NY Water Taxi!

Drive down Van Brunt Street in Red Hook for long enough and you either end up in the parking lot of Fairway food market or on the NY Water Taxi pier. The civil war era waterfront building that houses the Water Taxi's offices is situated perfectly, overlooking the entire New York Harbor, crowned by the statue of liberty and the lower Manhattan skyline. An inspiring place to visit and certainly to work.

Down on the piers, I found Jimmy, Kereem, Wilfredo and Ali working happily amidst five boats tied up in the slips, awaiting afternoon ferry runs. All four of these guys, even Ali who has at times been inconsistent in the internship/economics program, are working hard and seem to be appreciated by all. When the guys are not needed as deckhands, they are all scurrying (slight exaggeration) around the docks tying up lines and doing general maintenance and engine maintenance. Mr. Sanchez is the natural leader of this crew and the only Harbor School student who has been offered a full time engineering position with the company. In the words of Jimmy's supervisor Ted, he's a go-getter, always asking for work, and it shows. From talking to Jimmy recently, it seems he has assimilated the complete history of Water Taxi, the entire extent of its operations, and a solid vision for the future of the company. In other words, Tom Fox the second.

Kereem, Wildredo, and Ali are coming up strong in their own right. Both Ted and Rob have told me specifically that the guys work great together and everyone appreciates having them around the docks. These four along with several other Harbor School students will be working full time all summer as deckhands, ticket sellers, or in Jimmy's case, full time engineers. The Water Taxi - Harbor School job training partnership is sure to grow enormously with the new ferry service out to Governor's Island and the continued input of dedicated student interns. Thanks to Murray, Tom Fox, the Water Taxi staff, and all four of the first Harbor/Water Taxi interns for laying a foundation that will hopefully last for decades.

Jose Melendez and Christina Bermudez, Environmental Defense

As many people know, Environmental Defense is the nation's largest environmental protection nonprofit. The New York City office is the brain center of the organization and it occupies four green-designed floors of an office building on Madison Ave near Union Square. Environmental Defense hosts many high school interns in their various departments, not only those from NYHS but from other city high schools. HR Manager Maxine Adams has provided us many placements for our students and has been extremely patient with the occasional instances of miscommunication on the part of the first semester NYHS interns. Currently, Jose and Christina are restoring the reputation of the NYHS internship program by setting excellent examples of competency, consistency, and clear communication.

Jose is splitting his time between the facilities department and the Climate and Air program. This means that he has a diverse array of work options. On a typical day, he first meets with facilities manager Tim to complete any number of jobs relating to the physical plant. This might include, unloading office materials, managing the floor's HVAC systems, or setting up video conferencing for ED offices around the country. After the hands-on jobs are complete, Jose usually heads over to meet with his mentor Diahn in the Climate and Air department. When I met her on Tuesday, Diahn was quick to mention to me that Jose is one of the most reliable and competent interns she has ever had, high school and college included. She described Jose's mature (for his years) professional demeanor and his ability to handle himself confidently in the midst of new and challenging situations. Diahn was especially impressed with his ability to make phone calls and gather data from other professionals in the field. In addition, Jose occasionally works on the departments website and databases. In general, Diahn and Tim are both happy to have him and Jose enjoys the balanced work load.

Christina has been interning in ED's IT Department under her mentor Ian. She seems happy to be there and her mentor appreciates the work she is contributing. Her main project in the coming month will consist of imaging and installing system software on over 30 new desktop computers. She is definitely gaining some valuable transferable skills in the technology arena; however, Christina is also being encouraged to branch out to other departments in the organization, in which she'll get more direct exposure to the fields of environmental advocacy.

