Institute for Leadership and Service Blog

Wow, I can’t believe it’s already my last week at Heartland and in the Chicago area. I’m purposely refraining from reading my first blog post so that I can read both side by side and see how much I’ve grown. Because yes, I truly feel like I’ve grown. I remembered being intimidated and even a little terrified my first few weeks: there were so many heavy tasks I was thrown into with little to no instruction, so many language and culture barriers, so many weights I didn’t feel strong enough not to get crushed under. But now, I feel completely transformed. I’m proud to say that I’ve developed the skill of communicating effectively with non-English speakers to a level in which I consider it one of my strengths. I feel comfortable coming into the office each day instead of a little apprehensive. Both the newer interns and the refugees come […]

One of the most exciting things about moving Chicago is being able to say that I live in Illinois!  It may only be temporary, but for someone who has spent the last 18 years of her life living in Valparaiso, IN (minus a semester in Costa Rica), spending two months in the big city is a pretty big deal.  One of my favorite parts about living in the city is listening to people speak in their many native tongues.  When I’m at the train station, I can hear a pair of students conversing in Arabic.  While I’m walking through Millennium Park, I can understand the parents talking to their children in Spanish.  When I walk down the street, I recognize one of the very few German words I know as a man talks on the phone.  During the time I spent at my internship over the last two months, I […]

I’ve been working at Water to Thrive for over a month now, and the time has flown by. My main project is a marketing plan that W2T can use to reach out to their Christian audience. Although W2T is a faith-based organization with roots in a Lutheran church, they don’t currently have any marketing strategies to reach one of their biggest donor bases – churches. That’s where I come in. Like with any project I’ve done for school, I started with research. This included looking up Christian publications, nearby churches, and best practices for nonprofit marketing. I also needed to know everything I could about Water to Thrive, an organization I had never heard of before I worked here. I also had to go through all their currently marketing, especially social media and print collateral to see how I could tweak it to appeal to a Christian audience. My favorite […]

The train hums me awake in the morning as it zooms under my window each day. It used to be something that jolted me awake, but now it is a part of my morning routine. In the always moving city, I have become used to the sounds, crowds, and lights. Each day as I head to work with my backpack, work shoes in hand, tennis shoes on, I am constantly surprised that in one of the largest cities, how many people I repeatably see each day, on the train and on the street.   The pace in the office of Ingenuity, like the city, is fast. Printers are printing. Meetings are in session. People are talking. I have worked at Ingenuity, the leading arts non-profit that works with getting quality arts education into every Chicago Public School for every student, for about four weeks now, as the Partnerships and Professional […]

Whenever a teacher or professor announced, “for this assignment, you’ll be working in groups,” I would internally (or at times, externally) groan and lament the impending onslaught of scheduling via 600 emails, navigating group dynamics, and inevitably picking up others’ slack. As an English major, I much preferred writing essays on my own time, in my own way, and with my own quality of work standards. However, my internship with Ingenuity this summer has turned group work on its head for me. I am part of the Data and Research team, and our projects are way too big for one person to tackle on their own. Even though we are only a team of three, we bring professional contractors, advisory panel members, and art education stakeholders to join in on our work. Our giant projects all of the sudden feel manageable as everyone in the room brings valuable insight and […]

  Greetings! My name is Katie Karstensen and this summer I have the opportunity to be working with ICDI, or the Interfaith Committee for Detained Immigrants. When people ask where ICDI is located it’s hard to give one central location because we are all over the Chicagoland area, and even outside of the state of Illinois in some of our ministries and work. To share what it has been like so far interning with ICDI and talking about all the different ministries we do, I thought it would be easiest to take you through my week and share some of the stories I have encountered. Mondays On Mondays you will find me near the South West suburbs of Chicago at our main office where our executive director, the two Sisters who have founded this organization, the fundraising team, and volunteers have their offices. I have done various tasks such as pull staples […]

