Alumni
Newsletter
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courtesy of Bradley Troast
Bradley Troast, former NCDC co-chair, at last
year’s Project Pumpkin.
Northwestern Community Development
Corps (NCDC): How did you first get in-
volved with NCDC?
Bradley Troast (BT): I did the Freshman
Urban Program, which is one of the pre-
orientation programs and my small group
leader was a site leader for an NCDC site.
She recommended that I come to her site
which is Family Focus, one of the youth sites
that NCDC has. I loved FUP so much and
she was a great counselor so I did that. As
a freshman, that was my one service activity
that I consistently participated in...so it was
kind of the one activity that was consistently
rewarding. I think junior year was when I re-
ally fell in love with NCDC because by do-
ing publicity, you end up being involved in
every event and everything that goes on. I re-
ally got to know a lot about the organization
and so naturally, I was inclined to apply to be
co-chair and ended up being selected. As a
senior, I was co-chair, which was a wonderful
experience. It’s hard to put it into words but I
loved it. Every week when we had a meeting,
it was my favorite part of the week. It defi-
nitely gave me a lot of leadership experience
when it came to finding a job.
Inspired by the Freshman Urban Program
(FUP) before the start of his freshman year at
Northwestern, Bradley Troast continued his in-
volvement in serving the community and pro-
moting volunteerism through the Northwestern
Community Development Corps (NCDC).
Troast got involved in NCDC during his fresh-
man year as a weekly volunteer at Family Fo-
cus. During his sophomore year, he served as a
site leader for the same location and continued
into his junior year, serving as the co-chair of
the Campus Outreach Committee. During his
senior year, he served as the co-chair of NCDC,
where he was able to apply the skills and knowl-
edge he had gained from FUP and his three
years of involvement with NCDC.
He now works as the Assistant Program
Coordinator at Cabrini Connections and Tu-
tor/Mentor Connection, which is a two-part
organization in downtown Chicago. Readers
interested in finding out more about Troast and
his work can visit his blog (http://cabrinipip.
blogspot.com/) for more information.
NCDC: NCDC places a great deal of emphasis
on Asset Based Community Development. In
your opinion, why do your think it is so impor-
tant, especially in society today?
BT: As part of the Freshman Urban Program,
Jody Kretzmann, who is the co-founder of
the Asset Based Community Development
Institute, was one of the first speakers. Origi-
nally I’m from Tallahassee, Florida, which
is a medium sized city. Moving to Chicago
was just a whole step up. It blew my mind
as far as the people and the neighborhoods.
As I was trying to figure how to make sense
of that, ABCD was introduced to me at the
right moment. So pairing that with my in-
troduction to Chicago ended up allowing
me to realize in practice how important it is
because as I visited different neighborhoods
and got to meet different people, it ended up
applying to everything in life. If you read the
news, you might see there are lots of stories
about violence but if you look in the same
neighborhood, you can find positive stories
and positive images. The more you do that
and the more your counteract those, it just
becomes natural. You get more done with
that kind of thinking.
Fall Quarter
2009
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NCDC: How has your involvement in NCDC
contributed to your everyday life and your job
now, after graduation?
BT: I was involved with NCDC all four years
and it was the most consistent thing that I
did and it was the most rewarding thing that
I did. Because of that, it sort of got to a point
where that was the greatest experience that
I had at Northwestern. It came to the point
where the academics were almost supple-
menting what I was doing with NCDC and
the things I was learning. When it came to
looking for a job in the non-profit industry,
that actually ended being perfect because the
most experience I had was with NCDC and
all these supplementary things ended up just
enhancing my basic skill set. As a prospective
employee, I think I had a nice mix.
NCDC: What do you believe is the core of
NCDC?
BT: I’ve always believed that the core of
NCDC lies within the site, the direct service,
the volunteering. I wish we were able to mea-
sure our impact better because intangibly, I
know that it’s great. With the direct service,
we always stress commitment from the vol-
unteers, so coming every week and coming
on time. To think that there are a few hun-
dred students who have made that commit-
ment is really awesome.
