Volunteer Spotlight: Sean Liu

Second year mentor Sean Liu is from a lot of places – Kentucky, Philadelphia, Michigan, Connecticut, North Carolina – but Chicago feels like home because he’s been here for eight years. Sean went to high school in the north suburbs and he went to University of Illinois for his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering. Sean lived in a dorm for three of four years in college and he played a lot of basketball (his favorite sport). There was a gym right across the street where he spent about 12 hours per week playing pick-up games.

After graduating in 2006, Sean went to University of North Carolina for a Master of Accounting graduate degree. He says he loved it there, the teachers are amazing, and it was more enjoyable than his time at U of I. He recommends accounting “if you like understanding how business works” or if you’re interested in entrepreneurship or the stock market. He recommends North Carolina because the weather is great, there are hills, and you’re close to the beach.

Now, Sean does financial analysis for Hyatt Corporation. On a typical day, he analyzes financial data and highlights important variances, such as significant drops or increases in revenue. He can determine if they are situational (e.g. a spike in Washington, D.C., for inauguration weekend) or caused by something else. In five years, Sean hopes to be a manager or back in school pursuing a master’s degree in business administration. In ten years, he’s interested in teaching high school calculus or statistics.

Sean heard about Cabrini Connections through former volunteer Tammy Baird. On Thursday nights, he works with Gary Wise, who he met more than a year ago. “I love the program,” he says. “It keeps me in perspective… what it’s like to live in the world he lives in.” It also gives him unique insight into schools. He gets a sense of how good or bad they are based on feedback from students.

To get to know your mentee better, Sean says “ask questions” and “meet outside of the program.” He and Gary have been to movies, meals, museums, and more. Congratulations on a successful relationship, and for being in the spotlight. You deserve it!

Student Spotlight: Juan Zamudio

9th grader Juan Zamudio attends Noble Street College Prep, Founding Campus of Noble Street Charter School. His favorite class is physics in which he recently learned how to calculate acceleration and velocity. The hardest part about high school, he says, is to be a freshman. “You have to catch up to everybody else. You’re the smallest one.” He combats that by participating in a lot of school activities – his favorite is soccer; he plays defense for Noble’s varsity team. His favorite club is Real Madrid and his favorite player is Cristiano Ronaldo.

Since Juan attends a college preparatory school, naturally, he is already starting to think about where he will go next. In sixth grade, he visited University of Wisconsin-Madison and thoroughly enjoyed it. He also thinks well of Lake Forest College which is where his sister will attend next year. No matter where he ends up, Juan plans to prepare by getting good grades and joining the National Honor Society. You can do it, Juan!

Once in college, Juan would like to study in preparation for his dream job – architect. “I like designing things and drawing,” he says,”… I want to design a building that has my name in it.” He’s not the only aspiring architect at Cabrini Connections. Israel Dosie has similar dreams, and they’re on the same Cabrini Madness team (“The Green Team”). Perhaps they will find a way to put their design skills to use.

Juan joined Cabrini Connections last year after hearing about our program from his sister. He and his mentor, Charlie Megan, meet on Wednesday nights and primarily work on math. “Charlie teaches me different methods to remember things,” he says. “He makes it simple.” Thinking back to when they first met, one thing sticks out that helped them get to know each other – a trip to McDonald’s!

For 2010, Juan’s resolution is simply “to have fun.” We hope you have a lot of fun at Cabrini Connections, Juan. Congratulations on being in the spotlight!

Stats in progress

This graph shows fall quarter student attendance at Cabrini Connections from 2000 through 2009. Average attendance for the decade was 80.1%. The break you see is for the week of Thanksgiving when there is no tutoring.

In the coming weeks and months, I plan to create more charts like this to illustrate our impact. Visit Chicago Youth Programs for a good example of tracking outcomes. Cabrini Connections keeps data on student and volunteer attendance and retention, grades, post-secondary education plans, and demographic information like age, gender, and ethnicity. We tell stories about our program all the time to emphasize its importance, but if we can back those stories up with data to demonstrate impact and improvement, we can make a better case to donors.

