Mary Svenstrup knows that some students rarely venture beyond The Arch.
By co-facilitating a new student-organized seminar to be offered Spring Quarter, Svenstrup said she hopes to connect more students with their Evanston neighbors.
“If you’re going to school in a community for four years, I think it’s important to know a little about the community,” said Svenstrup, a Weinberg junior.
Students who enroll in the course, “Poverty and Inequality: The Evanston Experience,” will study poverty and inequality in Evanston and work directly with struggling residents.
Every student must log five two-hour volunteer sessions at the Evanston branch of National Student Partnerships, a nonprofit, student-driven volunteer organization connecting citizens with local employment resources.
“I’ve had such a great experience at National Student Partnerships, and I learned more interacting with clients than I have at any of my classes at Northwestern,” said Svenstrup, who will take over as the center’s local director next quarter. “It was an opportunity that I wanted every student at Northwestern to have.”
Weekly speakers and a few carefully chosen readings and videos will compliment the class’ volunteer requirement, said Education sophomore Erin Fitzgerald, another student facilitator of the class and a regular volunteer at National Student Partnerships.
“Instead of having students write papers and do so much reading, we wanted them to learn by going into the field,” Fitzgerald said.
Student-organized seminars are “a compliment to regular offerings” in the School of Education and Social Policy, said Prof. Dan Lewis, the school’s director of undergraduate education.
“We’re really interested in student initiative and students taking a major role in directing their own education,” Lewis said.
The students approached him with the idea for the seminar in the fall, he said, and together they developed a course syllabus, selected readings and organized speakers. The class will be graded pass/no pass.
No professor regularly attends class, although Lewis serves as a faculty advisor and is prepared to help if any problems arise. Svenstrup and two other students will lead the seminar.
Students must submit evaluations of their volunteer experience and complete a final project on a community issue of interest.
“National Student Partnerships is a perfect training ground for students to learn about social policy issues,” said Caroline Chefas, one of the co-founders of National Student Partnership’s Evanston office and and a 2002 Weinberg graduate. “It’s like a sustained volunteer experience. You really try and help that particular individual navigate the larger social system.”
Students cannot register for the class through CAESAR — applications are available in the School of Education and Social Policy’s office on the first floor of Annenberg Hall. Although the deadline for applications is today, Fitzgerald said the deadline almost certainly will be extended.
She encouraged all interested students to apply for the seminar regardless of their major.
“We’re really trying to appeal to a broad range of students,” Fitzgerald said. “Every student can relate (to the topic) because they all live in the community and they’re all a part of it.”
