Nancy Stenberg Carlson C’68, Psychology & Elementary Education
“North Park has been a place of enriching, enduring community for me. Foremost, I met my husband Ken my junior year; we married in Isaacson Chapel the weekend of his graduation and lived on campus a few more years while he attended seminary and I taught school. Fellow students became dear friends, and we have remained close to many for more than fifty years. Our children were each drawn to North Park as they observed our close relationships and heard of the many enrichment and engagement opportunities Chicago had offered us. That Erik, Mark, and Ingrid chose to attend there was a bonus, as it further broadened our North Park community, and it was a delight to gain a daughter-in-law and a son-in-law who joined our family through North Park.”
“As I moved into adulthood, it was important for me to better understand and engage with a wider community than the comfortable one close to me. My awareness of the broader Chicago community developed significantly in my final semester when I was student teaching. In the Spring of 1968, I was riding a bus on Kedzie each morning and experiencing more of the world’s diversity than ever before as it headed south to Humboldt Park and Lowell School. When my supervising teacher realized I spoke Spanish, she gave me the responsibility of teaching her five Spanish-speaking students. In this 1:5 ratio, I was able to clearly witness the children’s development and excitement for learning. This early recognition of the impact that caring for and connecting with individual children can have remained with me throughout my teaching career. It also helped me realize the barriers that so many face. After Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in April, the neighborhoods I passed on the bus and the one I taught in experienced incredible violence and volatility as people expressed pent-up frustration. Witnessing this was a pivotal awakening for me, creating an intent to be more aware of what is going on in my broader community, my country, and in the world, and to become more sensitive to the untold challenges facing individuals, people groups, and society in general.”
We’re celebrating 130 years of North Park community. You’re invited to share your own story at www.northpark.edu/share130