Big Shoulders Fund is proud to share that Director and Co-Chair of the Chairmen’s Advisory Council Fred O’Connor were recognized by the Illinois Mentoring Partnership at their statewide recognition event to honor companies, organizations, and key individuals who are making a difference through mentoring. The event, “IMPACT: A Breakfast Honoring the Champions of Youth Mentoring,” was held at the Union League Club.
Ernie, a Partnership to Educate and Advance Kids (PEAK) scholar at Big Shoulders Fund supported Holy Trinity High School and Fred O’Connor, his mentor, were recognized with the inaugural IMPACT Award.
Big Shoulders Fund is proud of all its mentors and took the time to talk to Fred O’Connor about his rewarding experience as a mentor.
How long have you been a mentor?
I have been a mentor to Ernie for three years, he’s a junior now at Holy Trinity HS.
Tell us your favorite thing about mentoring.
Ernie is a very warm and easy-going young man. He has a great way about him, I liked him the first moment I met him. I know he is trying to improve himself and learn. He comes from a loving home and has faced challenges. Ernie’s attitude toward adversity is really inspiring as he shares a spiritual and positive outlook. Ernie is just a kid easy to root for.
What make you committed to being a mentor?
The sense that I am needed and having a positive impact. I especially like that others I know have been inspired to become mentors too.
This January is the 15th Annual National Mentoring Month, a campaign aimed at expanding quality mentoring opportunities to connect more of our community’s young people with caring adults.Big Shoulders Fund is proud to celebrate all of our amazing mentors.
Some of our favorite mentors have shared with Big Shoulders why they love to mentor with our students!
Meet Amy Drozda who is Big Shoulders Fund’s Director of Corporate Partnership and Outreach. This is Amy’s first year as a mentor. She mentors at St. Ailbe School on Chicago’s South Side to 6th grade Gallagher Scholars.
Why did you choose to become a mentor? I chose to become a mentor because after working at the Big Shoulders Fund for eight years and completing my MBA I wanted to use my time to work directly with our students. I am lucky to support our mission by organizing service days, working with our schools leadership and helping our amazing supporters get involved, but I have never gotten to spend time with the students. The students are always the highlight of my visits and I was hoping by mentoring I could share some of the many things my parents blessed me with and interact with the students who I wake-up every day for.
What is your favorite thing about mentoring? My favorite thing about meeting with my mentees is hearing their stories and what they are excited about. They are so observant and always want to share.
When I went on a field trip with them it was neat to see how excited they were that I had come to spend time with them. It was amazing to share our favorite exhibits and experience something together.
Sometimes it is hard to realize you are making a difference or if the time you go matters, but it does.
This fall at the high school fair I was fortunate enough to meet one of my mentee’s parents. I always thought he didn’t want to be there and was just like, here is Ms. Amy again. However, when I met his mom and introduced myself she hugged me hard and said, “ Oh, you are his mentor. He talks about you all the time and is so excited after your visits.” The students touch my life so much. I only hope that I am helping them too.
The City Club of Chicago hosted the panel Chicago Philanthropy: A Brave New World on November 24, 2015, moderated by Big Shoulders Fund President and CEO Joshua Hale. The panel featured philanthropic leaders Lindsay Avner, Founder and CEO of Bright Pink, Deborah A. Liverett, Senior Vice President at The Northern Trust Company, and Jim Parsons, President of The Brinson Foundation.
The conversation comes at a challenging time for the city of Chicago and highlights how philanthropy faces these challenges head-on. The panelists touched on new trends in philanthropy, the importance of collaboration, and the advantages to working in Chicago.
Watch the video and learn how philanthropy is a complex and challenging endeavor. Just to begin in philanthropy is half the battle, but once you get your feet wet you will be sure to stick around. With so many compelling foundations and nonprofits in Chicago, and so many great civic and philanthropic leaders, there is only hope for the future of the city.
As the adage goes, you are known by the company you keep. So, based on our recent appearance in Chicago Magazine’s article, “Best Charities in Chicago: 20 Standout Nonprofits to Support this Season,” we keep good company! We are thrilled to be listed as one of the top 20 nonprofits in Chicagoland from a list of more than 18,000!
