KYC History | UChicago Graham

Mary Ward Wolkonsky, founder of Know Your Chicago

Mary Ward Wolkonsky, Founder

Conceived by Chicagoan Mary Ward Wolkonsky, Know Your Chicago was originally envisioned as an annual training course for women in positions of leadership in the city. The lectures and tours were meant to provide insight into the forces and institutions that shape Chicago and thus enhance the scope and depth of the women’s work, which was primarily volunteer work at that time. The first tour season of 1949 was organized by Mrs. Wolkonsky and representatives from the Women’s College Board, an organization which vigorously promoted higher education for women at the time. Shortly thereafter, representatives from a number of civic organizations such as the League of Women Voters were added to the planning board.

Currently, the season of lectures and tours are planned and executed by a board of fifty women, distinguished by their service in civic, cultural, and charitable endeavors. Sponsored by the University of Chicago Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies, the Know Your Chicago program aims to promote civic awareness and participation with the hope that participants will turn this special combination of access and information into action as they become better informed citizens.

The Know Your Chicago program has introduced its participants to a remarkably broad array of topics and behind-the-scenes tours pertinent to their city. View descriptions of past seasons from 1949 to 2007.

Past Tour Resources and Brochures

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2016-brochure-cover

2016:

Tour 1: Navy Pier at 100: Reimagining the People's Pier

Tour 2: East Meets West in Medicine: Collision or Coalition

Doctors of Chiropractic Information Sheet

Tour Presenters

Dr. James Young
Rehab Associates of Chicago
Dr. Leslie Mendoza-Temple
Northshore Integrative Center
Mingle Juice Bar
Kris Tohtz, Chiropractor
Serenity Family Wellness
Dr. Tohtz suggestions for finding a Chiropractic physician
American Chiropractic Association
Illinois Chiropractic Society
Steve Rogne
Zen Shiatsu in Evanston
Pacific College of Oriental Medicine (PCOM)
State of Illinois licensed Medical Marijuana dispensary

Tour 3: Heroin HIGHway: Road to Recovery

Tour 4: Architects of Global Knowledge

Info coming soon.

Tour 5: 21st Century Policing

Info coming soon.

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2015 Tours

2015 Symposium Program

Tour 1: Big Ideas on the Prairie: Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park

Tour 2: Nothing Like A Dame...Women Who Changed Chicago

Tour 3: International Baccalaureate: Increase Your IB IQ!

Tour 4: Hip Hop in Chicago: What It Is & Why It Matters

Panel Speakers:

Enoch and Kesha Muhammad of Hip Hop Detoxx
Brother Jitu Brown
Amina Norman Hawkins, adjunct professor at Columbia College
Donnie Smith, Exec. Director of Donda's House

Tour 5: Made in Chicago: A Manufacturing Renaissance

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2014 Tours

2014 Symposium Program

Tour One: Transitioning: Parks and More Than Recreation

Tour Two: Sweet Home Chicago: Problems and Promises of Public Housing

Tour Three: Reel Chicago

Tour Four: Transitioning: Challenging Our Understanding of Gender

Chicago House and Social Service Agency
Rebecca Kling website
Transformative Justice Law Project
National Center for Transgender Equality
Janet Mock’s website
World Professional Association for Transgender Health
Families, Schools and Non-Gender Conforming Kids (Youtube video)
Ryland's Story (Youtube video)
Trans 101 (Powerpoint presentation)

Tour Five: Haiti: History, Culture, and Vodou/Voodoo

The Field Museum’s exhibition, Vodou: Sacred Powers of Haiti Flyer
Haitian Congress. This organization was founded by Symposium speaker Judge Lionel Jean-Baptiste, who will be speaking at the Symposium on September 10.
Civic Engagement and the Haitian Congress
"Haiti: History and Hope" presentation by Judge Lionel Jean-Baptiste

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2013 Tours

2013 Symposium Program

Bringing Drug Discovery to Life

If you would like to help support research in women’s health issues by supplying data, not money, consider being part of a database at the Illinois Women’s Health Registry. You could even choose to be part of a clinical study. Your data could help support the research of Dr. Teresa Woodruff. www.whr.northwestern.edu

Chemistry of Life Processes Institute

Cracking the Case: Solving Art Crimes & Mysteries in Chicago

From the Great Wall to the Great Lakes

The Architects Tell Their Story: Logan to Roosevelt to Gratz

The Transformation of Hyde Park

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2012 Tours

2012 Symposium Program

Whoosh, Whirl, Splash, Chirp & You: MSI Rediscovered

Museum of Science and Industry

The Digital World: A New Literacy

The Senior Class

What’s on YOUR Plate?

