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North Park offers more than 40 graduate and undergraduate programs in liberal arts, sciences, and professional studies. Classes average 17 students. 84% of our faculty have terminal degrees. Academics here are rigorous and results-oriented.
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North Park University Student, Spanish Professor Selected for 2014 Fulbright Awards
Kendra Pearson, who studied Spanish and education at North Park, will begin an assignment as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Mexico this fall.
Pearson to teach English in Mexico; Bricault to train English teachers in Guatemala
CHICAGO (May 7, 2014) — The U.S. Fulbright Program awarded overseas teaching opportunities to two members of the North Park University community this spring. Senior Kendra Pearson was awarded an English Teaching Assistantship in Mexico, and Dr. Dennis Bricault, professor of Spanish, was named a U.S. Fulbright Scholar, and will train English teachers at a university in Guatemala.
Combined with previous awards, 12 University students and three University faculty members in the past six years have earned Fulbright grants. The University was among the colleges and universities that yielded the most U.S. Fulbright students in 2013–2014, according to a list announced by the U.S. Department of State. The list of top-producing institutions was published in the October 28 edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Pearson will graduate this week from the University with a bachelor of arts in Spanish and a K–12 teaching license. Beginning this fall, she will serve as an English Teaching Assistant (ETA) for a placement in Mexico of nine months to one year. “I think it’s phenomenal that I will be part of a program in which a core idea is that both languages and cultures be exchanged to cultivate a deeper appreciation for each,” Pearson says. “I am so grateful for the opportunity to actively participate in this new experience as a teacher, and simultaneously, a learner.” She feels she owes that passion for other people and cultures, in part, to North Park.
“In my four years here, I have had the support of so many professors,” Pearson says. “They’ve helped me to foster a love of people, and deepened and challenged my ideas of what it means to learn.” Pearson finds herself prepared to teach in Mexico because of the investment her professors have made in her, and the feedback she’s received from them. “Not only have they modeled how to do that, but they have given me insights into my strengths and weaknesses,” she says. “This better understanding of myself will allow me to be more effective in the ETA position.”
Fulbright Program Faculty Associate and Professor of Spanish Dr. Linda Parkyn believes Pearson is “fully prepared” to undertake the role of an ETA in Mexico. “She is student-teaching now, and did so regularly last fall in an intermediate Spanish classroom at North Park for practice,” Parkyn says. “Her classroom will flourish with her attention to detail and her gift for making activities interesting. Kendra will thrive living, learning, and sharing knowledge of her native language and culture with Mexican students.”
Pearson first came to the University from Portland, Maine, looking for a liberal arts education within a Christian context. As she approaches graduation, Pearson believes she has identified her vocation and grown stronger in her faith. “When I visited North Park, I loved how it was intentionally Christian, but didn’t shy away from striving to be a diverse campus in terms of students’ beliefs,” she says. “To be challenged to see new perspectives while being grounded in my faith was something I saw as being very beneficial.”
Pearon’s desire to put her faith into action prompted her involvement in several University groups and organizations, including University Ministries’ Urban Outreach, as well as the Gospel Choir and its Touring Ensemble. “I am so thankful to have been a part of a group that consistently reminded me that true service is done out of a genuine love for God and others, with humility and dedication,” Pearson says of Urban Outreach. Similarly, “Gospel Choir not only provided a means of support and community for me, but it was a place where each week, I could pause and focus on praising God.”
As an ETA, Pearson will act as an “authentic addition” to the instruction that takes place in an English classroom in Mexico, she says. “I am very much looking forward to expanding my experiences in teaching, but more important, to serving others within the context of learning or bettering their understanding of the English language and American culture.” After her program, Pearson hopes to return to Chicago to teach.
Spanish Professor Dennis Bricault to train English teachers in Guatemala
Dr. Dennis Bricault is one of only three U.S. Fulbright Scholars in the program’s Western Hemisphere region to be awarded a position in Guatemala this year. Beginning in late August, he will spend the fall 2014 semester training English teachers at a university in Guatemala.
When Bricault applied for the program, he was fully aware of the region’s highly competitive acceptance rate. “There are a lot of countries in the program’s Western Hemisphere region, but there are fewer awards to go around,” he says. He advanced to the first round last October, and was eventually chosen for one of the handful of Guatemalan placements.
Bricault will conduct teacher training and teach and observe students studying to become English teachers. A member of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, Bricault is eager to experience a variety of classroom settings while in Guatemala. “During my time there, I want to visit other schools in the area to exchange ideas and see how they’re doing it,” he says.
“Dennis is a model department chair, and his organizational skills help all of us teaching languages and cultures here to thrive,” says Parkyn. “His classes will prepare his Guatemalan students for further interaction and study with their U.S. neighbors. Our entire department is proud of Dennis, and we look forward to all he will learn as a Fulbright Scholar and bring back to share with us and our students.”