In his now famous book Good to Great, author Jim Collins describes his research of thousands of companies here in the United States to understand how a company moves from being a good company to a great one. In a similar way, Chicago Magazine recently undertook a research project to identify the strongest nonprofit groups in the Chicago region. They started with more than 18,000 nonprofits that exist in the area. They then culled that list by analyzing data and using ratings from Charity Navigator, a national watchdog group that provides analysis on charities’ transparency, data, and effectiveness in delivering on their mission. From that group they identified nonprofits which they believe best met the following criteria: a unique mission, maintain strong data to show impact, a strong Chicago connection, and how big a hole would be left if the nonprofit were to disappear. The result: Big Shoulders Fund and 19 other nonprofits, which Chicago Magazine classifies as the “best” and the ones they suggest people consider supporting as the holiday season approaches.
As with any endeavor, our success starts with leadership and a great product. We are blessed with so many believers who provide the leadership and support enabling hope for the future; and then the children, the schools, and the many educators who make our mission possible.
As you will see in the article written by Lee Clifford, we are in great company with other groups seeking to make our community a better place for all of us to live.
They say it takes a village to raise a child, and in that same sense that’s how Big Shoulders Fund looks at education. When searching for new ways to ignite classroom science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) instruction, Big Shoulders knew it could not be done one school at a time. The STEM Initiative includes teacher professional development, direct in-classroom coaching, administrator supports, curricular implementation guidance, and family education. A part of the overall STEM initiative is the Big Shoulders Fund Math Initiative (BSFMI) which works with 13 schools across Pre-K through 6th grade to promote high-quality mathematics instruction. This year, the work has expanded to a larger network that includes middle school and high school teachers.
“I think what is great about this initiative is that it unites math teachers not only in one school, but across a network of schools,” says Sara Burnworth, Big Shoulders Fund Instructional Math Coach. BSFMI aims to establish a community of educators who work together to improve mathematics teaching and learning. Participating schools use Everyday Mathematics, a high-quality, researched-based curriculum that is aligned to the Common Core State Standards for Math (CCSS-M). Components of the program include: professional development (in-person and online through webinars) for administrators and teachers, creating teacher leaders at each school who attend professional development aimed at building leadership capacity in math instruction, in-school coaching support by the Center for Elementary Math and Science Education at the University of Chicago (CEMSE) staff, creating Power Users at each school who attend professional development around implementing technology in math instruction, and building a network community of math teachers.
“Last year I had kids begging to play math games on the board and computers during recess which was a great feeling,” says Jenna Ryan, 4th and 5th grade math and science teacher at St. Margaret of Scotland and Teacher Leader and Power User for BSFMI. Her classroom is equipped with a SMART white board which she uses to enhance her daily math lessons. “Because of Big Shoulders, we are lucky enough to have the e-suite that goes along with the Everyday Math Program so it all directly corresponds with the lessons we go through. It has helped the visual learners to see various examples on the board and lets them connect to the material in a way that suits them,” says Ryan. Beyond teaching high quality math, an integral part of the program is the collaboration of the teachers across the network of schools. During collaborative coaching, a group of teachers come together to plan, observe, and debrief an Everyday Math lesson. One “host” teacher volunteers to teach the lesson. Everyone involved in the coaching session prepares using a planning sheet as though they were going to lead the class. “The hope is that everyone collaborating to help the host teacher also prepares for the lesson,” says Burnworth. “During the lesson the teachers spread out throughout the room and take notes on what they observe students do and say. Observing teachers are not to help the students or teach them, since that would not be an accurate representation of what a normal day looks like. After the observation, all the teachers come together and review the outcomes for students. No one talks about what the teacher did – the main focus is whether or not the students met the mathematical goals of the lesson. “If they didn’t,” says Burnworth, “the teachers discuss why they think the students didn’t understand, and help the host teacher plan out how to support those students.”
All of Big Shoulders Fund academic programming focus on being both in-depth and practical. Meetings provide math teachers the opportunity to talk to another teacher at their grade level. When working in schools as small as ours, many with single grade classrooms, this can mean a lot.
“Teaching is very complex, but also isolating,” says Burnworth, “and so it is always comforting to talk to someone else who knows your grade level and has the same struggles you do in their classroom.”
Big Shoulders Fund Mathematics Initiative and Middle School / High School Mathematics Initiative is made possible through support of the Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust, I.A. O’Shaugnessey Foundation, Walter E. Heller Foundation, EY, Tengelsen Family Foundation, The Gallagher Family Foundation, Robert E. Gallagher Charitable Trust, CareerBuilder.com, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, as well as Patrons and individual donors supporting this effort.
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