ALMas

Wanna join the team!? Apply here! We are taking applications for Classroom Mentors, President, Director of Curriculum Development, and Director of Research and Program Evaluation. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1K0X2hRThzMYaVCpLQ5ppI5y0kUP4D5It_5FN-wFMbi0/viewform

ALMas Application Thank you for your interest in ALMas! Please pay special attention to the following instructions: 1) Please complete the first page 2) The pages following the first page are for particular roles within ALMas. Please fill out the pages for the position(s) you would like to be considered for: 1. Mento…

If anyone is interested in becoming either a teacher volunteer or joining the team, please let me know! We will be having an info/training session this weekend. Please email me at [email protected]!

Bilingual Programs in Schools: Practice and Policy

Happy November! Meet Daniel!
Name: Daniel Ramirez-Raftree
Year: 3rd
Major: Sociology/ Romance Languages and Literatures
Board Position: Director of Operations

Why he became involved in ALMas: I've been involved with a few teaching programs in recent years, and through them I've expanded my ideas about what it means to educate someone. As a result, I'm very interested in alternative teaching methods and education programs that can supplement public schooling. ALMas is an organization implementing a program that helps students by working outside the structures of typical public school classrooms, and I'm excited contribute. I am a Latin American immigrant, as are many of my friends. I've experienced what it's like struggling to navigate two cultures and languages, and I believe it's very valuable to know both and be able to switch fluently from one to the other. I'm looking forward to helping guide students who are working towards becoming comfortable with this skill.

Hello Everyone! Help us get to 120 likes by the end of this week. Tell your friends about ALMas! Also for those of you who will be on campus this fall start thinking about the possibility of working with ALMas! We'd love to have you join us. :)

Happy Friday! Meet Josh!
Name: Josh Saucedo
Year: 3rd
Major: Bio-Chemistry
Board Position in ALMas: Secretary

Why he became involved in ALMas: The teaching aspect is a part of volunteering that I am familiar with, so I wanted to expand upon it in a more invested way. The children that we will be tutoring mirror those in my own family who come from similar background and socioeconomic status. I hope that what benefit I can provide to these children will also spread to others.

Hey Y'all we here at ALMas just wanted to brighten your Wednesday by having you meet Vidal.
Name: Vidal Anguiano Jr.
Year: 3rd
Major: Public Policy Studies
Board Position in ALMas: Co-Chair

Why he became involved in ALMas: Many Hispanic children in Chicago and in the United States at large are not often exposed to people interested in academics and a life of curiosity. It is my hope that working with these young students will give them a chance to see academic achievement and its importance modeled by students that look just like them. I am excited by the idea of helping them and their parents learn to better cultivate their minds in places where they otherwise would not be.
As a Latino student at an elite institution of higher learning, I have come to understand that there are not many others here because many Latinos in the United States are not prepared enough to even apply to these institutions. I hope to serve as a resource and roll model for young Latino students and to cultivate in them an excitement for learning that is often not kindled within them because of various factors. With ALMas, I am excited to work with my peers to give the children we work with a push in the right direction, a push that they unknowingly need, especially when it is difficult to come by by other means.

Happy Monday! Meet Joseline!
Name: Joseline X. Gomez
Year: 3rd
Major: Psychology
Position in ALMas: Co-Chair

Why she became involved in ALMas: We have so many different tutoring and mentorship RSOs on campus, but what makes ALMas unique is that it focuses on a demographic that I feel is oftentimes ignored. The issues that surround Latino children- parents with little formal education, linguistic isolation, and coming from a poor economic household- are very specific to this community. ALMas aims to combat these issues and reduce the education achievement gap in a community that deserves the chance to achieve the American Dream by giving students an opportunity to succeed in school. I can see myself in the statistics that we often refer to when we talk about ALMas. I grew up in a poor household that spoke little English. Statistically speaking, I should not be where I am right now: at the University of Chicago among some of the most intelligent and motivated students. I feel completely blessed to have been able to overcome some of the obstacles that I faced in my life and would find no greater pleasure than in helping others who are in shoes that I once walked in.

An economic perspective on the importance of early childhood education. Watch and share your thoughts!

http://heckmanequation.org/content/resource/why-early-investment-matters?utm_source=buffer&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=buffer87a28&utm_medium=twitter

http://heckmanequation.org/content/resource/why-early-investment-matters Anyone looking for upstream solutions to the biggest problems facing America should look to Nobel Prize winning University of Chicago Economics Professor James Heckman's work to understand the great gains to be had by investing in early and equal development of human potential.

Meet Marvin!
Name: Marvin Espinoza
Year: 4th
Major:Economics
Position in ALMas: Co-Founder, Co-Chair

Why he became involved in ALMas: A lot of Hispanic children in the United States don't have the same access to books, stimulating households, and access to smart people in their lives like I have had growing up. I want to level the playing field. I'm Latino, and I see myself in these children, and I see my parents in their families. So I've got to do something. But I do ultimately believe, however, that ALL children should have the same access to the American Dream, the ability to go to a great college, the ability to perform intellectually and academically just as well as other students across the nation.

The Dream of Hispanic Youngsters: Early Childhood & American Opportunity. May 22, 2013.
UChicago officially meets ALMas.

In its first operating year ALMas worked hard to organize a panel dedicated to helping us and the UChicago community better understand how young Hispanic children are impacted by educational opportunities in early childhood due to their background. The following are some of the questions that we asked that night: Where does immigration, economic opportunity, and early childhood development and education intersect? According to the four separate perspectives and fields of study presented(that the panelists provided), what can young Hispanics in the United States expect to make of themselves? What can they expect to achieve, or not? What trajectories of life can they most likely expect to follow given their circumstances from these four perspectives?

And finally, what role does public policy play to change these trajectories, if they are bad? And how should public policy address and support these Hispanic youngsters? What is the cost? What are the benefits? And are we willing to pay?

Photo Credit James Tao.

Stay tuned in the next couple days to learn about the people who have been working hard to make ALMas a possibility!