Hundreds Gather to Honor Cesar Chavez

Hundreds of CPS middle and high school students gathered at Benito Juarez Community Academy on Saturday, March 24, to celebrate a month of service activites to honor the spirit and legacy of Cesar E. Chavez.

Throughout the month of March, 24 schools and 23 community partners engaged 1680 students in 56 service and action projects throughout the city of Chicago. Students learned about immigrant rights, food and environmental issues, the labor movement, and the civil rights movement then worked across the city with community organizations to put their knowledge to work.

Saturday was the culminating event for the students. Following a stirring opening ceremony by Danza Azteca-Mexicana, students worked in the arts - developing posters, drums, street theatre, spoken word, and murals - as preparation for a commemorative march through the streets of Pilsen. Forty-six years ago, Cesar Chavez and other labor rights activists marched 350 miles from Delano to Sacramento as a pilgrimmage to express their commitment to the cause and demonstrate to the world the injustices suffered by farm workers in the southwest. Students marched in the spirit of the Delano-Sacramento pilgrimmage so many years ago.

As they marched, students displayed their posters calling for peace, justice for workers, and invoking the spirit of Cesar E. Chavez. Thanks to all our magnificent workshop leaders and artists.

CPS Students Serve as Election Judges

As the Illinois presidential primary and various other congressional campaigns ended on Tuesday, March 20, so did the almost semester-long efforts of students from around the city. CPS students learned about the electoral process and participated in supporting the elections.

This school year hundreds of students participated in a program called Elections in Action, which is facilitated by Mikva Challenge, a non-partisan, non-profit group that works to increase student participation in our democracy. Students spent several sessions, either in class or in after school programs, working through curriculum covering the importance of voting, how elections work, and understanding the ideology of major and third parties. Students also identified their own personal ideology and what they believe about issues that face our democracy.

From there students examined why people do and do not participate in elections and what makes a good candidate. Finally, students identified a candidate, or several candidates, they wanted to support.

In order to fulfill the requirements of the program students had to have three campaigning experiences lasting at least two hours. This was a great opportunity for students who were at first too intimidated to even call a volunteer coordinator to find themselves phone banking for one or going door to door across Chicagoland to canvas for their candidate. Once completed students write a reflective piece about their experience.

This first-hand and ground-level view of democracy is one that empowers students to recognize that the electoral process is one that they can play an important part in, both as volunteers and, hopefully one day soon, as candidates!

CPS Students Honor Chavez Throughout March

All through the month of March, CPS high school students are serving throughout the city of Chicago in ways that recall the values, commitments and spirit of Cesar E. Chavez, the great farm worker organizer. The CPS Service-Learning Initiative organized more than 60 service opportunities throughout the month. To culminate the month of service, Juarez Community Academy will play host to the Chavez Day of Reflection and Commemorative March through the streets of Pilsen. More than 350 CPS students are expected to attend and through the arts encounter the values and spirit of Chavez.

All students who will attend the culminating event will also have participated in at least one service project around the city. Students will advocate for the environment, assist immigrants as they prepare for citizenship, register and mobilize new voters, teach elementary students about Chavez, work with senior citizens, and serve in food pantries and shelters across the city.

Chavez was deeply committed to non-violence, self-sacrifice, the good of the whole community, and foundational principles of social justice. Chicago Public Schools continue to live out the spirit of Cesar E. Chavez in many ways. Viva la causa!

CPS Students Create Memory Bridges

Students from Hancock, Brooks, and Taft High Schools have been spending their last 10-12 weeks working with senior citizens with Alzheimer's. The program, Memory Bridge, helps student learn about the physical and social implications of Alzheimer's then develop relationships with senior citizens at care facilities. Memory Bridge has been active in Chicago Public Schools has been active for the past five years, enabling hundreds of students to learn much about the human brain, Alzheimer's, and their own capacity to engage in meaningful relationships with senior citizens in their communities. Students come away from the experience with new outlooks on their own skills, interests, and relational abilities.

