Author: Companies That Care
Gallery of Celebrity Endorsements
Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Mayor of Chicago
Katie Chang, Actress
Bill Rancic, Entrepreneur/Author
Kate Miccuci, Actress
Edi Gathegi, Actor
Tim Kazurinsky, Actor
Dawn Turner Trice, Chicago Tribune Columnist
Jim Gaffigan, Comedian
Martha Lavey, Artistic Director of Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Ambassador David Jacobson, US Ambassador to Canada
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Actress
Secretary Ray Mabus, US Secretary of the Navy
Penny Pritzker, Philanthropist
Secretary Janet Napolitano, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Michele Coleman Mayes, Executive Vice President, General Counsel for Allstate Insurance Company
Terry Hillard, Former Chicago Police Superintendent
Garry McCarthy, Chicago Police Superintendent
Jim Rose, ABC TV Sportscaster
Linda Yu, ABC TV Anchor
Keep checking back for more famous March to College supporters!
Sneak Peek at this Week’s Books
This Week: Simply Be Heard!
On Wednesday, July 17, and Saturday, July 20, 2013, we held two the last Terrific Tales Story Time sessions of this summer at West Englewood Library! Check out some of the pictures below.
Theme: Life is a Beach!
Books:
- Down By The Cool Of The Pool by Tony Mitton
- Froggy Learns to Swim by Jonathan London
- The Day The Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt
- The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds
- Press Here by Herve Tullet
- How I Became A Pirate by Melinda Long
- Hilda Must Be Dancing by Karma Wilson
- Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
Remember this!
S— Simple; Be clear and be heard.
T — Theme; What is the story saying?
O — Out-loud; What makes a story fun to read out loud? How to pick the right book.
R — Reading; How to connect with your child or group.
Y — Say Yes! Be positive, take a chance!
Please join us at the next session on Saturday, September 14, 2013 from 10:00am-11:00am at West Englewood Library 1745 W. 63rd Street Chicago, IL 60636. To register, please visit www.companies-that-care.org/tt-story-time-registration!
Top 25 Colleges with the Highest 4-Year Graduation Rate
The U.S. News & World Report has a list of the Top 100 Schools with the Highest 4-Year Graduation Rate. These are the top 5 schools:
School & Location | 4-Year Graduation Rate |
Webb Institute Glen Cove, NY | 96% |
Washington and Lee University Lexington, VA | 92% |
Pomona College Claremont, CA | 91% |
Williams College Williamstown, MA | 91% |
Bowdoin College Brunswick, ME | 90% |
How to Tap Talented Students with Disabilities
November 28, 2011| By Toddi Gutner, for Reuters
With unemployment stubbornly stuck around 9 percent, Molly Kirk knows she’s lucky she to have a job offer in the human resources training program at Google after graduation. Even with her excellent credentials, the Georgetown senior is quick to thank Lime Connect, an organization that partners with the world’s leading corporations to offer summer internships to high-potential students with disabilities.
Nili Yelin Biography
Nili Yelin, The Storybook Mom has been a professional storyteller for over a decade. Combining her theatre background with mommyhood she has created an interactive style of storytelling that she calls “Sit Down Stand Up”. Nili graduated Northwestern University with a Theatre Degree and wrote and performed for MTV Networks (5 years) and for Saturday Night Live (10 years). Nili performs 5-10 storytimes weekly and has hosted the Chicago Tribune Printers Row Lit Fest Children’s Stage for the past 5 years. Nili performs for the Field Museum and has done their podcasts for children in association with The Crown Family Play Lab. She performs at The Shedd Aquarium, Musuem of Science and Industry, and various venues around Chicago and the suburbs. Nili has worked with the after school programs with the Chicago Mayor’s office and has gone into homeless shelters and domestic violence centers to work with families in need.
Working with Center for Companies That Care on their literacy initiative, Terrific Tales , Nili goes to schools and libraries on the South Side of Chicago to perform and teach storytelling. Nili is also a storyteller for Bernie’s Book Bank, a not-for-profit organization that collects and distributes books to low income schools. She also works with Creatively Caring to do storytelling for children with autism and special needs and is working with Sunrise Homes using storytelling for older people with dementia.
Nili is the Chicago Ambassador for World Read Aloud Day presented by LitWorld.org, an organization that works on literacy projects globally.
