Team TEMS! Cabrini Madness! Join us!

Cabrini Connections Tech Club is a group of inner-city Chicago students who meet Tuesday evenings (on their own time) to learn job skills (such as graphic design, programming, and map-making) from professionals who volunteer one hour each week.

The program is hosted by Cabrini Connections, a tutoring and mentoring program near the Cabrini Green neighborhood that pairs students with volunteer tutors/mentors, and equips these students with extra tools and guidance they might need when making life decisions, pursuing higher education, and ultimately finding success in the job market.

The impact for you is long-term and lasting. See, as more mentoring programs grow, more kids learn to help themselves, and fewer of your tax dollars are eventually needed to fund welfare- and crime-related programs -- two costs of poverty.

Specifically, Cabrini Connections Tech Club (or "Team TEMS" - Technology Expertise for Mentoring Students - as they've dubbed themselves) has been meeting weekly with local IT and design professionals, and together they are in the process of developing a video game (to be released later this year!) In the spirit of advocacy, the video game will provide an interactive look into tutoring/mentoring. It casts students from Team TEMS as the heroes, and examines the challenges they face in building awareness and raising the funding needed to keep Tech Club operational.

See, this couldn't happen without you. So we're giving you a quick way to become involved!

Team TEMS has entered the Cabrini Connections "Cabrini Madness 2010" tournament, as one of 13 teams competing to see who can find the most people willing to support tutoring/mentoring and Tech Club. (Of course, for the tournament, a more intimidating acronym - "Technical Execution Madness Squad" - will be used :)

Head to the Team TEMS home page... meet the students (Charles, Kierre, Nyshanell, and Sean)... as well as volunteers and other roster-members, including Mike Trakan, (GIS Professional, High School Teacher, and Indie Rock Musician)… Szu-Han Ho (a volunteer tutor/mentor)... Christine Kochevar (Graphic Designer, and Artist)… Mark Shore (CIO Shore Capital Management LLC, business leader, and Rock Musician), and Vicky Georganas Trakan (Bar Manager: Webster's Wine Bar, and Artist).

Join our team! All we ask is for a small donation – $5, $10, $25 - as much as you can afford – to this tax-deductible fundraiser/competition.

Together with you, Team TEMS will continue to fight for students' futures, for your community… and for the glory of the “Cabrini Madness Tournament 2010” championship!

Tech Club Creates Graphics for Cabrini Madness

Visit the Cabrini Madness page on the Cabrini Connections web site and you'll see this graphic. It was created by students in tech club working with volunteers who work with technology and graphic design for a living. These students are learning a skill that can lead to jobs and careers.

In Cabrini Madness teams of students, volunteers, staff, Board members and friends are competing with each other to see which team can raise the most dollars to support the ongoing operations of this organization. It's a great competition and many students are learning valuable leadership, communications and team work skills that are valued by business leaders.

The Tech Club has it's own team, and created its own logo. Click here and you can support Zzu-Han Ho, Charles Hill, Mike Trakan, Mark Shore, Vicky Georganas Trakan, Christine Kochevar, Sean Mayfield, Kierre Halbert, and NyShanell Freeman in their quest to win the Cabrini Madness competition.

Merry Christmas!! From Tech Club!!!!

We here at Tech Club want to thank everyone for their support this past year, and hope everyone has a safe and merry Christmas day!

(Snowman design by Kierre (bio here)... the young man who also produced the "Turkey Head" Cabrini Connections logo from Thanksgiving, using the same image editing skills he's been perfecting at Tuesday Night Tech Club.)

==================================

Please let us know if you are interested in volunteering to share your particular tech expertise with us this school year! We'd love to work with you!

Happy Holidays From Tech Club Students Charles and Sean!

It should be no surprise that one of the more creative and provocative Christmas designs was created by our more experienced tech club members, who offer this sleek Holidays At Night design (as I like to call it :)



Two of our older tech club members, Charles (aka Mizawa) and Sean (See Sean's bio here) are already fairly accomplished techies, both on paths to become talented designers and programers. In fact, much of their time in the club has been spent offering a hand as teacher assistant for the younger members.

