CONNECT 2014-2015 Launches at Westcott and Madero
Linnea Kennedy reprinted isu.edu 11.25.15
Published: December 17, 2014
Civic Opportunities to Network Needs for Educational and Community Transformation (CONNECT), is a mentorship program designed to promote positive youth development in public schools. CONNECT pairs Illinois State University (ISU) student mentors with middle school students, and together the pair forms a relationship through weekly Skype sessions, in-person school visits, and a mentee-designed community service project. This 9-month volunteer, service-learning program is open to all ISU teacher education majors who may wish to teach in urban, high need communities. The ISU CONNECT Initiative serves both Chicago Public Schools (CPS), and local schools in Normal, Illinois.
"CONNECT has a strong foundation in that it was formulated with evidence-based, best practices in mind that have been documented for youth development programs," explains Dr. Gary Creasey, Assistant Director of the TEACHER+PLUS project and Director of CONNECT. "[CONNECT] has clear goals and outcomes, and allows college students to help their mentees clarify a pathway to college. As many mentorship programs are designed to steer youth from negative outcomes, CONNECT is innovative in that there is a strong focus on positive youth development," Creasey notes.
Taylor Knowles, a sophomore Music Education major at ISU, is a CONNECT mentor paired with a student at Madero Middle School, located in Little Village, one of the Chicago Teacher Education Pipeline (CTEP) partner communities. This is her first year participating in CONNECT. "I was interested in mentoring a CPS student partly because I want to teach in an urban area, and because I believed it would be a really positive, beneficial experience for my future mentee and me," she explained.
"I really enjoyed going to Madero and meeting my mentee," she said. "On the day I met my mentee for the first time she was incredibly talkative and not shy at all, but now that we're video chatting she does not talk nearly as much, which I was not expecting. This has pushed me to get creative with the way we talk, and instead of trying to have a simple conversation, I try to have some sort of question game to help keep the conversation going. I think this has been really helpful so far, so I'm excited to see how it progresses as the year goes on."
Lisa Browning, a senior Middle Level Education major, is a CONNECT mentor paired with a student at Westcott Elementary School located in Auburn Gresham, another CTEP partner community. As the president of Phi Sigma Sigma, Browning receives weekly emails to distribute to sorority members about various leadership opportunities available to ISU students. After receiving an email that included information on CONNECT, Browning was intrigued. "I did some research on CONNECT and I was really fascinated by it… I was interested in mentoring a CPS student because I wanted to get to know a student whose experience in school was different than mine," she explained. "CONNECT has given me the opportunity to get to know a new environment and discover what other students' daily lives are like."
Like Knowles, Browning also reports a positive first year experience in CONNECT. "The students were so excited when we were able to visit them and shadow them during their school day," Browning says. "My mentee introduced me to everyone she knew and I helped her with her schoolwork. Our Skype sessions have been successful. My mentee keeps me up to date on what is going on in school and in her personal life. I learn a lot about how the school is organized, which helps me as a college student striving for a degree in education," she notes.
"We have documented that CONNECT mentors have strong intentions to teach in urban schools from the program onset," Creasey declares. "What changes is urban teaching efficacy, or a growing confidence that one can make an impact in urban schools and communities. CONNECT mentors are often ethnically, culturally, economically, and geographically very different than the mentees they are working with. As the mentee often educates the mentors about the realities of their lives, schools, and communities, it is often difficult to discern who is the mentee and who is the mentor."
<add picture of Westcott students wtih Lisa if at all possible>
Currently, this year's cohort of CONNECT mentors are working on service learning project ideas to implement in spring 2015. "We are all understanding our students and figuring out what they want to make their community a better place. As mentors, we communicate with one another weekly and brainstorm ideas," Browning reports. Previous CONNECT community service projects have included refurbishing a neighborhood playground, establishing a teen reading room at North River Elementary, and repainting garden beds at Madero. (Pictured at left) "The Community Garden was a success," reports Rita Marquez, Madero site coordinator and 6th-8th grade Visual Arts teacher. "The students worked on planning, designing, and painting planters that captured the spirit of Little Village through traditional motifs of birds and patterns. The vivid colors of the planters and the lush blooms of squash, peppers, and tomatoes contributed a stunning view for our neighborhood."
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