Senior Maddie Orenstein received a $1,000 grant from the nonprofit Campus Compact to facilitate programs where Northwestern students partner with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students. For this project, she will be collaborating with Promote 360, a SESP student group that works to enhance and promote the well-being of minority students. Specifically, Orenstein plans to bring college and high school students together to work on components of the college application process, such as filling out financial aid forms, completing applications, writing essays, applying for scholarships or visiting campuses.
Campus Compact is a national coalition of nearly 1,200 college and university presidents dedicated to promoting community service, civic engagement and service learning in higher education. Campus Compact seeks to educate college students to become active citizens who are well-equipped to develop creative solutions to society's most pressing issues.
"What Campus Compact stands for is so important; universities have so much to share and to learn from the greater community, and as a college student who is passionate about the community I live in, this grant matched some of my own goals and ideas," says Orenstein, a social policy major who claims she applied for the grant on a whim.
Orenstein sees the benefits of partnership between university students and high school students as a two-way street. "There is so much to be gained for both students. Northwestern students can learn about Chicago, its public school system, and make a friend who is not a fellow Northwestern student. CPS students gain advice on applying to colleges or filling out any applications and can make an older friend who they can teach about their community," she notes.
"Something that all University students can easily offer, no matter their interests or field of study, is to be a resource for someone going through the college application process. All of us have successfully been through this process, and understand it in all of its tediousness. It can be intimidating to anyone, but it is doable!"
Orenstein's efforts to promote interaction between different groups reflect the goals she shares with other members of Promote 360. "Promoting and protecting diversity is what P360 does on our campus, and I wanted to take that one step further to reach beyond campus. Often times, the world of University academia we live in does not allow us to meet others outside of it, or to have the experiential learning and sharing that is so relevant to everything we are doing in the classroom. There should be many more opportunities to use diversity as a tool for learning."
Last Modified: 11/19/09