GVFaces: Noel Green, '14

June 13, 2023 (Volume 46, Number 18)
Article by Brian Vernellis

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Not many students in the country can get the opportunity that Noel Green, ’14, received this past year at the University of Chicago.

Green graduated from the University of Chicago with a master’s degree in clinical social work on June 2. He was one of 30 college students — 12 from Columbia University and 18 from University of Chicago — to participate in the 2023 cohort of the Obama Foundation Scholars program. 

“The experience is actually learning from people who are very invested in community driven models of social change and then having critiques provided by a mentor coach,” Green said. “Whatever you're doing, they're very intentional about giving us executive coaching and really helping us develop whatever goal that we come in with into whatever we want it to be.

“They really put a lot of energy into helping us see leadership from many different lenses.” 

Green’s own social work on the city’s South Side encapsulates the same neighborhoods where the former president got his start in community organizing. 

Since 2016, Green has developed and implemented health, social and economic resources for the LGBTQIA community on the underserved South Side. With his experience in the Obama Foundation Scholars, Green said he’s planning on launching a social enterprise to address financial inequity for South Side residents and build wealth through the community.

“It will look at creating cooperative investment strategies for folks, so that they can have ways to improve their financial health, develop wealth and reinvest into their communities and receive an impact and a financial return on investment from their own neighborhood,” Green said. 

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