Body and Soul: Human Trafficking in Chicago

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2011 Tours

2011 Symposium Program

Poetry Chicago: Salons to Slams

It’s not just the Food: Chicago’s Urban Agriculture

Sleeping Chic in Chicago

Innovating Chicago: The Future Begins Here

Illinois Institute of Technology Research Institute
IIT Technology Business Center

Libraries: New Spaces, Faces, Hi-Tech Upgrades

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2010 Tours

2010 Symposium Program

Carpe Die’Em: Battling Invasive Species

Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal

From the Holocaust to Healing: Conquering Intolerance

Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center

Visionary Lakefront Communities

Chicago’s Vibrant Contemporary Art Scene

The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago
Hyde Park Art Center
Smart Museum of Art
West Loop Gallery spaces

Public Education: Chicago Style

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2009 Tours

2009 Symposium Program

Lords of Vice: Inside Chicago’s Gangs

Learn from Chicago Police
Visit a hospital in one of Chicago’s toughest neighborhoods

Spreading the News: From Print to Internet

The Real Pandemic: Diabetes

Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery at the University of Chicago
Illinois Institute of Technology
Visit a Charter School

Gotta Have Art

ABC’s of Early Childhood Development

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2008 Tours

2008 Symposium Program

Philanthropic Chicago: Dynamic Agent for Change

Voting Chicago Style

Board of Elections headquarters

21st Century Planning

CSI: Chicago

Everything Old Is New Again

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2007 Tours

2007 Symposium Program

Mapping the Future

Urban Academic Medicine-Visions & Visionaries

Muslims in Chicago: Perceptions & Misperceptions

MCC Full-Time School

A Greener Chicago Through Sustainable Design

Academia in the South Loop: A New Look

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2006 Tours

2006 Symposium Program

Chicago Museums: Relevant and Reinvented

Children at Risk: Safe Havens

Mystical Magical India

Rejuvenating the Brain

Argonne: Science for Today and Tomorrow

Argonne National Laboratory

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2005 Tours

2005 Symposium Program

Pharmaceutical Challenges

How Does Your Garden Grow

Chicago botanic garden

Arts: An Engine for Neighborhood Change

Recipes for Success

Girls in Prison; Problems and Possibilities

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2004 Tours

2004 Symposium Program

On the Right Track: Intermodal Freight

Fields of Dreams

Improv-Wise

Art-Full Education

A New Look On Campus

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2003 Tours

2003 Symposium Program

Home is Where the Art Is

A Walk in the Park

Water Water Everywhere But…

To Market To Market

It’s a Dog’s Life

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2002 Tours

2002 Symposium Program

Current Monumental Restorations

Clothes Encounters, Chicago Style

Digital Chicago

Lake Calumet: Where Industry Meets Nature

What Are the Odds?

Visit to a Loop off-track betting parlor
Riverboat Casino

Emergency!! Ready or Not?

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2001 Tours

2001 Symposium Program

A Haunting We Shall Go

Painting the Town Green

Landmarking…To be or not to be

Immigrants: Who comes, Who stays?

Second to none: Chicago’s Off-Loop theaters

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2000 Tours

2000 Symposium Program

Treasures off the Beaten path

Lane technical high school,
Lucy L. Flower Career Academy (Closed in 2003)
Intuit: the Center for Intuitive and Outside Art
Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Illinois building

Reinventing Downtown

Go to the Head of the Class

Taps and Reveille

The Glen

Gown and Town

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1999 Tours

1999 Symposium Program

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1998 Tours

1998 Symposium Program

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1997 Tours

1997 Symposium Program

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1996 Tours

1996 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1995 Tours

1995 Symposium Program

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1994 Tours

1994 Symposium Program

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1993 Tours

1993 Symposium Program

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1992 Tours

1992 Symposium Program

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1991 Tours

1991 Symposium Program

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1990 Tours

1990 Symposium Program

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1989 Tours

1989 Symposium Program

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1988 Tours

1988 Symposium Program

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1987 Tours

1987 Symposium Program

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1986 Tours

1986 Symposium Program

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1985 Tours

1985 Symposium Program

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1984 Tours

1984 Symposium Program

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1983 Tours

1983 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1982 Tours

1982 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1981 Tours

1981 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1980 Tours

1980 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1979 Tours

1979 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1978 Tours

1978 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1977 Tours

1977 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1976 Tours

1976 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1975 Tours

1975 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1974 Tours

1974 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1973 Tours

1973 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1972 Tours

1972 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1971 Tours

1971 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1970 Tours

1970 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1969 Tours

1969 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1968 Tours

1968 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1967 Tours

1967 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1966 Tours

1966 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1965 Tours

1965 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1964 Tours

1964 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1963 Tours

1963 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1962 Tours

1962 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1961 Tours

1961 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1960 Tours

1960 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1959 Tours

1959 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1958 Tours

1958 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1957 Tours

1957 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1956 Tours

1956 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1955 Tours

1955 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1954 Tours

1954 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1953 Tours

1953 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1952 Tours

1952 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1951 Tours

1951 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1950 Tours

1950 Brochure and Symposium Program

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1949 Tours

1949 Brochure and Symposium Program

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