Final Report

Presented by the Brady Scholars Class

of 2016

Table of ContentsBrady Scholars Program.................................................................3

Introduction................................................................................4

Partners.....................................................................................5

Our Place................................................................................5

Transition House......................................................................6

Student Groups........................................................................6

Project Elements..........................................................................7

Social Enterprise.......................................................................7

NviteU....................................................................................8

Educational Programming...........................................................10

Event Planning.........................................................................11

Funding..................................................................................12

The Collaborative Process..............................................................13

Sophomore Year....................................................................... 13

Junior Year..............................................................................14

Senior Year..............................................................................14

Our Legacy..............................................................................17

Advice to Future Bradys.................................................................18

Appendix....................................................................................20

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Report on Final Project2015-2016

Brady Scholars Program in Ethics and Civil Life

The Brady Scholars is a program designed to expose undergraduate students to civic engagement, ethical discussions, and exposure to their local community and world. Each year, sixteen to eighteen students embark on a three-year curriculum.

Program OverviewIn their sophomore year, Brady Scholars take seminars together

on the foundations of philosophy and ethics, and participate in outings outside of class time to engage with the Evanston community. In small groups, led by graduate student mentors, Brady Scholars research and develop presentations addressing “problems” in the Evanston community. Through a vetting and voting process, the class narrows down to one definitive target issue by the end of sophomore year. During their junior year, students study abroad. Brady Sixes1 studied abroad all across the world: from Uganda to India to the Dominican Republic to the United Kingdom. In senior year, the Brady Scholars took a student-led seminar with the focus of planning and implementing a sustainable and impactful project within the Evanston community.

Mission and ValuesThe mission of the Brady Scholars is “for students who recognize

that our cities, our nation, and the world face vexing problems, and 1 The sixth class of Brady Scholars at Northwestern, who entered the program in 2013 and graduated in 2016

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who want to make a start on addressing those problems before their undergraduate days are over. The Brady Program is committed to the idea that understandings of ethics and of the world are prerequisites for improving it. It seeks to make students more aware of the complexity of moral issues, of the need to learn from other parts of the world, and of the value of collaborative efforts to improve the city in which we live.”2

IntroductionExecutive Summary/Overview

The Brady Sixes’ final project, conceived in our sophomore year and brought into life our senior year, identified the community we wanted to serve as individuals with cognitive disabilities in Evanston and its surround. Through two primary partnerships with Our Place and with Evanston Township High School’s (ETHS) Transition House, local organizations that provide support and life skills training to individuals with cognitive disabilities, Brady scholars volunteered and socialized with our target population, created a social enterprise business, developed partnerships between these organizations and NU student groups through the NviteU program, and created a life skills curriculum in partnership with NU student groups to be implemented at Our Place and the Transition House. This process took the seventeen Brady Sixes to all corners of the world and to all corners of our Evanston home base. Meetings with community partners, in small groups, and during class period served as opportunities for collaborative brainstorming as well as disagreement. This report provides an open and accurate recollection of the process that brought the Brady Sixes from a target population to a fully formed project. Here, we have outlined our project elements, partners, process, organization, and tried to provide snapshots into the mindsets of Brady scholars as we completed this project. Both successes and disappointments are contained within.

Our Target Community:Individuals with cognitive disabilities in Evanston

Our project began when, in sophomore year deliberations, we decided to focus our attention on individuals with cognitive disabilities. In the state of Illinois in 2013, there were over 450,000 total residents

2“Mission” Brady Scholars Program http://www.bradyprogram.northwestern.edu/about/mission.html accessed 03/15/16

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with a disability.3 In the Illinois school system in 2010-2011, over 300,000 students aged 3-21 were reported as having a disability, with over 20,000 reporting a cognitive disability.4 Children and young adults, as long as they are enrolled at public education institutions, are guaranteed specialized education programs. However, state funding for these universal programs stops once they turn twenty-two. Thus thousands of individuals with cognitive disabilities enter into the adult world without a support system. Many continue to live with their parents and have trouble finding jobs and acquiring life skills training: 85% of adults with disabilities in the US live at home as dependents, and in 2013 only 37% reported being employed full or part time.5 Nation-wide, Illinois ranks 47th for providing services and funding to children with disabilities.6 Our work with this population was focused on providing programming and engagement, to give individuals with cognitive disabilities educational programming to gain life skills and social opportunities with students at Northwestern.

