Logistics for South West Youth Collaborative (SWYC) Visit:

Contact Details:

Harish Patel
312.823.0090
harishibrahim@gmail.com

Make sure you contact me at least one day before making your trip out to the SWYC. I would like to plan ahead so that I can be available to help you when you arrive.


Location:

6400 S. Kedzie
Chicago, IL 60629
Map

Getting to SWYC by Public Transportation:

1. Take the Pink or Orange Line CTA to the Kedzie stop.
2. Take the Kedzie Bus #52 south and get off on 63rd and Kedzie.
3. Walk one block south to the corner of 64th and Kedzie.
   

http://tripsweb.rtachicago.com/ - use this link to get precise instructions to the center from wherever you’re coming from.

Once you arrive at the center, ask for (me) Harishi.

I also remember that some of you wanted to meet up and come as a group. Remember, we can’t accommodate groups of more than 3 people. If you’re interested in coming as a small group or in a pair, email the class and arrange things for yourself. You can find everyone else’s email address from the mass emails that we have sent to you.

When:

You can visit anytime during regular hours: Monday - Friday, 10 AM – 4 PM

If you’re unable to visit SWYC within this schedule, please contact me and we can arrange an alternative.

Special Events or Programs (fulfills your visit requirement)

• Break-dancing/Tech classes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 4 – 7 PM

• On Tuesdays and Thursday, SWYC has around 6 interns that come from U of C, Depaul, NIU, and UIC, so the place is really active and busy. If you want to speak to SWYC interns about their experience, I'd be happy to arrange that.

• Arab American Action Network & the Southwest Youth Collaborative invite you to:

Occupation 101: Voices of the Silenced Palestinian Majority
A film screening & discussion

Friday, March 21
5pm - 8pm
Arab American Action Network
3148 W. 63rd Street

"A thought-provoking and powerful documentary film on the current and historical root causes of the Palestinian-Isreali conflict. 'Occupation 101' presents a comprehensive analysis of the facts and hidden truths surrounding the controversy and dispels many of its long-perceived myths and misconceptions.

Refreshments will be served. Flyer attached- spread the word!

For more info on the film: www.occupation101.com

On AAAN: www.aaan.org

On SWYC: www.swyc.org

>Harishi

Class 5 Wrap-Up

This week our class was focused on the topic of education. Students shared their personal experiences, their frustrations with school, and their vision for an ideal education. Our dialogue was enriched by the presence and participation of a group of 4 students and two community organizers from the Southwest Youth Collaborative.

The Southwest Youth Collaborative is a community-based non-profit organization working to empower youth in the southwest side of Chicago through arts, activism, education, sports, job placement, and technology programs. For more information about the Collaborative visit their website at http://swyc.org

Questions we discussed in class:

1) what is education?
2) what is school?
3) are these two things the same?
4) if not, why?
5) in what ways does school limit our education? in what ways does it promote it?

Journal Prompts:

Because of spring break, we will not have class on Wednesday, March 26th. However, you are still responsible for two journal entries and a mandatory (and hopefully educational) visit to the Southwest Youth Collaborative. Logistics about the visit can be found on the following post.

Journal Prompt #1 (must be written and submitted before your visit to the Collaborative)

Part 1. What are your reflections from the class discussion? Feel free to respond to any of the questions posed above.

Part 2. Before you make your visit to the Southwest Youth Collaborative, what are your expectations of the trip? Are you nervous, excited, or apathetic? What do you think about this assignment?

Use this journal as an opportunity to self-reflect. If you feel uncomfortable sharing your journal entry with other readers, let us know, and we'll absolutely respect your request.

Journal Prompt #2 (must be written and submitted after your visit to the Collaborative)

Describe your experience. Compare and contrast it to your expectations. Were you surprised by anything? What did you learn? What new questions did you walk away with? Would you recommend the assignment to other UIC students?

Use this journal as an opportunity to self-reflect. If you feel uncomfortable sharing your journal entry with other readers, let us know, and we'll absolutely respect your request.

Food for Thought

Generation Q (the Quiet Americans) - a NYTimes article written by Thomas Friedman.

"America needs a jolt of the idealism, activism and outrage (it must be in there) of Generation Q. That’s what twentysomethings are for — to light a fire under the country. But they can’t e-mail it in, and an online petition or a mouse click for carbon neutrality won’t cut it. They have to get organized in a way that will force politicians to pay attention rather than just patronize them."

where's the outrage in college campuses? and what role does online activism play in the overall goal of social change?

you guys are the real experts when it comes to these questions. i'm looking forward to hearing your comments.

>daniel

Class 4 Wrap-Up

In the first hour of class, Nathaniel Whittemore from Northwestern University presented a lecture entitled "A History of Citizen Philanthropy." Through an exploration of England's abolitionist movement in the late 18th and early 19th century, Nathaniel constructed an analytical framework out of concepts and lessons derived from the past.

When studying a situation consider the following questions:

Who are the Actors? What are their Interests? Their Perceptions? And the Context in which they live? Who has the Power? How much? And what kind?

Nathaniel posed two key questions in his presentation:

1) How can humanitarianism both challenge and reinforce inequality?
2) How would the abolitionist movement be remembered? What were its' long-term consequences?

In second hour of class, Jon Marino from Northwestern University divided the class into 3 groups and led us in an exercise with the following instructions:

You are a group of philanthropists working together to decide which of the following projects to fund. You have a collective budget of $10,000 to give to one of the following three projects.

-Financial Director for a School in Uganda
-Medicine for a TB outbreak in China
-Human Rights Advocacy in Guatemala

1. Come to a consensus decision about which project most people in the group want to support after weighing the tradeoffs you see embedded in each.

2. Identify 2 or 3 points of debate that your group spent the most time on when making your decision.

3. Think about the pieces of information that you feel are missing from the descriptions that would have made your decision easier.

This exercise introduced us to a number of inherent trade-offs that are embedded within choices we face in international development. No project is perfect. And different people with unique interests, values, and experiences make different choices.

At the end of class, Nathaniel presented us with this journal prompt:

If you had a $100,000, what would you do with it? And why? Describe your project using the analytical framework proposed in Nathaniel's presentation (see above).

>Daniel