By Katy Coakley
Dominican’s 2024 Civic Learning Fair allowed students to learn about the important changes they can make for different nonprofit organizations.
Organized by the Office for Civic Learning in the Social Hall, this fair is designed for students seeking credit in Community-Based Learning (CBL) courses to meet community partners such as Beyond Hunger and Chicago HOPES for Kids and learn how they can give back to the communities.
CBL gives students the opportunity to take courses surrounding community services with different nonprofit organizations. Taught outside of Dominican, students learn about a variety of important issues including human service and environmental sustainability.
Celine Woznica, one of the lead volunteers for the Oak Park Migrant Ministry, works to serve the “immediate and long-term” needs of migrants from countries such as Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela.
“I think it is very good for [students] to get the perspective of the migrants, [especially] when there is so much anti-immigrant [sentiment] in this country,” she stated. [They] get to know the migrants, [learn] why they had to leave their country and what their awful trip through the Darien Gap [was like]. [Students also learn about] what their dreams are when they arrived here.”
Woznica said she thinks that volunteering at the Ministry would be a great opportunity for students to understand the issues of immigrant and migrant situations in America.
“All of the volunteers working [at the Ministry] say ‘working there brings them joy’,” she explained. “It is actually a very happy place.”
Daniela Munoz, an academic programs coordinator for Ernie Neighborhood House, said she appreciates Dominican students helping out with the organization and hopes to help them get their CBL hours.
“We [mostly] work with the Latinx community and immigrants,” Munoz explained. “Our focus is to help give resources out to the families in our youth programs. We specifically have this mentoring program because a lot of them are first-generation students, so we want to make sure they succeed and go to college.”
Edie Anderson, a volunteer coordinator for Opportunity Knocks, wants students to learn about the important mission of helping those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“[I am] hoping hopes to gain some new friends and faces,” she said. “We focus on a lot of recreational and life skills activities during our program.”
Sam Kehoe, a program coordinator for Opportunity Knocks, said he and the rest of the organization have been lucky to work with Dominican.
“It is always awesome to have new and young volunteers,” Kehoe said. “[It’s about] giving people who do not always have an option, to try new things and meet new people.”
Eliana Delgado, a freshman majoring in nursing, attended the fair to learn about different community-based organizations.
[It is important for me] because I have to do [CBL hours] for a class, she explained. “I want to do [an organization] on something that interests me. I want to take advantage of the opportunity.”
For more information on CBL credit courses, please visit the Office of Civic Learning’s website.
kcoakley@my.dom.edu
