Tutoring and Enrichment
Each year, thousands of area schoolchildren benefit from tutoring and enrichment programs staffed by University students, staff, and faculty. From one-on-one tutoring to summer classes and projects, these learning opportunities spark students’ interest in subjects as diverse as ancient civilizations and international relations. Here’s a sampling of what we offer.
Partnerships with local schools
University Community Service Center
UCSC is a hub for outreach activity. It links hundreds of faculty, staff, and students to tutoring and educational enrichment opportunities, and can assist organizations in finding tutors.
Neighborhood Schools Program
Founded more than 30 years ago, the Neighborhood Schools Program supports schoolchildren and their teachers in local elementary and high schools with individual and group tutoring, assistance with classroom instruction, and support for community development.
Oriental Institute
Children and adults will find many opportunities to engage in learning at the Oriental Institute. Outreach programs include an award-winning partnership with the Chicago Public Schools that focuses on the ancient Near East.
Winning Words
This Civic Knowledge Project program teaches local elementary and middle school children the arts of debate, public speaking and reading, dramatic performance, and philosophical conversation.
Arts enrichment
“Every child is an artist,” wrote Pablo Picasso. And at the University of Chicago, we offer a wealth of programs that bring out the artist in children across the city. From on-campus exploration of visual art to in-school theater workshops, we make the arts meaningful and accessible.
Court Theatre
Court Theatre offers drama clubs, workshops, and performances for students at several area high schools.
Hyde Park Art Center
Hyde Park Art Center is the oldest alternative exhibition space in the city. It boasts a long record of educational outreach in the community.
Smart Museum of Art
The Smart Museum of Art involves public school students directly in the creative process through a variety of programs, including SmART Explorers and ArtWords, ArtSounds.
University Theater
University Theater runs a Summer Drama Workshop open to young people and taught by University student teachers as well as professionals. UT also has a School Partnership Program for children ages 7 to 17 that allows University students to use their artistic skills to implement community-based theater projects.
Math, science, and technology
From mapping the invisible universe to digging up dinosaur bones, the University of Chicago helps hundreds of students in local schools learn about the joy of scientific discovery.
Chicago Public Schools | University of Chicago Internet Project
Nearly 30 South Side schools benefit from this organization's efforts to enhance the teaching and use of the Internet and other computer technologies.
Compton science lectures
Non-scientists who love science will find these lectures worth hearing. They cover some of the intellectual and cultural excitement associated with scientific developments underway at the University’s Enrico Fermi Institute.
Lab School summer programs
Among other activities, students who enroll in Summer Lab will have opportunities to engage in hands-on scientific learning.
Materials Research Science and Engineering Center
MRSEC programs are geared toward K-12 students and teachers on Chicago’s South Side, and include after-school science clubs and teacher training.
Research in the biological sciences
This is is a four-week intensive training program designed to expose students to a broad range of molecular, microbiological, and cell biological techniques currently used in research laboratories.
Science and Technology Outreach and Mentoring Program
Science and Technology Outreach and Mentoring Program offers a variety of hands-on, real-life experiences with scientific research.
Space Explorers
Designed for minority students who are normally underrepresented, Space Explorers immerses middle and high school students in the process of doing science with the goal of helping them to succeed in high school and beyond.
UEI Summer Science and Math Camp
The Urban Education Institute partners with 20 Chicago public schools to expose middle and high school students to deeper, more dynamic math. The four-week experience moves students beyond the classroom, with fun puzzles, team problem solving, state-of-the-art equipment, and trips to the Indiana dunes and Michigan¹s Warren Woods.
Young Scholars
Young Scholars offers mathematically talented 7th through 12th graders an opportunity to explore mathematics that are not generally taught in schools.
Young Scientist Program
The Young Scientists Training Program is a 10-week summer program for 10 outstanding minority high school students to gain experience in research, medicine, and the biological sciences.
Additional opportunities
Model United Nations at the University of Chicago
The Model UN student group brings more than 1,800 high school students to campus each year to explore international relations and politics through simulated diplomatic situations.
Lab School summer programs/Summer Lab
Organized by summer camp experiences, children who enroll in Lab School Summer Programs will find plenty of opportunities to engage in athletics, arts, and science explorations.