If you look through this blog, you will see several examples of the compositions Mizawa has already created, through his own motivation (the Tech Club banner up above for instance, but cool designs here and here. And check out some of the anime he's put together here.)

Both of these young men have also become Paint.Net gurus, and also have collaborated on a few animations, like this one here.

It will be exciting to see the work they produce in our upcoming projects in 2010.

Meantime, please join Sean, Charles, and myself in having a safe and merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays From Tech Club Student Israel!

This is the third in our series of holiday graphics designed by 7th-9th grade students at Cabrini Connections Tech Club... students who choose to spend their Tuesday evenings learning/practicing marketable tech skills.

Today's designer, Israel (bio here), took a different approach from the one NyShanell and Marquise took. While the previous two graphics were assembled using Photoshop to cut, paste, and manipulate graphics that were borrowed from elsewhere on the internet, Israel decided to combine technology with his talent as a 2-dimensional artist (he also spends Monday evenings as a member of the Cabrini Connections Art Club).

To accomplish the bells above, he simply drew his image, and then scanned it into the computer, saving the file to be easily opened in an editing application like Photoshop.

Like all great composers however, Israel simply has too many good ideas floating around to get caught up too long in any single art piece!

I can't wait for the artist to come back to these bells with new inspiration and maybe take them to new artistic levels.

Meantime, great job, Israel, using the computer to take something you drew, and prepping it for digital editing. And thanks for the holiday wishes!

==================================

Please let us know if you are interested in volunteering to share your particular tech expertise with us this school year! We'd love to work with you!

Happy Holidays From Tech Club Student NyShanell!

The second offering in our Holiday Series is submitted by talented artist, and a natural at graphic design... 7th grader NyShanell... check out her bio for more about her love of computers and art...

If there is something more representative of the spirit of the holidays than people holding hands around a Christmas tree, I don't know what is.

You can almost hear imagine the volunteers, students, and donors represented by the characters in the Cabrini Connections logo singing a carol outside in the snow!...

...Right before heading indoors for a cup of cocoa and a discussion, using Mapping For Justice maps, about how new collaborations can be made to ensure students with all the ability in the world, like NyShanell, have access to programs like Cabrini Connections, to build a work-ready skillset in every neighborhood in Chicago and beyond.

Thanks NyShanell. Great work as always!

Happy Holidays to everyone from Tech Club!

(Last week's submission by Marquise is here.)
==================================

Please let us know if you are interested in volunteering to share your particular tech expertise with us this school year! We'd love to work with you!

Happy Holidays From Tech Club Student Marquise!

Students at Cabrini Connections are involved in more than just one-on-one mentoring... many of them take time out of their evenings during the week to attend clubs. That what this site is all about - a showcase of the work produced by the students who work with volunteer professionals on Tuesday nights to learn the skills they need to compete as future techies in the job market!

We took time out from our big project this past month (to be revealed later this winter) and produced the some holiday-inspired pieces... using tech skills we've been practicing at Tech Club.

I will feature those here in the week leading up to Christmas!


The first design to the left was produced by 7th grade student, Marquise (bio here)... a young man who is also a member of Video and Filmmakers Club on Mondays... and an artist with a flair for taking the simple and turning it into something unique, complex, and meaningful (a talent you can't always teach!).

Marquise used his Photoshop skills and artistic eye, and used the Cabrini Connections logo to highlight and define the puffy white part at the top of the traditional Christmas Stocking.

A brilliant composition that combines the spirit of the holiday with the pride of the program.

Marquise explains:

"The stocking of Cabrini Connections represent how everyone in the program is family and the stocking represents a member of Cabrini Connections."

===================================================

Please let us know if you are interested in volunteering to share your particular tech expertise with us this school year! We'd love to work with you!