The Working Class

The City Shapes the World

 

 

 

Very little happens around the globe that is not shaped significantly by urban systems—whether
economic, political, cultural, financial, social, medical, educational, or religious. Today, more than ever, cities shape the world.

A few months ago Rev. Dr. Soong-Chan Rah, a professor at North Park, wrote a book called The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity. This summer I read a review of this book, which had this sentence in the second paragraph: “Unfortunately, few western Christians have the opportunity to learn from believers in other cultures.”

How true . . . and how mistaken. True for most people, but mistaken for students at North Park. Here in Chicago, within walking distance of our campus, students have every opportunity to learn from people from other cultures and religious traditions.

How does this shape learning at North Park?  Whether in our undergraduate curriculum or in the Seminary, our setting becomes the first “text” students read. On the streets of our neighborhood, in the apartment building right next door, they see, hear, and meet people from around the world. And in our neighborhood students can visit places of worship as diverse as anywhere in the world—the Assyrian Christian Church on Bryn Mawr Avenue, Congregation Shaare Tikva north on Kimball Avenue, the Korean Presbyterian Church around the corner from Starbucks, At-Takaful Islamic Center on Lincoln Avenue, Emanuel Covenant Church a few steps east along Foster Avenue, St. Demetrios Orthodox Church next to Swedish Covenant Hospital, Spanish mass at Nuestra Señora de la Merced on Kedzie Avenue, and afternoon services at Iglesia del Pacto Evangélico just across the street.

There’s much more here to discover, of course. There are as many places to learn at North Park as there are streets in our city and immigrants in our neighborhood. Each of these holds a secret for engaging student learning.    

We can do this, because our home is in Chicago.

Centuries ago God’s people were taken into exile, seemingly abandoned by God and left to fend for themselves. The prophet Jeremiah came their way and encouraged them, even in this time of distress, to seek the peace and prosperity of the foreign city into which they had been exiled. Now I ask you, if refugees in Babylon could settle into life in a foreign city, raise and educate their children, and seek the well-being of Babylon, how much more might we be expected to do this in Chicago, and be blessed by God?

–Dr. David Parkyn, North Park University President

Chicago Is Our Classroom

 

 

At North Park we are quick to remind our students that Chicago is our classroom, and all Chicagoans are our teachers.

Our location inspires our mission. It is why we dedicate our wholehearted effort to shaping a generation of young leaders who will link their skills, their privileges, their dedication to justice, their commitment to loving kindness, and their passion for walking with God to the well being of the city.

Students in nursing, education, and business all draw on the rich tradition of the city to enhance the applied side of their education. Clinical experiences, classroom visits, and business internships are all enhanced by our place in Chicago.

But the advantage of learning in Chicago also extends to students in the liberal arts. The arts and sciences draw students with a deep interest in some of the classical academic disciplines. Students who major in these areas develop not only expertise in their respective disciplinary fields, they also strengthen their abilities in writing, speaking, critical thinking, and persuasion. But in today’s environment these same students want (and need) to know how their classroom studies link to the world of work. Our programs open these doors for students—for example, biology professor Jeff Nelson takes his anatomy students to the cadaver lab at Rush Medical Center, and sociology professor Lida Nedilsky helps her senior students explore intercultural identity with a practicum experience at nearby Hibbard Elementary School.

 

Could we build on this, I wonder?  Might we set in motion the expectation that students from every discipline in the humanities, social sciences, arts, and natural sciences will complete an internship in an appropriate workplace in the city? This is a lofty goal, but one well worth reaching for our students to take full advantage of learning in the city. 

Some of our faculty members have also discovered Chicago to be a wonderful resource for their research and writing. I’ll name just three examples from this past year: (1) business professor Al Kamienski completed his doctoral program at Loyola University by writing a dissertation based on research linked to the place, role, and success of charter schools in Chicago; (2) professor of communication arts Chad Eric Bergman presented a conference paper on the topic, “Big Ideas through Bantam Stages: Using Chicago’s Storefront Theatre Model as the Foundation for a Theatre Curriculum;” and (3) professor of Africana Studies Rupert Simms presented a conference paper titled, “Thomas Dorsey, [Chicago’s] ‘Father of Gospel Music’: A Case for Christian Rap.”  Each of these three is a good example of faculty members successfully embracing Chicago as a place for professional scholarship.

I deeply believe that North Park University is perfectly positioned to offer an excellent and profoundly transformative urban-infused education.

We can do this because our home is in Chicago.

–Dr. David Parkyn, North Park University President

 

Intentionally Urban

In 2008 Foreign Policy magazine rated Chicago as the second best global city for getting an education—second only to London.

The same year was also the first time in history that more than half of the world’s 6.6 billion people lived in cities rather than in rural areas. Currently, the cities of the world are growing by a net of one million people each week.

What does this mean for North Park University? It means that because of our location in Chicago we now stand with the global majority, whereas many colleges and universities (including most faith-affirming schools) that 
were established in small towns and distant suburbs, are now located within the shrinking minority.

