Trip Digital Story

There is so much to be said about our experiences over spring break, but this is our week at Muchin College Prep summed up in a 3 minute video. 

Enjoy!

Chicago

I’m a senior, so this was my last opportunity to participate in an alternative break.  I loved every moment primarily because of the people I met. The students at Muchin, the teachers, my fellow participants, trip advisor, and  trip leaders, made this spring break one to remember. The students made me smile because they were just as excited to see me, as I was to see them. We left, at the end of the week, learning more from them then they learned from us. The teachers showed us how passionate they were about teaching. To work everyday from 7am-6pm and then work at home on curriculum, grading, and lesson planning and still be excited about your job takes passion.  My fellow participants were very supportive and made the trip fun and exciting. Our trip advisor was able to watch after us, but still allowed the trip leaders to guide us. Lastly, our trip leaders effectively guided us through our service trip. They not only planned this wonderful trip, but helped us reflect on the week’s service. By the end of the week I was sad to say bye to all these people, but I knew it wasn’t bye forever. I never knew how much a week could impact my life until this trip and I am glad I took the opportunity to go on an alternative break. Thanks to everyone who made this an awesome trip!

(Sorry I'm not a blogger..next time my post will be math equations)

Getting to know Muchin

Entering the first moments of our experience at Muchin, several us were anxious about the week ahead of us and how the students would accept our presence at their school. Little did we know, the week would turn out to be an incredible experience!

For the first couple of days, most of us spent time orienting ourselves with Muchin's organization and schedule, along with grading tests for teachers. Having graded so many papers in the span of two days, I can now say that I truly appreciate all the time teachers put in to grading! It sure helps to have some sort of an assistant; that way, teachers actually have more time to focus on their curricula, development, and other contributions to the school.

Additionally, I was a big fan of Muchin's schedule! The students begin the day with their advisors, followed by three periods of class, lunch, two more periods of class, and then back to another session with their advisors. Students utilize the time spent with their advisors to better orient and prepare themselves for a successful route to college. Further, the lunch period is split in half, such that one half is for eating and the other is for extra help with classes.

My favorite part of Muchin's schedule was the enrichment portion of the day. Enrichment activities take place after all classes and advisory periods, and these activities provide students with the opportunity to engage in really interesting stuff! For example, there was a Harry Potter club, film studies group, green club, coloring and conversation and other fun things to keep anyone entertained! I wish my school offered these sorts of activities at my high school!

Also, I was very impressed with the commitment to fitness and sports at Muchin. Students run around the hallways all the time during P.E. classes and sports team practices. After school we'd see the double dutch club, cheer squad, and teachers joining students in doing calisthenics. Muchin is doing something right! All the teachers and students remain energetic and enthusiastic from the moment the day begins at 7:15AM until they leave, which can sometimes be as late as 7:00PM. The atmosphere at Muchin was amazing!

Anyways, I'll have to share the rest of my experience in another post; I hope this post makes the experience seem as exciting as it actually was!

What Do You Think of When You Hear "Chicago"

There are many things that come to mind when I think about Chicago.

Deep Dish Pizza

The Bean

 The Sears Tower (a.k.a the Willis Tower) 

But one thing I've never really thought about is the city's segregation.

Recently, a man got on the CTA Red Line and filmed. What's unique about the Red Line is that it runs from the North side of Chicago to the south side.

After watching his video for a few short minutes you can clearly see how the city is divided.

He went back weeks later to actually talk to the people. From this he got some very interesting and quite candid insights on the neighborhoods they live in.

Check out his entire project here!

About Me

Hey everybody, I am someone who has joined late in the trip to Chicago. My name is Kevin Bansleben and I am a junior studying Mechanical Engineering here at UMD. I was born in Columbia, MD and have lived there all of my life. I graduated from Atholton High School and have always been interested in studying engineering as I have been fascinated with and excelled in courses in math and science. I am someone who has always loved to travel and learn about the cultures of the people who live in places I have been to.

My mother's family is from Italy and some of them live in Switzerland, so I have been to both countries almost every summer of my life and have enjoyed learning a lot of the French and Italian culture there is to offer. Because I have traveled to many places in Europe, I have become open to many cultures that exist in the world. I have never been out to the Midwest and Chicago, but I am elated to go and learn a lot about the city and its residents. I am excited to go out there and share my experiences with AB and learn a lot about the people I meet in the city.

Because I may be one of the only engineering majors in Alternative Breaks, I may not relate to many of the other people on the trip. However, the humongous advantage I bring to the table is my vast knowledge of math, science, and engineering for other people to learn about. I hope I can spread my knowledge to the students in need in the Chicago charter schools. Also, as an engineering student, I am someone who is very oriented with problem solving and helping people with technical problems. I am a good critical thinker when it comes to addressing issues.

