Usually the stomping ground of baseball players, wrestlers, and track teams, Henry Crown Field House plays host to an entirely different group of athletes three afternoons a week: METROsquash, Chicago’s urban squash and education program. “METROsquash is a nonprofit, urban, youth-enrichment program that combines academic tutoring with squash instruction after school,” METROsquash director Max Laverty said.

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“We use squash as the hook to get the kids interested in the program; the large goal is to get the kids to realize their academic potential.” It’s no secret that Chicago Public School (CPS) students lag behind much of the country in academic performance. Even though the city has made great strides over the last 10 years—the dropout rate has fallen almost 10 percent—Chicago schools still post a 42.5-percent high school dropout rate. CPS students average a score of 17 on the ACT, four points lower than the national average, and score below the benchmark score on each of the test’s sections. Working with kids from neighborhood middle and elementary schools Reavis, Kozminski, and Fiske, METROsquash provides a supplemental academic program aimed at helping students succeed in class and gain acceptance into the city’s top high schools.

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With the program in its fifth year, METROsquash has expanded to include a College Prep program that helps its high school students prepare for college. “We aim for a two-to-one ratio of kids-to-tutors,” Laverty said. “With high school kids a one-to-one ratio. The goal is to get the ratio of students-to-teachers as low as possible to serve the kids as best as possible.” And the program is working. Over its five-year history, METROsquash has seen significant gains in its students’ academic achievements.

In its first year alone, 95 percent of METROsquash students improved their average grade by one letter or more. Last year, over 50 percent of METROsquash’s first class of eighth graders enrolled in one of Chicago’s selective enrollment high schools, which are designed for “academically advanced” students, according to the CPS web site. METROsquash students also give back to South Side neighborhoods. The participating students averaged 12 hours of community service during the last academic year. METROsquash is not alone in combining squash with academics.

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It was accepted into the National Urban Squash Education System in 2006, one year after its founding, joining nine sister programs located predominately in East Coast cities. All of the programs offer academic assistance alongside squash instruction, spending roughly half of their time in the classroom and half of their time on the squash courts. Recently, METROsquash has been working with the Order of the C, the varsity lettermen’s club, to provide even more personalized academic tutoring. With this new assistance, METROsquash has nearly achieved its goal of a one-to-one ratio between students and tutors. “The Order of the C also helps to get the kids to realize there are very smart athletes in college,” Laverty said, calling this a “secret message.” Besides its academic successes, METROsquash also boasts some outstanding athletic achievements. Last year, 10 METROsquash students attained U.S.

Squash national rankings. To achieve a national ranking, an athlete must play and perform well in at least four nationally-ranked tournaments during the year. Over the weekend before Thanksgiving, METROsquash hosted an open U.S. Squash National tournament at Henry Crown, a nationally-ranked event featuring athletes from four states, including 15 from METROsquash. At the end of the tournament, eight METROsquash athletes finished within the top four of their age groups. In the U17 Boys division, Christian Williams and Don Hall came in first and second, respectively. Among U15 Boys, Keshawn Idris finished second and Jordan Collins was fourth.

Johnathan Montgomery finished second in U13 Boys. Valencia Scaife took second in the U15 Girls competition and Khadijah Mohammed finished third. Kareemah Betts took third in U17 Girls. Throughoutthe year, METROsquash athletes will travel to 10 tournaments, half of which will be outside of Illinois. All of these trips are funded through donations to METROsquash; the athletes themselves incur no expenses. While METROsquash is certainly impressive statistically both on the court and in the classoom, the words of the student athletes are perhaps the best testament to the program’s success. “Since my first day, I loved squash,” Valencia Scaife, a ninth-grader, said.

“Squash is the best sport I have ever played; it has helped me with everything. Since I have been in METROsquash, they have helped me with schoolwork and fitness. Now my grades are up.”. Photo: /The Chicago MaroonSecond-year Arturo Salazar boogies down at Dance Marathon in Ida Noyes Hall last Saturday. Photo: /The Chicago MaroonThird-year Sree Kode leads a Bhangra dance at Dance Marathon in Ida Noyes Hall last Saturday.

