Author: Companies That Care

Come see us in the office on these dates, OR check out our items online! Items like: 

Bookcases

Training Tables

Office chairs

Metal kitchen island

Glass side table

Kitchen appliances

And much more!!! Ask us for pics if you’re shopping online.

Please note, regardless of whether you shop and pay online or in person, all items must be picked up by you by March 23rd.

Eat, Play, Dance!

On March 28th, gather at 7pm at Moretti’s Ristorante and Pizzeria in Edison Park to choose your fun and hang with friends. Raise a glass, kick up your heels, sing some karaoke and change the trajectory of kids’ lives.  What a night!! 

Details:

Saturday, March 28, 2020, 7pm – 11pm      

Moretti’s Ristorante and Pizzeria

Edison Park

6727 N. Olmsted Ave. Chicago

Map

Fun:

Delicious Italian Dinner 

Drinks (2 drink tickets per person, age 21 and over, redeemable for beer and wine.  Cash Bar all night)

Raffle and Silent Auction

Karaoke   

Dancing (till midnight!)

Register below:

Our students are such an important part of what we do–in fact they are the reason why! They have a lot to say about why they love AIM High as well. 

Reasons Students Say They Love AIM High:

1. Discover who we are

2. Feels like family

3. Prepare me for college and the future

4. Learn things they don’t teach in school

5. Learn how to work with others; teambuilding; improve social skills

6. Gain confidence

7. Learn about career opportunities and professional skills

8. Year-round

9. Academic support; helps me get better grades

10. Care about my well-being as well as grades

11. Checks in a lot; more than counselors and parents

12. Understand me; people I can talk to

13. Acceptance; can be my full self

14. Motivate me

15. College bus trip

16. More opportunities than any other program

“AIM High is very important to me because I come from a low income family and we struggle a lot financially. This often makes me think that going to college is impossible. I want to go to college and be successful. Now that I am in AIM High I am confident that I can and will go to college. This program is a life saver and I can’t imagine my high school and college years without it.”

Myliah, AIM High Class of 2025

Jenelly, AIM High Class of 2023

“AIM High is a great program. It not only helps us students with our academics, but it also helps us discover who we are, and the skill sets we have. It allows us to network and build friendships. A lot of my good friends are in AIM High. Without it, I might have not met them. Another reason why AIM High is important to me is because it’s has given me many opportunities to show off my skills and learn something new.”

Melody, AIM High Class of 2025

“AIM High is very important to me because they help me plan for college and help me stay in order and make sure I maintain good grades. AIM High and its staff has helped me open up and develop more as a person. We help each other like a true family and support each other as well. The AIM High staff is outstanding and amazing, and I can’t imagine not having AIM High.”

Jakarri, AIM High Class of 2025

Stacey, AIM High Class of 2023

“AIM High is a really good program that gave me the opportunity to experience something totally new. AIM High is important to me because I learn new things that aren’t being taught to me in school. AIM High focuses on the world, our lives, and college. It helps my life personally because I get to see what other people experience and learn from that.

This program gives me the chance to set goals and stay focused. I am more aware of my surrounding and learning new things every day.”

Maria, AIM High Class of 2025

“AIM High is so important to me because without AIM High, I wouldn’t receive any advice or guidance about college and school in general. AIM High has introduced me to many things, including how to apply for college, how to find and win scholarships, and how to stay in college. I have also learned so much about team building and how to work well with others.”

Brianna, AIM High Class of 2024

Tadaro, AIM High Class of 2023

“The AIM High program is important to me because it allows me to get used to being a professional around my peers and work together to get work done. Also, the program helps me gain new experiences with jobs and careers through the various events organized by AIM High. I was able to get a summer job through AIM High which means I was able to earn money and stay out of trouble during the summer. I am so thankful for AIM High because the program supports me all year long, not only in the school year.”

Antiono, AIM High Class of 2025

“AIM High is a very important place for me because it helps me do a lot of things. For example, AIM High has taught me to express myself a little more because we discuss various topics and different ideas that I’ve never been exposed to. AIM High also provides great academic help. Because of AIM High I’ve been able to raise and maintain my GPA. AIM High helps us and makes sure we get it together!”

Kionna, AIM High Class of 2024

AIM High Students are Driven to Succeed

When AIM High invited me to tutor students in math, I hesitated. My only exposure to inner-city students came from the media and painted a dismal picture of academic accomplishment. I worried that any student coming from Chicago Public Schools would be beyond my help. Instead, I found a group of kids who were completely normal in every way I could imagine. They talked about the same things my other, more affluent, students did, asked the same questions, had the same reactions to their failures and their successes. What I learned was that the kids living in the inner city were no different from kids living in mansions when it came to ability or desire. Instead, their problems all stem from outside factors. They go to schools that, quite literally, do not have teachers to teach so the students are expected to teach themselves. They live in homes without heat or food. They worry about being shot walking down the street.

