City Year Patch

A Day in the Life

When you serve with City Year every day is a chance to make a difference.  No two days will be exactly alike, but here is an example of what a typical day might be like with City Year Chicago:

7:11 am – Get on the bus to arrive for your team’s first meeting of the day and a powerful day of service. If Friday, take the EL (Chicago’s elevated train) to get to Federal Plaza for Unity Rally.  Unity Rally prepares corps members for a powerful day of service through PT (physical training), and daily announcements.

8:15 am – Meet with team at school for announcements and discuss goals for the day.

8:30 am – Meet with team for Starfish Corps planning. Use additional time to prepare lesson plans for literacy tutoring.

10:30 am – Pick up Alejandro from his 3rd grade class to start his literacy tutoring session.

11:00 am – Eat Lunch before afternoon tutoring sessions begin

12:00 pm through 2:30 pm – One-on-one tutoring with children

  • Brenda (12:00– 12:30) 
  • Mayrani (12:30–1:00)
  • Khadija (1:00–1:20) only twenty minutes today because the teacher needs Khadija for a quiz.
  • Lillian (1:30–2:00)
  • Daniel (2:00–2:30) Daniel is really excited that he read his favorite book without help today!
Corps member with school Children, S. Chavez 

2:30 pm – You and your teammates prepare to lead after-school origami activity as part of our “Cultures of the World” lesson in the Starfish Program.

2:45 pm – Lead after-school activity with second through fifth graders.

5:15 pm – Debrief the day with team and review schedule for tomorrow.

5:35 pm – Take the bus and the EL to City Year Chicago Headquarters to help recruitment with an information session. Review talking points for corps member testimonial.

6:30 pm – Give testimonial to prospective corps members and answer their questions about service.

7:30 pm – Head home to get some rest!