Our PartnersA. Our Place

Our Place is a non-profit in Wilmette, Illinois that serves cognitively disabled adults in the community. Founded in 2008 by a group of parents, Our Place offers educational enrichment programs and social opportunities to its participants. According to its website, Our Place’s mission is to “support teens and adults with developmental disabilities so that they can live meaningful, productive, socially connected lives in their home community.” Their goals are “to enable every individual to achieve their highest potential. We do this by focusing on the skills needed for successful social interactions in all aspects of a full life. Our participants learn and practice these skills at work, with each other in social settings, with typical peers and

3 2013 Disability Status Report: Illinois. Disabilitystatistics.org, Cornell University. http://www.disabilitystatistics.org/StatusReports/2013-PDF/2013-StatusReport_IL.pdf Pp. 104 Illinois State Board of Education Annual Report 2011 “Special Education” Pp. 44 http://www.isbe.net/reports/annual11/report.pdf 5 2013 Disability Status Report: Illinois. Disabilitystatistics.org, Cornell University. http://www.disabilitystatistics.org/StatusReports/2013-PDF/2013-StatusReport_IL.pdf “Employment: Ages 21-64” pp. 86 The Case for Inclusion: United Cerebral Palsy’s 2015 Report. United Cerebral Palsy. http://cfi.ucp.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/UCP_2015_CaseforInclusion_FINAL.pdf Pp. 7

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community members, in classes and clubs, with service projects that improve the community and in recreational activities.”

Brady InvolvementOur partnership with Our Place began in our junior year, and

continued throughout our senior project. During fall quarter of our senior year, members of the product team (to be discussed later), visited Our Place once every few weeks to help with card designs and art workshops for the social enterprise. We created a schedule that allowed Brady’s to visit Our Place every Thursday and Friday to participate in and help with ongoing art workshops and happy hour programming (an afternoon programming at Our Place where the participants can choose any activity that makes them happy). The Our Place staff were extremely appreciative of our help, the Our Place participants were excited by the opportunity to develop new friendships, and we were inspired by the excitement and passion expressed by Our Place participants in response their interactions with us. We hope to continue these interactions through spring quarter and might even arrange for Friday happy hours to occur on Northwestern’s campus. The consistencies of the schedule and the Brady Sixes who visit Our Place have allowed us to develop genuine relationships with Our Place participants that benefit all of us equally. Direct interaction with participants at Our Place was crucial to a successful and impactful project.

B. Transition HouseThe Transition House is a community organization that is an

extension of Evanston Township High School. ETHS graduates 18 to 22 years old with a range of cognitive disabilities (mostly high functioning). Following their high school graduation, these students attend the Transition House to learn job and independent living skills. Students have lessons on topics such as financial literacy, money management, and personal living. As part of their job training, participants work at a variety of locations throughout Evanston (e.g. Lyfe Kitchen and Curt's Cafe), with many students working in Northwestern dining halls. It is not uncommon for these participants to be officially hired by the site where they do their job training once they leave the Transition House. This four-year program is relatively small, catering to about 15 participants each year.

In the opinion of one Brady Six, who interacted with Transition House staff regularly throughout the project, the Transition House lacks the component of sustainable peer engagement. Some students

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participated in Best Buddies during high school but lack that support network now that they've graduated. Many of the participants knew one another in high school and are good friends, but only interact with each other and don't venture anywhere outside of the Transition House, their job sites, and their homes. In a site visit to the Transition House during the Brady Six’s junior year, several of the ETHS students communicated that they wanted to learn social skills and spend time socializing with students outside of their program. The NviteU program and the educational program were designed to directly combat this perceived need, and provide opportunities for Transition House participants to experience things outside of their comfort zones and interact with NU students to learn social skills.

C. Student GroupsCollaboration with Northwestern University student organizations

and clubs has been vital to our project. Because one of our goals focuses on fostering a sense of community between young adults with cognitive disabilities and students at Northwestern and creating ample social opportunities, student organizations provide a natural conduit to social groups and community-building activities. Furthermore, Northwestern student organizations hold an immense wealth of diverse knowledge and skills that position them well as potential friends and mentors to our population. For these reasons, NviteU and the Educational Programming initiatives have relied most heavily on partnering with student organizations.

In addition to furthering the mission of our project, working with student organizations builds in the potential for sustainability beyond the two quarters Brady Seniors are allotted to work on the project. By involving outside groups with their own executive boards and members, we are able to transition responsibility of our project piecemeal to organizations who will remain on campus even after students graduate. To ensure that student organizations are able to continue their work related to the Brady Sixes project, we will be providing transition documents to the student organizations and our community partners. A transition document will: 1) outline the expected responsibilities of both the student organizations and community partners, 2) assign those responsibilities to permanent executive board positions within student organizations, and 3) share contact information between the student organization and our community partners in order to provide an opportunity for future communication and collaboration.