For his part, Bricault stresses the importance of what Parkyn has done for the University’s involvement with the Fulbright Program. “She’s been invaluable in terms of her information and experiences as a Fulbright Scholar and Fulbright Specialist,” he says of Parkyn. “It’s great to have her on campus as a resource for anyone who wants to do the program.”
While this is Bricault’s first teaching trip to Guatemala, he has previously worked with two programs training English teachers in Latin America. “Prior to beginning my placement in Guatemala, I’ll be returning to co-lead a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) teacher-training program with CEDEI, the Centers for Interamerican Studies, in Cuenca, Ecuador, where I taught last summer,” he says. Bricault spent the second half of last summer in Santiago, Chile, working with English teachers in the graduate TEFL program at the Universidad Pontífica Católica.
The Fulbright Program was established by the U.S. Congress in 1946, and is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. It is the largest U.S. international exchange program offering opportunities for students, scholars, and professionals to undertake international graduate study, advanced research, university teaching, and teaching in elementary and secondary schools worldwide.
Zeke Dixon, diagnosed with infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia at nine months old, has been a staple at North Park athletic events all year.
North Park athletes team with Dixon family to support cancer research
CHICAGO (May 5, 2014) — Four games into her senior season, Kristin Gibbs, defender on North Park’s women’s soccer team and Student Athletic Advisory Council president, tore her ACL. It meant the end of her soccer career, but not the end of her commitment to North Park and its athletics department.
“When you build an athletic program you are not just building athletes,” says Gibbs, a biology major completing the pre-professional medicine track. “You are building people and communities. One of the reasons I chose to come to North Park and compete in athletics is that in programs like this, it is about more than the games.”
Over the course of the year, Gibbs helped spearhead an initiative that connected different people on campus to support a North Park family. “Of course we care about our record and how we play. But we also learn that there is so much more to life,” Gibbs says. “You have to give back to your community and support people who are so full of life and need that extra push.”
The project started with a phone call in the fall to women’s basketball coach Amanda Crockett from Eric Dixon, a graduate student at North Park Theological Seminary. Dixon’s two-year-old son, Zeke, was diagnosed with infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) at nine months, a high-risk form of cancer. While Zeke underwent chemotherapy treatment, Eric and his wife, Shelby, pursued opportunities to bring people together in support of cancer research. With the recommendation of a friend, they turned to North Park athletics.
Crockett began coordinating with other North Park coaches on how different teams could contribute. She also turned to Gibbs, whose grandfather passed away from leukemia. The different groups organized a series of fundraisers at sporting events over the course of the year—at women’s and men’s soccer in the fall, women’s basketball in the winter, and most recently, a softball game this spring. Players from each team volunteered for the different events, including selling raffle tickets and apparel. Neighborhood restaurants Golden Crust Pizza and Tap and Chili’s contributed gift cards. Overall the project raised several thousand dollars for the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago Research Center, the hospital that continues to care for Zeke.
But it wasn’t just money raised; it was also the spirits of a young boy and his family. Throughout the year, Zeke was invited to practices, joined teams on the field for the playing of the national anthem, brought out the basketball to center court for tip-off, and was even named honorary captain for a game.
For Dixon, these connections helped his family feel at home at North Park. “I would have loved to spend more time with my classmates, but Zeke’s health just didn’t allow that,” says Dixon, who will graduate in May with a master of arts in Christian formation and a certificate in intercultural studies. "We felt more connected with the University and the fact that they wanted to be there for us. There was real feeling from my wife and I that we are not just flying under the radar here. People have heard our story and they want to contribute to our life, but more important, to our son’s life.”
Zeke is healthier than he was a year ago, and will be finishing chemotherapy in July. After graduation, Zeke, Eric, and Shelby will head to Oregon to be near family and for some much needed rest. “You take one look at Zeke and you think this is just a normal two-year old kid,” Dixon says. “You’d have no idea what he went through the last couple of years.”
For Gibbs, who has spent extra time with the family babysitting Zeke, this project has a lasting impact. “It has shown me the importance of who you work with and how you treat people. I want to go into rural family medicine because I want to work with people long-term and build communities,” Gibbs says. Her next step towards that future is medical school starting in August. “I want to build programs for kids where they otherwise wouldn’t have many opportunities. Each little event like this builds the type of person you are and what you want to do with your life.”
"One of the things I tell [my students] is that education is transformational. Every time you go back, you are absolutely transformed by the time you get to the other side.” says Wanda Kay Burns, coordinator of North Park's degree-completion program for RNs.
North Park's Wanda Burns explains the push to raise education standards for nurses
CHICAGO (May 1, 2014) — In 2011, the Institute of Medicine released a report that forever changed the nursing profession. Titled "The Future of Nursing: Focus on Education," it called for major overhauls in education requirements for nurses. At its heart was a recommendation that by 2020, 80 percent of all nurses should have a bachelor of science in nursing degree, compared to just over 50 percent today.
