My Favorite Memory

Carl Mangrum


My favorite memory of SSP so far was actually my first day. I met Wujun and she was awesome. I also met my team leaders along with team Woodlawn. That day was super fun. We went to a event that they held on campus and they were just giving out free food so we went and ate until we were full. After we finished eating, we played in a moon bounce but it was more like a race course to see who could get out the other side first and I was the undefeated champion. Once after we finished that, we began to head downtown to the cultural center. It was amazing and so many different things stood out to me, like the historical homes in the city. I mean I know people just walk pass them everyday and don’t even realize that it is historical. Overall I enjoyed myself, and this day stood out to me the most so that’s why it’s my favorite day.

Teaching and Learning how to Dance

Mariah Ryce


Week six of SSP was very fun and productive. Elise and I are super close to finishing our choose-your-own-adventure book and can’t wait to present it to everyone. But this week the day that stood out to me the most was Tuesday. On Tuesday at 1:30 p.m we went to go volunteer at the South Chicago YMCA. Octavia, Chris, and Carl taught basketball while Elise and I taught dance, and Danny took pictures of everybody. I had a lot of fun teaching the “ Move Your Body” dance by Beyonce to the girls. In the dance there is constant movement. The basic move in the dance is running. Many of the girls got tired within the first few steps. And I don’t blame them because the first time I learned this dance freshman year, I was super exhausted.


But the good thing is that they were quick learners and enjoyed doing the dance. Once we were finished teaching them the entire dance, we did a cool-down stretch to get their heart rates back to normal. Instead of leaving right away, the girls showed us two of their own dances. One dance was to “Take Care” by Drake and Rihanna and the other dance was to “Snapbacks and Tattoos”. I’m not really sure who the artist is because I really do not listen to alot of rap music at all. Then we convinced Danny to dougie for them and Octavia as well.


We left and they thanked us for our time. It was a great experience teaching a dance class and actually it was my first one that I have ever taught. I would definitely like to go back and teach again.

Photo Scavenger Hunt

Carl Mangrum


Something that was interesting to me this week was yesterday. Yesterday we did a photo hunt where we had to go looking for items that were on the list. What made it so different was the location: we were in Chinatown. We were there because we had lunch there, which was awesome by the way. After lunch, we began the game.

First thing we did was split up into small groups and went with different members from different neighborhood teams so that the game would be fair for everyone. Fortunately, our team had a slight advantage. David, who is a team leader for Greater Grand Crossing, knew where most of the items on the list were located because he was part of the group that set up the photo hunt. Honestly, it really wasn’t a game to win. It was more of a sightseeing game. I say this because a winner couldn’t even be declared.

If I had to say my favorite moment, it would have to be when Mariah and I were playing playing with all the different kind of swords. That was so amazing. There were big swords, little swords, heavy swords, and light swords. There were even some swords that were different in style. My team was awesome and we just had fun.

My only complaint was the heat but I know that everyone was hot so I just had to suck it up and participate as best as I could. Then again, I really wasn’t complaining all day because GGC gave us these smoothes that were just so tasteful and super good. It kept us cool and refreshed as well. The only thing I had a problem with were the tapioca pearls that were put into the smoothes. Everyone didn’t like them so they spat them out.

Devon Street

Henna Tattoos!

Octavia Griffin



This week the best day was when we went to Devon Street. I feel that was the best day because we experienced a new culture and this is important because the American culture is not the only culture in the United States. First we listened to the lives of Indian females, and we all learned that they all have similar beliefs. In addition, we learned that they broke down India into many different countries by language and culture. After listening to their stories we went in and out of different stores and I learned that they have different foods and fruits they eat such as lychee. Lychee is a fruit that is like a grape, but you have to peel it first. I personally liked the fruit. In addition we ate other things such as there peanuts which had spices in it. The peanuts did not taste like American nuts. After walking around and window shopping we ate at a restaurant called Hema's Kitchen. the food at the restaurant was amazing; other people didn't like it but I did because it was a new experience and I like spicy food. The last adventurous thing we did was get Henna Tattoos. That was a great experience because I never had a fake tattoo before and it was fun getting it with people I enjoy being around.