In 1979, North Park had the opportunity to move out of the city. But on that occasion this community said, “No, we will stay in the city.” And with this simple sentence our place in the city was confirmed. The responsibility of this decision now rests on our shoulders. We stand at the intersection of what our University is and what we hope it will be.

This city is numbered among the greatest resources North Park possesses for shaping the education of our students; Chicago is our gift from God.

Join me in the weeks to come in reflecting on how we can embrace Chicago, and in doing so learn how to ever more fully prepare students for lives of significance and service in the city.

–Dr. David Parkyn, North Park University President

Golden years

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower,

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

–Robert Frost

I think about this poem every year right around this time, when spring finally arrives wherever it is I’m living. May in Chicago is just the beginning of spring. The leaves are just now breaking out of their buds. And flowers suddenly seem to be blooming overnight. When you live in the Windy City, spring is no walk in the park—it’s about 30-day sprint to summer (on the heels of a marathon of snow and ice and cold). Sometimes it seems like we only have two seasons…. or maybe three. Spring, sadly, is the one that gets squeezed out.

 

I imagine one of the reasons this poem is so famous is because it truly resonates with life. Here at North Park, students are preparing to graduate in a few short days. I can’t help but think of my own college graduation several years ago and remember the bittersweetness of it. There was so much excitement leading up to the event—four years of intense study culminating in one grand moment of triumph! And almost just as quickly, the jittery butterflies of anticipation turned into what felt like a lead weight in the pit of my stomach as I thought of what I was leaving behind: friends and a campus that had become a home away from home. A life that I had created for myself, apart from my parents and the identity I had inherited. And then I thought about that proverbial “real world.” The daily grind. The rat race.

 

*Sigh*. Nothing gold can stay.

 

I remember that last western sunset from the window of my empty dorm room the night I received my diploma. Why was I feeling so melancholy? The future was calling. Yeah, this was a sunset, but give or take a few hours, and there would be gold on the horizon again.

 

Now here it is, so many sunrises and sunsets and springs later, and I have the privilege of looking back on all the wonderful moments that transpired since that day in May when my world was ending and beginning at once. Great life experiences—great work experiences, great roommates, nights on the town, a fresh start as an adult, a chance encounter with a handsome stranger, a beautiful marriage (to the aforementioned)….

 

Life has been a succession of new beginnings. A crescendo, even.

 

I imagine the graduates preparing to walk across the stage this weekend have similar conflicting emotions—joy and anxiety and impatience and hope…. maybe even a little melancholy. That’s okay. I’m pretty sure it’s normal.

 

Green to gold, gold to green… and all the in-between stages of orange and brown and blue and gray.

 

That’s the beauty of life and its seasons. They change.

~Jessica Bernthal, University Editor

 

Number 11?

I was just about to get an update on the latest outbreak of swine flu in the U.S. when I came across an article on msn.com that caught my eye: “10 Jobs Cooler Than Yours.”

 

 

 

Intriguing, I thought. I wondered if there could be any truth to what seemed like an inherently presumptuous headline. My job, for all intents and purposes, is pretty cool. (More on that later.)

 

The article was more informative than I thought. It was even amusing. I can’t say it completely convinced me of its claims, but at least I learned a thing or two about jobs I’d never heard of (like route setters and doll doctors), and those I could identify by role if not by title (like foley artists, the folks who create and record sound effects for films).

Did you know that a food critic makes almost $60K a year? I wonder how much that person spends on a gym membership.

I have to say, the shoe designer job did seem—to quote the article— like “a pretty sweet gig,” paying $67K to boot. (Ha! To boot!) But that’s probably because I’m a girl who loves what so many girls love: strappy shoes, chic handbags, artsy accessories, etc. Stereotypical. Still I imagine many guys out there would feel the same about the video game tester position, especially knowing they could make almost $45K—more than twice as much as a pet psychologist ($19K) or a cruise director ($21K), and almost as much as a voiceover actor ($47K).

OK. The article had me somewhat convinced. But not completely.

I honestly enjoy the job that I have. There are so many things I get to do. I get to be the managing editor of a magazine, for one. How cool is that? An on any given day I can change hats—from copywriter, to copyeditor, to “marketeur,”  to PR assistant, to web writer, to grad school student, and….well, to blogger. And I get to work in the nation’s third largest city, in what is probably the most diverse community in the country. There’s a taqueria around the corner, a hookah lounge down the block, and a McDonalds across the street. Walk south across Foster Avenue and onto campus, and all of a sudden you find yourself in a lush greenspace with a gazebo. Walk north, and there are the ubiquitous fixtures of the urban landscape—Starbucks and storefronts, parking meters and crazy cab drivers. It’s the best of all worlds. (Let’s not even talk about the engaging people I work with, the energetic students, the vibrant intellectual and spiritual life on campus. Wouldn’t want to make anyone jealous….)

Sure, designing shoes, sailing the Caribbean, and seeing your name on the silver screen might be just a teensy bit more fun. But I still think I have a pretty sweet gig.

~Jessica Bernthal, University Editor