Center for Access & Attainment > Chicago Research Experience (CRE)

Chicago Research Experience (CRE)

The Chicago Research Experience is an opportunity for students at DePaul to learn about social problems in Chicago through a community-based project. During the experience, students explore a social problem using qualitative research methods (e.g., observations, interviews, and discourse analysis). In addition to supporting a Chicago community organization, the experience allows students to become more competitive for research careers and the graduate school application process.

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To increase CPS high school students' awareness of STEM education and careers, DePaul students worked with GoSTEM (a non-profit organization) and Erie Neighborhood House to offer CPS high school students a 10-week summer program. For the CRE project, DePaul students designed STEM curriculum, facilitated small group activities with high school students, and analyzed student assignments and survey results to complete a program evaluation report.
DePaul students collborated with the Egan Office and its Chicago Families of Educational Equity initiative to explore CPS parents' activism against Neoliberal Chicao Public School (CPS) policies affecting neighborhood schools. Throughout the project, students performed discourse analysis of CPS parent documentaries about their activism, attended a Chicago Public School Board meeting in downtown Chicago, and participated in Egan Office and Chicago Families for Educational Equaity events to hear the stories of CPS parents. Students used information collected during these activities to create a research poster about the tranformative process CPS parents experience as they become more politically engaged in neighborhood school politics.
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