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DePaul University

Chicago, Illinois

Grants

2022 (4 years)
$350,000

Founded in 1898, DePaul University provides access to higher education for those who have historically been unable to pursue it – particularly students who are first-generation, low-income, immigrants, and students of color. This award is an expansion upon the previously funded support for Afghan female refugee students at DePaul to include an additional individual and provides an additional year of support necessitated by the English language requirements necessary for students to matriculate at the university.

2021 (4 years)
$320,000

Founded in 1898, DePaul University provides access to higher education for those who have historically been unable to pursue it – particularly students who are first-generation, low-income, immigrants, and students of color. The proposed project provides tuition, dormitory fees, and living expenses for ten female refugees from Afghanistan for an average of four years. Through this project, DePaul aims to provide displaced students with resources and opportunities to complete their undergraduate studies and earn a college degree.

2016 (1 year 4 months)
$475,000

DePaul University’s (DePaul) College of Computing and Digital Media is the home of the Digital Youth Network (DYN), a key project and partner of MacArthur’s Digital Media and Learning initiative. During its tenure as a grantee of the Foundation, DYN founded the YOUmedia teen center in the Chicago Public Library and the Chicago Hive Learning Network. DYN also designed and implemented the first Chicago Summer of Learning, which later became Cities of Learning. As part of an effort to focus on more local work, this grant enables DYN to establish a Connected Learning Innovation Hub at the newly re-imagined Dyett High School in Washington Park. The Dyett Innovation Hub intends to connect youth and their families to a diverse set of learning opportunities that supports them in achieving their educational goals, while fostering their use of technology and developing an inclusive learning infrastructure. The goal of this “hyper-local” approach to learning is develop a model that other communities could adopt as they work to engage families in their children’s educational experience.

2015 (1 year)
$100,000

DePaul University’s (DePaul) College of Computing and Digital Media is the home of the Digital Youth Network (DYN), a key project and partner of MacArthur’s Digital Media and Learning initiative. Mike Hawkins served as a Lead Mentor and manager of informal learning with DYN for over ten years. In this capacity Brother Mike, as he was commonly known, influenced and inspired hundreds of youth to pursue their education further by leveraging their passion and honing their creativity. This grant will seed a scholarship fund that will establish a summer residency at DYN for DePaul University students enrolled in the College of Computing and Digital Media's (CDM) School of Design who aspire to be Connected Learning mentors.

2015 (10 years)
$700,000

The Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University (the Institute) is a key participant in The Preservation Compact, which was created in 2007 to advance a comprehensive approach to preserving affordable rental housing in Cook County, Illinois. The Institute-a multidisciplinary academic research center-maintains an extensive data clearinghouse of information for original research and analysis on rental housing. It is important to use this information effectively to direct the dwindling government resources for affordable rental housing and to design policies and programs that address the continuing effects of the foreclosure crisis. The Preservation Compact relies on the Institute for ongoing analysis and for sharing its exclusive dataset with interested researchers, policymakers, and advocates. The award ensures that participants in The Preservation Compact and others with an interest in the housing sector have access to the most current and accurate data and analysis about the state of rental housing in Cook County.

2015 (1 year 7 months)
$460,000

DePaul University's College of Computing and Digital Media (DePaul) is the home of the Digital Youth Network (DYN), a key project and partner of MacArthur's Digital Media and Learning initiative. DYN is using grant funds to support the following activities: (1) support for the Cities of Learning initiative (the Initiative) that includes design and implementation of a robust project management system for all partners; and (2) continued support of an emerging set of international activities, including virtual exchange projects between Morocco and initial cities participating in the Initiative. The support helps ensure that Pittsburgh, Dallas, and Chicago are fully prepared for implementation of 20 15 Cities of Learning summer programs, and virtual exchange opportunities are implemented-grounded in Connected Learning-among Morocco and Chicago and Dallas.

2014 (2 years 2 months)
$3,500,000

DePaul University’s College of Computing and Digital Media is the home of the Digital Youth Network, a key project and partner of MacArthur’s Digital Media and Learning initiative. The grant will enable the Digital Youth Network to continue to support existing Cities of Learning sites in Chicago, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, and Dallas), and to expand to new sites.

2014 (2 years)
$240,000

DePaul University is the home of the Digital Youth Network (DYN), which coordinates a digital learning and enrichment challenge for Chicago youth called the Chicago City of Learning. This grant will enable DYN to expand the City of Learning program to include youth who are incarcerated in two Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice facilities, affording them access to self-driven learning opportunities through tablet computers.

