More than 100 community partners recently welcomed more than 1,800 first-year students to their new city and talked to them about the spectrum of ways they can meaningfully engage with the South Side and Chicago during their years here.
Organized by the University Community Service Center, the annual Engage Chicago orientation event brought local nonprofit and faith leaders, artists, small business owners, school principals, and elected officials together with small groups of students across UChicago’s campus, for discussions about local issues ranging from affordable housing and community safety to the virtues of deep-dish pizza.
Ahmad Jitan, director of organizing for the Inner-City Muslim Action Network, emphasized for his small group session that getting off campus and exploring the city of Chicago is key. Students, he said, have been a big driver of increased urban civic engagement in higher education in recent years and thoughtful students can continue to create positive impact if they work together.
“Students … said, ‘I don’t want to spend my four years here just within the walls of a classroom or within the confines of the campus, I want to be civically engaged, I’m growing up and I have experiences or I’m reading and learning about things in the world, and I want my education to not only be theoretical but practical,’” Jitan told the group. “So, my hope is that, through offices that exist already and through your own imagination, you’re able to make your educational experience relevant, to have an impact, that your education isn’t just something that’s extractive from the city but that you’re here to build something as well.”
—Prof. Chuan He
