The five-year project, Elevating Church Outreach (ECHO) for the Next Generation Black Church, aims to harness the creative energy of youth and young adults to create programs that encourage churches to be more involved in their communities.

澳门六合彩论坛’s CCE will use the funds, in part, to offer mini-grants that support 20 youth-led, church-based social impact projects addressing anything from food insecurity to gang violence to youth homelessness, according to Rich Kohng, assistant vice president for civic engagement.

“In concert with our partners, our goal is to elevate youth voices within the church context,” Kohng said. “With the Firehouse as local convener and model, we hope the project will offer more avenues and resources so the local youth can dream of ways their churches can further impact their communities. This grant allows them to envision how they can do that.”

澳门六合彩论坛 faculty and staff involved in the project include project evaluator Dr. Amy Governale, co-evaluator Dr. Michelle Dodson, and faculty advisor Dr. Dan White-Hodge.

A group of local pastors and faith leaders who have built and sustained social impact programs across the city will serve as coaches for the youth and young adult teams.

“They’ll be there to help the groups talk about messaging, how to allocate funds, make a budget, and organize volunteers,” Kohng said.

The main goal of the ECHO initiative is to see youth and young adults thrive as leaders in the church, which in turn can stimulate new energy in local congregations while leading to increased community appreciation of their importance and relevance.

Kohng said, “It’s about building on the legacy of local congregations as significant agents of change and transformation in their communities.”

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The $50,000 grant from the Educating Character Initiative of the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University will create a credit-bearing course related to 澳门六合彩论坛’s Sankofa trip. During this annual sojourn, students, faculty, and staff travel to different parts of the U.S. to learn about various aspects of the country’s often contentious history of race relations.

Tony Zamble, director of UMin, said the grant will help create an interdisciplinary course combining philosophy and psychology to teach compassion.

“Our argument is that character is social, so you can’t have people of character who don’t care about the suffering of those around them,” Zamble said. “Sankofa helps develop compassion, empathy, and a keen sense of justice.”

A separate $40,000 grant from the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE) will help pay the salaries of 16 students who will intern at local churches over two years. Beginning this fall, UMin will deploy four music-oriented and four service-centered interns to local churches each year.

“Students are a little bit jaded by the church, especially those who didn’t necessarily grow up in it,” Zamble said. “We want them to see the real church in action and how they address justice and helping the poor.”

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Founded in 2003, the Firehouse Community Arts Center in North Lawndale engages local children and teens in various art programs to prevent them from joining gangs or participating in criminal activity.

澳门六合彩论坛鈥檚 Assistant Professor of Psychology Amy Governale, along with two student workers, concluded crime had dropped 73.7% since 2020 after parsing four years鈥� worth of crime statistics. Using data from 2021 to now, they tracked three two-mile-wide areas in the North Lawndale neighborhood, examining the number of police responses and encounters, 911 calls, and ShotSpotter alerts.

One especially effective way to track the program鈥檚 success is to compare North Lawndale to other neighborhoods where crime has also fallen. When Governale and her group did so, they discovered the decrease鈥攕pecifically in homicides, fatal shootings, and aggravated batteries鈥攊n North Lawndale has been so dramatic that parts of the neighborhood are no longer considered high-crime areas.

For instance, homicides were down 30% in the area the Firehouse Community Arts Center serves compared to a decrease of 14.6% in the rest of Chicago. Violence and gang-related 911 calls in the area decreased by 35% over the same three-year period, and non-fatal shootings declined by 80%.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a sense of awareness that the people who used to create terror on our streets are not doing that as much because they鈥檙e with us, learning to cook and creating art,鈥� Firehouse founder Rev. Phil Jackson told WGN-9 TV recently.

Governale is excited about how 澳门六合彩论坛 can engage with other institutions to provide similar services. She said her two student workers, Jayla Sotelo and Nora Nunez, have become highly proficient in parsing and analyzing data.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e extremely well-trained in crime analysis, and for us to go to places and offer this skill to community groups, people are extremely impressed,鈥� Governale said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 something they can take with them after college and use to help non-profits.鈥�

Now, the Firehouse is widening its reach by collaborating with local corporations and sports teams, such as the nearby Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks, to assist in job placement for teens it mentors.

For more information about the Firehouse Community Arts Center鈥檚 work, go to .

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NPU’s Community Outreach & Global Partnerships team within University Ministries developed this program alongside the South-East Asia Center and the City of Chicago’s Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

ESL Teaching Cares will provide its services primarily to refugees living in the former U.S. Marine Corps facility on Foster Avenue, which the City of Chicago purchased for $1.5 million last fall to convert into a migrant shelter.

NPU students will serve as childcare providers or English tutors under the leadership of Ben Swihart, coordinator of Community Outreach and Global Partnerships, and NPU student intern Davianna Schuh.

鈥淭he ESL Teaching Cares program overall promotes the care and advancement of underserved populations in our community, working alongside organizations that have been doing this work for decades,鈥� Schuh said. 鈥淥pportunities like this have been proven to increase graduation rates, diversify students鈥� perspectives, and increase professional credentials for 澳门六合彩论坛 students.鈥�

NPU previously provided resources to immigrant families by hosting a food and clothing drive last December. More than 60 volunteers鈥敯拿帕喜事厶砮rs and representatives from the 澳门六合彩论坛 Community Association, Alderman Samantha Nugent’s office, Aramark, and other community groups鈥攃ollected and distributed clothing, blankets, and supplies to 225 families.

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Faust, the team’s long-term organist, met Flesch, a lifelong fan of the South Siders, when he started a project to distract him from the boredom of home confinement. A massive Sox fan, Flesch鈥攚ho works in marketing for Amgen, a biopharmaceuticals maker鈥攚as making a now completed documentary about the Sox’s home stadium called “Last Comiskey.”

