Harold Washington College student, Shannon Crummy, has her hands full of activities. Not only is she handling being a full time art student, she also is juggling the position as President of Art Attack, the Art Club at H.W.C.  And she’s doing an excellent job at both.

Yesterday, Art Attack hosted a “Throw it on the Wall” art exhibit in room 1115 at Harold Washington College. Displayed on five brown metal folding tables were more than 40 pieces of art work from Harold Washington College students.

Artwork displayed at the H.W.C. Art Attack exhibit

Art Attack President Shannon Crummy and H.W. C. art student Catherine Mobley.

Artist Shannon Crummy stands next to her “Self Portrait” artwork.

H.W.C. student Cathy Mobley poses in front of her “Thirsty” exhibit.

 Risks, Rewards, and The Personal Pursuit of a Higher Education

Life itself is a creative process. Each day, we each are given the same amount of time. Twenty-four hours. And we are given an enormous amount of things to choose from in which we can fill-up those twenty-four hours. The choices we make will always involve a certain amount of risk.

I’ll use my recently life exploration as an example. I’m forty-four years old. I had been taking classes for the last two years in the evening at Harold Washington College while working a full-time job during the day time. My job consumed eight hours of the allotted 24 hours that is given to all of us. This doesn’t include the two hours it took to commute to and from home each day either. In order for me to be able to receive my associate degree, it was going to take at the minimum, 3.5 years at my current pace of taking two classes a semester. I would be forty-eight years old by the time I graduated.

Over the last two years, my academic aspirations have grown a little more ambitious to me wanting to obtain a doctorate degree. The time commitment would require another 10 years, attending school on a part-time basis. I would be somewhere around… well I don’t even what to think about it.

I had to make a decision; and a risky one at that for my age. Do I continue my educational pace that I was on or shall I re-create a new picture for my life by leaving my full-time job to pursue college full-time? With the pressures that were coming to me from my thirty year old sales manager, the deterioration of economic conditions in the U.S., and the idea of me not having any real competitive and marketable job skills if my company had decided to downsize, the choice I had to make became a no brainer.

My friends and family (who I’ll call my support group) weren’t  really that supportive of my idea of quitting my thirty-thousand dollar sales job to pursue my education career. Debating my explanation had fallen on deaf ears as I tried to express my discontent with Corporate America along with my yearning and fears of not being able to feel I was making any real contribution to the world. What seemed important and logical to them was for me to stay unhappy, discontented and employed.

The outcome of my decision and risk, while it is still in the process, has yet to be determined. However, I can say the educational trek has been most satisfying. I have started to nurture my artistic skills in the areas of writing, drawing, and photography. These creative skills have allowed me be able to, with confidence, have the ability to express and share with others a part of me in ways I’ve previously could not. It as if a sleeping giant has been awakened. 

While the process of balancing and maintaining my financial responsibilities is challenging, it has stimulated my creativity and help launch an exploration into alternative employment and creative college financing. It is my hope, as I continue to pursue and develop my writing interest, to leave a road map in the form of a non-fiction book for other adult students who might have the courage to travel the same road as I have.

As an adult student, I’ve been forced to come up with creative ways to finance my college education. My experience with the financial aid office at the college I attend has been disappointing to say the least. What I have learned is that you take full responsibility and exhaust all the possibilities that are available to you. Your school financial aid office won’t do it for you. 

Tip # 1 - Veterans Affairs Student Work-Study Allowance Program

If you’ve ever served in the U.S. military, their is a number of educational benefits that Uncle Sam provides.

The Department of Veteran Affairs has a Work-Study Allowance Program that allow a veteran to work up to 25 hours in VA-related work.

To quailify for these entitlements, you must have

1. Made a contribution into the educational program
2. Been enlisted activly in the military during 1976 and 1985.

For my final drawing project at class, I picked President-elect Barack Obama for my subject. This was my first pencil drawing on a large scale. I completed it on 18 X 24 Biggie scratch paper.  I shocked myself at the way it turned out. My confidence has boosted up 10 notches because of it.

This afternoon, the Art club at Harold Washington College offered a nude figure model drawing session. This was my first nude drawing of a live model of any type. And I didn’t really know what to expect. The experience however is quite unique in a way.

First, when our model undressed herself, there wasn’t any sort of sexual arousal as I thought there could be. She appeared to me, as if she was a still-life project.

