Last Thursday, Cabrini Connections celebrated the end of the 2010-2011 tutoring and mentoring year with its 18th Annual Year-End Dinner. About 250 students, parents, volunteers, alumni, staff, and board members crowded the Cornerstone Academy in Chicago to recognize each other for great accomplishments - the greatest of which is that all five of our seniors graduated from high school and are headed to college in the fall. This video shows the presentation of Graduation Dollars and yearbooks to our seniors, with a special surprise at the end ;-)
Thanks to Groupon and ContextMedia, the Graduation Dollars for this year's senior class have been doubled!
Spoil the surprise =>
I would like to personally thank all of my friends and family members who made this such a successful year. A year ago I felt lucky to have the opportunity to remain a staff member at Cabrini Connections, and I look back a year later proud of all that we accomplished. Congratulations!
Shuling Yong was born and raised on the island nation of Singapore in Southeast Asia. She describes it as “a bustling little city about the size of Chicago,” and since it is near the equator, it feels like summer all year long. Shuling came to the United States three years ago after graduating at the top of her class. She received a scholarship to study anywhere in the world and she chose Northwestern University.
First year (first month!) student Jordan Stephens has already established himself as an excellent addition to the Cabrini Connections family. Jordan, who attends tutoring on Wednesday nights after switching from Thursday, has joined two clubs (Art and Tech), is on time to all activities, and has not missed an SVHATS entry (5-for-5). His mentor, Sundi Brewer-Griffin, who Jordan met last week, is a graduate of Northwestern University who intends to help him with math and reading.
Words can hardly describe what an uplifting and inspiring time was had by me at Cabrini Connections annual Year-End Dinner on Thursday, June 10th, at Cornerstone Center. Luckily, I have videos to share with you that convey some of what took place. Thank you to each and every person who supported the dinner either by attended or promoting or donating or just reading this post. We are all about connections and one is being made right now. I hope you enjoy these videos (especially the ones created by students) and share them with people in your network. The more eyes we can get on our work, the more support we can find to continue doing it. Thank you for your help!
First up is a four-minute video and picture montage which recaps the entire night. It was produced by one of our interns from Illinois Institute of Technology, Minsang Lee.
Second is a video of alumni speaker Tangela Marlowe who participated in Cabrini Connections from 1993 to 1997. It was shot by Reggie Murphy and Shaquille Strauther and edited by me.
Last is all four of the Video & Filmmakers Club's short films. Two are fiction, two are documentary, and all were produced entirely by students in grades 7-11. These are a must watch! Click on the club's picture to be taken to their video showcase.
Last week, Cabrini Madness came to a close in dramatic fashion as Guaranteed Victory beat Team Impeccable by a score of $6402 to $6120. Overall, the tournament raised $23,109.89 and my team, The Green Team, raised $1865 (third place). I want to thank each and every person who donated to and/or spread the word about our cause. You have made a difference for Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection and I truly appreciate it. Thank you!
Now, with the adrenaline of Cabrini Madness behind us, we shift focus to our annual Art Festival. This year's festival (free and open to the public) will be held at the Palette & Chisel art gallery (1012 N Dearborn) on Friday, April 16th, from 6-10pm. Original works created by members of our Art Club will be on display and up for auction. Bidding closes at 9pm and the artwork will remain on display through April 27th.
My birthday is on Tuesday, April 20th, but I'm encouraging all my friends to come celebrate with me on Friday at the Art Festival. I would love to see you there! Come meet students, volunteers, and staff, enjoy complimentary food and drinks, and check out some awesome artwork! What better way to spend a Friday night?
RSVP on Facebook here. Make a donation to support the club here. Thank you!
Cabrini Connections' new Video and Filmmakers Club held its first meeting last night with great attendance. 10 kids showed up for lessons in the basics of storytelling. Club Leader Michael Alexander, President of Conscious Planet Media, asked questions like "what is a story?" and "what makes a good storyteller?" Kids shared their favorite movies, television shows, and music videos and used them as examples of storytelling. "Tell me what that movie is about in 60 seconds," requested Michael.