Since the report, hospitals and care networks around the country have made shifts to meet the recommendations. Hospitals hoping to earn the Magnet designation from the American Nurses Association, limited to 400 health care organizations around the globe, must meet education minimums for their nursing staff. States have even introduced legislation to mandate education levels. Nurses are returning to school more than ever, with enrollment in RN to BSN programs tripling over the past decade.
“Research shows that outcomes for care from a nurse with a bachelor’s degree compared to a nurse with an associate’s degree are significant,” says Wanda Kay Burns, a North Park alumna and coordinator of the degree-completion program for RNs in the School of Nursing and Health Sciences. “This includes crucial elements of care, including improved patient safety, reduced infections, fewer readmissions, and overall fewer errors.”
“Nursing is quite different from when I entered the field,” Burns adds. “You’ve got to do better than you’ve ever done, with more technology, the patients are sicker than ever, and you have to do it with fewer resources than you’ve ever had. Nursing is caught in the middle of our national question of how can we be doing healthcare better.”
And it’s not just about performance; it’s also about workload. As healthcare settings become more complex, so do the job descriptions of nurses. As the Institute of Medicine’s report says, the role of a modern nurse includes competencies in “leadership, health policy, system improvement, research and evidence-based practice, and teamwork and collaboration.”
“Our BSN completion program is geared towards bridging the gaps in the healthcare system,” says Dr. Linda Duncan, dean of the School of Nursing and Health Sciences. “We focus on ethics, research, and community health to provide nurses with a broad perspective on patient care. Our nurses are not just holding patient’s hands, they are advocating for patients and by doing so, remaking the way the healthcare system operates.”
Burns echoes this importance: “Until you go back to school, you base all of your nursing on what you and the people around you have always done. We’ve got to get a higher level of evidence on which to base our nursing action. Patients lives are at stake here.”
But returning to school is not an easy requirement, especially for working adults with already full lives. “It’s difficult to return, especially as an adult,” Burns says. She completed her master of science in nursing at North Park while working full-time, and is currently working on a doctorate in nursing practice from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
“I have students in my program that are struggling with being back in the classroom. One of the things I tell them is that education is transformational. And I’ll say that out of personal experience. Every time you go back, you are absolutely transformed by the time you get to the other side.”
Burns began teaching at North Park in 2006 and became the coordinator of the degree-completion program for RNs last fall. She appreciates North Park’s face-to-face classes and the close-knit relationships that can only form in those settings. She also values North Park’s urban location and intercultural opportunities.
“Students are taught to value the cultural distinctives of their patients, including attitudes toward pain, childbirth, alternative and complementary medical approaches, family roles, death and grieving, and more,” says Burns. These topics are built into the curriculum in classes like Community Health for RNs and Ethics in Health Care.
Many of the RNs in the program bring their experience of living and working in these communities. “When you’re talking with a group of people with years of experience as nurses, and if they feel safe in that environment, they start engaging in some of the richest dialogue,” Burns says. “That is how we begin to move things forward.”
Students Embark on Service and Learning Trips Across the Globe
A North Park University student washes feet during her Spring Break 2014 trip to India with Global Partnerships. Take a look at photos from each of the six Spring Break Global Partnerships trips, including more from India.
CHICAGO (April 24, 2014) — For more than 30 years, North Park University students have put their faith into action through traditional mission trips. These experiences focused on short-term interaction with underprivileged communities and completing projects—sometimes manual labor, sometimes organizing ministries like Vacation Bible School.
But as ministry models have changed and ideas of service have grown, North Park’s University Ministries started asking if that was the best way. Were these limited-impact trips the essence of global missions? Was it an element of how the University wanted to prepare students for lives of significance and service? Nearly 10 years ago, these questions led to the transformation of what used to be “mission trips” into Global Partnerships.
“Our focus in Global Partnerships is on building relationships, on serving in collaboration with an organization that has an established presence in a community, and on learning,” said Julia Styles, Global Partnerships coordinator. She came to the University in 2007, and has actively worked to establish new partnerships with organizations that can provide both hands-on service and educational opportunities for North Park students.
“We want to join in work that God is already doing. We never just go on our own to a location. We can only be there for a week, maybe two at the maximum, and that’s not a sustainable ministry model,” Styles said. “So we’re always working under a local partner that’s serving day-in and day-out.”
For many trips, North Park is able to partner with Covenant World Mission, an arm of the Evangelical Covenant Church. This relationship puts students in touch with women and men who are full-time missionaries around the world in a wide range of ministries. Other frequent collaborators with Global Partnerships include Spark Ventures, an organization working in Zambia and Nicaragua, and the Center for Student Missions, which provides urban mission and service experiences. Some academic departments, like North Park’s School of Nursing and Health Sciences, also serve as important partners for students’ hands-on practical learning as they provide care in clinic settings. According to Styles, these ongoing relationships ensure students are serving around the world with groups that are trusted while also opening up possibilities for internships, jobs, and continued relationships even after students graduate from North Park.
