Alumni Newsle Er

8/14/2019 Alumni Newsle Er

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Alumni

Newsleer

Fall Quarter

2009

!"##$%&'#(')%(*+++',-.-'/012%134'56780"9':6(73#Inspired by the Freshman Urban Program

(FUP) before the start of his freshman year atNorthwestern, Bradley Troast continued his in-volvement in serving the community and pro-moting volunteerism through the NorthwesternCommunity Development Corps (NCDC).Troast got involved in NCDC during his fresh-man year as a weekly volunteer at Family Fo-

cus . During his sophomore year, he served as asite leader for the same location and continuedinto his junior year, serving as the co-chair of the Campus Outreach Committee. During hissenior year, he served as the co-chair of NCDC,

where he was able to apply the skills and knowl-edge he had gained from FUP and his threeyears of involvement with NCDC.

He now works as the Assistant ProgramCoordinator at Cabrini Connections and Tu-tor/Mentor Connection, which is a two-partorganization in downtown Chicago. Readersinterested in nding out more about Troast and

his work can visit his blog (http://cabrinipip.blogspot.com/) for more information.

orthwestern Community Development orps (NCDC): How did you rst get in-lved with NCDC?

radley Troast (BT): I did the Freshmanrban Program, which is one of the pre-ientation programs and my small groupader was a site leader for an NCDC site.he recommended that I come to her sitehich is Family Focus , one of the youth sitesat NCDC has. I loved FUP so much ande was a great counselor so I did that. Asfreshman, that was my one service activity at I consistently participated in...so it wasnd of the one activity that was consistently warding. I think junior year was when I re-ly fell in love with NCDC because by do-g publicity, you end up being involved inery event and everything that goes on. I re-ly got to know a lot about the organization

nd so naturally, I was inclined to apply to be-chair and ended up being selected. As anior, I was co-chair, which was a wonderfulperience. It’s hard to put it into words but Ived it. Every week when we had a meeting,

was my favorite part of the week. It de-tely gave me a lot of leadership experiencehen it came to nding a job.

NCDC: NCDC places a great deal of emphasis on Asset Based Community Development. In

your opinion, why do your think it is so impor-tant, especially in society today?

BT: As part of the Freshman Urban Program, Jody Kretzmann, who is the co-founder of the Asset Based Community DevelopmentInstitute, was one of the rst speakers. Origi-nally I’m from Tallahassee, Florida, whichis a medium sized city. Moving to Chicago

was just a whole step up. It blew my mindas far as the people and the neighborhoods.

As I was trying to gure how to make senseof that, ABCD was introduced to me at theright moment. So pairing that with my in-troduction to Chicago ended up allowingme to realize in practice how important it isbecause as I visited di erent neighborhoodsand got to meet di erent people, it ended upapplying to everything in life. If you read thenews, you might see there are lots of storiesabout violence but if you look in the sameneighborhood, you can nd positive storiesand positive images. e more you do that

and the more your counteract those, it justbecomes natural. You get more done withthat kind of thinking.

NCDC: How has your involvement in NCDCcontributed to your everyday life and your jobnow, after graduation?

BT: I was involved with NCDC all four yearsand it was the most consistent thing that Idid and it was the most rewarding thing thatI did. Because of that, it sort of got to a point

where that was the greatest experience that

I had at Northwestern. It came to the point where the academics were almost supplementing what I was doing with NCDC andthe things I was learning. When it came tolooking for a job in the non-prot industry,that actually ended being perfect because themost experience I had was with NCDC andall these supplementary things ended up justenhancing my basic skill set. As a prospectiveemployee, I think I had a nice mix.

NCDC: What do you believe is the core ofNCDC?

BT: I’ve always believed that the core ofNCDC lies within the site, the direct service,the volunteering. I wish we were able to mea-sure our impact better because intangibly, Iknow that it’s great. With the direct service,

we always stress commitment from the vol-unteers, so coming every week and comingon time. To think that there are a few hun-dred students who have made that commit-ment is really awesome.

