ISU Redbirds Sociology Class Spend An Insightful Day in the AG!
Rommel Slater
Published: March 29, 2019
On Thursday, March 28, 2019, a sociology class from Illinois State University visited the streets of the Auburn Gresham (AG) community. With the goal of experiencing racial diversity and seeing how it differs from their own individual and school communities, they were in for a bit of a shock.
Contrary to popular beliefs, a tour of the neighborhood exposed the students to a clean and peaceful environment filled with an abundance of assets. In addition to learning the history of Auburn Gresham, they were also able to get a tremendous amount of insight on some of the future plans for Auburn Gresham, such as the new health center that will be anchored Greater Auburn Gresham Development Corperation's new community inspired Auburn Gresham Healthy Lifestyle HUB development project. Lastly, some of the team members from GAGDC took the time to speak to the ISU Redbirds about the work they do in the community associated with the Chicago Public Schools educational system and how they integrate community services to improve academics and attendance in local elementary and high schools.
Afterwards, it was time for the students to give back to the community, with a volunteer project lead by
Chicago Cares volunteer coordinator and they did it in style.
The students visited one of the local churches, Mount Hermon Missionary Baptist Church, a historical church that was established in 1923. In the community space at Mt, Hermon the ISU students and their professor made poster boards and decorated "Little Free Libraries" which are going to be distributed between four day care centers in the Auburn Gresham Neighborhood Network. The Little Free Libraries are miniature house shaped libraries where people, in this case the children at the daycare, can borrow and/or swop (take one, leave one, or keep one) books of all kinds.
The ISU students concluded their work by making cards for the GAGDC to present to the children at the local day care centers to motivate them towards perseverance and resilience in their early chiidhood academics. Overall, the feedback, was, "please send us photos!" and paraphrasing, it was a very insightful day of full of all the social good Auburn Gresham has to offer the world. Thank you!