By this time, I have just completed my third week of interning, and to say it has been a constant learning experience would be an understatement. This summer I am working at Ingenuity, an organization that not only raises awareness about the importance of a good quality arts education in the Chicago public schools, but also, it works to make sure that arts education stays in the schools and that everyone is benefiting from it from the research and data they collect from over 600 schools and 1,000 arts partners. Sounds simple enough, right? At Valparaiso University, I am a Criminology and Political Science double major (and a theatre minor, but most people forget about that when I tell them my majors).  When I told everyone I planned to spend my summer working at an arts education organization, many people were confused. I got a lot of interesting thoughts on […]

“My name is Aaron, and I work for a lobbying firm” I have always cringed when I heard that word. My teachers, parents, CNN and basically everyone had resolved to decry a whole profession as “unethical” and “corrupt.” Even now, as I rushed to tell family and friends about my new job in D.C., veiled smiles said “you’re one of them now.” Upon my arrival in our nation’s capital, I had resigned to embrace my new role: a puppet, ruled by special interest. Only Venn Strategies isn’t like that. There are no smoke-filled, back room meetings. The office isn’t filled with power-hungry D.C. elites or slaves to special interest. We don’t work to control government, we work to understand it. The federal government is an incredible complex machine with lots of moving parts. As a government affairs firm, our job at Venn is to keep tabs on what’s going on […]

Never underestimate the power that the nine-to-five work day can exert upon your daily routine; this is one of the many lessons that I have learned over the course of my first three weeks in Washington D.C., the place where politics meet reality.  It is a place where a small-town Midwesterner such as myself can easily fall victim to the overarching tones of rapidity and competitiveness.  It is a place where one can find that there exists a clash of understandings.  You see it everywhere; the Metro, the workplace, the restaurants, even the monuments.  From the outsiders’ perspective, there exists a great divide between how people engage with the world that we share. It starts as nuance, watching as some individuals rush down the left side of the escalator while others stand idly on the right, not daring to puncture the median threshold for fear of being rebuked by those […]

About a week into my internship with Lutheran Services in America was when I had my first “CAPS Moment”. I am not sure if this is a real term, but I think it best describes a moment in which a CAPS fellow feels a deep sense of purpose in their called location. I began my internship on a Wednesday and those first few days at Lutheran Services in America were spent with lots of cursory research. My fellowship has a goal of researching the trends of the nonprofit sector, so I therefore began much like I would have begun if this was a research project at Valpo. I read widely and broadly about the nonprofit sector and the organization’s role in it using websites and  journal articles. Even though this was not a university setting but the real world, due to the similar processes my mindset was one of intellectual curiosity, […]

  I never thought I would have the opportunity to see Jesus’ face so many times this summer– until I was introduced to the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ (PHJC) at The Center in Donaldson. The Sisters reside at what they call “The Motherhouse” tripling as an apartment complex, an executive office, and a chapel. Next to The Motherhouse lies the Catherine Kasper nursing home and Catherine’s Cottage (a unit reserved for Sisters). About 2-3 times per week I make my way down to The Center in Donaldson with my boss, Terry, and the trip through the rural town seems more beautiful each time. I serve on the development team at Ancilla Systems Incorporated (ASI) otherwise known as the administrative branch for the Poor Handmaids. Through my work here so far at ASI, I am beginning to realize that what seem like the smallest tasks still contribute to an incredible […]

Wooh, let me breath out and relax for a second; it’s been almost 2 weeks since I began my CAPS fellowship with Heartland Alliance’s Youth and Family Services (YFS) and each day has been a new, challenging, but most importantly exciting adventure. Let me retrace a few of steps to the beginning and get a running start (get ready for some running metaphors!) into some of the experience and takeaways that I’ve already experienced in my first two weeks as a CAPS Fellow.     First and foremost, what exactly have I been doing? Since you’ve taken the time to read this blog I feel you’re entitled to know what I’ve been up to, so let me explain. My primary role as an intern in the YFS division of Heartland Alliance is to work with other interns and staff to plan, coordinate and finally carry out “Summer Program”; a 6 […]

