Social Justice Starts with Community: FORA and Loyola CELTS

BY Anoushka Nair

Intersecting community partnership and experiential learning, the collaboration between Loyola University Chicago's Center for Engaged Learning, Teaching, and Scholarship (LUC CELTS) and FORA provides students with a powerful opportunity to engage with the social justice issues shaping our world. 

LUC CELTS' Social Justice Internship offers Loyola students the opportunity to engage with Chicago-area nonprofits with stipend support. This year-long internship program empowers students to not only experience firsthand the intricacies of nonprofit work but also to understand the broader context of social justice within the refugee community.

Watch this interview with Baynes and Grajewski led by FORA Communication Intern, Anoushka Nair.

This year, FORA is hosting two Loyola CELTS Social Justice interns, Amara Grajewski and Genevieve Baynes. 

Grajewski, Loyola senior studying Global Studies and Religious Studies, splits her time working with FORA’s students within the High Impact Tutoring program and assisting FORA Educational and Family School Partnership staff.

First joining FORA in Fall 2023 as a Work Study tutor, Grajewski rejoined FORA as a Social Justice intern to gain insight about how FORA’s programmatic departments design structures of advocacy and learning curricula. 

During her internship, Grajewski has spearheaded FORA’s new partnership with Girl Scouts, collaborating with FORA’s Family School Partnership and Girl Scout staff to establish a troop in FORA’s neighborhood. 

In an interview, Grajewski reflected on how her efforts at FORA demonstrate the value of restorative-social action. 

“Everyone should be able to be on an equal playing field but that’s not the reality,” Grajewski said. “Social justice means giving people opportunities that they might be lacking for faults that aren’t their own.”

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Baynes, Loyola second-year student and Criminal Justice major, divides her time between tutoring FORA students and assisting FORA’s Administrative, Development and Outreach staff. 

Working mainly with FORA’s Administrative team, Baynes works with staff to evaluate and enhance the internal systems which makes programming possible each day. 

“Working at FORA has made things go from a dream to a reality," Baynes said. "It has shown me that everyone really can get involved in the fight for social justice.”

Throughout her internship, Baynes said she has been able to apply theories of social justice to everyday work in a way aligning with FORA’s mission and organizational capacity. 

“Social justice is about addressing the systems of inequality and injustice that have perpetuated through our past and present and continue to disenfranchise people.”

Genevieve Baynes 

Grajewski said working with FORA has significantly impacted her views on refugees’ experiences, particularly in the context of resettlement and nonprofit activism. 

“I did not realize the caliber of FORA’s scope,” Grajewski said. “It has been really cool to see what work at a nonprofit actually looks like.” 

As the partnership between CELTS and FORA continues evolving, the stories of participants provide a powerful reminder of how community-based learning and social justice work can transform both participants and the communities they serve.

As Grajewski and Baynes conclude the first half of their internship, they shared some words of advice to students looking to get involved with FORA: 

“All you need is passion and the rest will follow.”

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