On April 13th, Dr. Elizabeth Skinner and Dr. Apryl Riley presented at the American Education Research Association (AERA) 2023 annual meeting hosted in Chicago. Their paper “’There are Never Just Negatives…’: Community Immersion for Homegrown Teachers,” grew out of their ongoing research of summer programming for Teach Chicago Tomorrow (TCT) students. This research shows how Chicago-based students can participate in a community-integrated, culturally responsive teacher preparation curriculum which supports them to be better teachers and come back and teach in their home school district, Chicago Public Schools (CPS).