Males and Teen Pregnancy

Carl Mangrum


My project plan is to inform young males on teen pregnancy. I will be explaining to to them the importance and their roles with pregnancy. I think this is a good idea because most of the time when a teen couple gets pregnant, the male is usually shadowed out and all of the attention is placed on the female. So I will be teaching males how to use a condom, the importance of a condom, and why it is a good idea to use a condom. Also, I will include locations for where to find free condoms. I will be creating a brochure and the brochure will just inform the males on teen pregnancy. In order to do all this I had to do lots of research but it was pretty easy. It did require me to go to multiple websites for information. Furthermore, I called many places to ask them questions about their organizations and if they provided free condoms to their community. I got most of all my work done for my part of the project and I can’t wait to finalize it.

Insuring birth control

Elise Madrid

Yesterday we met with Lee Hasselbacher who is a policy coordinator from the Family Planning and Contraceptive Research section at the University of Chicago. We had a very informative meeting and she was able to help the high schoolers come up with multiple ideas on how their projects might be implemented. It was great to see them very involved and asking questions. She also gave us a rundown on the innovative new ways they are looking into to teach sex education.


She also talked about how, come this August, health insurers will be required to cover birth control along with other women’s preventive services with no co-pay. I had heard about this before, but was unsure it would actually happen. Now just weeks away from the start date it seems like this will be a reality. While some women may not see this benefit for months I think it is a great step forward as some forms of birth control can run up to $40/month, and more effective forms of birth control such as IUDs can have a high cost even with insurance. If you would like to read more, here is an older article on the topic.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/08/01/free.birth.control/index.html

However, this policy fails to help those that are uninsured who may need free birth control the most. Some teenagers who are insured may also be reluctant to use their parent’s insurance out of fear that they will find out they are using birth control. This is one of the reasons why I’m excited for our project to map out what low-cost options there are in the South Chicago community for women trying to access birth control.

Taste of Chicago

Friday, Teams South Chicago and Woodlawn went to the Taste of Chicago on Friday afternoon. It was the first time Olivia, Aliyah,  and Sierra!

Danny and Octavia waiting for the bus.

Mariah and Octavia smiling for the camera.

At the Taste of Chicago on a cloudy/rainy Friday afternoon.

Team Bonding

Octavia Griffin


This week was great, I have learned so many things about the people I've been working with. After creating our community projects we play a game of Taboo...and let me tell you we all have competitive spirits. I've learned that my team is really smart - not saying that they are dumb - but I learned that they are really intelligent. After playing the game, we listened to a song called Friday, and let me tell you it was the worstest song I have ever heard. I mean really we know that it is Friday and we know that Thursday comes before Friday. The song made me want to scream, but Swerve in coolin it .. :)

Birthday Fun

Mariah Ryce


I feel that this week was a very productive week. We got a lot done with our project. We finally chose a solid topic: teen pregnancy. We chose teen pregnancy because it was the biggest problem we noticed in our community and schools. We got a chance to see exactly what we wanted to do for our individual projects. For my individual project, I would like to have a workshop at Epic on teen pregnancy. I would have a panel of teen mothers talk about how difficult it is to have a child in their life while balancing school.  Also, I am planning on staging role-play and choose-your-own-adventure stories that expresses the importance of safe sex. I would like to show that teens don’t have to give into peer pressure and that they can make their own decisions.

But in doing all of this, I believe that Monday was still the best day because it was Chris's birthday. So we took him out to lunch to celebrate. We met up with team Woodlawn so they could come and celebrate with us too. Before we went to lunch, we went to go get sundaes on campus. You get a chance to customize it the way you want to. I customized mine with cookies and cream ice cream, salted peanuts and of course chocolate sauce. I always enjoy hanging out with team Woodlawn and going to different events on campus. It gives me a chance to get to know them better as well as have some fun. 


Once we were finished, we walked to Harold’s Chicken to go get lunch. We ordered there and then walked back to campus to eat, 'cause Harold’s was very hot! We even got a chance to see Tom’s sister's wedding pictures. I had a lot of fun eating lunch with them but then it was time to get back to work. I worked with Chris and Elise on ideas in moving our project forward, and brainstorming which activities we can do at the YMCA when we volunteer. Elise and I looked into doing a Zumba fitness with the kids. I have never done Zumba fitness before, so I am excited to to learn and teach the youth of the community something fun to do.

Photos from South Chicago

EPIC Academy students walking around the South Chicago neighborhood.