A few things I have learned as I start my CAPS Fellowship in Maryland: 1. I am capable of driving 13 hours straight. 2. Being a tourist in Washington, D.C. for a day and a half is exhausting. There is simply just too much to see and do that you ultimately cannot fit it into that kind of time frame. Good thing I have all summer to metro down to D.C. and explore! 3. Moving into a cottage provided by The Village at Rockville (TVAR) is exciting! You also get very creative when 3 girls get ready in a home with ONE bathroom. 4. Sometimes starting the washing machine is not as easy as pushing a button and you have to get creative with that as well (had to let the washer figure out its attitude first….). 5. When 3 girls walk into a restaurant looking utterly confused and clearly are […]

The Precision Medicine Initiative, am I a doctor? No, I’m a CAPS Fellow. My first few weeks interning at Venn Strategies have been many things. It has been challenging, informative, exhausting, and so much more. I have found myself working on issues that truly matter to the betterment of our society. One of these projects is the Precisions Medicine Initiative. The Precision Medicine Initiative is a program started under the Obama administration. It is designed to expand the scope of medical testing to traditionally underrepresented communities to design new treatments that take into account gender, ethnicity, and environment. The PMI has already changed the way in which certain cancers are treated. But what about me? I have never attended medical school, let alone been exposed to precision medicine. My role has been to help in a different way. I have been assigned to the team that has helped to roll […]

I wandered through the stairways and hallways of the center, I was given the task to find three things that stand out to me in the Harrison Center for the Arts from my supervisor. Art hangs on every wall; while, materials and supplies are stacked and ready to be turned into something new. It is a creative’s dream.     The building itself is old and shows its past through many periods of renovation and additions. Rooms vary from cinder block to brick to limestone. As one room is utilized for gallery or event space, the next will be an artist’s den filled with their work and supplies. There are old wood floors that transition to concrete with paint marks showing marks of the artists here. It feels like a maze in which each corner leads to something new. However, the building serves the purpose to house the artist’s space and their […]

The first two things that occurred to me when signing up for this blog were: 1) I really should sign up to do this blog at the same time my roommate does her blog so that I remember to do so! and 2) This blog follows my first week… that’ll be easy. I can talk about all the things I that I have learned.           The first point was perfect because I nearly forgot, and the second point was more difficult than I originally thought. It’s not because I haven’t learned anything, but because I have learned so much.  I have been inundated with information.  This information is both overwhelming and also thrilling.  I have felt the rush of wanting to dig into my project as well as the… “where do I even start?” feeling.  As one of the three fellows residing at The Village at […]

It’s already been a whirlwind time here in Indianapolis. From moving in during the biggest racing weekend known to man (the Indy 500 for those who are not car inclined) to starting my internship with Charitable Allies to learning the logistics of this beautiful, vibrant city, it’s been a challenge. What I was not expecting, though, was the largely impactful beginning to my time in Mooresville, the town that currently houses Charitable Allies. CA is itself a nonprofit law firm that represents nonprofit organizations through not only the formation process but also educational and administrative support, training, and legal services. Charitable Allies works to see nonprofits through various obstacles whether that is simply filing for tax-exempt status, working better with their board of directors, or being present in court for various legal needs.     When I first arrived at my internship, I was tasked with updating the website for […]

I started my college career at Valparaiso University as a Spanish and Secondary Education major, but through the various experiences I’ve had over the last four years, I’ve discovered a calling to teach English to speakers of other languages. I’ve spent years in TESOL and education classes and countless hours in the classroom working with elementary and middle school English learners, so a CAPS fellowship in this field seemed like a logical next step in learning to apply what I’ve learned in the “real world”. This summer, my internship in Chicago with the English Language Training department of Heartland Alliance’s Refugee and Immigrant Community Services will give me a glimpse of another branch of what I am now exploring as my vocation.     Over the past five days, I have learned about assisting in adult English classes, filing paperwork, inputting data, testing new participants, and making coffee. Assisting with […]