description:
Sept. 30, 1964 THE SKYSCRAPER Page Three Mundelein Joins Inner Students Supervise Games, Tutor in Area Boys' Clubs -City by Betsy Braunlin and Kathy Wright Fifty Mundelein students joined the ranks of college stu dents coming to grips with social reality last summer in a pro gram of tutoring and recreational supervision in local boys clubs and social centers. Financed by W. Clement Stone, president of the Combined Insurance Company of America, the program is one part of Mundelein's Inner-City Project, now in its initial year. Whether in the bright new Henry Horner Club or the gracious old mansion that houses the Midwest Organization, Mundelein students found poverty and dense popula tion were intimate acquaintances of of club members. In some boys' club areas 57,000 people reside within one square mile. At least one-third of the working populus is jobless and of ten ADC benefits are listed as a family's only source of income. Margie Pesaresi, an Old Town Club summer staffer, commented that at the summer's end she real ized she had seen people living in the slums not just statistics. But Mundelein students who ex pected to find sad listless children found the evaluation of Novella Pegues, permanent staff member and secretary to the director of the Midwest Club, more accurate: The boys are, for the most part, well- behaved. Mundeleiners worked throughout the summer under the direction of veteran Boys' Club staff members, many of whom are teachers in the Inner-City schools. Club directors were quick to smile or lend a hand. Most were college grads who felt right at home in the middle of a softball game And when a Mundelein girl needed assistance to make a certain little fellow stop doing that, it took only a soft-spoken What are you doing, son? from someone like club director Jim Morita to make the boy drop everything and look penitent indeed. Chicago Boys' Clubs perform other services to the community in addition to offering a place to play games. Old Town Boys' Club serves as a Chicago Youth Develop ment station, a baby clinic, a dental MUNDELEIN GRADUATE Pat O'Keefe '64 tutors at McCormick Boys' Club. The xMcCormick Club was one of 14 organizations in the Inner-City project. clinic and community center. Tu torial services are also offered. Jane Smessart, working with a teacher, gave help to teens with speech difficulties. GEEP (Guid ance in Education and Employment Program), a project conceived by Mr. Stone, encouraged members to develop themselves through studies of leaders such as Ralph Bunch and George Washington Carver. Mary Pat Carey is continuing work begun last summer, of mod erating a motivation club where teenagers can discuss their high school curricula or the future. A typical day began with morn ing summer school in a small club room. Across the hall, in the gym, day camp progressed through four periods. Day campers left and stu dents participating in GEEP set tled down to their lessons. At noon, the boys went home, re gretting that only one day of sum mer classes had gone by. By 12:30 they had begun lining up outside for the opening of the game room at 1:00. I got pool. No, I do. You're crazy, I was here first. I got bumper then. Me and Joe got it. I call winners on pool. Hey you, you wonna play me at ping-pong? At 2:30 the boys went to the gym. After gym most went home and those who stayed played quieter games like checkers. One of the qualities the Munde lein student soon developed, if she didn't have it before, was a sense of humor, and most of the time she laughed at her own mistakes. Old Towners recall the time when they planned every detail for a bar becue and found they had only two matches at the picnic site Mary Pat Carey remembers a picnic that turned into a water fight against her Some Midwest Club workers re member when they spent days try ing to braid key chains only to see a 9-year-old member produce one he had made in an hour and a half. At other times the boys them selves provided the humor. Dur ing a little quiz session, youngsters were asked to name the governor of Illinois. After considerable prompting, one brave soul re sponded: Otto, the Colonel. At the end of ten weeks workers could perhaps recall minor suc cesses when a group had will ingly and unanimously done what they were asked, or when four non- English speaking boys learned nearly perfect English. The Mundelein student had prob ably entered the project idealisti- cally, but more than likely she left it a rock-bottom realist. If she had planned to uplift culturally and to see grand results, she was disap- Program BETSY BRAUNLIN, Mundelein sophomore, plays with some children from the Midwest Boys' Club. In the tepee, Betsy shows the children replicas of the Western Indians. The boys combine a history lesson with recrea tion, enabling them to understand Indian ways. TUTORS BEWARE, as swim-clad students from Mc Cormick Boys' Club converge on their supervisors. In addition to tutoring, Mundelein participants in the Skyscraper Photo Inner-City project supervised recreational activities at 12 Chicago-area Boys' Clubs and two northside so cial agencies. pointed. But if she had been whole hearted in her attempt, she felt that she had at least begun. Nor can she forget her experi ence when she receives reminders that read: What'd you ever do with my whip that you took away from me? Possibilities for continuing and expanding the Inner-City project of which the Boys' Club program is but a part, are being studied, ac cording to Sister Mary St. George, B.V.M., education department Part two, a follow-up two-hour course which will evaluate the first hand knowledge obtained by the The People... Matina Bianchi, Lynne Bjork- lund, Betsy Braunlin, Mary Carey, Vivian Carlo, Tina DeRosa, Mary Kay Dimatteo, Cynthia Eiden, Phyllis Fair, Mary Farrell, Patri cia Ference, Margaret Field, Ines Friedrichs, Regina Goeing, June Graziano, Janice Jearas, Kathleen Koppelman. Anne Laredo, Cathy Matejovsky, Pamela Meadows, Patricia Mul- ryan, Darlene McLaughlin, Patri cia O'Keefe, Nancy O'Neil, Kath leen O'Regan, Connie Pearson, Marjorie Pesaresi, Eileen Pionke, Lauretta Powell, Christine Riley, Barbara Roche, Madeline Rossetti, Susan Jo Ryan. Judith Salzinski, Carol Sarek, Susan Schmidt, Darlene Slanko, Jane Smessert, Nancy Stewart, Marie Sweeney, Nancy Sweeney, Mary Lynn Szwaya, Bernadine Thomas, Christine Walenga, Carol Ann Waterman, Mary Ellen Wenthe, Nicolette Wenzel, Marga ret Witwer, Barbara Wright, Kath leen Wright. summer workers and prepare new workers for next summer, is of fered this year under the direction of Sister Mary St. George, Dr. Rus sell Barta, political science depart ment chairman and Mrs. Marianne Rognas, of the education depart ment. Students will analyze the en. vironments and backgrounds of in dividuals, boys they knew person ally during the summer, to attempt to understand reasons for their so cial problems. Part three of the Inner-City pro gram involves field work during the school year. A third hour of credit in the Inner-City seminar is offered to students who work during the school year three hours a week at an Inner-City agency. The success of the program to date is indicated by the comment of the director of the Woodlawn Chicago Boys' Club: (the) reac tion of our staff to this program and the girls was very positive and complimentary. ...And Places General R. E. Wood Boys Club Henry Horner Boys Club Kiwanis Chicago Boys Club Lathrop Boys Club Logan Square Boys Club Lincoln Square Boys Club Marshall Square Boys Club Midwest Boys Club McCormick Boys Club Old Town Boys Club Valentine Chicago Boys Club Woodlawn Chicago Boys Club Hull House Uptown Center (social agency) Council of the Southern Mountains (social agency)
title:
1964-09-30 (3)
publisher:
Women and Leadership Archives http://www.luc.edu/wla
creator:
Mundelein College
description:
Student newspaper for Mundelein College
subject:
Newspapers
subject:
Religious communities--Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
subject:
Students
subject:
Universities and colleges
subject:
Women's education
relation:
Mundelein College Records
type:
Text
language:
English
rights:
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coverage:
Chicago, Illinois
coverage:
Mundelein College