Sadly, the grass immediately north of Chicago Family Health Center is unkempt.

A view from the front of EPIC Academy.

Corn grown by EPIC Academy students. The EPIC garden was a past SSP project!

Wilting lettuce in the garden.

Vegetables in the EPIC garden.

Octavia and Danny eating salads and being healthy!

Bones and Lasagna

Octavia Griffin

Something that I found interesting during the Betty Nichols presentation was that females stop growing their bones at the early age of 30! I found this interesting because I thought you stopped growing bone around the age of 50 or 60. One thing I learned from the cooking demonstration was how to cook Garden Style Lasagna with no meat or salt. It was delicious!

Project Brainstorms

Chris Castaneda

This week was unbelievably hot, so unfortunately we weren't able to explore South Chicago as much as we had in previous weeks. This did provide a good opportunity for us to buckle down inside and work on our solidifying our topic and our project ideas. This week was a bit rough with attendance, and that made things even more tough because of the holiday on Wednesday. We really had to rally on Tuesday in order to make sure we could finish our project descriptions and our presentation for the book.

                  

On Monday, only one high school student showed up, so we really struggled to get much accomplished. It gave us a chance to really focus on one project, and I think we made a terrific amount of progress. Tuesday was an awesome day with everyone coming together to get some serious work done. The projects finally became clearer, and we began strategizing as to how to best implement the projects. With such a productive day, we decided to end it working on presentation skills. We assigned the students to teach us something that they love to do. It ultimately ended in a dance party with everyone sharing different dance moves they know, and of course, a lot of laughs were shared.

                  
With the day off in the middle of the week, Friday felt somewhat rushed. With our project topics picked, we chose to hit the ground running with research. We looked up all of the topics that interest the students, and I was really impressed with how well the students interpreted some of the scholarly articles they found. I know that when I was sixteen, all of the same articles would probably have gone completely over my head. It was inspiring to see how well they absorbed and analyzed the material. Of course, this is only the beginning, and we will be doing more intense research on Monday. I'm really excited to move forward, as the project slowly starts to materialize and become a reality. 

Octavia's Instagrams

FYI, the view from South Chicago Health Center is usually sunnier. 

Danny, Esther, Tom, and Wujun having a riveting discussion about Picture-telephone.

This Thursday we had Mango Paleta, or "ice cream on a stick"

SSP Swag! :)

Carl plays the piano.

Arts and Culture Day

Some of the food at Soul Veg. It's BBQ Tofu!

Mariah Ryce

Week two of SSP has been amazing. I have enjoyed getting to know my team and exploring the South Chicago community. But the day that stood out to me the most was Wednesday. On Wednesday all of the teams, (GGC, Woodlawn, and my team South Chicago) all met up at the Museum of Science and Industry to start our day. We did a check in to see how everyone was doing. Everyone shared their name, team, year in school, and spirit animal. It was really cool to hear the different types of animals. Both David (who is a  team leader of GGC) and Rebecca (who is a team leader for Woodlawn) were sea otters. Another animal was a half giraffe and half bunny. Then after check in we all piled onto the bus to head to South Shore Cultural Center. I used to attend SSCC for an after school program from third to eighth grade. So I was very familiar with some of the rooms we visited, such as the ballroom, the solarium, and the Paul Robeson theater. Being there was very fun and brought back some great memories from when I was younger. It was also nice to show my peers where I have performed most of my dances in the past. I would like to return to SSCC in the near future to swim in the beach and relax with my friends.

After the Cultural Center everyone got back onto the bus. One of the team leaders from GGC Joanna had us play a fun bus game. You had to sit with someone you didn’t know and talk to them to get to know them. Then once the bus stopped at a red light the person sitting on the outside of the seat would switch seats. This way it gave everybody a chance to get to know one another. It somewhat felt like speed dating. While I was sitting with Joanna it was very cool because we drove past the block where I live so I got a chance to show her. It was also cool to talk to Joanna about dance because she enjoys dancing as well. We continued to play the game until we arrived at Soul Vegetarian.