I have been on two previous Alternative Breaks trips. The first one I have been on was in freshman year with the HIV/AIDS trip in New York City. I have learned quite a lot about how HIV/AIDS affected the community in New York City and how I can make a difference in people's lives there. The second Alternative Breaks experience I have been on was in the Bahamas. There was a lot of cleaning up to do in the Bahamas but my group has made a substantial effort to clean up to trash and support an eco-friendly environment in which we were to support the development of.

I am someone who is very sociable and easy to get along with and relate to, so I am very excited to meet the other people whom I am travelling with. I am looking forward to the weeks ahead so I can get to know everybody on the trip and have an awesome time! I am willing to share more about my past AB experiences and how it makes me know what great things to expect on this trip.

About me-Niccara Campbell

Hello All!

My name is Niccara Campbell and I just joined the group. I was born in California and moved when I was five years old to Baltimore, Maryland. Both of my parents were in the Air Force, which is why I was born in California. I am the only child, but I have many cousins. I was  the only granddaughter on both sides until recently, when my two cousins were born on each side of family.

I am a senior, African American Studies Major, concentrated in the study of Public Policy. I have developed a great love for education and all minority issues, especially pertaining to urban youth. This is my first Alternative Spring Break. I have always been interested so I figure why not do it my final year!

I am excited to go out into the field and see the role charter schools play in urban cities like Chicago. I cant wait to meet you all!

About Me - John Hallock

Hello! My name is John Hallock and I’m a junior accounting and finance double major from Gaithersburg, MD, where I attended Gaithersburg High School. On campus, I’m actively involved on campus as treasurer of Sigma Chi and a member of the club baseball team.

Within the past year, Chicago Public Schools have been provided the proper resources from the Council of Education and Discover Financial Services to implement a financial literacy framework for K-12 students. I landed on a video from Edutopia's "Schools That Work" series that focuses on Ariel Community Academcy, a K-8 public school located on the south side of Chicago, for its success with financial education. In the video, Edutopia highlights how Ariel's financial curricula helps its students develop decision-making skills that will provide both short-term and long-term guidance. The curricula addresses topics such as personal finance, economics, and financial fluency. Financial literacy initiatives, such as Chicago Public Schools' new framework, shed light on the many issues surrounding urban education systems. 

I'm really looking forward to working with the students and getting to know everyone on our trip!

About Me -- Idara Akpan

Greetings, all.

My name is Idara Akpan, and I was raised very close to the city of College Park, in Hyattsville, Maryland. I actually attended the closest high school to College Park which is Northwestern High School (yup, the one you pass on Adelphi Road if you're going to Target or the movie theaters). I come from a family of eight which includes my dad, my mom, four sisters, and a brother. My family is from Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, and our traditional language is Ibibio. This explains why I have a unique name which means joy in the Ibibio language.

This is my fourth year at the University of Maryland with a major in Special Education. My major is a combined bachelors in science and master's in education program. My greatest passion is to work in a field where I can better understand and help improve education equality, education curriculum and education policies. That is why I am so excited to be going to Chicago this Spring Break with ASB. Last year I had the opportunity to go to Gaston, North Carolina with Alternative Breaks where we volunteered at a school and learned more about the issues concerning rural education.

The article I chose, City Students Improve Test Scores, But Still Lag Significantly, comes from the HuffingtonPost Education section. I find this article especially helpful to read before our trip to Chicago because it discusses both the gains and setbacks faced by students from America's largest cities. Overall students in major cities have shown improvement in test scores, however, their results are still a great deal behind other students in the nation. Researchers are still looking to answer the question as to why larger cities face such a setback. It seems to be that because every city is different from the other, they must be treated as such; therefore, using the same researched-based strategies for one city's schools will not work for the other. For example, DC public schools have performed exceptionally well in the last few years but even though Boston had the same implementations and great teacher evaluations, they did not show much improvement.

I cannot wait to visit Chicago and get a hands on experience volunteering in an urban city school so I can see for myself how information is presented to them and how they interpret it. I also want to witness what effects living in a city with a large population can have on a students achievement in school.

About me - Lea Patch

Hello all!