The most amazing thing about the students that AIM HIGH works with is their drive to succeed. Last summer, I ran a program to help rising seniors and college freshmen get ready for college level math. When I was first told that sessions would be 3 hours minimum, I scoffed. I had no expectations that any of the students would last that long doing nothing but math. Instead, I had to drag them away from their computers to take breaks. They would not stop working for anything. The number of other kids I have seen with that kind of dedication could be counted on one hand. At AIM HIGH, they can fill an entire classroom with those kinds of students. 

There is a poster in the offices of AIM HIGH that says college education should not be determined by where you are born or where you live. I believe in that idea wholeheartedly. AIM HIGH works to make sure that all children, regardless of background, race, or financial situation, can graduate college. 

I see so much potential in these students. If you choose to support this program financially, you’ll be making a great investment.

Torey Cornblath

University of Chicago Professor Explains Why He Volunteers for AIM High

In 2006, the Consortium for Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago published a report that shocked the many readers who learned of it from a front-page headline in the Chicago Tribune. It reported that only 6.5 percent of CPS students graduated from four-year colleges by age 25. When I shared this grim news with Marci Koblenz, the director of Center for Companies That Care, she enlisted me in helping to design a program that would attack this deplorable situation. The result was AIM HIGH, a program which admitted students in their freshman year of high school and followed them through college graduation. With the help of mentors assigned to them, they received whatever support they needed to stay the course through collegraduation.

When the program began, I was still working at the University of Chicago, but I promised Marci that when I retired I would give the program some of my time. So, for the past five years I have been working with AIM HIGH to support the absolutely critical work of sending more low-income students of color out into the world with college degrees. I am grateful to have been part of supporting these brave students, so many of whom have had to overcome obstacles unimaginable to most middle-class people. I have learned so much about the obstacles that derail even the most motivated students – financial hardships, health problems, violence, family challenges, bouts of depression and anxiety, inadequate pre-college educations.

Because of the multiplicity of problems our students face, we must offer a program of support that is incredibly labor intensive and hands on. This work requires manpower and manpower requires money. I hope you will recognize the importance of this work by making a generous contribution to AIM HIGH. Every dollar will become another step in some student’s graduation march.

Marvin Hoffman, PhD

Psychologist Volunteers with “Resilient and Determined” AIM High Students

Companies That Care’s Board Chair Talks about AIM High

As Board Chair for Center for Companies that Care (CTC), I would like to thank you in advance for considering a donation to CTC’s AIM High Program. We are excited about the success of the Program to date, and even more excited about the opportunities in the future to positively impact even more students in Chicago’s low income, inner-city neighborhoods. The AIM High Program is designed to promote positive relationships for these students through adult mentorships and support, backed by various events designed to promote goal setting, leadership, personal and workforce development, and cultural exposure.

As a product of a low income, inner-city neighborhood, I am acutely aware of the need for mentorships and support for these students to ensure high school completion and college graduation. The fact of the matter is that these students WILL find “mentors”. The question is what path will these “mentors” provide for the students? Further, if it is a positive path, will they have the necessary resources to aid these students in navigating the road to college graduation, with the many other challenges they may face because of their surroundings.

I am pleased to be able to support such a worthy cause through monetary donations and time. To hear the success stories of the current AIM High Program participants, as well as the alumnus of the Program (college graduates), confirms the need for this Program. Please join in making a donation that will aid in changing the trajectory and improving the lives of underserved youth.

Darrin Greene

Companies That Chair Board Chair

CEO, Applus Technologies, Inc.

Thank you for donating. When you reach the bottom of the form, don’t forget to mark whether yours is a one-time or recurring (monthly) donation.

The AIM High program was created in 2006 to address the dismal college graduation rates among Chicago Public School students.  It is the first Chicago-based program focused on college graduation.  Over time, as we gained a better understanding of the variety of challenges facing underserved youth, the program expanded to provide the wrap-around support students need in order to overcome the landmines that explode on their journey through college.

Click here to DONATE.

AIM High Students and their Village Encourage You to Sustain the AIM High Program

Click here to hear from AIM High students about why this program is valuable to them.

Click here to read why volunteers invest their time to support AIM High students. 

Click here for a message from Board Chair, Darrin Greene.

Click here to see a teacher’s confidence in his AIM High students.