FOTP Partners with Chicago Public Schools

Friends of the Parks is partnering with Chicago Public Schools to engage high school students in projects which can earn them service learning credit hours.

Chicago Public High School students are required to complete a total of 40 service learning hours in order to graduate. This past year Friends of the Parks coordinated work days with Northside Preparatory High School and Bowen Environmental Studies Team. Northside Prep students learned about soil and how the composition of soil directly affects the plants that are able to grow in that soil. Students at BEST coordinated two clean-ups at BessemerPark and are beginning a photo journaling program this year.

This summer Friends of the Parks was fortunate to have Sodiqa Williams, a Princeton 55 intern, join our team. She created two examples of projects which students can do as solo or group work to ex plore their park. One project, a park tour and history of Millennium park – goes into details about the future sculptures and gardens within one of the newest and grandest parks in the city. The other project, a nature photo journal, describes the plants and animals in the park. Both of these assignments can be replicated by students to reflect the activities at the park nearest them, and can be a great asset to the park supervisor and other community groups and neighbors. What better way to learn about your park history and provide a useful and informative handout to the community!

Friends of the Parks sees these projects as great service activities, and looks forward to seeing the outcomes of this project throughout the city. We are happy to be partnering with the Chicago Public Schools on this project.

If you are a high school teacher interested in participating in this project with your students, either contact your school’s Service Learning Coordinator, or contact Mary Eileen, Director of Volunteers at 312-857-2757 x13 sullivanme@fotp.org.