Day 1: Exploring Chicago and Touring Muchin Prep

Hey guys it's Lauren, Josie, and Sally. Today we started with a tour of the school we will be serving; Muchin Prep. We learned more about the school and had an opportunity to ask questions to a teacher from the Charter school. We asked about how students were admitted and found out there is a system similar to the common app and students are admitted by a lottery. We also asked about the public schools and equity issues. We found out that Charter schools in the Chicago area have a big presence because of a lot of public school closures. Charter schools vary widely state to state but this one seems to be making a very positive impact on the students of Chicago. Josie was surprised that the Charter school served so many low income families. Lauren was surprised that the Charter school was so prevalent in the city and the facility was fairly big and offered a lot of clubs. Sally was surprised that the college acceptance rate was so high at 100%. We did a lot of walking around the city today as well which was tiring but nice after driving for 13 hours yesterday. We got to see Millennium Park, the Magnificent Mile, the Chicago River, and the Ohio Beach Front on the lake. The weather was also really nice and pretty warm. A city lifestyle is pretty different than our current one since everyone is rushing and can be snappy/strict. With our reflections though we realize how similar all of our hopes and fears are. A lot of us hope to make an impact on the kids and bond with our team. We fear that we won't make an impact or that the students won't be accepting. The few members of the community we've interacted with have been very welcoming and helpful. The UMD AB program has also worked with the school previously so our relationship with them already has a good foundation. Sally learned that the team all comes from similar backgrounds and our exposure to Charter schools is low. Lauren also learned how similar the team is to each other, and that our goals for the trip are mostly aligned. Josie learned that she can actually get up early and even though we all came for different reasons we will end up getting what we wanted from this trip. Overall we have a lot to learn about the Charter school system this week and there are a lot more questions we have, but we were able to get our first glimpse today. Lauren is now more open to the idea of Charter schools and can see a lot more benefits to the system. Josie also sees the potential positive impact that the Charter schools can have on the community and how they add a competitive aspect to the school system that might challenge how it currently runs. Sally now realizes that Charter schools are helping the children from failing schools instead of stealing students from them and that the students are randomly chosen; not only the "best" are picked. Thanks for reading about our day and hopefully you can get a good idea of what we're doing throughout the week!