Spanish & Illinois

This is video of a "toxic tour" by  Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) in Chicago, Illinois. by Ann Abbott I received an e-mail from a student who wanted to register for "Spanish in the Community," but she hadn't taken the pre-requesite course, "Oral Spanish." Read her message below, and I think you will be struck by the same things that impacted me: This student can definitely skip the prerequisite course. Some of our students are truly engaged citizen-students, eager to bring that engagement into their college education. We need more courses for them. This student knows how to compose an intelligent, actionable e-mail message. This student has a lot to teach me and her classmates. " My name is X and I am a Senior in Urban and Regional Planning, I   was hoping to enroll in your SPAN 232 class. "I do however see that there is a SPAN 208 prerequisite.  Unfortunately, I have not taken Spanish at the U...

by Ann Abbott I received an e-mail about ThinkImpact 's upcoming event-- The Huddle   --where educators will work together in teams to come up with ways to increase/enhance  social entrepreneurship education with  experiential education. (The video above describes ThinkImpact's work.) That is precisely what I do. My course on "Spanish & Entrepreneurship" combines content about social entrepreneurship with service learning. It is a powerful combination, and I hope that a lot of great ideas and momentum come out of The Huddle. I asked  Brittany Koteles,  my former student and social entrepreneurship player extraordinaire--if she was going to the Huddle. She knew all about it, but it sounds like she won't make it. She did encourage me to attend  the AshokaU Exchange in February. I think I will start to put together an abstract now . I've always wanted to do a TED-style presentation. (I also really want to put together a Ted Ed video sometime s...

by Ann Abbott One of my amazing former students, April Nwatah, with a friend from her work in Limón, Honduras. Still learning and serving.