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Project ElementsOur project contained three major elements: a social enterprise, which created a greeting card product for sale; the NviteU exchange, which forged links between NU student groups and Transition House/Our Place participants for social engagement; and Educational Programming, which partnered with NU student groups in order to create a 10-week educational curriculum on life skills for participants.

A. Social EnterpriseMotivations for the project

The social enterprise aspect of the project emerged in our junior year, after meeting with an AmeriCorps fellow at Our Place. A social enterprise seemed to have the potential to create a profitable business that simultaneously helped Our Place participants, by giving them a voice in the creation and selling process. Taking inspiration from other enterprises for young adults with cognitive disabilities and an existing candle-making program at Our Place, we developed a card-making business. We designed and commissioned greeting cards that featured the artwork and poetry of Our Place participants. By December, the Social Enterprise developed a relationship with Midcentral Printing in Evanston and produced nearly a dozen different card designs.

ProcessOur process for developing the social enterprise involved two

small groups working together: the Product Team and the Sales Team. The Product Team developed cards and worked with Our Place’s art program to generate designs and run special art classes, and coordinated sales events of our cards on Northwestern’s campus, at Brady events, and online.

The Sales Team managed the sales portion of the social enterprise by gathering retail outlet contacts, developing marketable descriptions and language for the cards, and hosting on-campus sales days. This group brainstormed a list of local Evanston retailers that could be good places to sell cards connected to a social cause and then reached out, pitching our cards to vendors over email and in person. This process helped whittle down our initial list to non-chain stores since we learned that larger retailers required time-consuming steps to place new products in the store.

Challenges

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One large challenge was that retailers who expressed initial interest sometimes stopped communicating or following through with their interest. A prime example of this was Beck’s Bookstore, with whom we initially developed a tailored buyback program if the cards would not sell in their store. But, after developing this model, we could not get back in touch with them to re-spark interest in the project. Other retail options also fell through due to lack of understanding or simply not being interested in the product. Another challenge came with timing: though in-person contact appeared to prove the most effective means of gaining interest, managers often weren’t working when our team members would stop in, and multiple email requests would sometimes go unanswered.

Accomplishments of the social enterprise Creation of a product! More than a dozen different card designs

created as well as targeted packaging Card available for purchase online through Our Place’s website Fall Sales day in Norris, profit of $614 (before cost) Cards sold at end-of-quarter stakeholder event at Sheil Winter Sales day in Norris Cards sold at “End the R-Word Week” movie screening Cards available for sale in Norris Center Bookstore Cards available for sale in Alley Gallery shop in Evanston Transfer of knowledge of card production and design to Our Place

staff and parents Transfer of knowledge of on-campus card sales to NU student

group Autism Speaks Total of $370 in gross sales from two sales days, sales deal with

Alley books

B. NviteUMotivations behind the project:

The NviteU portion of the 2016 Brady’s project developed from conversations with the young adult participants of the Transition House. In particular, participants with jobs at NU dining halls expressed that their jobs were like “going to college.” This job opportunity brought them to the space of the university and surrounded them with peers of a similar age. The NviteU exchange stemmed from that idea, as we developed partnerships aimed at bringing Transition House and Our Place participants to social get-togethers at Northwestern. We tried to set up exchanges that Final Report 2015-2016

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promoted socializing with new people and learning new things outside of the classroom. NviteU stresses the importance of having some autonomy to do what you are excited about doing, and having the tremendous power and privilege of access to university resources.

Process: To implement this goal, we originally considered focusing on

individuals working at the dining halls through Sodexo’s internship program. In the interest of sustainability and most effectively using the privileges and resources afforded to us by being Brady Scholars, we sought to avoid creating a new student group that would require us to find people to take over once the Brady Sixes graduated. Instead, the NviteU group focused on building relationships with groups and resources that already existed and making sure that individuals with cognitive disabilities had the right and ability to access these resources. After an initial research phase, we shifted our focus away from Sodexo employees and towards students at the Transition House and Our Place.

Through this process, we ended up with what is now NviteU—a group that would link existing student groups with the students from Transition House and Our Place in order to forge relationships and make Northwestern’s resources more accessible. We drafted an interest survey and distributed it to Transition House and Our Place students. In the meantime, we contacted NU student groups with whom individual Brady Scholars had close connections. By the end of fall quarter we had contacted four groups that were willing to open their spaces on at least a quarterly basis to participants. By the beginning of winter quarter we had six groups, and we made it a goal to eventually have a different group put on an event each week of the quarter. We set the goal of having twelve partnering student groups by the end of winter quarter.