Nili has appeared on WGN TV News to discuss storytelling tips and has appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers, websites and blogs devoted to storytelling and family issues. She has been named “Best Storyteller” by Make It Better Magazine (Sept. 2011 issue), Time Out Chicago Magazine, and performs every weekday morning around the Chicagoland area. Nili is currently working with Storyola ™ on a storybook app and is writing a book on the techniques of storytelling.
Visit her website at thestorybookmom.com for more information.
Invisible Differences Mailing List
Put your name on the Invisible Differences mailing list. We’ll keep you informed about new services, upcoming events and opportunities for involvement.
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8 Pillars
The 8 Pillars
The long-term mentoring program lasts four years for each student; from 9th grade through 12th grade, and rests on eight (8) pillars. Activities will change each year, but all pillars will be integrated into the overall, annual programming. They include:
- Goal Setting– students set personal, academic, and career goals throughout the program
- Academic Support– participating schools integrate the program into school curriculum and school curriculum is integrated into program
- Cultural Awareness– students gain exposure to the world beyond their neighborhood
- College Preparedness– students prepare to identify, apply, enroll, and graduate college
- Work Readiness– students use coursework and internship experience to build a career interest
- A Day in the Student’s Life– mentors experience a day in the life of a student each year
- Community Service– students use the additional resources provided for them in the program to engage in their community
- Recognition– students are recognized upon beginning and completing each year of the program
About AIM High-Background
The Education Problem: Kids prepared to fail
Adolescent students in Chicago’s low-income, inner-city neighborhoods face many obstacles. As a result, of those students who start high school, only 45% complete it. The college completion picture is even more bleak. Of those who enter 9th grade at a Chicago public school, only 6% will go on to receive a Bachelor’s degree by age 25. (From High School to the Future: A first look at Chicago Public School graduates’ college enrollment, college preparation, and graduation from four-year colleges, April 2006)
These children face a “family of demons” including drugs, gangs, violence, and a decayed environment – vacant lots, substandard housing, and an absence of local businesses. Most live in female-headed households, with total annual incomes of less than $18,000. It is hard to focus on school when facing so many pressures and challenges at home and in their community. Children in urban, low-income neighborhoods lack the firm foundation that prepares them for college success and the vast majority lack college-educated role models and connections to higher education.
The Business Problem: Employers need diverse, better-educated employees
Two-thirds of employers currently find that public school students don’t have the basic cognitive skills needed to succeed in the workplace. Looking ahead, every industry is predicting severe blue collar and white collar labor shortages by 2015 and companies predict that 80% of the fastest growing jobs will require at least two years of college. The labor market horizon is bleak. With jobs to fill and a projected dearth of applicants, it’s critically important that the available applicants have the necessary education to fulfill the job responsibilities. (Yankelovich Partners study, 2005)
The Answer: Comprehensive long-term mentoring between one employer and one student
AIM High is a comprehensive long-term program that establishes a positive, enduring relationship between a small group of adult role models and a single student throughout the four years of high school. The program includes mentoring (both virtual and in-person), organized group events, an internship and is integrated into the school’s academic curriculum.
About AIM High-Curriculum
The AIM High curriculum is multi-faceted to ensure students have the holistic, wrap-around support they need to attend AND graduate from college. The curriculum annually incorporates all 8 pillars that address barriers to college graduation among minority youth.
Mentors — each student has a team of 4-6 mentors from local employers who commit to mentoring students throughout their four years of high school
Weekly Leadership Institute
College Visits
Internships
Incentives
Monitoring and Evaluation
Annual Touchpoint Events
Kick-Off Goal-Setting Event:
The kick-off goal-setting event is the first Touchpoint event of each school year when returning mentors and students have a chance to set goals and plan for the coming year. Students identify what they want to accomplish and who is on their “team” to help them reach their goals and hold them accountable. In January, new 9th grade students meet their mentors to begin a great relationship and the journey to college success.
Work Readiness Workshop:
Students assess themselves, explore careers, and gain work skills. They identify their strengths and career interests, learn proper workplace etiquette/work skills training, create a resume, learn about skills and incomes associated with specific jobs, experience being an employee, and participate in Job Shadowing Day, Interviewing Skills training, Mock Employee Orientation, Diversity Training, Build a Company That Cares exercise, Performance evaluation analysis exercise, Managing money training, Interviewing for internships, and work with their mentors to design and implement/complete two internships.