During the final visit to the senior center, students prepare a gift for their senior citizen buddy, present these mostly hand-made gifts, then sing together with the seniors. Music is a powerful source to connect people with their memories and with each other.

Many thanks to the teachers - Catherine Yackee, Lynn Santoyo, Donald Davis, and Katrina Vafakos for their extra time and effort in facilitating such an important and powerful program with their sudents.

Student Leaders Meet with Principals at 2nd Annual Summit

More than 100 CPS high school students gathered at Phoenix Military Academy to share their concerns and ideas with principals during the second annual Harris Fellows Principal-Student Summit.

The Summit is designed to bring students and principals together to dialogue about issues of concern to students and to provide a voice for students as schools consider improvement strategies.

This year student leaders choose the following four issues for discussion:

1. Student-Student relationships
2. Classroom management
3. Principal-Student relationship building
4. Longer school day

Students met at Phoenix to deliberate and discuss potential recommendations for principals then prepared skits, a student panel, and a set of recommendations for discussion. At the end of the summit, principals and students presented the main ideas and recommendations in these areas.

These ideas will be prepared for presentation to top CPS leadership in the coming weeks.

Harris Fellows exists to provide a voice for students and to support the development of student leadership organizations in schools across the District. Many thanks to the Harris Fellows student leadership who put the summit together, the 100+ students in attendance, and the teachers and principals who showed their support for students by attending and dialoguing with the students.

For more information about Harris Fellows, the Summit, or how students can be involved in this work, contact Cristina Salgado at csalgad1@gmail.com.

Student Leaders Tackle Environmental Problems at EPA

More that 120 student leaders from south side high schools gathered at the Environmental Protection Agency in Chicago's Loop to learn about the work of environmental professionals and problem solve real-world environmental issues in Chicago.

Professionals from the Cook County Forest Preserve, Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, Kinder Morgan, Green Peace, Shedd Aquarium, and the Student Conservation Alliance shared stories of their work with the students and then posed a challenging problem for the students to debate and propose solutions.

Students from Fenger, Morgan Park, Bowen, Simeon, Corliss, Chicago Ag, Bogan, and Washington tackled the problem of invasive species, effective waste disposal, preserving native species and habitats, construction of a highly toxic coal gasification plant, and adhering to environmental regulations. After discussing the problem and generating a realistic alternative solution, students presented their ideas to the environmental professionals and their peers and received feedback.

The Calumet Is My Back Yard (CIMBY) Environmental Leadership Day was the 6th annual event for students from the Lake Calumet watershed. Throughout the year students provide stewardship and restoration at natural sites throughout the Lake Calumet region. Now in its 12th year, CIMBY provides opportunites for 650 students from 15 schools to learn about the environmental through hands-on restoration and classroom activities designed to bring environmental science and biology classes to life.

Teachers Prepare for Cesar E. Chavez Month of Service

Twenty CPS teachers gathered at the National Museum of Mexican Art on Tuesday, January 31, to prepare for the annual Cesar E. Chavez Month of Service in March.

Each year the Service-Learning Initiative of Chicago Public Schools organizes curriculum, service project opportunities, and events during March to honor the legacy of the great farmworker organizer, Cesar Chavez.

Teachers utilize hands-on and engaging curricular materials to help students understand the work of Chavez and the farm worker movement and then facilitate a service project in neighborhoods across the city. Service project reflect the work and values of Chavez and include opportunities to support equitable food distribution, the rights of immigrants, environmental justice, childhood literacy, and unions in Chicago.

Following classroom instruction and service projects (60 in total), all students will gather in Little Village on March 24 for a day to honor the legacy of Chavez through reflection, arts-based workshops, and a culminating commemorative peace march through the streets of Little Village to the site where neighborhood moms conducted a hunger strike to get Little Village/North Lawndale High School built.

Governor Pat Quinn hosts a Cesar E. Chavez breakfast on March 30 to draw attention to the work of Chavez and honor the service projects that took place during the month.

Viva la causa....Si se puede!