The partnering process included having all groups agree to a list of general guidelines and communicated so the group itself had a chance to explain its investment in this project and its own motivations and goals. NviteU members regularly met with executive boards of these student organizations and conducted extensive communication over email. Finally, we asked each group to appoint one executive board member the responsibility of reaching out to the Transition House and Our Place. This specific responsibility will, we hope, ensure that the contact between student groups and the Transition House and Our Place will continue even when the Brady Sixes have gradated.

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Accomplishments of NviteU Movie night with Northwestern Students for Life NU women’s basketball game Pottery making class Writing workshop Partnership with Special Olympics, AMASE, and Autism Speaks to

host “End the R-Word Week” Relationships with twelve student organizations Transfer of knowledge document for student groups, to enable a

hopefully sustainable relationship between student groups and Our Place/Transition House

C. Educational ProgrammingMotivations

Another aspect of our project has been to provide educational programming to the participants of Our Place and the Transition House. While these two organizations already have educational opportunities, our vision of educational programming was to connect these organizations with Northwestern student groups that have demonstrated knowledge in specific areas. We decided this aspect of the project was necessary because it filled a need that Our Place communicated to Brady Scholars and because it connected Northwestern and the population of individuals with cognitive disabilities in the Evanston area. We also saw the opportunity to develop a curriculum that would facilitate the sustainability of our card-making social enterprise by teaching Our Place and Transition House participants how to continue the process themselves.

ProcessWe began this component of the project by developing a rough

outline for what we wanted to include in our educational programming, which we worked on in collaboration with Our Place. We came up with a 10-session curriculum outline that touches on topics related to personal determination growth, vocational skills, and daily life skills. We then contacted approximately 20 student groups inviting them to collaborate with us on writing the detailed curriculum and implementing the programming. We are currently partnered with five student groups that are helping to write curricula and are dedicated to sustaining a partnership with Our Place and the Transition House. This means that these student groups will hold this educational programming in the future, either once or twice per academic quarter, Final Report 2015-2016

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for participants at Our Place and Transition House. This programming will begin in the spring.

Accomplishments of Educational Programming Partnerships with 10 student organizations Commitment to put on ten sessions of informational

programming in spring quarter 2016.

D. Event PlanningFall Event

During the fall, the grad mentors tasked us with holding an event, so that we would finish the quarter having accomplished something tangible. We determined that the goals of this event were 1) to be able to articulate our project, 2) to clarify the stakeholders’ roles in the project, 3) to create a platform for critical commentary, and 4) to celebrate our partners. We held a dinner event on campus at the Sheil Catholic Center, which included a presentation and discussion portion. Brady Sixes were seated alongside parents, stakeholders, and Transition House and Our Place clients and staff, and discussed the role of the project going forward. We secured funding from Civically Engaged Grads thanks to one of our grad mentors and used the funds to prepare and serve a spaghetti dinner. We also provided cards and artwork of Our Place participants for sale to our stakeholders, and asked for feedback, though the received feedback was not as successful as hoped.

Fall Sales DayWe hosted a fall sale for cards on the Norris ground floor. We

reserved a table, asked Kathleen Arbuckle, the Brady Program Coordinator, for a small Brady sign, and advertised over Facebook. This sales day was very successful, turning a profit of $575 for Our Place and, along with the sale at the big fall event, enabling us to more than break even on the cards we had produced.

Winter Sales DayWe hosted a winter sale for cards once again on the Norris

ground floor. We reserved a table, created a Brady banner at Artica, and advertised over Facebook. We held this event during the week before Valentine’s Day and printed Valentine’s cards that were made especially for the event. While it wasn’t as successful as the initial sale, we more than broke even on the cards we produced.

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Capstone EventIn the first week of March (April 29th-March 4th), the Brady

Scholars partnered with several on-campus groups to host an awareness week called the “End the R-Word Week” (based off of a national week held by Special Olympics). This week involved a rally to raise awareness, a fundraiser at Naf Naf by Autism Speaks, a rally and whiteboard campaign by Special Olympics, a performance by AMASE, a creative workshop with Helicon and NviteU, an information dissemination at the Rock by Neuro Club, and a movie screening sponsored by the Brady Scholars. Our class took direct responsibility for the moving screening and the writing workshop, and worked to communicate with all of our other partners as well. We held a screening of How to Dance in Ohio (2015) in McCormick Auditorium and invited Our Place and Transition House staff and members to attend—attendance was around 30 people. We set up a stand to sell cards and, thanks to funding provided by the Buffet Center, provided popcorn and pizza. We also hosted a writing workshop with members of Our Place and the Transition House—about 15 people attended.