As we are getting off the bus there is a fruit cart outside of the store. There were oranges, apples, bananas etc. And the first thing you see when you walk in the restaurant is more fruit! There was also refrigerated items. This part of the restaurant is where people bought smoothies. Then we were led back to our seating area. And just like on the bus you had to sit next to someone you didn’t know. Except this time you didn’t have to switch seats. At first most of the high school students sat together. But then we separated even more and sat in a mixture of high school students, medical students and college students. Then chef Yoanna came out and gave us an overview of the menu and what we would be eating. She told us how everything was vegan. And they don’t eat anything from an animal. In the buffet there was salad, spicy buffalo tofu wings, barbeque tofu wings with a twist ( the twist was peanut butter ), greens and soy macaroni and cheese. I really enjoyed trying all of the food. For dessert, we got a choice between soy almond and pecan ice cream, strawberry heaven smoothy, or oatmeal raisin cookies. I chose the soy almond and pecan ice cream. It was very delicious. And it was like normal pecan or almond ice cream since the almonds and pecans were ground up into the ice cream. It was very different but I enjoyed it very much.

Once we finished our dessert then we went back to the bus and drove to the Dusable Museum. I have never been to the Dusable Museum before so I was very excited to go. Once we first walked in there were beautiful marble collage walls with different events in history. We had to check our bags because we weren’t allowed to have them past that point. Then we got a tour of the museum. We saw a carving of African American history. It showed from the slave trade all the way up to the civil rights movement. It was very interesting to see the detail the artist put into the carving. It took him 6 years to make it. Then we left the exhibit to go see about the museum structure then onto African culture. We learned how salt was very important in Africa because it helped preserve foo. we learned tha it was even more valuable than gold. We saw different warrior masks and spiritual artifacts. Then the next exhibit was the different types of wars. We saw one of the very first pieces to ever be donated to the museum. We saw the different types of uniforms and learned about Harriet Tubman role in the military. We learned that she was a spy and went to different camps to learn of their strategies. The museum was very informative and I got a chance to learn a lot about my culture.

South Chicago Murals and Parks

Photos taken by Chris's camera. 

"Art washes out from the soul the dust of everyday life"

Teach Me How To Dougie

Danny Rosa

Mariah and Danny with their sweet shades.

I’d always thought that with age and education comes wisdom. In situations where you have a mixture of high school, college and medical students, I would think the flow of knowledge would be unidirectional. But this isn't the case anymore. What I love most about SSP is that I am learning just as much from the high school students as they are from me.I initially entered the program thinking I, and the medical students, would be spending the summer teaching the high school students about community health. But as Dr. Jones kept mentioning during our first week of the program, the high school students are the experts of their neighborhood. They know South Chicago (the South C) so well and I’m always astonished at the level of knowledge they possess about not only the community but also issues facing modern-day America’s teenagers.


It’s easy to get into this “I’m older so you need to pay attention to me because I have more experience” or “I’m a college student so I know more than you” mentality. This mentality becomes ingrained into our heads by, I feel, our education system. In high school we’re all given a set of rules to follow: don’t speak until you’re called; sit up straight; no talking; listen to the teacher; etc. These rules dichotomize teacher and student, relegating the student to a subordinate position. It is in my opinion that these categories and authoritarian teachers do not allow high school students to fully express themselves, and, further, focus more on the teachers’ interest rather than the students. However, every high school student can teach the teacher just as much information as the teachers can to the student, though the topic may be something non-academic
and foreign to the teacher.


I've seen Carl, Octavia and Mariah become animated when they’re asked their views on teen pregnancy, dancing, basketball, and other matters not usually discussed in the classroom. On Tuesday we asked the high school students to all teach us something we, the leadership team, do not know. They chose to teach us some dancing moves. Elise has dancing experience but our kids were knowledgeable about particular moves that Elise, Chris and myself had never encountered. Mariah taught us to Spongebob; Octavia taught us how to dougie; Carl taught us how to cook. I thought the activity would last only a half hour but as soon as we saw how excited and happy they were to show us their expertise, we decided to spend the rest of the day – only an hour total – dancing. Not only did the dancing give us some exercise for the day, it also woke everyone up and truly showed the talents our students have. For so long, they’re told that adults know best and to listen to them so when they’re given the opportunity to show us their voice, they get happy. I feel this is one of SSP’s biggest goals for the summer: to empower high school students to realize their true potential. As the summer progresses, I’m sure our students will continue to grow and become further empowered.