“Our partnerships also go beyond the people that we’re serving with on trips,” Styles added. “Our generous donors, local organizations, and churches also support us along the way, and we’re grateful for them.”
Styles herself has been to all but one of the Global Partnerships locations. Each year, there are between 10 and 13 trips, and around 140 participants, mostly students but including faculty or staff advisors for each group. In some years trips have taken place over spring, winter, and summer breaks. All trips are funded through student-raised donations—around $200,000 each year, in total.
Ten partnership trips take students around the world in 2014
This year, six Global Partnerships trips took place over March’s spring break, with another four to come just after the academic year ends in May. These experiences in Alaska, Appalachia, Ecuador, India, Israel and Palestine, Los Angeles, Mexico, Washington, D.C., and Zambia challenge students to step outside their current ideas about faith, service, and justice to learn something new and build relationships with the global church. Global Partnerships aims to keep the idea of service learning at the core of each trip, which, according to Styles, isn’t just about volunteering but requires an attitude of reflection on how that service applies to your own life.
Kristen Coughlin, a first-year student, decided to take a chance and spend her first college spring break on the Appalachia service trip. “This was actually my very first mission trip,” she said. “It was so exciting.”
The Appalachia team partnered with an organization called the Appalachia Service Project, whose goal is to make homes warmer, safer, and drier. They host volunteer groups of all ages from across the country to serve throughout the Appalachian region doing manual labor projects.
“My group took out all the insulation from underneath a house and replaced it all, and replaced flooring in the kitchen—a lot of work that I never thought I’d be doing. It was really fun, and I feel really confident with power tools now,” Coughlin said.
North Park students divided up into smaller groups to work on multiple homes, and then gathered as a large group in the evening for dinner and reflecting on their service-learning experiences.
“My favorite thing was relaxing with our team and having down time—just spending time together. We shared so much laughter and so much joy on that trip. It was awesome,” Coughlin said.
Dylan Steensland, also a first-year student, was looking for a spring break experience that was more about education and advocacy than manual labor. He chose the Washington, D.C. trip where students partnered with Bread for the World and Sojourners to learn about hunger, immigration, and mass incarceration before heading to Capitol Hill to meet with Senators and Representatives to discuss the issues.
“I’ve taken mission trips before, but this was an experience that was vastly different,” Steensland said. “It was really about getting out of our comfort zones to learn more about important issues.”
Changing the world takes time
The Washington, D.C. trip is one way that Global Partnerships is helping students explore what Styles described as the tension between wanting to change the world and realizing that systemic change takes longer than a week or two.
“So many students these days want to make a difference. They believe in significance and service, and that’s why they’re here, but realizing that difference might take a generation is hard to swallow,” she said.
In Israel and Palestine, students learned about peace in a conflict-plagued part of the world. Take a look at photos from each of the six Spring Break Global Partnerships trips, including more from Israel/Palestine.
Another trip that explored the tension between immediate impact and lasting change was to Israel and Palestine. Styles traveled there with a group of 11 students and one additional faculty member, the first time Global Partnerships has traveled to this region. The group attended the Christ at the Checkpoint conference at Bethlehem Bible College. They learned from and dialogued with other students and Christian leaders from around the world, discussing the responsibility of the global church in bring peace, justice, and equality to the Holy Land.
“A lot of us went in without our minds made up about the conflict between Israel and Palestine,” Styles said. “But then you meet people our own age who have college degrees, but know they’re not going to get a job. Or meet people who are just trying to get from their home to their job or to school and experience harassment or persecution. It’s hard to stay still and not to take action in some way.”
Junior Anders Fogel said, “I think I went in a little uninformed. I definitely went in with a little background knowledge, but not enough to have conversations about the issue—and it helped me see that I needed to learn more.”
Throughout the week, Fogel said his group was challenged to think in new ways about peace, their own sense of safety in the world, and how to stay engaged in the issues. After their conference experience, they also visited Holy Land sites, but saw them through the lens of their discussions of peace and conflict, not just as tourists.
“I had a hard time shutting off my ‘conflict meter.’ It was an interesting experience to be at the holy sites and understand the turmoil of the country in a new way,” he said.
Fogel, who had previously participated in other more “traditional” mission trips, described the Global Partnerships experience as leaving him with a “sour taste,” but in a good way. “We built houses on both my previous trips, and it was a ‘nice ending’ to the trip. I could look back and see the house and chalk it up on the ‘nice things that I’ve done’ list. This trip was different because there wasn’t that house built, or a ribbon to tie it up. It left you with a sour taste, knowing there’s a lot of work still to do, a lot of progress to be made. I left feeling that I don’t know what I really did, I can’t see the concrete examples—but I think that was kind of the point.”