NCDC: Do you have any last words of advice for the current members of NCDC?

BT: ank you for your time. at soundsso silly but connecting it back to the coreof NCDC, the core part is the volunteers.

Whether or not they realize it, a few hoursa week, whether you are with the youth or

whether you are with someone who is takinga citizenship test or whether you are with anelderly person, in time you’ll realize how re-

warding that can be. Don’t necessarily thinkof it as service, but think of it as ABCD. So

when you go into a neighborhood and meetnew people, talk to them and learn fromthem. It is an extension of your education

because you are here at Northwestern as astudent and you can learn so much from theenvironment around you.

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adley Troast, former NCDC co-chair, at lastar’s Project Pumpkin.

courtesy of Bradley Troast



COMMITTEE UPDATE

e Volunteer Connections Committee is focused onconnecting the volunteers of NCDC. Even though NCDCis the biggest student organization on campus, we believe itis important to ensure that all members of the organizationfeel included. erefore, this quarter we have been focusing onrecognizing various groups of volunteers by delivering candybags to their rooms to let them know that the Northwestern

community truly appreciates their time and commitment tovolunteering on a regular basis.

Another big focus of Volunteer Connections this quarter was designing t-shirts and other NCDC merchandises for themembers. During reading week, we are setting up a hot choco-late booth outside the library and working in conjunction withthe Education Committee to raise awareness of NCDC’s in-volvement around the surrounding communities, and also torelieve the Northwestern students from the cold weather andpre-exam week stress.

On Dec. 1, we organized a fun night lled with food, fun

and games. e event will serve as an opportunity to unite allthe volunteers and the members of the Exec Board and create abonding experience for all the members.

NCDC Special Events’ whole purpose is to fos-er and maintain mutually benecial relationships inoth the Evanston and Northwestern communities.

Our quarterly events, Project Pumpkin, Senior Gala,nd ArtsFest! are ways for us to reach out and establishhese relationships.

During fall quarter, we wrapped up Project Pump-in for the 20th consecutive year! e event drew etween 850 - 900 community members and was at-ended by hundreds of Northwestern students, whocted as chaperones, manned booths, or setup decora-ions. New and incredibly exciting this year was a hugeumpkin bounce house, taking up half of the Louis

Room! Our thirty person planning committee put in

ton of work in the weeks prior to the event, leadingp to one of the smoothest Project Pumpkin’s in recent

memory. Candy supplies were running low toward theeginning, but an emergency candy run was brilliantly xecuted.

Coming up, our brand new and absolutely fantas-ic Special Events Committee is kicking-o an Inter-enerational Project to foster prolonged engagement

with senior citizens that will wrap up with Senior Galaext quarter. Also on the calendar is a community-widerainstorm for ArtsFest! 2010. We plan on extending

he event to a full week, and are excited to work withhe community to provide an additional educationalnd interactive component to the programming.

Hello from Community Outreach! Our committee worksdirectly with the volunteer sites to assure the best experiencepossible for both our Northwestern volunteers and the Chica-go-based organizations in which they are involved. Commu-nity Outreach recruits and trains site leaders, works with thevolunteers to address any problems that come up at each site,and facilitates extra programming that strives to deepen theconnection between the students and the communities.

NCDC is now sending volunteers to twenty-seven ali-ated volunteer sites in the Chicago-land area, four of whichare new this year. True to the spirit of Asset-Based Community

Development, we hope they are gaining a new understandingof the resources in each community and taking away from theexperience just as much as they put in.

We believe that direct service is the core of our organiza-tion and that involvement with the sites should extend beyondCommunity Outreach to every member of NCDC. As such,

we have made it our goal to link every committee to our sites insome way throughout the year, whether by creating a targetedpublicity plan for an issue group, bringing site contributors tospeak at a ULRPI event, or by partnering with Education tofacilitate a discussion on the issues faced by a group of sites.

