Grow Greater Englewood’s community and farm steward Adonnis Platt didn’t have to search for a fitting analogy to capture why the University of Chicago’s annual Engage Chicago orientation event is valuable for both incoming students and participating community partner organizations like his: “Cross pollination is able to happen—the students get a little bit of the community pollen, the community gets a little bit of the students’ pollen, and everybody leaves a little more fertilized.”
Led by the University Community Service Center (UCSC) within the Office of Civic Engagement, Engage Chicago aims to introduce all 1,800+ incoming College students to the city of Chicago through small group panel-style conversations with an array of community partners. Platt was one of nearly 100 community partners representing nonprofits, schools, small businesses, churches, and other local groups that came to UChicago’s campus last Friday for this year’s event. Panelists urged students to make the most of their UChicago years by exploring, learning from, and contributing to their new city beyond campus in all its unique strengths and challenges and shared insights on everything from different neighborhoods’ history to their favorite restaurants, festivals, and stretches of the Lakefront.
“We’re proud to host this event each year and bring such an incredible mix of local partners to campus to speak directly with our incoming students,” Director of Student Civic Engagement and the UCSC Nick Currie said. “It’s so important that our students have an opportunity to hear about the city’s strengths and challenges from the folks who are actually out in our neighborhoods doing all kinds of impactful work. The students seem to find the experience informative and meaningful, and we hope it’s just the beginning of their engagement journey here at UChicago.”
Following the on-campus event, 400 students took part in service projects at 15 partner sites across nearby neighborhoods. Project work included clearing weeds at a local community garden, supporting older adults with technology assistance, organizing classroom libraries, spreading woodchips, and more. Platt, who led a student group in a beautification project with his Grow Greater Englewood team, said providing an opportunity for students to get out into the community so soon after they’ve arrived on campus is a great way to acclimate them to their new city and show them the kind of community impact that’s possible during their time at UChicago.
“Most of the students are not from the city, so it gets them to feel more comfortable, let their guard down, and be like ‘okay, I heard so many things about Chicago in the past but this is what it’s really like,’ so that those magical moments are able to happen,” Platt said.
Syda Segovia Taylor, founder and executive director of grassroots social justice organization Organic Oneness, shared her experiences with racism and inequity growing up in Chicago and encouraged the students in her Engage sessions to embrace and explore the city thoughtfully and with humility.
“Every community has its own richness, and I pray that during your time here you see it exactly as that, the richness of humanity,” Segovia Taylor told students. “This is an opportunity for you to get a glimpse of the global society and if you don’t take advantage of that with a humble posture of learning, you’re doing yourself a disservice. You walk into these neighborhoods with a humble posture of learning, not take over, not ‘I have something to give you,’ or ‘I’ve got to fix it,’ but how are you learning to make yourself a better human being?”
Second-year transfer student Oona Lundgren-Lahav stuck around after one of her Engage sessions to connect with Constance Shabazz of Salaam Community Wellness Center, who’d spoken of her community healthcare advocacy work during the panel. Lundgren-Lahav was eager to ask Shabazz more questions about her organization and how she might get involved. A Boston area native, Lundgren-Lahav said the opportunity to engage with Chicago beyond campus was one of the things that drew her to UChicago and she was grateful that the Engage event allowed her and her classmates to dive into that opportunity immediately.
“This was such a great meeting of the minds with a bunch of people from different industries. I loved getting to know these different organizations and to hear about just how close these opportunities are and how accessible they are to students here was really inspiring for the next three years,” Lundgren-Lahav said. “I was deciding between schools and the city sold me, it’s such an amazing place and I’m really excited to be here.”
