Ceremony for students in Fundamentos de Educación en Humanidades will be held at the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum May 18th
CHICAGO – On Wednesday, May 18th, at 6:00pm at the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, 1852 W. 19th Street, the Illinois Humanities Council (IHC) will celebrate the graduation of the 2005 class of the Fundamentos de Educación en Humanidades, the IHC’s Spanish Language Odyssey Project . Created and administered by the IHC, Fundamentos de Educación en Humanidades is sponsored by the IHC with support from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) . This course offers a free intensive college-level introduction to art history and literature for low-income adult Spanish speakers. The IHC provides students with tuition, books, CTA fare, and on-site childcare. 30 students from Fundamentos de Educación en Humanidades completed the course and will receive certificates of achievement from UNAM.
Founded on the theory that engagement with the humanities can offer a way out of poverty, the Odyssey Project offers course participants instruction in humanistic disciplines. The Spanish Language Odyssey Project is the only accelerated educational program of its kind for low-income native Spanish speakers. The Odyssey Project is in its sixth year here in Chicago.
“The level of enthusiasm that greeted this Odyssey course for Chicago’s Spanish-speaking community has thrilled us,” explains Angel Ysaguirre, Director of Programs at the IHC. “We look forward to continuing to make the Spanish-language class an essential component of the overall project.”
Classes met two evenings a week over a 7-week period at the Gads Hill Center in the Pilsen neighborhood in Chicago, 1919 West Cullerton Street. Syllabi and reading lists were roughly equivalent to those a student might encounter in a first-year humanities survey course at a first-rate university.Dr. Jorge Coronado, who is the Assistant Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Northwestern University and received his Ph.D. from Columbia University,taught the literature section of the course. Dr. Victor Alejandro Sorell, who is Associate Dean at Chicago State University and received his Ph.D. in the History of Art at the University of Chicago, taught the Art History section of the course.
For more information about other Odyssey Project programs call the IHC at (312) 422-5580 or email ihc@prairie.org.
The Illinois Humanities Council is a nonprofit educational organization [501 (c) 3] dedicated to fostering a culture in which the humanities are a vital part of the lives of individuals and communities. Organized in 1973 as the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the IHC creates programs and funds organizations that promote greater understanding of, appreciation for, and involvement in the humanities by all Illinoisans, regardless of their economic resources, cultural background, or geographic location. The IHC is supported by state, federal, and private funds.
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