“What’s next?”
These trips to Appalachia, Washington, D.C., and Bethlehem were just three of many experiences that North Park students are afforded through Global Partnerships. Styles emphasized that the trips themselves are often not the point, but hopes participants will continue to reflect on their journeys and ask, “What’s next?”
“A lot of students who come to trips already with a heart to be in missions or work internationally are able to take advantage of the opportunity to learn what missions is like, what they can do, and to connect with different partners,” Styles said. “Global Partnerships trips are some of the first steps of their journeys, not the last.”
“It’s easier than people think it is, and it’s worth it,” Fogel said. “I’ve spent a spring break on the beaches in Florida, and I’ve spent a spring break on a Global Partnerships trip, and now I’ll take the Global Partnerships trip every time.”
North Park Introduces New Programs to Prepare Students for Healthcare Careers
North Park's new undergraduate programs will continue the University's strong tradition of preparing indviduals for careers in healthcare.
Bachelor's degrees in health sciences and medical studies will be available beginning in Fall 2014
CHICAGO (April 10, 2014) — North Park University will launch two new bachelor of science programs this fall—a BS in health sciences and a BS in medical studies—which together represent the University’s growing emphasis on preparing healthcare practitioners in an era of fast-growing demand for professionals in these fields.
The health sciences major will prepare students to fill non-clinical administrative or educational positions in a variety of health and allied health programs. The medical studies program will be offered as a second bachelor’s degree for students who need to complete prerequisites for medical school or other health professional program applications.
“These programs are born not just out of the directives of our updated strategic plan, which does call for an increased focus on science and health, but out of years of commitment to preparing students for science careers,” says Nate Mouttet, vice president for enrollment and marketing. Mouttet added that the University is building on its strengths—including a 50-year tradition in nursing—and putting resources into this important area.
The introduction of the new degree programs will coincide with the opening of the Nancy and G. Timothy Johnson Center for Science and Community Life, which will provide more than 100,000 square feet of dedicated space for state-of-the-art science laboratories, classrooms, and research, as well as offices and student gathering areas. Dedication of the new facility is scheduled for September 12 and 13.
Health sciences focused on management in healthcare settings
The BS in health sciences will provide students with a foundation in the life and health sciences combined with management and leadership courses that prepare them for positions such as clinical services managers, hospital administrators, and community health liaisons. A required practicum will give students the opportunity to work with a local organization to undertake a project that matches their career aspirations.
“This responds to a rapidly growing need on several levels,” says Dr. Linda Duncan, dean of the School of Nursing and Health Sciences, who developed the program. “There are multiple opportunities for specialized careers in the healthcare industry.”
The first health sciences track, available to the program’s students in the Fall 2014 semester, will focus on healthcare leadership. Offered in partnership with the School of Business and Nonprofit Management, the program will incorporate courses in leadership and management that will prepare graduates for increased responsibility and career mobility in their jobs.
“Working with area hospitals, I’ve been told that more and more technicians are being asked to take on responsibilities such as budgeting, policy, and regulatory issues,” Duncan says. “They have the technical background for their jobs but have never been trained to in these managerial duties.” She adds that, after this initial track is up and running, a second track—in healthcare education—will be introduced.
The BS in health sciences is expected to attract two categories of students—returning adults who are already working in the marketplace and want to upgrade their associate’s degree to a bachelor’s, and the more traditional student who choose a health sciences major as freshmen.
Medical studies designed as second bachelor's degree opportunity
The BS in medical studies is designed for students who have already completed one bachelor’s degree but are looking for additional preparation before applying to professional schools in the health field. These individuals may be career changers or recent graduates who decide to apply to medical, dental, or veterinary school, or to an allied health profession program, and need to fulfill their science prerequisites. While North Park undergraduates can currently choose a pre-professional track (for medical, dental, veterinary science, pharmacy, optometry, occupational therapy, or physical therapy programs), this is the first time the curriculum has been realigned as a post-baccalaureate degree program. The degree is a 56-credit major, allowing students to transfer credits from other bachelor’s programs and take only courses needed to complete the requirements for professional school applications. It is expected that students, who must take at least 30 semester hours at North Park, will complete the program in one to two years.
“To our knowledge, there is only one other post-baccalaureate program of this kind in the Chicago area,” Mouttet says, underscoring the unmet demand for a program that prepares college graduates to apply to medical school. The Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) is expected to change in 2015 in order to place a greater emphasis on the behavioral sciences. In preparation for this, the North Park program will offer students coursework and preparation in these disciplines as well as in the traditional science and mathematics areas.
