Orientation Week: Chicago is more than the skyscrapers

Orientation Week was the perfect way to immerse ourselves and quickly learn about the culture and the numerous neighborhoods of Chicago! Orientation Week began with our trip to Old Town School of Folk Music Italian concert. The next day we dove head first into orientation week! While attending the Chicago Center in the summer or even the fall or winter semester, you will have the opportunity to attend some, if not all, of the following events!

• Old Town School of Folk Music 
• Hyde Park Introductions 
• Broke up into groups and got assigned to tour the Kenwood neighborhood (Lakeshore Drive Bike Path, the Black Pearl School, African goods and sandwich shops, President Obama's house, Muhammad's mansion, etc.)
• Grocery Shopping 
• The Project(s) 
• Documentary about the history of public housing projects in Chicago 
• CTA Orientation
• Lesson on the Chicago's CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) and then given an excursion to go on. My group went to Uptown (Vietnamese neighborhood) and went to Bali sandwich shop and a bakery where we ate snowballs. 
• Thousand Waves Safety Workshop
• RainbowPUSH Coalition 
• Reverend Jesse Jackson runs this weekly forum every Saturday to speak about how to stop violence and crime on the South Side of Chicago 
• Printers Row Lit Fest
• Festival with various authors and literature shows 
• Downtown Loop Tour
• Architectural Boat Tour

• • Introduction to Seminar and Placement Search 
  • Center on Halsted 
  • The largest community center for LBGTQ in the Midwest 
  • Hamburger Mary's 
  • Well known restaurant in Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago
  • Barrel of Monkeys
  • Play with scripts written by young students performed by actors in their 20's-30's
  • LYRIC 
  • Open mic night on the South Side that was focused around supportive and encouraging lyrics 
  • Art Institute of Chicago 
  • National Museum of Mexican Art 
  • Pilsen Mural Tour
  • Tour of Pilsen neighborhood of large murals in neighborhood of Pilsen 
  • Blues Festival- Grant Park 
  • South Side Tour 
  • Chinatown, Bronzeville, Bridgeport, Pilsen neighborhoods 
  • DuSable Museum of African Art and History 
  • PRIDE Parade 
  
  

This has truly been an amazing experience so far, Chicago Center gives us a great introduction to the wonderful city we can call home! It has changed my perspective so much about what Chicago is, it is more than the skyscrapers and the corporations. It is a wonderful city made up of great neighborhoods that weave together this great city.