Free Educational Topics in Chicago
It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3: Browse for a topic, Click the orange request button, Fill out the contact form.
Now the speaker will contact you in the next few days to coordinate details.
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Why the Student Loan Bubble is Now Your Problem
Joseph Orsolini, President, College Aid Planners, Inc.
If you thought the student loan bubble was only a Millennial problem, think again! The trillion dollar student loan bubble is bursting. This eye-opening program details the depth of this country’s student loan crisis, how it is spreading beyond the millennial generation, and why it is becoming your problem as well.
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Don’t Pay the College Sticker Price!
Joseph Orsolini, President, College Aid Planners, Inc.
The program will highlight the three key areas of opportunity to reduce the overall cost of a college education. The presentation will focus on strategies to maximize need-based financial aid eligibility, target the right colleges for merit-based financial aid, and exploit tax-saving opportunities.
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Restore our Democracy
Ed Spire, Co-lead, Restore our Democracy Project, NWSOFA-Indivisible
Restore our Democracy addresses the problem of unlimited political money corrupting our democracy. We explain the problem clearly, and discuss the causes and possible solutions, including steps that we can take in our own communities to begin addressing this structural problem in our country. The presentation is non-partisan and brings issues to light which are of concern across the aisle. MORE >
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Exploring Careers with a Social Impact
Matt Kinnich, CEO, Roland, Ruth & Mitchell
This presentation is for individuals, teams and/or organizations that want to explore careers with a social impact. The presentation is a combination of Matt’s social impact journey and an interactive workshop for participants. Participants will engage in the following: MORE >
• 1-2 things you hope to get out of today’s presentation
• Matt’s social impact career journey
• What are you Passionate about?
• What are your Strengths?
• Passions & Strengths – what’s the intersection?
• How do I explore options & opportunities?
• Individual/Group questions
• What actions am I willing to do next? -
Applying for Medicaid and Protecting Assets
Matthew Margolis, Partner, Margolis Weldon LLC
Learn about Medicaid eligibility in Illinois nursing homes and how to protect assets when applying. A lot of people think that if they don't protect their assets 5 years in advance, they are out of luck. This is not the case and many people are continuing to spend down their assets in nursing homes until they have nothing when they could be protecting some for their spouse, children, or grandchildren. MORE >
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Can we print fake mail ballots? (not really)
Ed Spire, Co-lead, Restore our Democracy Project, NWSOFA-Indivisible
There's lots of talk about how easy it would be to flood an election with fake mail ballots. Let's take a look at what it would take to do that...
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A Consumer’s Guide to Going Solar
Kate Shonk, Sustainable Communities Liaison , Citizens Utility Board (CUB)
Are you interested in going solar? Learn if solar is right for your home and how to get the most value out of your solar system from consumer advocate experts. In 2019, CUB staffers gave over 70 solar presentations, and we are excited to answer all your solar questions! MORE >
CUB is very excited about new solar incentives available to homeowners in Illinois. However, we know that with all the new advertising and high pressure sales pitches it can be confusing to know what is best for you. At this presentation we will go over solar basics, including:
---why now is the best time yet to go solar,
---how solar panels work with your home and the grid,
---an overview of state and federal incentives,
---why it is almost always better to purchase, rather than lease solar panels.Please note that depending on my availability, another one of our trained outreach staff may take my place as speaker at your meeting, but I will confirm when you contact me.
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Demonstrating and Teaching Mental Math Methods
Cliff Petrak, Retired Teacher, Brother Rice High School
Learn to master a multitude of little-known, super-shortcut computational methods involving addition, subtraction, fractions, squaring and multiplication. Unfortunately, our country consistently finishes among the bottom third of industrialized countries in the annual mental math competition for students. Learning these strategies and methods will leave your calculator-dependent friends in the dust!
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Increasing Political Polarization and what we can do about it
Ed Spire, Co-lead, Restore our Democracy Project, NWSOFA-Indivisible
Every decade, increasing gerrymandring has created more and more "safe seats", which have resulted in more and more extreme legislators on both sides of the aisle - creating a legilature where compromise is impossibe, and very little legislative progress ensures. This presentation shows why this happens, and what we can do about it, using the recent example of the Alaska special election, utilizing a nonpartisan primary and a ranked choice voting general election, as an example of how to promote more moderate legislators and a more productive legislature. MORE >
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What’s an Assault Weapon, and why are they so deadly?
Ed Spire, Co-lead, Restore our Democracy Project, NWSOFA-Indivisible
There's been a lot of discussion lately about tighter regulations on assault weapons like the AR-15. If we are going to regulate these weapons, we will need a legal definition describing them. And instead of a definition that depends upon specific configurations or cosmetic appearance, we propose a definition based on the factors that make this class of weapons so deadly. MORE >
This presentation focuses on the development of this class of weapons, the factors that make them so deadly, and how we can use those factors to legally define an "assault weapon" for future regulation thereof.