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JILG Featured School:
School of Technology @ SSC
Congratulations to School of Technology @ South Shore Campus for being recognized as JILG’s Featured School of the Month! School of Technology is located in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood. The school is involved in Chicago Public School’s Small Schools Initiative, and has an enrollment of about 450 students this school year.
The JILG program is heavily supported by faculty, staff, and administration at the School of Technology. Because nearly half of the senior class is involved, the relatively small number of clubs and activities, and the work Ms. Cleary and her students put into the activities that they are involved in; JILG has a strong presence in the school. Underclassmen at School of Technology frequently comment on how unfair it is that only the seniors have JILG, because they want to be in it, too!
Service Learning Project
The JILG students at School of Technology have been involved in many projects throughout the first half of the school year. Students attended Historically Black Colleges and Universities Fair at Navy Pier. Ms. Cleary also worked with her administration to provide the JILG students with a Social Awareness related trip to Millennium Park for ice skating. Students have also gained valuable insight on Post-secondary opportunities through college tours of Northern Illinois University and Northeastern Illinois University.
School of Technology JILG students participated in the Chicago Cares Celebration of Service in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Saturday, January 19th. Despite the record-breaking freezing weather and the very-early start time, JILG volunteers joined a thousand other volunteers for this amazing event.
The celebration started at the United Center, where all of the volunteers convened for breakfast and an inspirational rally that included Chicago Public Schools CEO, Arne Duncan, and a moving tribute to Dr. King by his friend and colleague, Rev. Walter Fauntroy. Then, the mass of volunteers boarded a fleet of buses and were shipped to over fifty sites around the city. The School of Technology team reported to Bateman School, with the largest number of volunteers for a single project: ten domino murals of Dr. King, to be placed at a variety of locations around the city.
The mural project was divided into several pieces, and our group was in charge of sorting a section of the dominos and gluing them onto tiles. When we were finished, we combined with seven other groups to put together a completed mural. It took a lot of patience and team work, but it was worth it. The murals looked great! We took our picture with a couple of the finished murals and then boarded the bus to head back home. One of murals stayed at our host school and the others were sent out into the city. Hopefully people will look at them and be reminded of how important it is to serve others and be inspired to make the world a better place.
About the Specialist
Colleen Cleary is in her third year as a JILG Career Specialist, all of which were spent at School of Technology. Colleen received her B.A. in English from Hope College in Holland, Michigan and her teaching certificate from National-Louis University in Wheeling, Illinois. She is currently working on her M.A. in School Counseling at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, Illinois.
My Favorite JILG Moment
My best JILG moment was watching my students demonstrate the proper table etiquette they had learned when we were invited to Charlie Trotter's restaurant as part of their Excellence Program. They were exceedingly polite and had better manners than many professionals I've eaten with! They were brave and tried all of the unusual food without a complaint - even the fishbone cracker and a foamed egg!
Favorite JILG Activity
My favorite JILG activity is JAWS (JILG Awareness Week in Schools) - we get a whole week to show off our stuff to the rest of the school. It's a crazy and proud time for the JILG students.