I hope you are having a wonderful and relaxing winter break (sorry to those of you taking classes...)! I am a senior, graduating in May with a double degree in Criminology & Criminal Justice and Psychology and a double minor in Global Terrorism Studies and Korean Studies. I am a Resident Assistant in Leonardtown and I used to work at the UMD Visitor Center. In my free time I am constantly on the campus farm riding horses and teaching horseback riding lessons with the Maryland Equestrian Club, of which I am a Director. I grew up in Newark, Delaware (that's New-ark, not Newerk as the Jersey-ites might say it) and went to a very mixed public school. Because of my experiences in my high school, I was always interested in education policies. When I got to UMD as a freshman, I joined America Reads*America Counts as a mentor for Counts. After one semester, I became a team leader and I am now the office manager and continue to be involved in education topics. As a shameless plug for AR*AC, our application deadlines are January 28th!!! So if you are interested, you should go to arac.umd.edu and apply today! It is a wonderful experience and you get to work directly with kids in the PG County schools! Plus, if you have federal work study you get paid a lot ;)

In the spring of my junior year I traveled to Seoul, South Korea and studied at Yonsei University as an exchange student. It was the most amazing semester of my life and I fell in love with the language, the people, and the country. Because of my love for Korea and my interest in education, I will be returning to South Korea next fall as an English teacher (as long as I get the job!). Although teaching is not my end-goal in life (I have always wanted to work in federal law enforcement), I think that it will provide me with invaluable experience and cater well to my other interests. 

Although this video isn't about traditional education systems, I thought that it was relevant. This ted talk shows that traditional educations are not for everyone, and that this is one fault with the system. I thought this video took an interesting approach and showed some very cool examples of alternative learning that Logan calls Hackshooling. It also makes several references to the video that Michelle posted just before me. Plus, this kid is a better public speaker than I will ever be and he's only 12...I've got to give him props for that. I hope you enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h11u3vtcpaY

See you all soon!
Lea

About me- Michelle Hahm

Hello all, I’m a senior Graphic Design major and Art History minor. I mostly grew up in Potomac, Maryland where I attended Winston Churchill High School. On campus I volunteer at the UMD Help Center and paint sets for CSPAC. In my free time I like reading, drawing, and enlarging marshmallows to extreme sizes via microwaves.

While I don’t intend to go on to teaching as a full time career, education has always been of great interest to me. I’ve always found it fascinating to read about diverse education systems, and how different societies respond to the next generation’s needs. As someone who enjoys the arts, I’ve continued to keep an eye out to see how schools might possibly encourage creative thinking into their curriculum.

I haven’t chosen an article, but I’ve picked a TED Talk discussing how schools currently might be detrimental to creativity. One example emphasized upon was of a girl who couldn’t keep still in school or complete her work her time. Instead of being diagnosed for ADHD, it was suggested that she be put in a dance school where she would eventually thrive in her career.  Perhaps in the future solutions might be generated for more specialized educations where students who don’t fit in the current mold can prosper.

About Me - James Cecil

I am currently the Coordinator for North Campus Facilities with Campus Recreation Services on campus and have worked for CRS in various positions since my undergrad graduation.  I am married with a three year old son and currently live in Elkridge after spending seven years in Baltimore.  I am a Maryland native and can never really see myself leaving the state (or the university for that matter).  My wife is the athlete of the family, having completed an Iron Man triathlon in 2009 and running constantly since our son was born.  I am working on it, but golf is more my sport of choice.  We have three cats, one Katrina rescue, one from the MDSPCA where we used to volunteer and a stray that we couldn't bring ourselves to put up for adoption. 

Going through college, I was certain that I was going to be a social studies teacher at some point.  I grew up on Kent Island and while I joke about my high school being in a corn field (it was), it served me quite well.  It also kept me pretty insulated from the realities that a lot of other students face and I develop a greater appreciation for the benefits I had for no other reason than being lucky I grew up in a positive environment.  My time at Maryland has not just taught me about adversity in our country through textbooks, but it has also given me faces and names to go with it too. 

I have met students who have had to fight so hard to earn everything that they have.  As a result, education and the opportunities it provides will always resonate with me.  That led me to my article about a partnership between Northwestern & CPS.  Chicago has a long road ahead in terms of the necessary systemic change to make their system thrive, but programs like this provide opportunity and can demonstrate that there are there are people genuinely interested in the success of students.  It also creates role models that can be appreciated and imitated in their communities.  I'm really looking forward to watching you all work as role models in your own right.

About Me -- Meg Cavanagh

I am a freshman at UMD and am currently undecided on my major, but I'm leaning towards the social sciences and plan on minoring in Spanish. Though I was born in Virginia and spent my early childhood in Oregon, my hometown is Catonsville, MD. There, I have a mom, dad, older brother and younger sister. On campus, I live in the Arts Scholars community and channel my creativity into performing with comedy group Sketchup.
I'm really excited to be part of the AB Chicago trip -- I think service through education is both interesting and important.  I don't necessarily plan on going into education as a career, but I was strongly influenced by my high school teachers on a character level. In the trip environment, I see the potential to improve circumstances through simple human connection. That's the part of service I always like the most. Furthermore, I have heard nothing but rave reviews about the Alternative Breaks experience and look forward to joining this team.
This feature from Huffington Post discusses charter schools as a bright potential future for urban education, especially if the curriculum weaves character lessons with academics. Though it is not based on experiences in Chicago, it draws from experience in DC, which I think is of equal interest to us.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/american-teacher/character-counts-observat_b_4418921.html

About me- Hari Devaraj

Hello fellow Alternative breakers. My name is Hari Devaraj and I’m a freshman Electrical Engineering major. I was born near College Park in Rockville, Maryland and attended Richard Montgomery High school like my two older sisters, but my family is originally from Bangalore, India. On campus I’m part of the Hindu Student Council and I’m thinking of joining QUEST.

