Edgewood College Experience...2011

The Cabrini Connections' program strives to connect people to resources; students, volunteers, parents, and even donors who are looking for a program like ours to donate...we explain to them why our program is a great selection. But for us to be able to connect people to resources we need to understand the needs of students and volunteers and also the needs of the program; but we also have to be able to collaborate with others and access those needed resources.

Dr. Tom Holub a professor at Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin has been one of the many sources of resources to the Cabrini Connections' program for 13 years now! Each summer Dr. Holub and a number of his graduate students visit the program for 3 days for what we call "The Edgewood College Experience!"

This was another successful installment of that experience. We had a great group of Edgewood visitors, an outstanding group of Cabrini Connections' students, and just an overall great activity for the Cabrini Connections' program. What made this year different was the leadership that three of our most recent student alumni provided. Imann Mitchell, Cierria Tharpe, and Kanah Bradley are three of our 2011 graduates and not only signed up to participate in the experience this year, but they also served as student leaders assisting the Edgewood guests and working with the younger Cabrini Connections' students. These student leaders did a GREAT job!

Hopefully this opportunity will be the start of a lifelong relationship between the students of Cabrini Connections and the group from Edgewood. We hope that not only does the Edgewood students aim to remain connected to the students, but we also hope they will continue to try to assist the overall program by connecting us to resources they may know of. This could come in the form of new volunteers in the program, funding that our program could use, or as simple as more and more people reading and becoming a fan of the work that we do so they can possibly connect us to future resources. With our biggest FUNdraisor of the year taking place on Thursday of next week, annual golf benefit, the Edgewood College visitors could possibly participate as golfers, attend the dinner, or take advantage of the online bidding opportunity! Again, connecting people to resources is what we aim to do and we definitely want to thank Tom Holub and the 2011 Edgewood College visitors for being one of those resources for our students of the Cabrini Connections' program!

May Activities at Cabrini Connections

These are activities that we hope Cabrini Connections students and volunteers will take part in during May

Meeting of the Fund Raising Minds
On May 13th and 14th following the announcements during the tutoring/mentoring sessions, several Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection’s Board Members will be hosting a brief (15-20 min) discussion with all of the volunteers and staff about various fund raising ideas. Many volunteers have shared ideas about ways in which we can obtain the necessary resources for the program, and this brief discussion will be a way of bringing Board Members, staff, and volunteers together to expand on those great ideas.

Club Coordinators and Wednesday/Thursday volunteers please make an effort to attend and share your thoughts. Again, will be pretty brief and will take place immediately following the announcements on May 13th and 14th.

Student and Volunteer Appreciation Night!!! May 20 and 21.
This program would definitely not be what it is without our students and volunteers who participate in the Cabrini Connections’ program! We want to show our appreciation to our student and volunteers by hosting a Student Appreciation Night on May 20th and 21st (Last official tutoring/mentoring sessions of 3rd Quarter), and a Volunteer Appreciation Night on June 11th.

So following the announcements on the May 20th and 21st students will have the opportunity to relax and enjoy an Ice Cream Sundae Bar!!!

On June 11th at 6:30pm all volunteers are invited to the Volunteer Appreciation Night here in the center, and we will provide an Ice Cream Sundae Bar. So save the dates and please come out and enjoy some ice cream while we talk about highlights for the year and how we can have even more highlights heading into the 2009-2010 Tutoring/Mentoring Year!!!

“Understanding Our Youth” - Year End Surveys being collected during May
As the Cabrini Connections staff continues to find ways to better serve our youth and the volunteers who work with our students, we have decided to enhance our survey process to get a better understanding on how to better understand and serve the youth who participate in our program. A brief survey for each one of our students to their mentors, parent/guardian, and their homeroom teachers will be provided by the end of this week. Volunteers will receive their surveys during the sessions and both parents and teachers will receive their surveys in the mail. The information that we receive from these surveys will be used to assist with not only understanding our students’ strengths, but we will use this information to work on any and all weaknesses that our students may have.

Participation of all of our students, parents/guardians, volunteers, and school faculty is essential in this process and we hope that all parties will help us help our students, and we hope to get all of the surveys back by May 22, 2009.


Year End Dinner, June 4, from 6 to 8pm.
Learn more about the dinner at http://www.cabriniconnections.net/dinner. This is a celebration of the past year, and a kick-off for summer and 2009-10 activities. We hope to have a great turnout. Invitations and donor appeals will be in the mail next week.

Year End Dinner Voting Process
We are a month away from the 2009 Year End Dinner and are on track to have one of the best events ever! Over the next two weeks students, volunteers, and staff will be voting on this year’s awards. The student awards include:

-Jimmy Biggs Citizenship Award
-Most Motivated
-Best Overall Academic Achievement
-Most Improved Award

Please assist us with ensuring that the 2009 Year End Dinner is a success by donating to this year’s event at http://www.cabriniconnections.net/donate-online


Cabrini Connections 2009 Summer Schedule!!!
Be on the lookout for the 2009 Summer Schedule and all of the great activities that can and will be taking place. Year End Dinner on June 4th, The Edgewood College Experience July 6-8, Annual Golf Benefit on July 16…and MUCH MUCH MORE!!!

Edgewood College 2008 Experience now on YouTube

One of our volunteers, Haminiaina Ratovoarivony, has created a video documentary of the July 2008 visit of Edgewood College graduate students at Cabrini Connections.

Haminiaina is from Madagascar, where he is teaching cinema and digital video for youth. At Cabrini Connections he is working with our library of digital video, created over the past 10 years, to create new videos that show the work we're doing.

We're recruiting other volunteers who will take this role, and hope that as a community of Cabrini Connections video volunteers forms, it will begin to attract our teens, which will re-energize the Innervisions Youth Production club which was started in 1995.

If you're a current or former student or volunteer and want to be part of this group, or work in the Chicago area and want to join us for the first time, email tutormentor2@earthlink.net so we can help you get involved.

Edgewood Experience Connects College and Urban Students

On July 16, graduate students from Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin will be joining with Cabrini Connections students for a three-day experience. You can read about the 2006 visit. This will be the 8th year that we've had this partnership, and the goals are that the Edgewood students will learn more about working with inner city kids, and more about Chicago, while the Cabrini Connections students will learn more about college and careers, and some of the learning habits that they need to adopt in order to have the careers they aspire to.



We won't know how much change these events generate for many years. This is why we've created these forums and an eLearning strategy. Our hope is that the Edgewood students and the Cabrini Connections students learn to use this site, or our Cabrini Blog, as a place to stay connected to each other, so that as they get to know each other, they do more now and in the future to help each other. This can lead to more help for the kids, and more help for programs like Cabrini Connections, who need annual donations in order to pay for facilities, and pay for the staff that facilitate these activities and the on-going connection of youth and adult volunteers.

If you're an Edgewood alum or a Cabrin Connections alum who has participated in the Edgewood experience in one of the years since 1999, I encourage you to introduce yourself and tell how you are still drawing from this experience in your current life activities. You can post your message here, or in the Tutor/Mentor Connection discussion forums.

Edgewood College visits Cabrini Connections students

27 Edgewood College graduate students are visiting Cabrini Connections this week for a three-day program. Led by Dr. Tom Holub, these students are preparing to be middle and high school teachers and this experience is designed to give them experience working with inner-city kids. The 16 Cabrini Connections students involved will gain valuable tools and strategies for futures planning by participating in the program. In addition, each student attending all three days will recieve a pair of shoes courtesy of Famous Footwear.

Highlights of the three-day program include trips to Millenium Park and the Museum of Contemporary Art and City Walks (scavenger hunts.)