Fun and Connection Make the Grade at Learning in Action Summer Program: Bunmi’s Story By Mary Wagner
Twenty year-old Bunmi Igiehon always thought of himself as “a quiet guy” when facing new people or situations. But four years as a Madonna Mission Learning in Action (LIA) Program summer counselor have helped him unearth some superpowers.“This was my first job,” said the Nigerian-born college junior. “When I first came to the camp, I was a little nervous. But over time I saw that when I would start doing an activity, the kids would watch what I’m doing and try to copy me. I learned to set an example for the kids. I can also learn in life to set a good example for other people.”
Leading others by example is one key skill Bunmi has tackled and continues to develop. He learned this through his experience as a camp counselor, and also modeled on what he saw as a student in Madonna Mission’s After School Program (ASP). Bunmi arrived in Chicago at the age of two, along with his mother and an extended family of aunts, uncles and cousins. As with other refugees fleeing war-torn or impoverished countries, they came in search of better opportunities in the U.S. In sixth grade Bunmi came home from school one day to find his mother had signed him up for the Madonna Mission ASP. For the first time, homework wasn’t a solo activity – instead, he was surrounded by other students and supported by Madonna Mission’s many volunteer tutors. “Learning and doing homework – Madonna Mission made it fun,” he said. After graduating from elementary school, he enrolled in Chicago’s Rickover Naval Academy, a military-style Chicago public high school focused on college prep. With the onset of the COVID pandemic, he transferred to and later graduated from Mooseheart Child City and School, a suburban residential school sponsored by the Moose fraternal organization. Madonna Mission offered him a job as an LIA Program summer camp counselor when he was 16. He thought hard about the challenge of taking on kids in a classroom – a new type of role for him -- and decided to see it as an opportunity. Bunmi remembered a group of high school students from Loyola Academy in suburban Wilmette who helped him out at ASP when he attended the program. They were “super interactive,” he said, good at turning homework assignments into games, and good at putting a smile on a struggling child’s face while guiding the way through math or reading problems. So, Bunmi learned to be more open and interactive with the young campers. Getting some of them to do stuff took a while. “You had to build a little bit of a relationship with them first,” he said. But it taught him about the power of connecting with others as a way to motivate them. Next summer, Bunmi hopes for an internship to further his studies in marketing at Northern Illinois University. With an interest in urban street style, he dreams of his own clothing brand some day and wants to understand how to run a business. He’ll have his time at Madonna Mission to help him get there. “It was a good experience to know that you have people who want to engage with and want to see you grow,” he said. “Madonna Mission helped me be a better person.”
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