Stories
Call to Action: Grow Your Own Illinois
Students come from numerous social backgrounds, each with their different world views, circumstances and needs. Therefore, teachers need to be prepared to handle that variety of world views. Grow Your Own Illinois, or GYO, understands the necessity for teachers to not...
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Chicago Youth Opportunities Initiative provides foster youth, ‘self sufficiency’ and ‘self love’
Since 2014 Chicago Youth Opportunities Initiative (CYOI), a Chicago based non-profit organization, has provided youth in foster care with tools to achieve their chosen career paths and become self reliant adults. Brittiney Jones, Executive Director of CYOI,...
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Heartland Alliance: Ending Poverty in Chicago for 128 Years
In the heart of Ravenswood, between an art center and a furniture store, sits a nondescript building with a small sign out front that reads “Heartland Alliance Human Care.” While the sign may be small, the impact this organization has on Chicago is something much,...
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Chicago street performers bring the music to people and people together
Chicago street and transit performers lift the spirits of commuters through song, dance and instrumental performances to create a relaxing atmosphere in some of the busiest areas of Chicago. David Russell of the Red Line Lounge Band and street performer and guitar...
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Authentic Community Engagement in Schools: How to Hear What is Not Being Said
In the fall of 2016, Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts reopened as an open – enrollment, arts high school. Now a level one high school located in the heart of Washington Park, Dyett High School of the Arts was born out of both struggle and compromise, as...
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Changing children’s lives through dancing
How great would it be if the world was one big “Step Up” movie, where all conflicts can be resolved through dancing your feelings away? You’re right, it would be amazing! Thanks to one non-profit, this idea is not so far-fetched to many young people in Chicago....
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Rhea Mahanta and The Peacebuilding Project
While it is easy to get caught up in the current political climate, there are individuals who rise up and push to enact change. Rhea Mahanta is one of those individuals. Mahanta, a graduate student at the University of Chicago currently pursuing her master’s degree in...
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CPSchools’ Professionals Series
The CPSchools’ Professionals Series is a collection of experiences lived and relayed by teachers and education professionals who work in Chicago public schools. Here, teachers, guidance counselors, specialists, coaches, administration, and other professionals in CPS...
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Students in Chicago Take to the Gardens
It’s officially gardening season, and all around the city, Chicagoans are out tending to their plants. We all know the benefits of gardening: getting outside, engaging in moderate physical exercise, and, of course, growing your own veggies. Through the...
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awakenings
Pablo Picasso. Vincent van Gogh. Frida Kahlo. Three of the most renowned painters of all time transformed years, and decades, of pain into the most iconic paintings in history. In Chicago, Awakenings encourages their artists to do the same. Awakenings empowers...
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Game-Changing Mentoring
Being a mentor can be incredibly rewarding on both ends, but as many professionals know, time is a valuable commodity. Spark, a career exploration and self-discovery program that brings middle-schoolers to local companies and organizations, has found a way to combat...
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Chicago Students Take Action to Promote Change
Between its beaches, museums, restaurants, and malls, there's no shortage of attractions that Chicago has to offer college students. But what can these students offer Chicago? The People's Lobby is a grassroots movement focused on fighting structural inequalities by...
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