Week Two Wrap Up

We started the week with a tour of the Chicago’s South Side. The students learned up some interesting details during the tour. Bennie was really surprised by the number of famous African Americans who live (or have lived) in a small area of Hyde Park (Muhammad Ali, Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson, and Barack Obama). Iysha learned some interesting information about Dyett high school, a public high school that is located in Washington Park. Dyett has an urban farm, much like the one at Gary Comer Youth Center. Taniqua learned about the history of the steel mills in the city; she was surprised to observe the huge, abandoned tracts of land along the lakefront. Our tour concluded with a visit to Yassa, a Senegalese restaurant in the Greater Grand Crossing community. Some students loved the food, while others found it to be a bit too spicy!

On Tuesday, we continued our exploration of the Greater Grand Crossing community. This time, we focused on exploring grocery and corner stores. We have been learning about food deserts, and understand that Greater Grand Crossing is a designated food desert. Even so, we were curious to see whether our research matched up with reality. To that end, we went into a number of stores on 71^st and 79^th street. Sure enough, most food stores carried little (if any) fresh produce. Soda and junk food were advertised aggressively, while healthy food was pushed back into the corners of the stores.

On Wednesday, we researched our main topics of interest: stress and food deserts. We compiled the information into a PowerPoint presentation that we would share with the other community teams on Thursday. We worked and worked (and edited and edited) to make a presentation that would accurately portray the work we have been doing in Greater Grand Crossing thus far.

On Thursday, the three community groups came together at the University of Chicago to share their presentations. It was really fun to see what the other groups have been working on in South Chicago and Woodlawn. It was good to practice presenting in front of a group since that can be nerve-wracking. The Greater Grand Crossing students did a great job presenting and expressed admiration for the work of their peers as well.

We also attended a CAMP lunch and lecture about service on Thursday. The Chicago Academic Medicine Program (CAMP) is a summer program for undergraduate premedical students. The Pritzker School of Medicine Office of Multicultural Affairs developed CAMP to help multicultural and disadvantaged students build the knowledge base and academic skills necessary for success in a premedical program. The Summer Service Partnership students have been invited to participate in some components of the CAMP program. Last Thursday, students attended a lunch and lecture, during which they met professors, medical students, and CAMP participants. It was a bit awkward at first, but the students enjoyed interacting with the medical students and professors once the ice was broken.

On Friday, we spent the morning helping out in the Gary Comer Youth Center garden. The rooftop garden is amazing! (Please see below for more details about our visit to the garden). Friday afternoon was topped off by a visit to Gary Comer Youth Center’s “Harvest Table.” On Friday afternoons from 4:00-6:00, GCYC has a “Harvest Table” event. Vegetables and flowers from the garden are available for purchase in a mini farmer’s market. We watched a cooking demonstration where we learned to make vegetable quiche (and tasted some free samples!) Attending Harvest Table was a great way to wrap up a fun week.