2014 ( 10 months)
$200,000

DePaul University is the home of the Digital Youth Network, a key partner in the Cities of Learning initiative. The Network will use this grant to support a number of activities: the expansion and support for the Cities of Learning Initiative; as well as an initial eight-week pilot of a Global Badges project between Morocco and Chicago to establish programs with badge credentials that connect youth in the U.S. and abroad.

2013 (3 years 4 months)
$1,500,000

DePaul University is the home of the Digital Youth Network (DYN). In Summer 2013, at the request of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, DYN and other key partners helped design and implement the Chicago Summer of Learning, an innovative project in which youth-serving city agencies and more than 100 non-profit and cultural institutions across the city coordinated their summer programs and provided learners with badges. This grant will be used to expand the project into year-long learning experiences for Chicago youth that will connect learners’ formal and informal learning experiences into organized pathways of opportunities for academic and career success.

2013 (1 year)
$25,000

This grant to the Asylum and Immigration Law Clinic at DePaul University’s College of Law will assist legal aid and other service providers in Illinois prepare for the possibility of implementing a new federal immigration law. The meeting will improve coordination between community-based organizations, immigration service providers, and national leaders in immigrant legal aid. The meeting will also help to identify how Illinois providers can improve the state’s existing legal assistance infrastructure and scale their services to meet the significant increase in demand if a law is enacted.

2012 (2 years)
$550,000

DePaul University’s College of Computing and Digital Media is the home of the Chicago Hive Learning Network and the Digital Youth Network, two key projects of MacArthur’s Digital Media and Learning initiative. This grant supports the development of new activities that meet the recently-released common core standards for language arts in secondary education, to be implemented in existing programs in YOUmedia and the Hive Learning Network. Successfully piloted tasks will inform the development of a set of tools, templates, and assessments (in the form of digital badges) that can be used in both traditional classrooms and out-of-school settings.

2012 (1 year)
$375,000

DePaul University is the home of the Digital Youth Network and Chicago Hive Learning Network. Nichole Pinkard, DePaul professor, has been the lead partner in the design and implementation of YOUmedia, an innovative teen space at the Chicago Public Library created in 2009 to connect youth, books, media, and institutions throughout the city, and through the Chicago Hive Learning Network. This grant provides continuing support for digital mentors in their efforts to ensure that YOUmedia Chicago is a hub for Chicago youth and an exemplar for libraries and museums nationwide; and support for the Learning Network’s program director.

2012 (1 year)
$350,000

DePaul University’s College of Computing and Digital Media is the home of the Chicago Hive Learning Network and the Digital Youth Network, two key projects of MacArthur’s digital media and learning initiative. Under the direction of Professor Nichole Pinkard, founder of the Digital Youth Network, this grant will be used to develop and deploy digital badges for skills and competencies acquired in the Hive Learning Network, including literacy badges that acknowledge the writing skills; fashion badges that recognize skills in creativity, collaboration, graphic design, technology, presentation, etc.; and mentor badges for the adults working with youth in these areas.

2011 (6 years 2 months)
$2,400,000

DePaul University’s Institute for Housing Studies is part of The Preservation Compact, which was created to advance a comprehensive approach to preserving affordable rental housing in Cook County, Illinois to help reverse the long-term trend of affordable rental housing loss and promote policies and activities to preserve 75,000 affordable rental units by 2020. The Institute will use this grant to maintain and update its extensive database and website, produce relevant rental housing reports, and engage academics to analyze local and regional housing trends, to provide current and accurate data and analysis to Compact participants, policymakers and advocates.

2010 (3 years)
$1,800,000

To implement a Chicago Learning Network of schools, libraries, museums, after-school programs, online communities, and the home (over three years).

2010 (1 year)
$1,000,000

To support research, a data clearinghouse, and coordination of public agencies that participate in The Preservation Compact.

2009 (1 year)
$475,000

To implement a learning network of schools, libraries, museums, after-school programs, online communities, and the home in Chicago.

2007 (3 years)
$3,500,000

In support of a data clearinghouse, research, and a council to coordinate public agencies that are key members of the Preservation Compact (over three years).

2006 ( 6 months)
$52,825

In support of research about Cook County's rental housing market (over six months).

1993 (1 year)
$48,000

To study the feasibility of developing a professional repertory theater at the Theatre School.