Student Spotlight: Charles Hill

Charles Hill is a kid with a very bright future. After only being in the program for a few months, Charles has made himself at home and dove right into our programming, attending everything he can to help him prepare for the future. For instance, he was one of 4 winners of our Halloween essay contest, where he won a free trip to FEAR at Navy Pier, an elaborate haunted house right in front of Lake Michigan. Also, despite being an 8th grader, he attended a college visit to DePaul University to start to learn more about area colleges and to help get a better idea of what he wants to do with his life. He also attended an information session this past weekend to learn more about how to gain admission to some of the most prestigious and competitive high schools in Chicago. Not only that, but Charles has had perfect attendance so far this year!

Charles has also been an early adopter of our SVHATS 2.0 student/volunteer history and tracking system. Here he documents each and every one of his interactions with his mentor, Szu-Han Ho and has posted some of his poetry to share with students, mentors and staff. Charles loves to write and is planning on being a writer when he grows up as well, either as an author or as a journalist/reporter. For this reason his favorite class at the Albany Park Multicultural Academy, where he is an 8th grader, is Language Arts. He particularly likes how he can use language and writing to address his emotions and feelings and create works that express certain things that he’s going through in an interesting way. He writes poetry as well as longer-form fiction and short stories. He’s also starting to learn the guitar so he can begin to put some of his poems to music.

When Charles is not asking us what he can do to help out around the center, he can usually be found nose-deep in a huge book. His favorite reads of the last few months have been the Twilight series, a collection of four popular fantasy novels, the first of which was recently made into a full-length movie.

Charles deeply values his relationship with his mentor Szu-Han. With her, he can talk about his life and emotions while sharing his writing and poetry with a very caring individual who has his best interests at heart. In fact, they are so dedicated to building a relationship that they are starting to learn Japanese together!

When asked about Cabrini Connections, Charles’ immediate response is that “It’s kid friendly and a great place to learn!” We’re glad you agree Charles! Keep up the great work and we can’t wait to hear some of your new songs!