My main hobbies are running and reading. Recently I've started reading a lot about behavioral economics, which looks to understand the forces that motivate us and cause us to make risky decisions. This kind of ties into why I joined the Alternative breaks program, I’m interested in understanding how systemic problems in an education system alters a person’s view of the world and decision making process. But I don’t believe that I can pick up this knowledge from a textbook, which is why I’m excited to go to Chicago this spring break and meet kids who want more from their education.

While this isn't an article, I found a neat video that analyzes the shortcomings of 21st century public education. This video looks at the current education paradigm as trying to meet two main goals: 1) to make children have the skills required to meet the needs of a globalized world and 2) to try and pass on a cultural identity to the next generation. The video suggests that public education lies on 19th and 20th century assumptions about the value of an education, namely that all educated people need to have a thorough understanding of the classics and a capacity for a specific type of deductive reasoning that is dictated by the school. This type of reasoning alienates students that don't think in the same way as the school system, and this same type of reasoning suggests that only students who can succeed in this school system can succeed in life. 

About Me- Katherine Swanson

I'm a freshman government & politics major and an associate of the CIVICUS Living & Learning community. I was born in Denton, TX and raised in Fort Worth, TX. I came to UMD because I wanted to be close to Washington D.C. and I wanted to live on the east coast. I have a mom, a dad, and a brother who is 10 years older than me. It's a lot like having three parents. My whole family lives in Fort Worth, so I'm pretty far away from all of them. I also have two weiner dogs named Rusty and Duchess - they're the cutest dogs of all time - and my best friend and room mate, Tessa, and my boyfriend, Ben.

Since I was six years old, I have known that I wanted to be an elected official. I want to have the power to improve the conditions of our country for all citizens. Though I have a long list of issues I would like to tackle once I make it in to office, education policy has become most important to me. After attending public school for 13 years in a state that is notorious for its terrible schools, I have decided that improving the US public education system through legislation is what I want my first priority to be, and I plan to enroll in UMD's BA/MPP Public Policy program after I've completed my sophomore year of college to get my masters degree in Education Policy by the time I graduate in 2017. I'm really excited to go on this AB trip and learn more about how I can make the public education system better for all.

The article I found is from the NY Times and discusses how public schools in urban areas are having to modify their curriculum and teaching methods in order to keep up with our college degree obsessed society. The author interviews several students in an urban environment about the pressure they feel to attend college and how their teachers and school systems have been helping them apply and, eventually, attend college. The comparison the author shows between affluent suburbs and urban areas in regard to college attendance and quality of education was interesting and a bit startling, the achievement gap seems to be quite large.

About Me- Jeremy Hsiao

Hello everyone, my name is Jeremy Hsiao and I am a senior business major. I grew up in Taiwan and immigrated to the United States when I was six. I have a younger brother and a guinea pig at home. On campus, I am involved with Active Minds, a mental health advocacy group. In my free time, I enjoy exercising, reading, painting, cooking, and thinking. One fact that people don’t usually know about me is that I have been a pescetarian for over 3 years now. This means I limit my protein consumption to mostly legumes, seafood, eggs (my favorite food!). Over spring break, I am excited to serve the students directly and I look forward to getting to know each and every single one of you! 

The article that I want to share with you all is a letter submitted to the Post from a former teacher. This veteran teacher quit teaching because of increasingly hostile situation for teachers. Her letter provides great insight into the mindset of the current culture surrounding education. In her poignant letter, the author questions the current education reform’s unwavering focus on improving education by standardization. Her pointed analogy of the teacher-parent relationship to that of store clerks and unruly customers exposes the divergence of expectations among the stakeholders in the shifting culture. The stakeholders in the education equation include the teachers, parents, school administrators, government officials, and often forgotten, the students. In this volatile cocktail of exorbitant adult expectations and egos, I believe that the students bear the brunt of the externalities of this culture shift. While I am not sure about whether reversing the culture is the correct path or even possible, I believe that a common expectation among the stakeholders can dramatically guide this reform towards better education for our students. I believe that the core of this expectation is what we want our students to be prepared for. Do we want them to prepare for college, a job, a career, or life?