Teaching the Joy of Giving

January 22, 2013

By Mark Donahue
NLU Alumni Magazine

‌ Ziomara Perez (B.A. in Early Childhood Education and Human Development, '97), a preschool teacher at Nettelhorst School in Chicago, has enjoyed some great accolades in recent years for her work in early childhood education. She was a Golden Apple Award winner in 2006 and garnered a Kohl McCormick Early Childhood Teaching Award in 2011.

Ziomara, 37, is also a co-founder of SwaziKids International, which stemmed from a 2007 trip she and a colleague took to southern Africa, where they witnessed the ragged state of schools. She returned with the idea of engaging her young students to help make a difference.

The preschoolers in Ziomara's class collected spare change and with that money began a tradition of buying school supplies and toys to put in goody bags for children in Swaziland. Though she was at first worried her students might be jealous of the things they were sending overseas, Ziomara quickly discovered these young children were excited by the chance to help someone else.

SwaziKids International was started as a non-profit in 2009 and in addition to providing supplies, now raises money to send kids in Swaziland to school. In 2013, Ziomara and her colleague will hand-deliver the students' gifts to Swaziland, as they do every summer. The effort has taken on deep meaning for this Chicago teacher.

"I think I've had wonderful moments in my classroom these past 14 years, but this probably is going to be what I remember when I'm 80 years old somewhere," she said."This is just going to be what stands out for me."

Read more from the Winter 2013 NLU Alumni Magazine.

Locations

  • CHICAGO DOWNTOWN CAMPUS

    NLU’s Chicago campus on South Michigan Avenue occupies five floors of the historic Peoples Gas Building. This landmark building, across the street from the Art Institute of Chicago and Grant Park, is easily accessible by train, bus and car and is surrounded by restaurants, parking lots/garages and shops.

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    Conveniently located in a fast-growing business district off I-90 and Route 31, NLU Elgin features 10 classrooms with high-tech media equipment; a computer lab with high-speed Internet access; two conference rooms; and comfortable student lounges. Parking is free at this recently remodeled and upgraded teaching site, which now includes wireless Internet access.

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  • NORTH SHORE

    Opened in the summer of 2006, NLU North Shore at Skokie is a state-of-the-art modern campus located just off the Edens Expressway near the Old Orchard Shopping Center. The campus includes 44 wireless classrooms equipped with high-tech media equipment; four computer labs with high-speed Internet access, including a walk-in lab in the library; six conference rooms; a public café for beverages and snacks; a student welcome center; a library for research and study; and multiple, comfortable student lounge areas.

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    Located just minutes from the East-West Tollway (I-88), NLU Lisle features 42 wireless classrooms equipped with high-tech media equipment; four computer labs with high-speed Internet access, including a separate walk-in lab in the library; a café for beverages and snacks; a student welcome center; a library for research and study; conference rooms; and six comfortable student lounge areas with wireless access.

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    Located in one of Chicago's major northwest suburbs, the newly renovated NLU Wheeling includes 20 classrooms with high-tech media equipment, four conference rooms, four computer labs with high-speed Internet access, large student lounge areas with wireless capabilities and interactive video capabilities, and an extensive research library. The site also houses the university library research collection.

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