Bridging Classroom and Community

Community-Building with Neighbors
The Albany Park neighborhood has social assets and a global footprint hidden by stereotype. Experience the World in Albany Park—Globalization in our Backyard challenged the stereotype as 75 local stakeholders hosted 40 conference events for 1700 participants over a span of two weeks. Participants learned about the contributions of immigrants, energetic responses to environmental threats, community health initiatives, political engagement and civic hospitality. University sponsors (NEIU & North Park) teamed up with neighborhood leaders to strengthen efforts to recognize achievements and stimulate new initiatives for future collaboration.
The Albany Park neighborhood has social assets and a global footprint hidden by stereotype. Experience the World in Albany Park—Globalization in our Backyard challenged the stereotype as 75 local stakeholders hosted 40 conference events for 1700 participants over a span of two weeks. Participants learned about the contributions of immigrants, energetic responses to environmental threats, community health initiatives, political engagement and civic hospitality. University sponsors (NEIU & North Park) teamed up with neighborhood leaders to strengthen efforts to recognize achievements and stimulate new initiatives for future collaboration.

From School to Work
Learning in school and learning from life takes extra attention and effort. Often students make deep attachments to ideas and skills only to find they cannot translate what they learned in the classroom to the practical demands of the workplace or neighborhood. I spent nearly 15 years placing, coaching and supporting 212 interns who worked in 120 different organizations. Organizations frequently fail to put their interns to good use and interns need help learning how to prepare and adapt to unfamiliar organizational conventions. I developed exercises, activities and techniques for supervisors and students that shorten the learning curve and improve the quality of collaboration.
· Organization supervisors learn how to assess, select and manage interns
· Interns learn how to identify, choose and contribute to placements
Learning in school and learning from life takes extra attention and effort. Often students make deep attachments to ideas and skills only to find they cannot translate what they learned in the classroom to the practical demands of the workplace or neighborhood. I spent nearly 15 years placing, coaching and supporting 212 interns who worked in 120 different organizations. Organizations frequently fail to put their interns to good use and interns need help learning how to prepare and adapt to unfamiliar organizational conventions. I developed exercises, activities and techniques for supervisors and students that shorten the learning curve and improve the quality of collaboration.
· Organization supervisors learn how to assess, select and manage interns
· Interns learn how to identify, choose and contribute to placements