Both new programs will carry North Park’s emphasis on providing small class and lab sizes as well as individualized advising that complements coursework. Faculty advisors will work with students to ensure that they stay on track toward their career goals, address any concerns as they arise and, in the case of medical studies students, prepare adequately for health care profession admission exams.
April 13-14 events spearheaded by University students and community partners
CHICAGO (April 9, 2014) — North Park University students, staff, faculty, and community partners are seeking answers to a deep question of faith and action: How are we called to follow Jesus in the pursuit of justice? This spring, the People Are Not Illegal campaign is taking up this question around the issues of mass incarceration and immigration in the United States.
“People Are Not Illegal grew out of students’ desire to mobilize the faith community around our Christian value of the image of God—that each human life must be valued and treated with dignity,” according the Richard Kohng, Urban Outreach coordinator at North Park. The campaign aims to show how legislation on every level should reflect this value.
“This is not a political issue to us, this is a spiritual issue,” Kohng said.
The Faith and Justice student team from North Park’s University Ministries reached out to local community organizers and faith leaders to form partnerships with other faith groups in the effort to bring reform to immigration and mass incarceration policies with this moral value framework in mind.
“These partnerships have put local organizers together at the table with North Park students to design the People Are Not Illegal events,” Kohng said. Campaign collaborators include the Evangelical Covenant Church, Faith Rooted Chicago, ONE Northside, CrossWalk Chicago, Young Leaders Alliance, World Relief Chicago, G92, Great St. John Bible Church, Grace and Peace Church, New Life Covenant, and Willow Chicago.
Events will begin off Sunday evening, April 13, at the 8:00 pm Collegelife worship service in Anderson Chapel. Joshua DuBois, former head of the Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships for the White House and author of The President's Devotional, will speak about how the Bible can inspire Christians to follow Christ in pursuit of justice.
On Monday, April 14, a public meeting will start at 2:30 pm in North Park’s Anderson Chapel. The campaign steering committee has invited public officials and community leaders to discuss the issues of immigration and mass incarceration and how public policy can reflect the idea that all people have inherent value in the eyes of God. Confirmed attendees include U.S. Representative Mike Quigley, Illinois State Senator Daniel Biss, and Chicago Alderman Deb Mell. Chicago poet and activist Malcolm London and the North Park University Gospel Choir will also perform at the meeting, reminding attendees that this action grows out of faith and spirituality, according to Kohng.
“This meeting is a chance for the faith community to rally together, to say to our legislators that this is an issue that matters to us as people of the faith, this is a specific thing that we all care about,” Kohng said.
Following the meeting, at 3:30 pm, participants will begin a march from North Park University to Cook County Jail, with a mid-point rally at New Life Covenant Church in Humboldt Park organized by World Relief Chicago to focus more specifically on immigration reform. Pastors Wilfredo DeJesus and Danny Flores will address the marchers. The expected time of this stop is 5:15 pm.
The group will then continue on to Cook County Jail at 2600 S. California, where ONE Northside will focus participants on mass incarceration issues. According to Kohng, the major rally topic will be a “Ban the Box” initiative, calling upon legislators to reform the job application process that allows employers to discriminate against job applicants who must check a box identifying a felony conviction. This final rally will begin at approximately 8:00 pm.
For more information about People Are Not Illegal, please visit their website.
Media inquiries should be addressed to Nate Mouttet, vice president for enrollment and marketing, at (773) 244-5705 or nmouttet@northpark.edu.
Pam Bozeman-Evans is Passionate About Helping Others Discover Their Passions
Pam Bozeman-Evans, Senior Director of Career Development and Internships at North Park University
There’s “no benefit to being risk-averse” as a college student, according to the new senior director for career development and internships
CHICAGO (April 3, 2014) — Pamela Bozeman-Evans has big dreams for North Park University students.
She came to the University this spring as the new senior director for the Office of Career Development and Internships and is using her background in nonprofit, community organizing, and higher education to better position North Park students in a highly competitive workplace. “Families make a tremendous investment in their children’s education and our office will invest our best resources in connecting graduates to employment opportunities,” she says.
Most recently, Bozeman-Evans spent nearly five years as chief operating officer and chief of strategic initiatives for YWCA Metropolitan Chicago. She has a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s in public administration, both from Northern Illinois University.
She says she is grateful for each of her educational and professional experiences that allowed her to focus her career on her core values—the city of Chicago, economic stability for women and children, poverty alleviation, and eliminating racism. She credits her maternal grandmother with asking a question that helped shape her career trajectory: “What good is it to say you’re a good person if you don’t do good things?”
Bozeman-Evans is bringing this question to North Park’s career services, encouraging students to dream big about how their career paths can reflect their passions and values. She says she wants the Office of Career Development and Internships to be a place that “challenges young adult scholars to solve tough social problems.”