All of us students started with a warm-up exercise where our model would strike different poses and we had two minutes to capture what we saw on paper. We then were given five minutes to draw. Some of the other students were really advanced and completed a full emotional capture of nude woman. While I still was working on head and neck area.

 We weren’t ten minutes into our drawing session when fate would have it that someone would pull the school fire alarm. We all stopped and looked at each other in disbelief! We had to pack up and head to the staircase.

After returning back to the classroom we had exactly thirty minutes to complete our drawings. Below is my work which I must say impressed me.

First nude figure drawing

Yesterday, I responded to an ad on Craigslist. This is what a typical employment scam looks like. NEVER OFFER YOUR BANKING INFORMATION OVER THE INTERNET!!!

First email received

Anton Anderson to me
show details 5:30 PM (15 hours ago) Reply
D&AEurope Company LTD
 
Ukraine  main office address:
Gagarin ave. 98
Kharkov 61140
Ukraine
Phone # +380(63) 300-2020
da_europe@yahoo.com
USA  branch address :
8605 Santa Monica Blvd # 9677
Los Angeles, California 90069
USA
Phone # +1 (800) 537-6339
da_europe@yahoo.com
 
 
 
About D&AEurope Company LTD..
D&AEurope Company LTD was founded 9 years ago in Kharkov, Ukraine, Eastern Europe by Evgeniy Feldman. For this moment it’s a big international company which has hundreds of agents and offices all over the world. We provide shipping and payment services to people and organizations all over the world. We specialize in fast Money Transfers and Private Package Delivery. At this time we have two open vacancies.
Our Current vacancies: 
1.      Financial Intermediary
2.       Correspondence manager
 
Financial Intermediary
 
Job description:
 
Law in European Union, any company that receives money transfer from non-EU Company, has to pay VAT (Value Added Tax), 20% from incoming transfer. But EU company doesn’t have to pay VAT receiving money transfer from person. That’s why we can save these money. And we need financial intermediary. You will be handling our transactions in USA, acting as our financial intermediary. You will be receiving transfers through bank transfer or checks, for our company, and redirect them to us by Western Union or Money Gram, taking 5% as your commission. All Western Union or Money Gram fees are paid by us. The job is related to remote Internet operations. Every payment order will be accompanied by detailed instruction. It is also the duty to interact and report all the details of every action you take to our manager. You will be able to make approx $2000-$6000 per month, working 3-4 hours per week for this job.
First month will be the trial. After trial period we will sign contract with you.
 
Requirements:
Age from 18 to 60 years
Experience working with PC’s, including knowledge of MS Word and Excel
Internet and e-mail access
Home or cell phone so we can contact you anytime
Proficient in the use of pay systems (Western Union, Money Gram)
One or several personal bank accounts available
Ability to work with minimum direct supervision
Internet remote operations skills
Honesty, responsibility and promptness in operations
Developed prioritizing skills, using time effectively to meet tight deadlines
 
Salary:
5% commission from every processed transfer amount and you will have 7% after 1 trial month.
 
Note:
If you are LLC owner and you have corporate bank account - we can give you ability to accept transfers for more than $30,000 per transfer, and monthly inflow can be up to $800,000.
 
IMPORTANT:
All these questions were discussed and confirmed by lawyers, tax specialists, bankers and authority representatives in USA and EU. We are in financial business for many years, and have global network of customers and clients worldwide. All our activity 100% complies European Union and USA Law, and was accepted by I.F.R. A. (International Financial Regulation Association) (Paris, 2003). Everything we do offer is 100% legal and HAS NOTHING with money laundry or fraud.
 
Correspondence manager
No special experience is required for this position! We hire all over the USA except Alaska and Hawaii.
We are looking for honest and bright people for this position.
Job description:
1. Receive correspondence from our company and it’s clients at his/her residential address.
2. Report to our manager (every candidate will be included in a manager’s lists)
3. Forward received items according to instructions of our manager.
4. Fill in the forms and papers as indicated in our manager’s instructions (you will receive an e-mail with instructions for each box).
5. Ship packages out (through USPS, UPS, and FedEx etc.) Our company is taking care for all shipping fees, so you do not have to pay for anything.
First month will be trial. After trial period we will sign contract with you.
 