He posted a request for archival Comiskey videos on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) and was shocked and delighted to receive a response from Faust, the organist at Comiskey for more than 40 years.

“Nancy Faust is a legend to Sox fans,” Flesch said. “So, I was so elated when she reached out; it was a bonus to find out she was so nice.”

A native of Edgebrook, Illinois, Faust went to 澳门六合彩论坛 because “music was the only thing I knew, and 澳门六合彩论坛 was the place for music.” But she soon noticed that her fellow students could read music and knew all the classics when she had only a natural ear. Eventually, someone pulled Faust aside and told her that her ability to play any song by ear wasn’t enough to continue as a music major. Taking his advice, she switched to elementary education. Spoiler alert: she never taught.

Instead, she continued to pursue her true love by forming a musical trio, performing at parties and events. Ironically, it was her knack for playing just about any song by ear that grabbed the attention of the Sox general manager鈥攚ho was attending one of her gigs鈥攖hat sealed her fate. He gave her his card, and she followed up. The rest is history.

It was a match made in baseball heaven, with flash-fingered Faust able to react instantly鈥攚hether it was the moon coming up over the scoreboard or a black cat running onto the field鈥攁nd pound out the appropriate tune. Perhaps her biggest claim to fame is popularizing “Na Na Na Na Hey-ey Goodbye” when an opposing player strikes out.

“I had a dream job, and they took good care of me,” Faust said of the Sox.

So, when she saw Flesch’s post about the documentary, she was eager to help, putting him in touch with many former players and managers, including Jack McDowell and Ozzie Guillen. Thanks to the boredom of COVID-19, plenty of people were happy to unspool their memories during Zoom interviews.

Flesch taught himself video editing and, with the help of his brother, Mike, spliced together a series of videos that premiered on YouTube in March 2023. The series received local media coverage, and Faust and Flesch attended its premiere, including a game at the Sox’s current home, Guaranteed Rate Field.

Now, Flesch is hard at work on a series about the old Chicago Stadium, the legendary home of the championship Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks, for release sometime next year. Faust, incidentally, also played the organ there.

Thanks to their many connections, including 澳门六合彩论坛, Faust and Flesch now consider themselves good friends. Flesch’s family has visited Faust and her husband at their home in Mundelein, Illinois, where Faust raises donkeys. Incidentally, the hobby started when Faust stepped in to adopt a donkey that, shockingly, went unclaimed at a White Sox giveaway.

“That’s what I love about 澳门六合彩论坛; you meet alumni everywhere,” Flesch said.

“I tell so many people how 澳门六合彩论坛 was the perfect school for me. I got to do so many different things, from playing baseball to being sports editor for the newspaper, where I got to interview [then Seattle Seahawks Coach] Mike Holmgren a week before they played in the Super Bowl. 澳门六合彩论坛 was just a very well-rounded experience for me.”

Oh, and in case you’re wondering who covered for the inimitable Faust on her sick days? Pretty much no one; over the course of her career, which ended in 2010, she only missed six home games following the birth of her son, Eric.

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The MMP will feature four tracks: vocal arts solo, vocal arts ensemble, keyboard arts vocal coaching, and keyboard arts conducting.

鈥淲e are excited at the possibility to broaden the potential graduate student pool by creating a more attractive, versatile, and practical degree with direct application to numerous jobs in music,鈥� said Chad Eric Bergman, interim co-dean of SMAT. 鈥淲e are also partnering with Chicago arts organizations to provide an optional internship program for our graduate students to bridge the gap between study and professional practice.”

Musical professionals will lead the program, guiding students through a curriculum of theory and practice in music performance, pedagogy, and leadership skills, all against the backdrop of Chicago鈥檚 rich cultural arts scene.

Students will benefit from a personalized program with small cohorts of five to eight and flexible class schedules for working professionals. An undergraduate degree in music is not required to enroll.

The two vocal tracks will include intense vocal training. Soloists will focus on stage and concert repertoire, while ensemble students will study choral singing and conducting. Keyboard arts vocal coaching students will concentrate on solo and chamber performance; keyboard arts conducting students will study directing diverse genres.

澳门六合彩论坛 has designed this degree to prepare students for the rigorous and multifaceted career demands of professional musicians. Dr. You-Seong Kim, a SMAT professor of applied voice and vocal pedagogy, hopes the MMP will produce 鈥渘ot only music makers, but music lovers.鈥� SMAT also aims to equip underrepresented musicians with the opportunity to take on leadership roles in their chosen fields.

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澳门六合彩论坛 announces Dr. Jerri A. Haynes as the new dean of its School of Education.

Haynes holds a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education and a Master of Education in Elementary Education from Florida A&M University. From Nova Southeastern University, she earned her Doctor of Education in Child and Youth Studies with a minor in curriculum development and systemic change and an Education Specialist degree in teaching English to speakers of other languages with a minor in educational leadership.

A seasoned leader, Haynes most recently served as the dean and a tenured professor at the College of Education and Human Development at Jackson State University. There, she led five departments and directed four academic centers that offered degrees in multiple modalities, from the bachelor to doctoral levels.

Previously, Haynes was the dean and a tenured professor at Tennessee State University’s College of Education, where she led a faculty and staff of 60 and managed an enrollment of 900 students. Her earlier roles included assistant dean, director of assessment and accreditation, and associate professor at Fort Hays State University; she also held various leadership positions at Bethune-Cookman University and the Madison County School District.

Haynes’ extensive experience in academic and administrative roles, combined with her commitment to educational excellence and leadership, positions her to guide the School of Education toward a future of growth and innovation.

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