NCDC: Do you have any last words of advice
for the current members of NCDC?
BT: Thank you for your time. That sounds
so silly but connecting it back to the core
of NCDC, the core part is the volunteers.
Whether or not they realize it, a few hours
a week, whether you are with the youth or
whether you are with someone who is taking
a citizenship test or whether you are with an
elderly person, in time you’ll realize how re-
warding that can be. Don’t necessarily think
of it as service, but think of it as ABCD. So
when you go into a neighborhood and meet
new people, talk to them and learn from
them. It is an extension of your education
because you are here at Northwestern as a
student and you can learn so much from the
environment around you. Q
COMMITTEE UPDATE
NCDC
Trick-or-treat: Members of the 2009 Northwestern Community
Development Corps Executive Board at Project Pumpkin.
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NCDC Special Events’ whole purpose is to fos-
ter and maintain mutually beneficial relationships in
both the Evanston and Northwestern communities.
Our quarterly events, Project Pumpkin, Senior Gala,
and ArtsFest! are ways for us to reach out and establish
these relationships.
During fall quarter, we wrapped up Project Pump-
kin for the 20th consecutive year! The event drew
between 850 - 900 community members and was at-
tended by hundreds of Northwestern students, who
acted as chaperones, manned booths, or setup decora-
tions. New and incredibly exciting this year was a huge
Pumpkin bounce house, taking up half of the Louis
Room! Our thirty person planning committee put in
a ton of work in the weeks prior to the event, leading
up to one of the smoothest Project Pumpkin’s in recent
memory. Candy supplies were running low toward the
beginning, but an emergency candy run was brilliantly
executed.
Coming up, our brand new and absolutely fantas-
tic Special Events Committee is kicking-off an Inter-
generational Project to foster prolonged engagement
with senior citizens that will wrap up with Senior Gala
next quarter. Also on the calendar is a community-wide
brainstorm for ArtsFest! 2010. We plan on extending
the event to a full week, and are excited to work with
the community to provide an additional educational
and interactive component to the programming. Q
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Hello from Community Outreach! Our committee works
directly with the volunteer sites to assure the best experience
possible for both our Northwestern volunteers and the Chica-
go-based organizations in which they are involved. Commu-
nity Outreach recruits and trains site leaders, works with the
volunteers to address any problems that come up at each site,
and facilitates extra programming that strives to deepen the
connection between the students and the communities.
NCDC is now sending volunteers to twenty-seven affili-
ated volunteer sites in the Chicago-land area, four of which
are new this year. True to the spirit of Asset-Based Community
Development, we hope they are gaining a new understanding
of the resources in each community and taking away from the
experience just as much as they put in.
We believe that direct service is the core of our organiza-
tion and that involvement with the sites should extend beyond
Community Outreach to every member of NCDC. As such,
we have made it our goal to link every committee to our sites in
some way throughout the year, whether by creating a targeted
publicity plan for an issue group, bringing site contributors to
speak at a ULRPI event, or by partnering with Education to
facilitate a discussion on the issues faced by a group of sites. Q
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The Volunteer Connections Committee is focused on
connecting the volunteers of NCDC. Even though NCDC
is the biggest student organization on campus, we believe it
is important to ensure that all members of the organization
feel included. Therefore, this quarter we have been focusing on
recognizing various groups of volunteers by delivering candy
bags to their rooms to let them know that the Northwestern
community truly appreciates their time and commitment to
volunteering on a regular basis.
Another big focus of Volunteer Connections this quarter
was designing t-shirts and other NCDC merchandises for the
members. During reading week, we are setting up a hot choco-
late booth outside the library and working in conjunction with
the Education Committee to raise awareness of NCDC’s in-
volvement around the surrounding communities, and also to
relieve the Northwestern students from the cold weather and
pre-exam week stress.
