E Wilson's Blog (17)

As many of you know, I finished volunteering this year at Cabrini Connections as a blogger and have moved on to work for the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago office as an intern in the Goverment Relations department. Not only will this opportunity help me to expand my knowledge of policy analysis on various different issues affecting women and youth, it has also helped me to grow in the area of goal-setting, which is crucial to on-going success.

As a component to my internship, I'm…

Continue

These past 5 months have rushed by, haven't they?



My time here at Cabrini has taught me so much about networking, strategic planning, and blogging activism. At Cabrini, I was able to reconnect with the blogosphere through social networking and writing about my adventures here at the center and how they relate to different social issues affecting youth in Chicago. As I move forward from Cabrini Connections, I'm taking with me new ways to analyze information in order to create plans of… Continue

Our society is built on a economic system in which in order for there to be the success of some, the displacement and marginalization of others is often required. We are taught from adolescence what it means to produce and consume in an open market, and thus we must work for every dollar that we obtain. For most people, just working to pay the bills brings enough trials on its own, let alone thinking of how to help…

Continue

This past Tuesday night, I co-stared in Loyola University’s production of 8 Women, an eclectic performance by women of color as part of the celebration for Women’s History Month. 8 Women was created by Loyola's women students, faculty and staff in order to provide an avenue for all women and those who identify as women to examine various forms of femininities and gender related subjects by examining our personal…

Continue

As a volunteer blogger here at Cabrini Connections, I often get the chance to witness the different clubs that the students can participate in outside of academic work and mentoring. I find the Art club, Writing…

Continue

Imagine the first meeting you ever had with a student who you would be establishing a relationship with as their mentor or tutor.

Do you remember how nerve-racking and awkward it was not knowing what questions to ask and how to ask them?

I’ve worked at 3 different schools and youth centers before moving to…

Continue

I'm learning how to put pictures within this blog like so..

For instance, I want to add this picture:

happy birthday Audre Lorde

Yesterday in Springfield, over 2,000 Illinoisans participated in the “We Can’t Wait” responsible budget rally. The purpose of the rally was to support efforts calling for legislators and lawmakers to approve a spending plan that would spare human services cuts to human services and provide more grant money to non-profit organizations by raising income taxes. As some of my readers can remember, I attended a…

Continue

A great discussion was started at Fireside Learning, a social network of partners conversating on education about a post written by Richard Kahlenburg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, on the Obama Administration’s stance on socioeconomic integration of schools, which is a hot button issue for school officials in the CPS system. To view Kahlenbur’s post click here.

While the…

Continue

February celebrates Black History Month, the shortest time of the year when our country pays extra attention to the contributions of Black Americans throughout history, yet should not this recognition be absorbed in our daily institutional education, as do most notable contributions to society, in order to be recognized by all throughout the year, and not just when the occasion deems it possible to do so? While pondering this question, let us all consider how the discrepancies in history and… Continue

“Already, we have made an historic investment in education through the economic recovery plan. We have dramatically expanded early childhood education and will continue to improve its quality, because we know that the most formative learning comes in those first years of life. We have made college affordable for nearly seven million more students. And we have provided the resources necessary to prevent painful cuts and teacher layoffs that would set back our children’s progress.

But we… Continue

Today, a story on the new Apple device came out on the 12noon news that already has ¼ of my friends on facebook geeked and excited about being a future owner. Apple recently announced the new ipad which will be released this April. To sum up the device, an ipad looks like a Kindle, yet functions like a netbook, with its makers already bragging about the new “simple, closed internet device” as the “future of computing” while also launching an advertising campaign declaring the PC to be… Continue

On January 12th, a earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 hit Haiti 10 miles west of the capital of Port-au-Prince. Death toll predictions of this historic disaster has been estimated to around 200,000. As of January 17th, United States Agency for International Development estimated the death toll at 65,000. Thousands of buildings including shanties, hospitals, schools, the presidential palace, and residences have been destroyed by the earthquake and its aftershocks. Because the Haitian government… Continue

Martin Luther King Jr. was one of America’s most committed social activist in history. He fought for equality, freedom, and justice for all by organizing communities to apply principles of non-violence in order to achieve civil rights domestically. Dr. King devoted his life to social justice and taught us that through service, America’s issues of prejudice, discrimination, and poverty could be overcome. Monday, January 18th will commemorate another day of service in order to address our… Continue

“The true power of the internet is that it gives us the chance to do something different - focus on ourselves for a change. That indeed, would be visionary”. (Duchess Harris)



I’m still in the process of understanding “the connection”, a new moniker that I have dubbed the whole social networking process of Cabrini Connections. Today, I was successful at explaining the connection to two of our new additions to Cabrini, Eunsoo Lee and Jawon Koo. Both have currently joined the… Continue

What are our roles as leaders in the tutor mentor connection? That was one of the questions on task yesterday during a meeting with stakeholders at Cabrini. Today, I want to pose this same question to you, reader.



I learned in this meeting that the T/MC web portal provides an outlet to share information, communicate, and build knowledge. T/MC maps networks to see the overall correlation in how groups and ideas develop across the spectrum of youth programming. There are number of ways… Continue

Wow, I'm here....



I happily joined the team today taking on a new internship that not only encompasses successful youth tutoring and mentoring, but also new forms of community outreach. I feel this profound sense of urgency that floats somewhere in between being nervous and excited, yet I feel that life experiences and chance has prepared me for this step.



I'm ready!



Everyone shares the common experience living in a neighborhood where it seems like there were… Continue