http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1...rest31.article
Chicago is classroom for Lake Forest kids
October 31, 2006
BY DAVE NEWBART Staff Reporter
Before going to college, Flor Rico spent little time in the city. "I was a suburbs girl,'' she said.
But now she is in the city as often as three times a week -- including taking a tour of Jane Addams' Hull House for a class last week -- and is considering teaching in the inner city when she graduates.
Rico, 21, of Mundelein, doesn't attend DePaul or Columbia or any campus in the city. Rather, she is a student at tiny Lake Forest College, a liberal arts school whose pristine campus is set in the middle of the affluent North Shore suburb.
Yet the college has embraced the city 34 miles to the south as few similar schools have, launching programs and courses to ensure its students take full advantage of all Chicago has to offer.
CITY COURSES IN THE SUBURBS
Some Chicago courses at Lake Forest College:
• • Medical Mysteries in Chicago
• • Chicago and the Global Economy
• • Sculpture of Abraham Lincoln in Chicago
• • The Funding of Public Education in Chicago
• • Educational Reform in Chicago
• • Social Life of Food
• • Exploring Cultural Stereotypes in Context: From Chicago to Paris
• • Religions of Asia in Chicago
• • Cultural Contributions of Chicago's Latino Communities
• • Reading Performance in Chicago
Operas, museums and Pilsen
The college --
which now bills itself as Chicago National Liberal Arts College -- opened the Center for Chicago Programs last year. Within days of setting foot on campus, the 400 new students take a trip downtown. One-third to one-half of required first-year studies courses incorporate Chicago into the curriculum.
Those classes include everything from public education funding in Chicago to Asian religions in the city to sculptures of Abraham Lincoln. Trips include visiting museums, attending operas, touring Pilsen and interviewing shopkeepers on Devon.
And 60 of the school's 1,400 students are doing internships for credit at Chicago institutions or businesses.
The school is also seeking to set up student-mentoring programs with Ethiopian and Cambodian community associations.
Because few students who attend the school come from the city itself, the courses are particularly eye-opening, officials said. About 60 percent of Lake Forest's are from out of state, and many hail from small towns or suburbs.
Visiting the South Side
Professors acknowledge that students are sometimes taken aback by the trips, including one to the former Stateway Gardens public housing complex, where students met tenants and community organizers.
"That completely blows their mind,'' said Paul Fischer, a political science professor. "Even white students from the suburbs, the idea of going to the South Side is a little bit challenging to them.''
But some of the lessons are simpler,
like how to use public transportation. The school does not charter buses or drive cars, but puts students on the Metra, L and buses. Professor Michael Ebner -- who takes students to Hull House and Devon Avenue -- said inevitably, new students can't at first figure out how to put a farecard in a CTA turnstyle.
Growing up, Rico said, "I didn't like strangers. I didn't like public transportation. I was scared.''
She now has a completely different attitude, she said.