E. FundingIn terms of the major money source, we were privileged to be

partnered with organizations that had enough seed money to fund the card portion of the project. We did not treat this money as a gift—we used the card sale revenues to pay it back in full. The monetary resources of community partners should be an important consideration before a project is chosen.

We additionally received money from Civically Engaged Grads for our fall event, and from the Buffet Institute for our winter movie screening. We applied twice for the Wild Ideas fund, but were rejected both times for having too narrow of a vision. During winter, we registered the Brady Scholars for student group status through Associated Student Government, which means that we as a program now have a student financial (SOFO and chart string) account, which opens up another lane of funding from the university.

In terms of more casual funding ideas, we thought about doing profit shares and bake sales explicitly marketed as Brady. While we are helping to run a profit share, we understand that this mode of fundraising generates only modest profits ($10-20). A bake sale can be profitable, but requires seed money that we did not have.

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Overall, however, our funding efforts did not succeed as much as we would have liked. Our gift from Civically Engaged Grads came last-second thanks to the lobbying power of one of our grad fellows. Because our project never had a clear component that required a large amount of funding, this part of our project was not clearly solidified until winter quarter and did not have team members that were singularly dedicated to the task. In the future, Brady cohorts should make brainstorming and planning for funding a central part of class organization and distribution of responsibilities from the beginning of the project.

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The Collaborative Process

A. Sophomore YearDuring sophomore year, four small groups each worked

independently to network with potential partners within the Evanston community and decide on an issue for the senior project to address. Groups maintained different levels of engagement in this outreach effort. Proposed projects in the first round of voting dealt with educational attainment, health and poverty, college matriculation, and individuals with cognitive disabilities. The group targeting individuals with cognitive disabilities reached out to the Center for Independent Futures, the ETHS Transition House, and others. Other groups established contact with Curt’s Cafe, ETHS college advising, and other organizations. In February, each small group presented their idea, and the group as a whole voted to eliminate two of the proposals. Brady Sixes whose projects were eliminated were reallocated to work on the two final proposals, and a final round vote in spring quarter resulted in the selection of young adults with cognitive disabilities as our target population.

During this research and voting process, Brady Scholars had a range of involvement in the project ideas. Many have fond memories of bonding with their small groups and working in teams to come up with ideas and meet with Evanston partners, while others felt less passionate about the work their small groups did. At the final vote, the two final proposals (individuals with cognitive disabilities and a proposal focused on low-achieving students at ETHS) both had Brady students who were passionate about them. Though not all Bradys were immediately happy when the topic of individuals with cognitive disabilities was chosen, sophomore year was a year of growth and

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Brady reactions to the sophomore year votes:“I did not end up playing a big role in the selection process,

something I ultimately regret. Were I to do this over again, I would have been much more proactive in reaching out to people in the Evanston community and playing a bigger role in formulating our project.”

“I definitely thought that the final project was the best project that any Brady group suggested.”

“I was not thrilled that the group decided to go in a different direction, but I was pleased with the voting process and felt that my idea received a fair chance.”

“I felt nervous about the idea through presentation/voting because I was very personally attached to the idea and felt like I was missing some/most of the Evanston context. … I was ecstatic to hear the news of the decision.”

“I definitely felt that ours was the project that was not only most properly within the scope of Brady abilities, but could have the greatest

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soul-searching for our project, during which small groups explored a range of different ideas and debated the merits of competing projects.

B. Junior YearJunior year saw a breaking up of the

Brady Scholars. We all studied abroad, in a variety of programs that ranged from international development internships and grassroots community development projects to academic programs at some of the world’s elite universities. Where we went abroad was equally varied. We had scholars in five continents, in locations ranging from Paris to Uganda, Beijing to Santiago, and from India to Bolivia. These experiences changed how we all viewed the world, and would prove vital to the energy and consciousness we brought to the project, but they also hindered our ability to communicate and work together on the project.  In many cases, this threw into doubt our confidence in the feasibility and reach of our project. With a few important exceptions, most people took a step back with concern to our senior project.

These few exceptions are still worth discussing. A few members of our team, having completed a term abroad, were active in setting the groundwork for our future project during the spring of our junior year. They reached out to community leaders at the Transition House in Evanston, Our Place in Wilmette, and the Center for Independent Futures. They took field trips to their locations, worked and volunteered with the participants at these organizations, and worked to identify demonstrated needs that we could address in the fall. These efforts gave us a foundation to build upon in our senior year and kept the project relevant for everyone in our spread-out group. Junior year was by far our most fragmented; some Brady Sixes had a large level of involvement with community partners and others did not attend community meetings and felt disconnected and out of the loop.