These charts are also internally valuable. In the graph above, you can see a downward trend from the first week (91%) to the last week (76%). Why does attendance decrease over the course of fall quarter? What can Cabrini Connections and other tutor/mentor programs do to reverse this trend? These are questions I want to begin a dialogue around. A lot of research has been done regarding volunteer retention from year to year, but what about student retention from week to week? If you have any thoughts on this matter, or if you can connect me to people asking similar questions, please post a comment. Thank you!

UPDATE: Yesterday I presented fall quarter student attendance for the 2000s. Today I present volunteer attendance (below). Average attendance for the decade was 77.0% and, as with students, you can see a downward trend over the course of the quarter. One reason this may occur is because volunteers are not fully prepared. Their involvement in our program includes coaching, training, and peer mentoring, but it also involves the learning which a volunteer can do on his or her own to build skills as a tutor/mentor.

However, despite this postulation, this trend could largely be the result of a rotation in a small percentage of our volunteer base. Volunteers who fall out in the first few weeks and months could bring these numbers down. I suspect that volunteers enrolled in our program for at least three, six, or 12 months have better overall attendance numbers. I will include test this hypothesis in future analyses.

Volunteer Spotlight: Brittney Swan

Brittney Swan was born in Monticello, a small town in central Illinois. She went to high school with about 500 people – just over 100 in her graduating class – and everyone knew each other… and each other’s business. For college, she went to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, but while she was among more than 30,000 undergraduates, it still felt like a small community. Brittney did a lot of community service and was heavily involved with her sorority, Delta Delta Delta. She was their philanthropy chair and she started her own Greek community service organization. She majored in Agricultural and Consumer Economics with a concentration in Financial Planning. Brittney says she learned useful information for life about mortgages, insurance, estate taxes, how to do her own taxes, and more.

After graduating in May 2009, Brittney moved to Chicago to work for an insurance technology company named Norvax. She works to sell their technology, such as a quote engine for health insurance, to insurance carriers. About 100 people work at Norvax and she found this position through the U of I alumni network, Always Illinois.

Brittney likes Chicago and plans to stay here for a while. “At home you have to drive to do things,” she says, “but in Chicago, there’s always something to do.” She’s far enough away from her hometown to grow up on her own, but still close enough to go home when she wants or needs to.

At Cabrini Connections, Brittney works with 7th grader Amari Roby. It is the first year in the program for each of them and they meet on Thursday nights. In the beginning, to get to know her mentee, Brittney says she “tried to be more like a friend… on her level… joking around with her.” By just being there, being someone to talk to, and keeping her confidence, Brittney believes she gained her trust and they now have a great working relationship. They communicate frequently via phone and e-mail and have met off-site several times. Most recently they went to Harold Washington Library Center to do research for the history fair. They also had time for shopping on State Street and coffee at Starbucks. “She was really excited to get a Frappuccino,” says Brittany, “… something that I spend $4 on every day. … It really puts things into perspective.”

Thanks for sharing with us, Brittney. We are happy to have you in the program and we look forward to continued success from you and Amari.

Student Spotlight: Amari Roby

7th grader Amari Roby attends Newberry Academy in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. Her favorite subjects are “math, social studies, writing… all of them!” Right now her biggest assignment is a project for the history fair. She chose to research Rosa Parks in recognition of Black History Month. “She was a brave woman,” says Amari.

After elementary school, Amari would like to attend Holy Trinity High School, a co-educational, Catholic high school on the Near-North Side. She is most intrigued by their requirement to wear uniforms. “I like trying new things,” says Amari. She recently learned how to ride a bike and how to dance.

For post-secondary school, Amari would like to stay in Chicago and go to Robert Morris University or Malcolm X College. She wants to become a pediatrician and/or an actress. “I love working with children,” says Amari. “I want to help other kids who are sick.” If she becomes an actress, she’s prepared to take on any role – horror, comedy, romance, anything. One of her favorite movies, Be Cool, is about a girl who wants to become a singer. She sings but the world doesn’t hear her. Amari’s dream is to “make everyone know me and see who I am.” Being featured in the spotlight is a good start!

