New Year, New Lead Team
by André Darey, Program & Lead Coordinator
August 2008
The Illinois Region has two Lead teams. My team consists of 15 students from Bowen Environmental Studies Team (B.E.S.T), Global Visions Academy (G.V.A.), Juarez, Schurz, Perspectives Charter School (South Loop), & University of Chicago (Woodlawn) high schools.
They are an extraordinary, fun, and intelligent team of young men and women that live within Chicago’s south, north and west communities. This summer, the Lead Team participated in community service, global education, team building and professional development activities. The Lead team also had the fun and challenging opportunity to travel to Mukwonago, WI, and stay on the grounds of the Phantom Lake YMCA, for a one-week camping trip that combined community service work with education and teambuilding.
While lots of wonderful memories were created during our time together this summer, I want to highlight two activities the Lead students participated in during the month of July.
An organization called Vital Bridges was the first local community organization where students volunteered their time. Vital Bridges helps people throughout metropolitan Chicago impacted by HIV and AIDS to improve their health and build self-sufficiency by providing food, nutrition, housing, case management and educational services. The Lead students were further educated about how HIV/AIDS affects Chicago residents and importance of protecting themselves through preventive education. Students assembled health kits, organized files and created red ribbons for the upcoming AIDS Run Walk Chicago 2008.
The Lead students collectively made the decision to stay past our departure time because of their engagement and immersion in each task. As their mentor I was proud that the Lead students modeled compassion, teamwork and dedication during their time at Vital Bridges.
The next fun and informative project where the Lead students volunteered their time was at a fairly new organization to Chicago called Open Books. Open Books is a nonprofit bookstore, literacy community center and volunteer corps dedicated to raising awareness about illiteracy, improving reading skills and spreading the love of books in Chicago and beyond.
The Lead students helped to post Open Books flyers to recruit volunteers at local Chicago colleges located within the North Michigan & Loop downtown communities. This was a beautiful (hot) day for the Lead students to interact with college students, take a peek at their future careers of interest and build a deeper relationship with their fellow Lead team members.
I am very excited to see where our Lead students' next adventure will take place over the next few months.