Stefani Cox

            Stefani Cox is one of many heroes in the community. I was able to interview her

and I was able to get to know her quite a bit.

She has a calm, caring personality. She is

fun to be around and she likes to meet new people.

She graduated from Stanford in June.

Stefani is a really great person who cares about her

community and is hardworking and is

doing everything she can to make the community a

better place. I admire her for what

she is doing since she is one of those many people who really cares and wants to help out

in the community.

            Stefani currently works at the Logan Square Neighborhood Association or LSNA

for short. Stefani is actually new to Chicago and our community. She said that, “I just got

here a month ago because I am doing this kind of internship.” Stefani said that she is

doing two internships and her first one is at the LSNA. She works at the LSNA with

another woman who is her supervisor on some healthier food initiatives. For example,

 the field houses in the park district are going to put in vending machines with more 

healthier food options, which would go into effect in about a month, and Stefani will

be their helping evaluate to see how that works, to see if its making money, and see if

people are liking it. The second thing she is doing is that she is working with the vendors

of the cosineros in Humbolt Park to see what kind of ideas they have since they are

interested to see if they can offer some healthier food options in addition to what they

have. Stefani said that she might also work across some of the community gardens

across Chicago but that part has not really started for her yet.

            Stefani like to write during her free time. She also likes to read short stories, and

she said she is also into journaling or journalism. Stefani like photography and she likes

to jog sometimes too. We asked Stefani if she has ever been interested in studying

journalism. She said, “I haven’t really thought about it as much. I think the thing about

journalism for me is just that it’s a little too much pressure I think in terms of deadline

and I don’t know that I would find it as satisfying to not be working with the issue that

you're reporting on because I really want to do some work on it. But I can see maybe after

working with communities for a while like going into if not journalism then something

else worth more.”

            Stefani defines community as a sense of belonging, a location, and the people.

She said that “It’s the resources in your location, it’s what you think of the area you know, and the people

you know around you and who you feel supports you and who you feel

you can contribute to.” I asked her what were the best parts of our community and she

Said that, “I am still new to the community but what I have really enjoyed so far is just

seen all the diversity around Chicago.” She also appreciates  the diversity across the

communities. The type of change Stefani would like to see in the world would be

everyone having access to all the healthcare that they need and for everyone to have the

same level of education as everyone else. The type of change Stefani would like to see in

the community is for people to get together and get to know each other more better.
    
                    Written by Erick Calderon.