According to Bozeman-Evans, resumes are documents that grow and change with every new experience, beginning in high school, and reflecting activities and experiences that showcase a person’s talent, passion, and goals. Her goal, she say, is to institutionalize this idea by asking that all students come to North Park University with a resume, no matter how small or sparse, and consciously work on adding experiences that include job shadowing, volunteering, site visits to organizations, both for-credit and non-credit internships, and employment prior to graduation.
Bozeman-Evans and the staff in the Office of Career Development and Internships are ready to assist students in finding opportunities in all of these categories. “We’d like to use a student’s resume, starting at the very beginning of their time at North Park, and work with them to build it year over year, so they are better prepared for whatever direction they want to go in,” Bozeman-Evans said.
“Career development and internships are co-curricular endeavors,” she added, “and North Park has known this for a while. Faculty get it, support it, and figure out ways to integrate the work that we do into the work that they do.”
“Chicago is our classroom”
Drawing on her passion for the city, Bozeman-Evans also wants her office to help North Park students see the city as a classroom. Drawing on that idea, Bozeman-Evans asks, “How can we get our students to see the world through the rich diversity of the city? We have 77 different neighborhoods in Chicago, and each one has an important lesson in history, social studies, economics, languages, and culture. The opportunities for partnership and service learning are endless.”
Now is the time to take risks
According to Bozeman-Evans, college is like no other in a person’s life, often free of limitations that older adults face. Students can explore new ideas, take chances, fail, and grow, she says.
“There’s a lot of pressure for young people to rush to decide on a major, career, and even start a family,” Bozeman-Evans said. “While it’s important to get started, we also realize that students need to take the time to explore their interests, hone their skills, and then match the two so that they can make a living and have a life.”
“We want to help students grow through diverse experiences without knowing every possible outcome,” she added. “This is a time in one’s life when there’s no benefit to being risk-averse.”
Richard Webster, Bach Week Festival music director, conducted one of the concerts held at North Park University during the 2013 festival. Bach Week returns to North Park May 2 and 4, 2014.
CHICAGO (March 28, 2014) — North Park University will welcome the Bach Week Festival to its campus in May, making this the second consecutive year that the institution has taken an active role in the Chicago area’s annual two-week celebration of Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach.
The University’s Chamber Singers, a student ensemble specializing in Renaissance and Baroque music, and four North Park University musicians will join other internationally renowned performers at two concerts scheduled for May 2 and 4 in the campus’ Anderson Chapel. The two North Park performances will represent the final concerts in the 2014 series, which for more than 40 years has been one of the Midwest’s premier classical music festivals. Other concerts, scheduled for April 25, will be in Evanston.
“We are delighted to be able to offer this wonderful opportunity to our students and to the community,” said Dr. Craig Johnson, dean of North Park’s School of Music. ”Part of the school’s vision from the very beginning has been to provide our student ensembles the opportunity to perform with professionals in the field.”
The May 2 concert will feature North Park organist Margaret Martin, who will perform with her husband Christopher Martin, principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, playing Bach’s Concerto in D Major, BWV 972, a piece never before played at the festival. The Martins also performed in last year’s concert on the North Park campus.
The evening’s repertoire will also include Sonata in e minor for violin, BWV 1023, featuring violin soloist Renee-Paule Gauthier, who teaches violin at North Park, and Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B flat Major, BWV 1051, with Claudia Lasareff-Mironoff, North Park viola instructor and director of chamber music, and Roger Chase as viola soloists; and Cantata: Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust, BWV 1.
The May 4 concert will feature a soprano solo by Julia Davids, professor of music and director of choral activities at North Park, in the performance of the G-Major Mass and Cantata, BWV 50. The Chamber Singers, a select University ensemble that includes both graduate and undergraduate students, will join the Festival Chorus for that performance.
The participating North Park faculty members are highly accomplished in their fields. Gauthier was named “one the best upcoming violinists of the new generation” in the book Violin Virtuosos, from Paganini to the 21st Century; she is also principal second violin with the Chicago Chamber Orchestra and the Northwest Indiana Symphony. Lasareff-Mironoff has played principal viola with the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Chicago Opera Theater, and the Joffrey Ballet. Davids directs the Chamber Singers and University Choir, and is a founding member of the Canadian Chamber Choir. Bach Week musical performers—both vocalists and instrumentalists—are invited from various high-profile musical groups in and around Chicago, including the Lyric Opera and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, as well as musicians from out of town.
Bach Week a good fit for North Park
The annual Bach celebration, which is in its 41st year, has until recently offered performances only in Evanston. Its original home was St. Luke’s Church; this relationship ended when festival director and conductor Richard Webster left St. Luke’s in 2005 to become music director at Trinity Church in Boston.
“We wanted to keep Bach Week alive but we were essentially a festival without a home,” Webster said, adding that they rented performing space in Evanston as a venue for their concerts. “We had been casting around for a new home when I learned that my good friend and college roommate, Craig Johnson, had become dean of the music school at North Park.” Webster said he had long been familiar with North Park and with its music programs and approached Johnson about a partnership.
