I am embarking on a month of working at Esperanza Community
Services in the West Town area of Chicago. I have had some really incredible
opportunities at my internship thus far. My internship is a school designed to
work and help children with developmental disabilities to achieve their goals.
Not only do they have a school program, but they also have an adult day program
as well as assisted living housing called Community Integrated Living
Arrangement (CILA). I have been able to shadow three great social workers
during my time here and have been able to sit in on an IEP meeting as well as
an all staff training called Transition-Palooza. Needless to say, I have tons
of learning opportunities here and have several people I can go to whenever I
have a question or concern about something. Plus, working with children with
disabilities everyday is honestly the best. I have such a profound joy and
sense of fulfillment working with these beautiful individuals and I am so
blessed to be here this semester.
I grew up in the Chicago-land area, which is one of the main
reasons for me wanting to be a part of this wonderful program that is Chicago
Semester. Since I have family that lives near the heart of the city I was able
to live with a relative to save some money this semester on housing. One of my
main concerns was whether or not I would be able to build friendships with the
other students. Luckily my good friend Joey lives in Canterbury this semester
and has been great with including me and making sure that I make friends. The
past two weeks have been spent celebrating my birthday and my new friend Sam’s
birthday. We were all able to get together and celebrate over some games and
socializing. I am very blessed to have met some really great people and luckily
for me I am a very outgoing person so it’s easy for me to be intentional about
meeting new people. I am making tons of memories and long-lasting friendships
with my new friends from Dordt and Calvin College.
This past Sunday, February 15th,
the social work and nursing students enjoyed the afternoon visiting the Jane
Addams Hull House Museum on UIC’s campus. We had an awesome tour by one of the
student’s who works for the museum. She took us through every room of the house
and was filled with more knowledge than I could ever dream of obtaining. I
really enjoyed her tour because she knew what she was talking about, she
encouraged dialogue during her tours, and she taught me a lot. I learned that
Jane Addams partnered with Ellen Gates Starr to co-found the Hull House
settlement in 1889. I also learned that Wells-Barnett and Addams worked together
to block the establishment of segregated public schools as well as co-signed
“The Call” which proposed the National Association of the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP). The other students enjoyed the time that we had there
and had tons of great questions to ask our tour guide. I would say that the
tour was a success! We all came out of the experience knowing more than when we
went in there. I would even go back another time on my own to spend more time
walking through and reading all of the displays. To end, here is a group
picture of the social work interns at the Jane Addams Hull House Museum!
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