My First Day

By Carl Mangrum


Up in the night thinking
About my first day
Like a soldier at war
Thinking about his child’s birthday

I’m super excited like a child at
A theme park
And so anxious
As if I’m running for President

And super hungry like a cow
Without any grass

In my mind
I ask million of questions
And have thousands of thoughts

Finally I fall asleep
But When I awake
I feel the warm feeling of the sun on my skin
The songs of birds in my ears

I know it’s time to get up
But I don’t want to move
But I hop up instantly like a kangaroo

It’s my first day of work
Similar to school
But this is something I want to do
Which is way cooler than school

So I get up
And start my day

Creating Leaders

Elise Madrid

A Mural on 91st Street and Commercial Avenue created by The South Chicago Art Center.

This week we took a long walk around the neighborhood to explore and take pictures. Although we kind of dictated the general route, the high schoolers gave us a great tour. They were knowledgeable about different places and it was really nice to see them step up into the teaching role and teach us about the neighborhood they attended school in. We learned fun things about where they liked to eat, what they do after basketball games and school, and more about the assets of the community that would be hard for an outsider to spy. In particular they took us to the People’s Park and told us about some of the activities that were held there such as an open mic night. As a group we also discovered some of the beautiful murals in South Chicago, which highlighted skills in the community the kids had not previously been aware of. We were also brought up to speed on some of the more serious events occurring in the neighborhood, such as why EPIC students aren’t allowed at a certain gas station, after a large fight broke out, in addition to why it may be best to avoid the park at times. I really enjoyed this activity because it allowed me to learn more about their personalities and daily lives. I think they also liked leading and teaching us something and I’m looking forward to having them step up to this role more often.

South Chicago YMCA

Chris Castaneda

       On Tuesday this week, we visited the South Chicago YMCA. From the outside, it looks like a small inconspicuous building. From the inside, it's an amazing facility, complete with gym, swimming pool, and numerous rooms for activities. Here we met with Tiffany Vargas, the Program Coordinator for After School programs and Summer Camp. We walked in, and the atmosphere seemed frantic by the number of children running around, working on crafts. It looked somewhat like a battlefield, but somehow it was completely under control.

       Tiffany walked us through the variety of activities they have for their children. She told us they mainly worked with younger children during the summer, but she hoped to expand the program with more high school youth. We chatted for a while about the various programs in South Chicago, and the options that youth have. She the mentioned that she has time that our group can come and volunteer by leading workshops in nutrition and fitness.

                 

       Our students jumped at the opportunity, already thinking of ideas for the workshops. Some of our students wanted to go through basketball drills, to give the children a nice workout. Another student thought it would be good to do a dance routine for those who may not want to do basketball. It's still a work in a progress, but we are all excited to work in the community with the children. I'm particularly curious to see the interactions between the high school students, and the kids in the camp, especially considering the leadership skills they currently show.

      This was an exciting week because it was the first time our entire group was able to meet. It was wonderful to finally see the group dynamic completed, and we hit the ground running trying to brainstorm project ideas. At first, we came up with a long list of different topics and ideas. The high school students have a tremendous background working in a variety of topics, and they were passionate about many different things. As we continued the discussion, the list narrowed more and more with each day. By Thursday, we had just about settled on a few topics, but we still weren't satisfied with our topic.

                  

      On Friday, we made a tremendous leap, coming up with topic ideas and potential projects. We settled on an overarching theme of self-esteem. Under this theme, we included three topics: teen pregnancy, bullying, and drug abuse. The high school students were excited about the three projects, and they agreed that they would each like to focus on a specific one. It was amazing to see how quickly and resilient the students were about choosing a topic. They knew we were a little behind, and they certainly were able to make up for the time that we weren't able to have the entire group. Moving forward, it will be awesome to see what project ideas and strategies the high school students create.

South Chicago Clean-Up

By: Mariah Ryce

SSP has given me a chance to see

All around me

Tall grass and broken glass

Nothing but trash

You would think south chicago had no class

So now I can’t wait

Can’t sleep in

Won’t be late

The community needs our help

The young and the old

Let’s show them where the vegetables grow

Let’s help them clean up

So the don’t have to look at a whole bunch of yuck!

We can do it! I know we can

All we have to do is lend a helping hand

We can turn this community around

Let’s start by getting the glass off the ground