Requirements:
Resident of the United States.
Fluent English (for applicants from all countries);
Basic knowledge of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel;
Home Computer with e-mail account and ability to check your e-mail box at least twice a day;
Adults only accepted (we cannot hire underage people);
4-6 hours free during the week (mainly in the evening, non-business hours) for communication and 3-5  hours  a week more for package processing;
 
Salary:
We offer 60 USD for each package shipped out. After 1 trial month we’ll pay you 80 USD for each sent package twice per month. You can receive about 10-15 packages per week. It is about $1000-$1500 per week. Good money for work at home 1-2 hours per day.
 
If you are ready to start, please fill in EMPLOYMENT APPLICATION FORM and send us to e-mail: da_europe@yahoo.com
For identity verification and prevention of fraudulent registrations, please upload a scanned copy of any your valid ID. If you have any questions or comments, you may contact us.
 
 
HR manager Anton Andreevskiy.
Best regards.
 
D&AEurope Company LTD
da_europe@yahoo.com

Second email received

USA contact
person:  Anton Andreevskiy 
 
 

EMPLOYMENT
APPLICATION FORM 
 
 
 

Please
complete all fields!

This morning I was surprised to find an email from Amazon saying that the item I had listed last night had been sold already. I now have to ship it within two business days.

Getting this email has me a firm believer in the power of the Internet and being able to make money using it. I think I might have found another source of income.

Listing an item on Amazon wasn’t very intuitive for me. So, here is how you list an item for sale on Amazon.

1. Go To Amazon.com website
2. Find ”Feature and Services” on the left-hand column
3. Click on Product category
4. Type in name of product
5. Click on “Start Selling”
6. Click on “Sell yours here” button in right column
7. Select the condition of your item
8. Click continue
9. Enter your price
10. Click continue after verifying that the quantity and shipping methods are correct
11. Become authorized seller by creating a new account or signing into your account.
12. Press continue
13. Enter seller account information
14. Wait for automated phone call from Amazon and enter PIN number displayed on screen
15. Confirm price of items.

You’re done. A confirmation will be sent to your registered email address and your item is now listed on Amazon.

Installing a new WordPress theme requires three steps. The first step is to select and download the theme onto your computer. The second step is to upload the new theme onto your BlueHost Account. The final step is to activate the theme on WordPress.

Select New Theme on WordPress 

1. Log into WordPress administrative site
2. Click on Design Tab
3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the link “WordPress Theme Directory”
4. Select a design, then click “Download” on right-hand side
5. Click “Save” when dialog box pops up
6. Save on computer
7. Click close once file is downloaded

Upload Theme on BlueHost Account

1. Log into BlueHost Account
2. Scroll down to Files Selection area (right column) and click “File Manager”
3. Select domain under “Document Root for” and then click Go
4. Expand folder named “Public_html”
5. Expand domain folder
6. Expand wp-content folder
7. Click on the theme folder
8. Click on “Upload” at the top
9. Click on “browse”
10. Find them file located on your computer
11. Once upload is complete click on link to return back to file manager
12. Select new uploaded theme
13. Select extract
14. Press OK

Activating New Theme

1. Log into WordPress
2. Click on new theme
3. Click on “Activate” located on the top right

The Chicago Department of Human Services, located at 4314 S. Cottage Grove provide emergency food boxes for those that qualify. The box I received contained the following:

• 1 box of saltine crackers
• 1 box of macaroni and cheese
• 1 box of instant oatmeal
• 1 can of sardines
• 1 can of chicken noodle soup
• 1 can of tomato soup
• 1 can of green beans
• 1 can of pinto beans
• 1 can of mixed vegetables
• 1 can of spaghetti and meatballs
• 1 can of chili with beans
• 1 can of peach halves
• 1 can of apple sauce
• 1 can of vegetarian beans
• 12 oz. of grape jelly
• 18 oz. of peanut butter
• 1 orange drink mix
• 1 can of beef stew
• 2 lbs. of white enriched rice
• 9 oz. of rasins
• 4 platics forks, knife, spoon and napkins

City of Chicago’s Food Box

Contents of Food box issued by the City of Chicago’s  Department of Human Services.

Contents of food box issued by the City of Chicago’s DHS.

Chicago Department of Human Services

King Center map
4314 South Cottage Grove Avenue
Chicago, IL 60653
312-747-2300