Viewing short films at UNCC

By on March 7, 2015 in Urbana Neighborhood Connection Center, Workshop

On Urbana’s last school out day (March 6th), Community Ambassador at UNCC, Hailley, led two workshops that let elementary students begin to think more deeply about how films are made and stories are told. (more…)

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Creating jewelry in CPL’s Teen Space

By on March 4, 2015 in Champaign Public Library, Workshop

Throughout this grant, the Community Ambassadors have been faced with the challenge of helping our sites find “projects that matter.” No two sites will have identical “projects that matter” because each site has unique individuals who have varying interests. We as Community Ambassadors can share ideas but ultimately, each of us listens to our sites […]

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More stickers at Champaign Public!

By on March 3, 2015 in Champaign Public Library

Back in January, Sarah and Kim worked with teens at the Champaign Public Library to create some stickers using the Silhouette cameo machine for their computer cart. Since then, the teens have made even more stickers. Sarah shared some pictures that we’d like to share with you!

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Finished project at CPL

By on February 25, 2015 in Champaign Public Library

One of the advantages of spending around 12 hours at our sites each week is that we are able to develop relationships with the students we work with. These relationships allow us to help the students work on projects that extend over multiple days. Sarah, over at Champaign Public Library, just sent a photo of […]

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Valentine’s Day Card Making at UNCC

By on February 15, 2015 in Urbana Neighborhood Connection Center

UNCC decided to celebrate Valentine’s Day on Friday the 13th with some special activities. One of our stations was using our graphic tablets to make Valentine’s Day cards. Based on time and ease of use, the kids used the open source software, PaintTool Sai, to create the cards. It’s a great program to just open […]

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Antigone: Story from Kenwood

By on February 15, 2015 in Kenwood Elementary

One morning, Mr. Lash brought a new student for her first day coming to Tech Time. “Mr. Travis, this is Antigone” (not her real name). “She’s had breakfast, so she’s good to go.” And with that, he was off. Antigone got right to work on her design document after I explained the process to her, […]

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By Any Other Name…Kenwood Story

By on February 7, 2015 in Kenwood Elementary

My name, Travis, is a little funny to students; at any rate, I get called a lot of funny names by the students. I get Trevor, Trivius, one student even calls me “Doctor Tryorus” (I don’t even know how he came up with that one). Well, one day, Achilles called me “Vitruvius.” My bachelor’s is […]

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A Kenwood Success Story

By on January 27, 2015 in Kenwood Elementary

I was walking down the hall toward the teachers’ lounge one morning, probably to make some copies or something.  Miss KJ, the art teacher, greeted me in the hall and asked, “Did you hear about Hypatia (not her real name)?”  I said that no, I hadn’t.  “Oh, you should ask Jessica about Hypatia,” she said […]

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Sticker Creation at Champaign Public Library Teen Space

By on January 24, 2015 in Champaign Public Library, Workshop

On Friday, Community Ambassadors Sarah and Kim, worked with the Champaign Public Library teens to design stickers for their computer cart. At first, Sarah worked with the teens to choose a color scheme for their space. The teens ended up deciding on a light blue, red, silver, and black (in line with the Captain America […]

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