Amari has two sisters and three brothers. She heard about Cabrini Connections through her sister, Ashaunti Roby, a three-year veteran of the program. Amari works with Brittney Swan on Thursday nights. “I really like her,” says Amari. “We had a connection when we first met… She helps me with my homework and we have fun going shopping.” They recently spent a day at Harold Washington Library Center and on State Street. Amari loves downtown. “It’s really big down there.”

Eventually, Amari might move to Los Angeles or Las Vegas, but for now she is happy in Chicago. She looks forward to summertime when she will celebrate her 13th birthday on June 23rd. We look forward to it as well, and to many successful years at Cabrini Connections. Thanks for joining us, Amari!

Cabrini Madness

In anticipation of college basketball tournament season, Cabrini Connections is starting its own tournament. Each team consists of volunteers, students, staff, etc. and will compete to raise the most money before the championship game on April 5th. 13 teams have already formed to compete on our GiveForward online fundraising page.

Once the Division I Men's Basketball Tournament starts in March, we will make our cuts at the same times they do. Our top eight will advance after the Sweet 16 round; our top four will advance after the Elite 8 round; our top two will advance after the Final Four; and our top fundraising team will be chosen at midnight on the night of the National Championship Game.

A few weeks ago, I was recruited by veteran volunteer Charlie Megan to join "The Green Team" - helping raise green for Cabrini Green. We had our first team meeting last night and, as you can see above, we have a pretty deep roster. You can see our full roster, logo, and team description on our GiveForward page. I would appreciate your support as we try to take the title and raise some much-needed funds for Cabrini Connections. If 20 people who read this each donate $5, there's $100 right there! Every little bit helps. Thanks so much!

Youth Leadership Council Meeting 1/25/10

The 2009-2010 Youth Leadership Council held its fourth meeting on Monday, January 25th. Providence St. Mel 9th grader Mylana Williams (above) was introduced as the council's newest member. She replaces Victoria Rivera whose schedule does not allow her to participate at this time. We welcome Mylana and look forward to incorporating her perspective into a new year of YLC initiatives.

As opposed to its usual external focus, this meeting was very introspective. I asked the students to define leadership. "What qualities and characteristics do you look for in a leader?" I prepared a list of what I thought to be good answers, and they just blew me out of the water! Not only did they cover all of my suggestions, they had plenty more! According to YLC, good leaders set goals, show respect, stay on task, listen, are strong & bold, take criticism, practice what they preach, are willing to follow, and the list goes on. Now that I've recorded their excellent answers, they are going to hold each other accountable for them. If they are leaders in our program, they should be exhibiting these qualities and characteristics all the time.

Their next exercise was to start an asset map. Asset mapping is modeled to work on a community level, but you can do it with any group of people. Have each person list their assets, bring them all together, begin to make connections, and use your assets collectively to work toward a goal. Assets can be personal traits like "trustworthy," people you know like "my teachers," groups you're apart of like "my basketball team," and so on. Here are some of the council's assets:

• We have members who are outgoing, enthusiastic, talkative, friendly, hardworking, motivated, athletic, helpful, and nice to be around.
  
• We have members who are good at acting, singing, writing, dancing, drawing, speaking, and with computers.
  
• We have members who work at Jewel-Osco, are on Region 2 Youth Leadership Council, are in Tech Club, and go to CME Church.
  

As you can see, we have a dynamic group of young people on Youth Leadership Council. At their next meeting, members will discuss how these assets are connected and how they might leverage them as a group. I think asset mapping will be very helpful in facilitating their brainstorming.

The last exercise for this day was also an assignment. I asked the members to write down what they want to be when they grow up. Then I told them to go out and interview a person in that job/career before their next meeting. They will need to document their interview in some way. It can be simple transcription, an audio recording, a summary with quotes... just some kind of documentation. At the end, their reports will be posted in the center for everyone to see. I think this is a good leadership development activity for them personally, but it will also set an example to other students in the program. It is a simple, effective project that any student can take on. Here is what everyone wants to be:

Ashaunti - lawyer/professor
De'Sean - business owner
Israel (right) - architect
Mylana - actress or criminal psychologist
Savon (above) - professional football player or work with computers
Sean - video game designer

Stay tuned for their reports next month. Thanks for keeping up!