Latin School of Chicago

26 L AT I N M A G A Z I N E Uptown Partnership English. In the fall, Latin's fourth graders practiced their Spanish by Skyping with a classroom of third grade students at Goudy. en this winter, the fourth graders helped the Goudy third graders with editing their English stories. e students also have been writing letters to each other and, during a recent get-together at Latin, the fourth graders performed stories they had written in Spanish for the group. "We felt that we wanted a fair exchange," said Nees. "But honestly, they have a lot more to give us at the Goudy School than we have to give them." Nees believes that the experience of interacting with native speakers of Spanish and the opportunity to get to know students from the Spanish-speaking world and to learn about the differences in their cultures has been invaluable. Even just two years in, the partnership with Uptown is enriching the lives of both students and adults in the Latin community. Helping others, making a difference in someone's life and engaging with the neighborhood have all been positive experiences. To upper school science teacher Randall Carpenter, the most rewarding aspect of regularly accompanying the same group of students to Inspiration Café, an organization that provides restaurant-style meals to people in need, has been witnessing the growing connections between students and guests. "We have a few students whose progress with this has been awesome to watch because they have really bought into the understanding that this about relationships," Carpenter said, explaining that the Inspiration Café tradition of inviting volunteers to join in the meals, has played a huge role in this. "It's not just about doing some hours and getting on with it. I have four or five students who know a lot of the guests by first name, and they look forward to seeing them and the guests look forward to seeing our students." Carpenter, Bunger and others at the school hope that the relationships that students are building in Uptown ultimately will impact how they engage with the world around them after Latin. In the meantime, it is enough for Will Pruitt of 2 Li'l Fishes that his volunteers are getting a glimpse of the lives of the people they are serving. "ere are a lot of hungry people out there," Jonny Moss '16 said, reflecting on his experience at 2 Li'l Fishes. "e people here look out for each other. ey talk. ey joke. ey are like friends eating together anywhere else." n "We felt that we wanted a fair exchange. But honestly, they have a lot more to give us at the Goudy School than we have to give them."

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