“It’s been exactly the right thing for the festival,” he says. “It brings us a much larger community of students, alumni, and friends to support Bach Week. Last year, we filled Anderson Chapel with a standing-room-only audience and hope to do the same this year.”
The School of Music has been an integral part of North Park since the University’s earliest days. Johnson credits the institution’s close connection with the Evangelical Covenant Church—which has long made music a large part of its tradition—for the fact that music has always figured so prominently in North Park’s history and academic offerings. While the Bach Festival is one of the institution’s musical highlights, North Park offers instrumental, vocal, and operatic concerts for the community throughout the year.
“We’re very excited about our collaboration with the Bach Week Festival and happy to bring these concerts to our campus,” Johnson said. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for our students to enjoy high-level music right on our own campus, and the concerts help expand our reach to our alumni and to the community.”
Tickets for each concert are $30 for adults, $20 for seniors, and $10 for students with ID. They may be purchased online or by calling (800) 838-3006.
Axelson Center's Symposium Propels Nonprofits Forward with 'Next Practices'
Registration available for two-day conference featuring keynote speaker Peter Buffett
CHICAGO (March 27, 2014) — Registration is now open for the Axelson Center's 15th Annual Symposium for Nonprofit Professionals and Volunteers, a two-day event for nonprofit managers, leaders, and supporters from across the Midwest. This year's Symposium programming looks beyond best practices to explore "Next Practices" for nonprofit organizations, and features a powerful performance by musician and NoVo Foundation co-chair Peter Buffett, son of Warren Buffett.
The Symposium, which will be held June 2-3, 2014, at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago, marks the 15th anniversary of this signature event hosted by North Park University's Axelson Center for Nonprofit Management. It also marks 15 years of the Center providing valuable resources and outstanding learning opportunities to enhance the performance and effectiveness of individuals and organizations in the nonprofit sector.
Executive directors, fundraising and marketing professionals, volunteers and board members, and program managers and frontline staff will all benefit from attending the Symposium. In addition to timely program content that looks beyond best practices to next practices in nonprofit management, the event is an opportunity to connect with other nonprofit leaders from across the sector. Symposium attendees represent a diverse spectrum of nonprofit organizations, including, but not limited to health and medical organizations, educational institutions, social services, animal welfare groups, churches and other religious affiliations, associations, libraries and foundations.
The event kicks off on Monday, June 2, with a full day pre-conference institute focusing on human capital, leveraging people as an organization’s most valuable resource. An opening keynote, "Human Capital: The Third Bottom Line," presented by Kay Sprinkel Grace of Transforming Philanthropy, LLC, will set the stage for the day’s conversations. Next, Pepper Miller of The Hunter-Miller Group will examine the importance of strategic relationships and the value of effective targeting to diverse communities in nonprofit communications strategies. After a networking luncheon, a panel of speakers will tackle the important question, "Does Workplace Diversity Matter?" Tony Banout of Interfaith Youth Core, Jim Kales of Aspire of Illinois, and Claude Robinson of UCAN will participate in this conversation, facilitated by Catherine Marsh, professor of business and nonprofit management at North Park University. The closing pre-conference session, facilitated by John Davidoff of Davidoff Communications, connects the day's conversations in a discussion of "Mission-Driven Human Capital."
The Symposium day, Tuesday, June 3, features more than a dozen sessions in critical areas of next practices: cultivating resources, broadening your organization's reach, civic engagement, entrepreneurial solutions, innovation, and organizational health and sustainability. The opening keynote features Mae Hong, director at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Terry Mazany, president & CEO of The Chicago Community Trust, John W. Rogers. Jr., chairman & CEO of Ariel Investments, and Emra Tranter, former president of Friends of the Parks, discussing next practices in board governance and corporate engagement in nonprofit boards.
The day concludes with "Life is What You Make It: A Concert & Conversation with Peter Buffett," a live and interactive multi-media performance recounting Buffett’s personal story, from discovery of the piano through his current philanthropic work with the NoVo Foundation.
Registration is available through Wednesday, May 28: $319 for the Symposium day, $229 for the Pre-Conference day, or $449 for both days. Groups of three or more registering together will save 15 percent on their registration fees. Review the entire event program and register at www.northpark.edu/symposium.
The Symposium day also features a luncheon program where the winners of the Alford-Axelson Award for Nonprofit Managerial Excellence and the Excellent Emerging Organization Award will be announced and presented. These annual Axelson Center awards recognize outstanding nonprofit management practices and a young nonprofit organization with potential for growth and greater effectiveness, respectively. Learn more about the Alford-Axelson Award and the Excellent Emerging Organization Award at the Axelson Center website.
Author Mireille GallegosPosted on Categories Stories