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Photo: /The Chicago MaroonThird-year Sree Kode leads a Bhangra dance at Dance Marathon in Ida Noyes Hall last Saturday. Beneath an explosion of colors, 80 students danced the night away Saturday in a Technicolor-themed Ida Noyes, raising money for a local charity as part of the University’s eighth annual Dance Marathon.

The event raised almost $10,000 for the Children’s Place Association, a Chicago-based charity that offers nursing care and treatment for HIV/AIDS-affected children. “The Children’s Place Association is a wonderful organization,” co-recruiter chair and second-year Alicia Caillier said in an e-mail interview. “We chose them because they stand for such a great cause.” She added that the Dance Marathon organizers were impressed by the group’s foster care program that helps children who either lost a parent to HIV/AID or are orphans infected with the disease. The Marathon participants danced for 12 hours, from 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon to 2 a.m.

Sunday morning, exhausting many of the dancers. They were cheered on throughout the night by “moralers,” as well as volunteers providing food from Fuze and other sponsors. University groups such as the Bhangra Team were also there to support the dancers by teaching a few dance moves to diversify the selection of steps. According to the U of C’s Dance Marathon Web site, the national organization is the largest collegiate philanthropy effort in the world.

It has been running strong at the University of Chicago since 2002. Dance Marathon public relations chair and fourth-year Jane Peng said the U of C chapter strove to make this year’s event the largest yet. “Our number one goal every year is to raise as much money as possible for our benefit organization and to recruit as many dancers as possible. But this year, we are also trying to get DM’s name out and make it a bigger presence on campus,” Peng said in an e-mail interview, adding that the group raised an all-time high this year.

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“It was, to say the least, an extraordinarily bright and colorful 12 hours,” she said. The dancers enjoyed themselves, busting out their own special dance moves, from the shopping cart to the lawn-mower and a few moves never before seen. Each school’s chapter of the group has its own unique “Dance Marathon Dance,” according to Peng. The U of C’s involves a choreographed dance to Rick James’ “Super Freak” that involves a clawing-like motion through the air, imitating Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” music video. Callier said the highlight of her night was the special dance. “I lovedmaking a complete fool of myself with my fellow board members. Imitating a T-Rex was my favorite part of the dance,” she said.

For Peng, the best part of the night was when she danced the U of C’s blend of ’80s-style moves. “It was close to the end of the night, everyone was running on their last surge of energy, and we had just announced prizes and how much money everyone raised. Having the entire dance floor made up of people from such diverse groups all singing and dancing together with so much energy gave me a sense of community and reminded me of why I love DM,” she said. As evening turned to early morning, there is little doubt that Peng, Callier, and others dancing the night away followed the advice found on the event’s posters: “Carpe DM.”. Pamela Bozeman-Evans is the executive director of Blue Gargoyle, a South Side social service agency, and when you hear how fast she talks, it’s easy to see how she gets so much done. Bozeman-Evans served as the associate dean of students and director of the University Community Service Center (UCSC), then left the University to work as director of Chicago operations for Barack Obama before taking her current position at Blue Gargoyle. While at the UCSC, Bozeman-Evans increased staff program budgets and expanded the center’s services.

Now she faces a different challenge: answering to increasing need in the face of diminishing resources. “The irony of that is there are fewer and fewer dollars to support the increase in clients,” she said. The nonprofit organization, which began in 1968 as a coffee house at University Church run by a group of U of C divinity students, has evolved into a social service agency providing educational, after-school, and counseling services for children and adults in neighborhoods across the South Side.

Blue Gargoyle now offers adult learning, literacy, and GED preparation programs, helping community members develop the skills they need to secure a job. As job competition increases, many people are seeking to boost their qualifications just to land entry-level positions. “The job market becomes more elusive for them,” Bozeman-Evans said. She pointed out that many people looking for jobs to support their families are competing with college students, for whom a summer job may just be a chance to earn pocket money. “You are now directly, as a college student, competing with someone where this is a full-time need,” Bozeman-Evans said.

Many young people are struggling to get jobs in an economy where even the most qualified people have trouble finding them, and Blue Gargoyle has seen a dramatic increase in attendance by youth. Two years ago, Blue Gargoyle had 20 to 30 people under 25 as part of their adult learning program. Today, they teach 60 students in that age group. Rakim Stroman is a home-schooled student who started attending Blue Gargoyle to prepare for the GED almost three years ago, encouraged by his aunt’s success with the program.

