DePaul University Athletics
DePaul Athletics Reflects on Annual Vincentian Service Day
5/23/2023 1:59:00 PM | ATHLETICS
CHICAGO – As a part of DePaul University's annual Vincentian Service Day on May 6, DePaul student-athletes, coaches and staff partnered with The Cities Project to bring students from Chicago Public Schools to McGrath-Phillips Arena and Wish Field for a day filled of clinics in a variety of sports.
DePaul Athletics welcomed over 100 local area students in attendance from Cook, Joplin and Wentworth to partner with nearly 100 volunteers made up of DePaul student-athletes, coaches and staff. Student-athletes worked closely with children to show them the importance of education and sport in providing future life opportunities and supporting mental and physical well-being.
Dr. Kathy Grant, a member of the DePaul Psychology department, first started The Cities Project over 10 years ago with the goal of connecting local area kids to Chicagoland universities.
The day kicked off with student-athletes welcoming participants in from their buses. Students rotated through activity stations with teams that included making fleece Wintrust blankets to donate to the St. Vincent de Paul Center, volleyball drills, basketball training stations, soccer stations and mixed field day games.
Following the activities, students worked through several reflection questions in partnership with DePaul student-athletes which allowed kids to also ask student-athletes more about their experiences.
Vincentian Service Day
Vincentian Service Day is an annual tradition at DePaul that began during the 1998-99 school year as a part of DePaul's Centennial celebration. Nearly 25 years later, over 1,000 DePaul students, staff, faculty and alumni participate in a day of service with 50+ community partners in the Chicagoland area and cities around the country.
The Cities Project
The Cities Project is a non-profit collaboration between Chicago Universities and Chicago Public Schools (CPS). The Cities Project connects university students with CPS students living in low-income neighborhoods, in which only half graduate from high school within four years. The program is designed to benefit both the CPS students and the college students by preparing CPS students for college and education college students about inequality in our city and ways they can make a difference.
