Karyn Keenan’s first job as an educator put her in a charter school on the North Side of Chicago and face to face with immigrant and refugee students who represent over 20 world languages. Determined to improve her ability to help these students navigate a new language in a new home, she turned to National Louis in 2012 to fill up her education-skills toolbox with an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction.
and Supervision and teaches at an elementary school in Winnetka, Ill. Although where she teaches has changed, she’s taken her passion for helping students with her. “It’s exciting to see students grow and have the ‘aha!’ moments — whether it is someone who builds up their confidence to participate, or mastering a new skill,” explained Keenan. “I love to see that — that happiness of learning something new and being able to do something new is really cool.”
Keenan is currently working towards an Ed.S. in Administration
When Cari Stevenson , a full-time professor at Kankakee Community College (KCC) in Kankakee, Ill., read about high numbers of U.S. veteran suicides, she resolved to put time and effort into studying more. “I’m an educator, so what can I do?” Stevenson asked herself. Stevenson found her answer in the Ph.D. in Community Psychology program at National Louis. After a grant writing class at NLU, she possessed new skills and $21,000 in grant funding to use When Bryan Canales’ family moved back to the U.S. from Honduras in 2011, Canales began high school as a freshman with little English language experience. “When you come into a new land, you’re like, ‘Wow, I have to learn the new language. It’s going to be hard for me.’ And it took a while to just learn it.” Canales put in the work to learn English, but he wasn’t sure if he had what it takes to succeed in higher ed. “‘Oh, college is hard!’ Every time people were telling me that or I was hearing that —
towards veteran services at KCC. That amount was subsequently nearly doubled.
Thanks to Stevenson’s grant, her research and the partnerships she built with student veterans, KCC launched a student veterans’ lounge three years ahead of schedule. “For a couple of months, I would go in there and have tears in my eyes, seeing it come to fruition and seeing the students use it,” she confessed.
people were always breaking me down. Should I go to college, should I not?”
Thanks to the encouragement of a persistent teacher, Canales, a self-professed “rule follower,” is now in the criminal justice program at National Louis. He wants to become a police officer when he graduates. From his perspective, law enforcement can sometimes get a bad rap. He hopes to help change that.
SCENES FROM THE UNIVERSITY
What do Computer Information Sciences programming, increased Hispanic representation in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) disciplines, and more first-generation college students graduating and succeeding have in common? They’re all happening at NLU. This will be possible because of a Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) grant and a TRIO Educational Opportunity Center (EOC) grant, both from the U.S. Department of Education. NLU received the HSI grant in conjunction with Morton College in west suburban Cicero, Ill., to build University capacity and enhance support for Hispanic youth in Chicago, Cicero and the surrounding communities through coaching, teaching and mentoring students interested in technology-related programs. The grant will allow NLU to establish Computer Information ‘GRANTING’ NEW AVENUES FOR IMPACT
Sciences (CIS) programming and work with Morton to create a clear, supportive pathway to a bachelor’s degree in this essential STEM area. The EOC grant provides the investment needed to develop support for first-generation students who have left high school but have not yet entered college. Through community-based partnerships in the Pilsen and Little Village neighborhoods of Chicago, NLU will work to increase access to higher education for traditionally underserved, first-generation, and low-income students and veterans who want to succeed in college but don’t have the resources. The support will help them start college, graduate and succeed. It is a badge of honor that NLU received these grants; the selection process is highly competitive. Obtaining these grants shows NLU’s commitment to creating a continuum of support that increases educational equity and opportunity for everyone.
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National Louis University VIEW | Spring 2017
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