C. Senior Year

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Brady reactions to the sophomore year votes:“I did not end up playing a big role in the selection process,

something I ultimately regret. Were I to do this over again, I would have been much more proactive in reaching out to people in the Evanston community and playing a bigger role in formulating our project.”

“I definitely thought that the final project was the best project that any Brady group suggested.”

“I was not thrilled that the group decided to go in a different direction, but I was pleased with the voting process and felt that my idea received a fair chance.”

“I felt nervous about the idea through presentation/voting because I was very personally attached to the idea and felt like I was missing some/most of the Evanston context. … I was ecstatic to hear the news of the decision.”

“I definitely felt that ours was the project that was not only most properly within the scope of Brady abilities, but could have the greatest

“Engagement our junior year was unfortunately minimal.”

“I wasn't terribly confident in the feasibility of the project, because I think I also still felt very disconnected from the population… I was also very skeptical that whatever project we carried out would be

“Visiting the Transition House and brainstorming ideas with the participants there made me excited about our project.”

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Our senior year began a bit quicker than any of us expected, and with it came a notable air of anxiety over the state of our project. For most of our team, we had only a vague idea about our topic, about the resources available, and about the direction we wanted the project to take. It remained a hazy abstract concept. Consequently, the first three or four weeks served as a messy beginning of the year for our team as we explored the viability of different project ideas, formalized a team structure and decision making process, received introductory instruction from our grad mentors, and brainstormed different directions for our project.

Class OrganizationOur class period organization and team structure inherently

shaped our project and its success. Throughout the project, we required a delicate balance between collaborative and authoritative powers and a team that was segmented enough to address our multifaceted project while still being close enough to have effective communication and collaboration between groups. This challenge was compounded by the fact that while the students in the Brady Scholar Program are the key movers on the senior project, they lack any enforcement power to motivate teammates who aren’t carrying their weight. Ultimately, we chose to set up our team in two ways: we split into “small groups” that each addressed a section of the project, and we established the role of “class coordinator.” Finally, our grad mentors worked to provide a rudimentary syllabus, reflection points, and gather feedback from our team throughout the project. The group also considered but ultimately unanimously rejected using online teamwork and accountability tools of the Center for Leadership.

The fundamental work of our senior project occurred in our small groups. As described above, our project at times consisted of up to six smaller projects,7 and we split up our team into groups equipped to handle each of these parts of the project. The small group structure allowed individuals to focus on specific task lists, make significant progress, and become experts on individual facets of the big project. It also created more accountability, as it was harder for teammates to fall between the cracks if they were on a team of 2-4 people, in addition to a team of 17 people. Small groups held weekly meetings

7 Our six primary small groups were Sales, Product (which were combined into Social Enterprise for the purpose of this report), Event, NviteU, Educational Programming, and Funding. Each group had, at any given time, between three and six members.

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outside of class; we then used class time to report progress, get feedback from the rest of the team, and develop weekly action plans.

The class coordinator was a role we developed within the first three to four weeks of the project, as we realized the need for a central facilitator. The class coordinator attended various small group meetings, set agendas for class periods, led discussion during class periods, and developed action plans with group feedback to further the progress of the full project. The class coordinator did not serve an authoritarian role and did not have any enforcement power, but rather served as a facilitator for summarizing viewpoints, keeping class discussions on task, and developing a big picture action plan that incorporated the work of all the small groups.

This combination of small groups and a class coordinator benefited significantly from the role of the grad mentors and their introductory syllabus. At the beginning of the project in fall quarter, the grad mentors introduced a syllabus and encouraged the Brady Sixes to define the scope and goal of our project. Keeping in mind that the entirety of our work on the project at the beginning of our senior year had been to choose an “issue” to address and develop introductory contacts, this early emphasis on project definition and concrete goal setting focused our group and moved the project forward. Throughout the project, the grad mentors continued to prove instrumental to the team. Consistently, we put aside ten or fifteen minutes of every class for mentor-led activities that focused on reflection, self-assessment or conceptual parts of the project. The mentors would generally refrain from dealing with the execution of the project, and would instead use open-ended reflections and class discussion to focus the team and foster new ideas and determination.

This combination of small groups dividing the project with an overseeing class coordinator all supported by our grad mentor team, served as an effective method of organizing our team, and allowed us to address individual aspects of the project efficiently and effectively while still keeping the big picture in view.

