Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Ivy Rose Lomahan
“Is my English good enough to go back to school?” “Will my children be okay while I’m in class?” “Will I be able to afford the tuition fees on top of the bills I am already paying?” The questions—and the doubts—ran through my mind. It was daunting going back to school after being away for…
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Frank Sochacki
Frank Sochacki was familiar with City Colleges of Chicago even before he began classes at Malcolm X College. He started taking prerequisite courses at Wright College in 1998 to pursue nursing and advance his medical career, but a change in his employment status put that dream on hold. In the meantime, he made a transition…
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Naomi Monroe
Growing up on the southwest side of Chicago, Naomi Monroe was always a strong student. In junior high, she moved from the LeClaire Courts neighborhood to Wentworth Gardens and was named valedictorian of her eighth grade class. She was honored to be the student speaker at her graduation ceremony. “I had a great start to…
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Akilah Siti Easter
This story was originally published as a City Colleges news blog titled “Faculty Perspective: Bringing Our Community Back to the Land” on May 2, 2022. The Urban Agriculture Department (UA) at Olive-Harvey College is approaching its one-year anniversary and we have had tremendous growth and development of our courses, student population and partnerships across…
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Maria Delgado
My college journey began back in 1994 when I enrolled at Wilbur Wright College. At the time, I was a full-time student and my mother’s caregiver. She was 39 years old and had experienced heart failure since she was 18. I wanted to be a psychologist, so I managed to care for her and go…
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Deidre Burnett
Back in 2016, I lost a few of my childhood friends to gun violence. I felt the world crashing, and I stopped going to school. I was attending Northern Illinois University at the time, and I thought I would never go back to college. So, I got a job as a teacher’s assistant instead, not…
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Patricia Gibson
Patricia Gibson grew up in a large family in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood—she’s one of 11 children. She was the last one of her siblings to go to college and the first one to get a college degree. After high school, Patricia’s parents told her she had to go to work or go to college. She…
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Desiree Morris
Everything is aligning at the perfect time for Medical Assisting student Desiree Morris. When the pandemic hit, Desiree was enrolled at another school, where she was taking mostly virtual classes. It wasn’t a good fit. She stopped attending classes there and began researching alternatives. She knew she wanted to study healthcare at a school close…
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Gerardo & Miguel Gomez
Brothers Gerardo and Miguel Gomez have a lot in common, including their passion for medicine and helping others. That interest led them both to enroll in Malcolm X College’s Medical Assisting program. Born in Chicago but raised in Mexico, Gerardo and Miguel had to get accustomed to an entirely new culture and language when they…
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Elia López
This story was originally published as a City Colleges news blog titled “Truman College Professor Receives AATSP Outstanding Community College Teacher of the Year Award” on April 12, 2022. Surprisingly, this year’s American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) Outstanding Community College Teacher of the Year Elia López didn’t set out to…
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