■ Pickleball comes to Austin PAGE 6
FREE Vol. 37 No. 39
September 27, 2023 ■ Also serving Garfield Park ■ austinweeklynews.com
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Mentors up for f Brother h Mike award, page 4
Asylumseeking students begin enrolling in local schools Newly arrived students join Austin, Oak Park and Forest Park schools By FRANCIA GARCIA HERNANDEZ Staff Reporter
The start of the new school year has opened up a new opportunity for dozens of kids who arrived to Chicago in search of a better life. Asylum-seeking children, mostly from Venezuela, who sheltered or currently shelter at Chicago Police Department police stations, have enrolled into nearby public schools. Vanessa is a 5-year-old asylum-seeker attends Oscar DePriest elementary school in Austin. The school is not far from the 15th Chicago Police District station where she shelters with her family. Growing Community Media, owners of this publication, is withholding the real names of asylum-seekers interviewed to protect their identities. “I study, I draw and I play,” Vanessa said in Spanish. She likes her teacher, but she doesn’t know her name, she said. When asked if her See MIGRANTS on page 9
IGOR STUDENKOV
Legit Pathways Academy fellows. Left to right: Ashia Hanes, Ty’Nya Larry, Emily Mendoza, Keosha Miller, Armani Colston, Lynnitaane Riley, Gabrielle Marion.
Legit Pathways program teaches youth how to profit from cannabis legalization Austin native S.L. Owens hopes to expand opportunities for Black youth By IGOR STUDENKOV
To understand the origin of Legit Pathways Academy, a professional development program for youth wishing to get into the cannabis industry, one must first understand the origins of its co-founder, attorney and Austin native S.L. Owens. Raised by a single mother, she came of age in the 1990s,
Staff Reporter
WS ! NEF H S A L
See PATHWAYS on page 3
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