A General Class AgendaWe met every Monday as a full cohort and normally used this

time to communicate progress and develop action plans within and among small groups, generate feedback, reconcile issues within and among small groups, and work with grad mentors to foster reflection. A sample class agenda is as followed:

10-15 minutes: grad mentor led discussions and reflection activities.

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5-10 minutes: small group meetings. 15-25 minutes (more or less as needed): small group updates in

which each small group presented the previous week’s progress. Remaining class time: planning or discussion that required full

team brainstorming, feedback and support. Discussion about funding, preliminary event planning, and division of labor.

Last five minutes of class: reserved for developing brief action plans for each small group for the upcoming week.

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Our Legacy

What is success?Brainstorming what we wanted to accomplish in our project and

setting feasible goals for success was something that we focused on in the course of our project. In our first class meeting of winter quarter, we brainstormed what ‘success’ would look like in a completed project. We decided that success, in tangible accomplishments, encompassed things like getting our product (the greeting card) into three different retail locations, including informative displays and packaging that educated the customer about Our Place, having NviteU events with NU student groups, finding at least six student organizations to sponsor educational programming, and securing funding to host another Brady Scholars-sponsored event in the winter. More broadly, we hoped to capture the humanity of the artists whose work we featured, enhance involvement between Brady Scholars and participants at Our Place and

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What’s your biggest takeaway from this project?

“I learned a lot about failure and leadership. This project taught me how to be okay with and learn from failure, which was something I had always heard said before but never KNEW until Brady”

“My biggest takeaway from this project is the experience of working closely with an underrepresented and under-acknowledged population of individuals in the Evanston community. Having the chance to be a part of the Brady Scholars Program has been formative in helping me understand my own responsibilities and capacities to work within a community for the better.”

“When I started volunteering at Our Place and I saw how kind and creative and hilarious its participants are. It made me realize that, just because they need more help with accessing resources and jobs, does not at all mean that they should have less access to these things that would make them active members in society.”

“This project really challenged me to accept the involvement/lack of involvement and differing opinions of other group members like no other. Trying to operate a business is obviously difficult, but the group setting was made more challenging due to the incredibly diverse range of passions, commitments, and interests of all involved.”

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the Transition House, and create an initiative and network that will be self-sustaining after we leave Northwestern.

In our last meeting of the quarter, our small groups all returned to these original goals to assess their progress.

The Product group felt that they had met all of their goals, creating a product as well as transferring knowledge to make the enterprise sustainable to NU student groups and Our Place staff members.

The Sales group was also satisfied, having successfully placed the product in three retail locations. They will continue to refine the informational blurbs on the backs of the cards throughout the spring.

The NviteU group felt as though they had accomplished all of their goals with the exception of having an unsupervised social event (i.e. without members of the Brady NviteU group present). There are plans for such an event to be held in spring quarter.

The Education group also felt like they had accomplished all of their goals, making connections with student groups and creating a 10-week curriculum plan.

The Event groups felt like all of its goals had been accomplished, and that the end-of-quarter End the R Week event was a success.

Advice to Future Bradys:

Interact with your target population. Volunteer, volunteer, volunteer! If you are feeling lost during junior year or the beginning of senior year, the most meaningful way you can make a connection with you target population is to volunteer and interact with them directly. Make a rotating schedule and make sure that it is someone’s responsibility to be volunteering every week.

Develop a plan for success early on—but don’t waste all your class time on it. Take advantage early on of meetings outside of class to brainstorm project ideas.

Read the final reports of past Brady classes! We have been through the fire and have emerged with so much wisdom.

Make sure everyone has a specific role and keep them accountable to it.

Don’t worry about being polite; say what you mean/think and be honest about where you’re out with the project.

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Learn to be ok with everyone’s varying contributions, but also learn how to motivate your teammates so that they can be as excited/fulfilled by the project as you are (even if they don’t have an equal stake)

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Final Report 2015-2016

When was the moment this project became real for you?“When we began to work with Our Place. Once you volunteer with the

people you'll be helping on a weekly basis, you become more invested. I almost wished we had started volunteering sooner.”

“When we all actually met the people we were trying to help at our event in the fall. That was way too late - volunteering and actual service should be at the core of our project and not selling cards.”

“The event last quarter where everyone finally got to meet participants and the community and we had a tangible product, connections to the community, and other Bradys presenting.”

“The moment we eliminated the "Volunteer/Social Network" component, it felt like a weight had lifted off our shoulders, and I was able to clarify exactly what we wanted to accomplish as Brady Seniors. After that decision, it felt easy and natural to take on responsibilities within the other components of the project, because there was a sense of direction in which our whole group was finally moving.”