;<"=$70'>?"%#3 rick-or-treat: Members of the 2009 Northwestern Community

Development Corps Executive Board at Project Pumpkin.

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NCDC



e Education Committee works torovide programming that focuses on a

wide range of social justice issues rang-ng from healthcare to education. Wework to provide further context andarning opportunities for issues perti-ent to NCDC and our sites in hopesf empowering members of NCDCnd the Northwestern community toecome more e ective and engaged so-al advocates.Currently, the Educationommittee has three primary focuses:i-monthly discussions of social issues,rganizing for living wages for campusworkers, and providing additional re-ources to socially conscious studentsnd NCDC site leaders.

Our rst quarter of social justice dis-ussions have been very successful, pro-ding a comfortable space for students

o come together and talk about the is-ues we all care about. is quarter ouriscussions focused on education equity,

mmigration reform, and health careisparities that impact students with dis-bilities.

is fall, the NCDC Educationommittee met with the various unions

who together represent all food servicend janitorial workers on campus. esenions conrmed our concern that

many campus workers are not receivingucient wages and benets to provideor themselves and their families. As a re-

ult, we are now organizing a campaigno push the university to adopt a livingwage ordinance that would require allniversity contractors to pay their work-rs a living wage, $13.23 an hour plusealth care.

Additionally, our team put togethersource guides for each NCDC volun-er site that gives additional context on

he broader issues a ecting the neighbor-oods we volunteer in. And of course,

we continued to send out our quarterly ocial Justice Course List, a favorite of l NCDC listserv subscribers!

e Fundraising Committee has begun an exciting new project this fall. We are working with two NCDC sites, Connections with the Homeless andFriday Sack Lunches, to raise money for their volunteering projects. e siteleaders hope to raise additional money to supplement what is already avail-able to them. We are looking at both small bake sales, and a larger event nextquarter, hopefully to tie in with ULRPI’s theme of helping the homeless. Alsounderway are plans to write letters for the ank-a-thon, and other exciting

ways to help out NCDC.Money donated to NCDC will be used to fund NCDC events such as

Project Pumpkin, Senior Gala, ArtsFest, discussions led by the Education

Committee, and programming coordinated by ULRPI. Additionally, it will beused to support volunteerism through grants to our sites and opportunites forstudents who volunteer at our sites to make it a more meaningful experience.

Because NCDC is part of Northwestern, donations made to us are tax-deductible. If you have any questions, or if you need proof for tax deductions,you may email Rachel Rosen ([email protected]) orSharanya Jaidev ([email protected]) for the necessary documenta-tion.

Your support is greatly appreciated! Checks may be sent to:

NCDC1999 Campus DriveEvanston, IL 60208

NCDC’s Undergraduate LectureSeries on Race, Poverty, and Inequal-ity (ULRPI) seeks to educate and in-form the Northwestern community about relevant sociopolitical issues

through panels, keynote speakers,and other program-ming. Each quarter,ULPRI selects a themethat will be the focusof its quarterly pro-gramming. Past themesinclude healthcare,immigration, youthincarceration, LGBTissues, income inequal-

ity, education, and, our current falltheme, “Alternative Energy and the

American Worker.” Over the pastquarter, we have organized two pan-els; the rst on the Green Jobs Move-ment and cap-and-trade legislation,and the second on the Prospect of a

Clean Coal Industry. Our panels havefeatured representatives from organi-zations such as Chicagoland GreenCollared Jobs Initiative, the Centerfor Neighborhood Technology, and

the Blue-Green Alliance. Later thisquarter, we are teaming up

with SEED, NorthwesternClass Alliance, and OneBook, One Northwesternto bring Robert F. Kenne-dy, Jr. to Northwestern tospeak about American en-ergy independence. We’resuper pumped and antici-pating a huge turnout!

In the winter, ULRPI will beteaming up with Dance Marathon tobring in a big-name speaker for ourtopic of Youth Homelessness. We’relooking forward to an exciting co-sponsorship with one of Northwest-ern’s greatest philanthropies!

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