Stroman was 16 when he joined, then the youngest student in the adult program; he plans to take the test this spring. He initially enrolled to develop the skills he would need to go to college, but his improved reading ability also helps him on a day-to-day basis at his job at Jackson Park Hospital and Medical Center. “You really have a limited time to slow down and stop when you’re in the office,” he said. According to Stroman, many teenagers are coming to Blue Gargoyle to get an education they feel the Chicago Public School System doesn’t offer. “There have been a lot of younger people that have been kind of flooding the school,” he said. The challenges that clients face in school or at work can make their commitment to Blue Gargoyle a struggle, Bozeman-Evans said, but many are devoted to improving their skills. “Their ‘Ah ha!’ moment, if you will, is that this economy will not support the middle-class, it will not support the high class, and it will certainly not support the poor,” she said.

Attendance rates have increased along with matriculation rates. “Attendance has always been a significant issue,” Bozeman-Evans said. “We’ve seen attendance somewhere between 65 and 75 percent, which is actually not a bad number, considering the challenges people face.” Now, Bozeman-Evans said, attendance rates are at 80 percent.

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Currently, the organization works with somewhere between 1,000 and 1,200 families and individuals. These numbers have pushed Blue Gargoyle’s funding to its limit. “Without any money attached to marketing, we are operating at capacity,” Bozeman-Evans said.

While Blue Gargoyle and other nonprofits like it are always looking for funding, the search is more difficult than usual this year, as philanthropic acts are the first to go when businesses trim costs. “I’ve heard people say, ‘Well, you know, you’ve always been on the hunt for moneyso how is this any different than any year?’” Bozeman-Evans said. Nevertheless, she said it’s understandable that floundering businesses can’t give as they have in the past. “I genuinely believe that corporate America wants to continue to be philanthropic,” she said. The organization is also anxious about state support, which it depends upon for a significant portion of its funding.

Bozeman-Evans said that in the wake of the state’s $4.8 billion deficit, it is unlikely that the state will continue to fund Blue Gargoyle to the extent that it has in the past. The state is currently three or four months behind in honoring vouchers, she said. Nonprofits and the government must continue to work together if they want to maximize the skills of both industries.

“The dilemma is that there are no resources to support the partnership,” she said. She emphasized that nonprofits have specialized skills that government programs are less capable of offering. The effects of a social service nonprofit cutting its services are immediate and hurt the disadvantaged most, but this has not motivated government support for the sector, according to Bozeman-Evans. “We are not hearing as much about the need for economic bailouts for nonprofits,” she said. “But when a nonprofit closes their doors, there are within that hour, individuals and families who are not receiving their services.” Programs that focus on the underserved are experiencing the same kinds of predicaments as Blue Gargoyle. “At the end of the day, these places are being drained of their resources,” Bozeman-Evans said. “The overall irony is that if other people in other industries and businesses fail, for a lot of people we are the last resort.”.

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About SCLC The Olive-Harvey College South Chicago Learning Center was established by the City Colleges of Chicago in March of 1988. SCLC offers classes leading to a High School Equivalency Certificate (GED). Classes are also offered for English Language Learners (ELL), Citizenship and a select number of college credit courses. SCLC also contributes to the community with its close relationships with community agencies and organizations such as South Chicago Chamber of Commerce, Aunt Martha's Network, Family Rescue, El Valor, Chicago Legal Clinic, Featherfist Organization and Le Penseur Youth Services.

The South Chicago Learning Center also has close ties with community churches such as St. Kevin's, Our Lady of Guadalupe, East Side United Methodist, and St. This active network helps to provide vital services to the residents of the community and surrounding areas. The campus also has close ties with employment services through as IPL Job Services and SEDCOM which allows the South Chicago Learning Center to provide referral services, continuous workshops, and employment readiness resource fairs. The average semester enrollment at South Chicago Learning Center is approximately 1,200 students.

The Adult Education program is the largest component at South Chicago Learning Center, with an enrollment of approximately 1,000 students. In the College Credit offerings, there are about 100 students enrolled annually. The Campus offers classes in the morning, evening, and on weekends (Friday and Saturday.) Some support services offered at SCLC include advisement services and tutorial services.