On Dec. 1, we organized a fun night filled with food, fun
and games. The event will serve as an opportunity to unite all
the volunteers and the members of the Exec Board and create a
bonding experience for all the members. Q
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The Education Committee works to
provide programming that focuses on a
wide range of social justice issues rang-
ing from healthcare to education.  We
work to provide further context and
learning opportunities for issues perti-
nent to NCDC and our sites in hopes
of empowering members of NCDC
and the Northwestern community to
become more effective and engaged so-
cial advocates.  Currently, the Education
Committee has three primary focuses:
bi-monthly discussions of social issues,
organizing for living wages for campus
workers, and providing additional re-
sources to socially conscious students
and NCDC site leaders.
Our first quarter of social justice dis-
cussions have been very successful, pro-
viding a comfortable space for students
to come together and talk about the is-
sues we all care about. This quarter our
discussions focused on education equity,
immigration reform, and health care
disparities that impact students with dis-
abilities.
This fall, the NCDC Education
Committee met with the various unions
who together represent all food service
and janitorial workers on campus. These
unions confirmed our concern that
many campus workers are not receiving
sufficient wages and benefits to provide
for themselves and their families. As a re-
sult, we are now organizing a campaign
to push the university to adopt a living
wage ordinance that would require all
university contractors to pay their work-
ers a living wage, $13.23 an hour plus
health care.
Additionally, our team put together
resource guides for each NCDC volun-
teer site that gives additional context on
the broader issues affecting the neighbor-
hoods we volunteer in. And of course,
we continued to send out our quarterly
Social Justice Course List, a favorite of
all NCDC listserv subscribers! Q
NCDC’s Undergraduate Lecture
Series on Race, Poverty, and Inequal-
ity (ULRPI) seeks to educate and in-
Clean Coal Industry. Our panels have
featured representatives from organi-
zations such as Chicagoland Green
form the Northwestern community Collared Jobs Initiative, the Center
about relevant sociopolitical issues for Neighborhood Technology, and
through panels, keynote speakers, the Blue-Green Alliance. Later this
and other program- quarter, we are teaming up
ming. Each quarter, with SEED, Northwestern
ULPRI selects a theme Class Alliance, and One
that will be the focus Book, One Northwestern
of its quarterly pro- to bring Robert F. Kenne-
gramming. Past themes dy, Jr. to Northwestern to
include healthcare, speak about American en-
immigration, youth ergy independence. We’re
incarceration, LGBT super pumped and antici-
issues, income inequal- pating a huge turnout!
ity, education, and, our current fall In the winter, ULRPI will be
theme, “Alternative Energy and the teaming up with Dance Marathon to
American Worker.” Over the past bring in a big-name speaker for our
quarter, we have organized two pan- topic of Youth Homelessness. We’re
els; the first on the Green Jobs Move- looking forward to an exciting co-
ment and cap-and-trade legislation, sponsorship with one of Northwest-
and the second on the Prospect of a ern’s greatest philanthropies! Q
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The Fundraising Committee has begun an exciting new project this fall.
We are working with two NCDC sites, Connections with the Homeless and
Friday Sack Lunches, to raise money for their volunteering projects. The site
leaders hope to raise additional money to supplement what is already avail-
able to them. We are looking at both small bake sales, and a larger event next
quarter, hopefully to tie in with ULRPI’s theme of helping the homeless. Also
underway are plans to write letters for the Thank-a-thon, and other exciting
ways to help out NCDC.
Money donated to NCDC will be used to fund NCDC events such as
Project Pumpkin, Senior Gala, ArtsFest, discussions led by the Education
Committee, and programming coordinated by ULRPI. Additionally, it will be
used to support volunteerism through grants to our sites and opportunites for
students who volunteer at our sites to make it a more meaningful experience.
Because NCDC is part of Northwestern, donations made to us are tax-
deductible. If you have any questions, or if you need proof for tax deductions,
you may email Rachel Rosen (RachelRosen2012@u.northwestern.edu) or
Sharanya Jaidev (s-jaidev@u.northwestern.edu) for the necessary documenta-
tion.
Your support is greatly appreciated! Q
Checks may be sent to:
NCDC
1999 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208