Take Your Mentor to School Day:
AIM High mentors, take a couple of hours away from their place of work, come to their students’ schools and spend a half-day “shadowing” their student around school. Mentors watch the students in classrooms and even interact with the class and instructors. To end the exciting day, students and mentors have lunch together while debriefing and evaluating the students’ academic performance in classes, reviewing the students current grades and transcripts, and from there setting goals together. The entire evaluation serves as a motivator for the student to do well, and congratulate the student on what they have done, additionally, to help show the student what they have to work on.
Ethnic Cultural Event:
An event that is held mid-year of the students school year to check in on grades and other matter that may have benn discussed in emails throughout time that mentors and students had been apart. This is also a great time for students and mentor to hang out and talk face-to-face because students are about this time taking finals and other test.
Career Fair:
The annual Aim High Career Fair exposes students to a wide-range of of careers and fields of work to engage in. This event allows mentors to showcase their careers and jobs to their students and other students in the program. One of the most rewarding parts of this event is a chance to not only gain exposure to a career that interests the students, but also learn of new careers they had never heard of before. Students also practice their interviewing skills at this event and Career Representatives vote on America’s Next Top Intern at the end of the evening.
Career Shadowing Day:
The career shadow day is a day where students visit their mentors in their place of work and essentially have a chance to see their mentors and companies first hand. Student receive tours of the office, meet co-workers and in some cases get their “feet wet” as they take on their mentors job. The day ends with a company provided lunch with the mentors and available employees and administration to give tips.
Arts Cultural Event:
Expose students to the wider world to increase their comfort level with others through visits to the theater, museums, college sporting events, dinners/tours in Chicago’s ethnic neighborhoods, and by incorporating contextual education (i.e. Information about a particular culture, etiquette, etc.) and instruction to match each setting.
Local College Visit:
As a constant reminder of how important college is, Aim High takes student to different college in Chicago and the Chicagoland area, that may spark more interest for students in their Sophomore and Junior years.
Aim High Fundraiser and Community Service: March to College
As Aim High is education initiative for the non-for profit organization of Center for Companies That Care, there is much funding that is needed for student participation and it is received through fundraising. Students and mentors are given the chance to raise money while having fun at the same time, and interacting with each others’ family. Some fundraisers have been Bowling events and the 5k March to College.
Community Service:
Promote leadership development and self-esteem by giving students a chance to become a role model to others. AIM High students serve as literacy role models for local grade school children; they are trained as storytellers and go into local CPS elementary schools to read to children and deliver donated books.
College Simulation:
The College Simulation introduces high school seniors to real-world college experiences via a fun, competitive, interactive, half-day simulation. The objective of the College Simulation is to
- Raise college life awareness and optimize graduation outcomes
- by presenting students with situations they may face in college
- while simultaneously guiding them to seek help from resources,
- and introducing them to the people and places available in college to assist them
thereby increasing their chances of actually graduating from college (In 2007, only 42% of incoming African-American college students graduate in 6 years, and only 49% of Latinos. (Source: US Dept of Education )
The simulation is designed as a matrixed scavenger hunt for a Status Report Card for 35-40 high school students at a time. The students’ goal is to pass freshman year and get the best (comparative) ranking. During the game, students will do activities at different locations that build on past performance from other locations. As they complete activities, they are building their Status Report Card. Once they believe they have completed all the activities, they take their Status Report Card, Grades, Money and any Tokens they have received to the Registrar. The Registrar resides at the Resource Table and determines whether students pass Freshman year and their rank. Throughout the game, students will also receive College Curveball Cards as added challenges when they least expect it.
The Simulation is followed by a formal debrief to ensure students explore and process the experience and integrate it into their college expectations.
Year End Recognition:
Celebrate matriculation each year and reward specific student behaviors (i.e. public speaking, homework completion award, overall engagement award, AIM High’s Next Top Intern award, etc.). By celebrating each time the student matriculates to the next grade and involving family members (including younger siblings), students build confidence, character, and presence. Graduating seniors reflect on their AIM High experiences, advise younger students, and recognize their mentors. Of the many gifts graduating students will receive, they include an AIM High Alumni t-shirt, a college sweatshirt with the logo of the school they will attend, and an invitation to the AIM High Alumni event to be held the following January during winter break from college. Students and mentors are heavily involved in the planning and execution of these events.
Register here for the Touchpoint Events you plan to attend.