The world often decides who matters before a person has the chance to introduce themselves. People draw conclusions based on clothing, body language, ability, race, behavior, vocabulary, eye contact, or the way someone communicates. A student whose speech is not fluid may be underestimated. A student who struggles to regulate emotions may be labeled difficult. …
She had run away from home, but she still came to school. Home had become unpredictable. Her emotions were heavy, her mental health was fragile, and she did not know where she would sleep next. Yet she knew where she wanted to be that morning. At school. She came because our building felt safe. She …
What happens when the student yelling “I give up” is really asking, “Will you give up on me, too?” Last week, if you were at iCan Dream Center during dismissal, you may have heard a student yelling loudly in the front corridor: “I give up. F*** it. I’ll just drop out.” The moment was loud. …
Once upon a time, there was a young man who longed for one thing: to go fishing with his father. He talked about it often. He imagined the early mornings, the quiet conversations, the pride of reeling in his first catch. But the invitations never came. The days he hoped would be spent on the …
What are the things that you care about that you want to change? It’s a simple question. Yet it reveals something profound about how young people see the world. At iCan Dream Center, we believe that students grow when they are seen, heard, and invited into meaningful conversations about the world around them. Belonging is …
At first glance, this is a story about a student who picked up a camera. But it is really a story about belonging. The young man behind the lens is one of our favorites. Not because he is extraordinary in a way that sets him apart from other students, but because his journey is so …
There’s a particular kind of joy that lives at iCan Dream Center. Sometimes it looks like a student mastering a new skill. Sometimes it sounds like laughter echoing across an internship site. And sometimes… it looks like a girl walking a donkey in a dress. Yes, really. One of our students recently had the unforgettable …
As we wrap up another school year, I keep thinking about a moment from one of our morning healing circles that perfectly captured the heart of our students. We were talking about the future; jobs, goals, life after school, when one student quietly shared that one day he wants a family of his own. He …
There’s something happening right now that we have not talked about yet here on the blog. Students are walking into spaces like iCan Dream Center with a language for themselves that didn’t exist—even five years ago. Not clinical language. Not labels handed to them. Real language. The kind that sounds like, “This is why that …
By: Katie Gira I remember the sun. Say Something Week stops me in my tracks because I remember exactly where I was the morning of December 14, 2012. My one and only child, James, was in preschool. It was a sunny morning in the sleepy suburban Chicago town of Palos Park, Illinois—a place strikingly similar …