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Appendix

Final Report 2015-2016

Figure 1. Cover Photo for "End the R Week" 2/29-3/4

Figure 2. NviteU promotional picture

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Final Report 2015-2016

Figure 3. NviteU February Flyer

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Final Report 2015-2016

Figure 4: NviteU Letter to Parents

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Final Report 2015-2016

Hello Mr. Coleman,

My name is Leah Vinson and I am a member of the Brady Scholars Program in Ethics and Civic Life. The Brady Scholars Program is composed of 18 Northwestern students who design a community project which we implement our senior year. This year, one part of our project aims to extend Northwestern’s activities and resources to young people with cognitive disabilities in the Evanston and Wilmette communities. We were wondering if NU Intramural Sports would be interested in getting involved in this initiative.

We are aiming to create a list of campus spaces, resources, and activities willing to open their doors to young people with cognitive disabilities. young people with cognitive disabilities learning independent living skills through the Transition House—a nonprofit partnered with Evanston Township High School that provides work training to the Transition House work throughout Evanston, with many working right here on Northwestern’s campus! We are also working with Our Place, an organization that supports young individuals with cognitive disabilities to live more fulfilling and socially connected lives. Our Place educates these young individuals on job skills, life skills, social skills etc….

We imagine that engaging in Northwestern’s campus life through activities like Intramural Sports could be both fun and educational for these members of our community who are often overlooked. Engagement with a community of athletes could take many forms and we would be excited to work with you to brainstorm ways that young people with cognitive disabilities could get involved.

Thank you for your time and I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Best Regards,

Leah Vinson

Brady Scholars Program

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Figure 8: Brochure to go with greeting cards

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Final Report 2015-2016

Figure 9: How to Dance in Ohio Screening flyer

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List of Student Organizations:1. NU Campus Kitchens:

a. Successes/Failure: Successb. Interaction if Success: TH and OP participants will come to help prepare and

package food while interacting with other NU studentsEye to Eye:  Don’t Only Just Observe (DOJO):  MiniChefz:

a. Description:NU students travel to local high schools where they teach adolescents how to prepare delicious and nutritious meals.

b. Success/Failure: Successc. Interaction if Success: NU students would teach TH and OP members how to

cook nutritious meals.Cookology: The Slam Society

a. Description:  The Slam Society is NU’s open forum on performance poetry. The Slam Society has adopted a “flashmob poetry” style where students are provided with opportunities to express themselves via poetry wherever an audience can form.

b. Success/Failure: Successc. Interaction if Success: TBD

Northwestern University Figure Skating Club: a. Description:Do I need one?b. Success/Failure: Failurec. Poor communication (they never responded to emails)

ManorCare Health Services-Wilmette:  a. Description: NU student volunteers travel to ManorCare Health Services where

they provide companionship to the elderly via social interactions. b. Success/Failure: Failurec. Reason for Failure:  

Connections for the HomelessSymphonty at EvanstonAcademy of Music and Arts for Special EducationNU Men’s Club SOccerNU to Benefit Special OlympicsPROMPT Literary MagazineHappiness ClubLipsticke TheaterNU Men’s VolleyballNU Intramural SportsHELICONScene+Heard

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Purple Crayon PlayersWild RootsHabitat for HumanityNU Gives BackRainbow AllianceMee-OwBioethics ClubAssociation of Biotechnology StudentsBrain Awareness OutreachEducate. Discuss. Unite.Engineering World HealthNational Studnet Speech-Language-Hearing AssociationNeuroscience ClubSEEDUG Psychology AscoationLovers and MadmenSeeSawArtica (Empty Bowls Project)New Life Volunteering SOcietyMulticultural Filmakers CollectiveNU Nights Best BuddiesISBE/Moneythink

a. Description: The Institute for Student Business Education aims to offer students interested in business to hone and practice their skills. Moneythink connects college mentors with inner-city high school students. Members teach basic financial skills to these students in a weekly class. Northwestern’s Moneythink chapter operates under ISBE’s umbrella to provide Moneythink students a comprehensive business education alongside their volunteer work.

b. Success/Failure: Successc. Interaction if Success: Northwestern Moneythink will design and plan two

educational workshops on financial literacy for Our Place participants and Transition House students

EPICa. Description:

Northwestern Student HoldingsAMASEDelta Sigma PiAlpha Phi OmegaAlpha Kappa PsiNorthwestern Career AdvancementPeer Health ExchangeSHAPEMARSMiniChefzSpecial OlympicsNorthwestern Residential Services

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Final Report 2015-2016

Figures 12 & 13: Card sale in Norris

Figure 3: Card-making workshop at Our Place

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