Snyder, Amnesty International’s president. “And the hardest part was telling a real story centered around the theme of social justice, but with a natural plot that moves the storyline forward.”

Of the many things Snyder learned throughout the filming process, the most startling realization was the difficulty that exists in getting people with common goals to work together.

“The overall message that was gathered from the documentary is that getting people together is the biggest challenge Loyola students face,” said Snyder.” Through the documentary process we [Amnesty] noticed that we weren’t really working with other groups very well, although we all generally have the same objective. It seems like only certain student organizations are tied to social justice, while other organizations, like ethnic organizations, aren’t considered social justice oriented. A lot of the ethnic groups do social justice work, like cultural awareness to end bigotry, but aren’t seen by non-members as a social justice advocates, which is a problem”

When the film screened on January 28th in Centennial Forum Student Union, a networking event followed the film so that groups would have a chance to connect.

This documentary is a great student-lead initiative that has relevance, not just on college campuses, but for anyone dedicated to social justice in the world.

If you’d like more information about Raise Your Voice grants, Illinois Campus Compact or ways to get connected to meaningful experiences through the Center for Experiential Learning please contact experiential@luc.edu or call 773.508.3366

By Joanna Buchmeyer
Community-Based Federal Work-Study Coordinator

The Center for Experiential Learning has spent the last year (Fall 2008-Fall 2009) working hard to coordinate and create meaningful opportunities for students, faculty and community partner organizations . We’ve compiled a one-pager highlighting some of our accomplishments to both thank and recognize everyone’s hard work.

CEL By the Numbers

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