News•
on December 12th, 2011•
CHICAGO, DEC 2, 2011: The Barat Education Foundation is pleased to announce that its application for grant support from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation has been approved.
The McCormick Foundation and BEF will be able to provide support for the Our American Voice program in several Chicago Public Schools for the 2011-12 school year. Together with Centers for New Horizons and LULAC (the League of United Latin American Citizens), Our American Voice will be offered at traditionally underserved schools in the Chicago Public Schools, with concentrations on African-American and Latin American students.
“We’re thrilled that the McCormick Foundation has selected us to help students in challenged neighborhoods and communities learn and experience firsthand that they indeed have the power to create positive change,” said BEF CEO/Chair Sheila A. Smith. “Past experience has shown us how much middle schoolers benefit from the experiential learning, and we have a real opportunity to show these participants what democracy really means in their everyday lives, in a way they would likely otherwise never experience.”
Our American Voice connects middle-school students to the democratic process through active community problem solving in an after-school program that is engaging, interactive and grounded in real life.
The program emphasizes critical thinking skills as students learn the fundamentals of American democracy and work to create positive change in their communities. Via the four Core Principles, students engage in team activities, discussions and research, and partner with community agencies and elected officials to find solutions to issues in their own backyards. More information is available at ouramericanvoice.org.
News•
on August 23rd, 2011•
Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart announced that an anonymous donor has purchased the Barat campus and is donating it to Woodlands Academy. The Woodlands Board of Trustees “accepted this opportunity with enthusiasm and alacrity and has established a special task force to begin to articulate a vision and a plan for this new and much needed space,” according to Gerald J. Grossman, Head of the Academy, in a letter sent this week.
This gift reunites the two properties which the Religious of the Sacred Heart first purchased as one parcel in 1903.
More coverage of the gift may be found here.
News•
on December 1st, 2010•
After a full year of tireless work to raise funds for the Religious of the Sacred Heart and for the Barat Education Foundation, Fr. Ananias Buccicone of Queen of Peace Catholic Church, located at 907 6th Avenue in Patton, Pennsyvania has brought the stained-glass windows of the Barat College Chapel to his parish. The church itself was built in the 1890s, not long before Old Main, and bears a striking resemblance to the Chapel as well.
Again, the legacy of Barat College and the Sacred Heart has reached beyond what we would ever expect and casts a light of love and hope into a small town far away.
News•
on October 27th, 2010•
Greetings,
I vote because it’s my ticket to complain about my government. That’s right, I think you don’t get to complain about government or a single lousy politician unless you vote. No whining, not one snide remark for the next four years.
I vote because it’s my civic duty.
I vote because it is the work of living in a democracy. If we don’t step up and say what we want – through the act of selecting people to represent us – then those choices will be made for us by others. We the people silence our own voices when we don’t vote.
I vote because brave women and men before me fought long and hard for the right to vote. What is easy for me to do was not always so. Women went on hunger strikes; blacks demonstrated, were beaten and thrown in jail. My voting honors their sacrifice.
I vote because I believe in no taxation without representation.
I vote because it’s fun. My parents took me with them into the voting booth when I was young – and it was a booth with a curtain and levers that you pulled and a long arm to shift in order to register your choices. Then the curtain opened. I took my own son with me when he was young and showed him how to punch holes in the card by the numbers of candidates we supported. No hanging chads for me – thanks, Ben! And now I tap on the screen and listen as the paper record spools on and on and afterwards collect my bright sticker announcing to all, I Voted.
I vote because every vote matters, every single vote counts. Several years ago a woman I know, Shaunese Teamer, ran for alderman in North Chicago’s 4th ward – and the vote was tied. She won the office as a result of a coin toss! If one more person had voted for Shaunese (or her opponent), the outcome would have been the result of choice, not chance. (Four years later, Shaunese lost the primary by one vote!) Every vote matters.
None of what I have just written is especially compelling, or enlightening. I’ve encountered quite a few people who are disillusioned with government and disappointed in the candidates we have to choose from. Yes, my friends, we get to go to the polls with the candidates we have. But there are stark differences between some of them that will have a profound affect on our state and nation, depending on who wins. Therefore, here are some recommendations for those of you who have not yet voted.
Debra Shore is the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and a supporter of the Our American Voice Program.
News•
on January 25th, 2010•
Welcome to the new Barat Education Foundation Web Site!