The last question of the night was: "what story do we want to tell together?" This accelerated summer session will meet for six weeks. By its end we will have a 3-minute video completed. Right now it looks like we will make a documentary about the Video and Filmmakers Club (who we are, what we do) with a twist: it will be assigned a genre, such as horror or comedy. Thus it will serve a dual purpose. First, it will be promotional and used as a recruitment tool for the fall session; and, second, it will give our kids a chance to explore genre conventions. What are the characteristics, both in writing and on screen, of a horror film or a comedy?
The Video and Filmmakers Club is off to a promising start. As we continue to meet, I hope that you will follow our blog at http://cabrinifilms.blogspot.com/. The Art Club meets on Monday night, too, and they started a new project last night with several volunteers from Chicago Cares. They are already working toward next spring's Art and Video Festival, so get ready to be amazed!
We are very proud of our clubs here at Cabrini Connections, but they can't go on without the continued support of donors and volunteers. If you would like to make a donation to either club, or to our organization as a whole, please visit our web site. Thank you!
When I signed on to work at Cabrini Connections I was especially excited about the prospect of sustaining Innervision Youth Productions (IYP), a video creation project that began in 1996. At Northwestern I spent a year in the Radio/Television/Film department going through their core curriculum of media studies and production courses. Movies have always been oneof my greatest pleasures, so naturally I enjoyed learning about the filmmaking process from script to screen. Furthermore, exposure to an ample amount of social issue media cemented my feeling that film can be an agent for social change. Films do not have to be an escape. They can represent reality and command action. And now, with increased access to video equipment and the internet, almost anyone can create and view movies. IYP aims to capitalize on this enterprise to tell the story of Cabrini Connections and its students.
For the past 3 years a group of teens have been working on a video documentary of the changes in Cabrini Green and the impact of living in public housing on the lives of our teens and families. Volunteer Rebecca Parrish of Interchange Productions facilitated them through the process and helped them learn the skills needed to make the film. A portion of their documentary, "Cabrini Green, 'This is What I Know': Our Lives, Our Truths, Our Stories," can be viewed below. Copies of the full 26-minute movie are available on DVD for a donation of $15. E-mail me if you would like to place an order.
As that project came to an end, though, IYP was left on hiatus. A new volunteer was needed to lead the group and provide access to equipment. On my second day on the job, that person dropped right out of the sky and into our office. Michael Alexander, president of Conscious Planet Media, plans to lead the new Video/Filmmakers Club into the 2009-2010 academic year. Mr. Alexander has spent several years now producing and hosting original TV content for the conscious marketplace andhis company is creating the first Platinum-LEED Green TV Studio at Chicago's Green Exchange.
The new club will tentatively work on a 10-week schedule. Six weeks will be devoted to lessons in storytelling, editing, audio, etc. and four weeks will be devoted to a project. The first project will likely be a documentary on our program with interviews from students and coverage of our events. Ultimately the club will work as a training program. Students who complete the curriculum will, in coming quarters, help train new members. Experienced students will also have the opportunity to hone in on the duties they enjoy most, such as cinematography or lighting.
Eventually the Video/Filmmakers Club may also collaborate with other clubs. The writing club could write a script; the tech club could create graphics for post-production; and the art club could design costumes and sets. In the long term, one of our goals is to have a self-sustaining movie crew. For any event, we could mobilize our club members to document the occasion and sharpen their skills in the process. Such training also puts them in line for a host of jobs in the future. The filmmaking business continues to be lucrative and is even expanding as more and more videos are produced for the internet. As the new media revolution carries on, we want our students to be competitive in the marketplace. Best of all, it's fun, too! I can't wait to get started!
The summer club will have its first meeting on Monday, July 27th. If you would like to help support this program, either by making a monetary contribution or volunteering your own skills or resources, please contact me. Thanks!
I am a recent graduate of Northwestern University and the current Assistant Program Coordinator at Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection in Chicago, Illinois.