Community Board #4 Bushwick-- March 21, 2007

This was my first time attending a community Board meeting in New York City and it was a very positive introduction . The Bushwick Community Board meets in the Hope Gardens Multi-Service Center, a community housing meeting space at 195 Linden St. and the corner of Wilson. When I walked in at 5:50, kids were playing, food was being served, and the room was filling up with a wide range of Bushwick community members. I was lucky to run into two students from make the Road By Walking who were attending the meeting as part of a program run by the Municipal Arts Society of New York, in which they are trained to provide multimedia projection images such as maps and charts to accompany each presentation during the meeting. I sat down with this group, including their teacher Micaela Birmingham, and soon enough my student Jose Melendez showed up. This made for a nice Bushwick Campus community contingent. With round tables, instead of rows, and food for everyone, the entire meeting had a comfortable, even family style feel.

The three main items of business on the agenda were each unique and interesting in and of themselves. First, a representative from the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Council came to present designs for a new mixed income housing project, funded by Assemblyman Vito Lopez's nonprofit development group. The project will have over 50% of its units available for people making 30%, 40%, and 60% of Bushwick's median income. These units will be largely funded through the state's section 8 voucher program. This project will also be LEED certified and designed for increased energy efficiency, occupant comfort, and minimal impact. Some community concerns raised were: parking, preference for Bushwick residents, garden space, and community meeting space, but in the end everyone voted unanimously to approve.

The second item on the agenda was a presentation from the parent coordinator and a student from Bushwick School for Social Justice. The BSSJ parent committee's primary concern is a lack of night time street lighting to ensure the safety of night school students. Hence, the parents have proposed for the city to erect additional street lamps around the front of the school and the parent coordinator has made the necessary requests with the city DoT. The DoT is conducting its study and in the meantime, the school is seeking approval from the community board. The only concern raised was that the lights should be set up so as not to shine into neighbors' houses.

The final official item on the agenda was a presentation form the Brooklyn Public Library staff on electronic media services available to all members. A very enthusiastic coordinator from the library explained the vast array of free media and internet services to a largely receptive audience.

The remaining time of this meeting included a review of new and old minutes, roll call, and announcements. The announcements were diverse and very informative for all those who have a stake in the community. Being at the meeting provided me a perspective largely unseen in the Bushwick Community, namely that we have outstanding leaders and many local residents who care deeply and are deeply involved in local development and issues of community well-being. Overall, I left feeling very encouraged and excited about building the bridges between the NYHS civics class and the community board.

Jennifer Lamberty, GRYC After-School Program at IS 77

Jennifer has taken amazing initiative to set up this internship entirely of her own accord. She made the contact through her older sister, who works for the Greater Ridgewood Youth Council. The GRYC is a local nonprofit that provides outstanding arts and recreation programs for schools throughout the community.

Jen works for the GRYC After-School Program at IS 77. Her mentor (shown at right) is Diana Vazquez. Together with another high school student, also named Jennifer, these three young women provide an energetic and highly engaging dance class for girls and boys in grades six through eight. I happened to visit on Wednesday afternoon during the first day of class for the boys. To me, it seemed the boys were very excited about learning the moves and were progressing quickly. Overall, they we're having lots of fun, with no "behavior" issues and everyone treating each other respectfully.

The Girls have their routine down and are now working towards giving a series of performances for the other Beacon schools in the area. According to the site supervisor, with whom I met briefly, Jen is a valued member of the staff team and will definitely be getting a stipended position for the summer. Her mentor Diana had only good things to say about Jen's amazingly positive attitude and work ethic. Overall it seems they make a great team and Jen is definitely quite happy about the position.

Braulio DeJesus, Lead Dog Marketing

Over the last six months, Braulio has carved out a reliable and self-reliant niche for himself within a successful guerrilla marketing and event planning firm called Lead Dog Marketing.

When I walked in to the second floor office in Chelsea this afternoon, Braulio was in the midst of a client phone call, in which he sounded extremely professional and focused. This is reflective of his current role in the firm, competently carrying out an array of administrative and clerical tasks for his mentors Maria-Lisa Massop and Jason Polan. He is man who sounds like he knows what he's doing on the job and his actions seem to say the same. He is well liked and appreciated by his coworkers.

In the first few months of this internship, the main challenge for Braulio was to avoid being too reserved and to learn to extend himself in an energetic, open, and professional manner to his coworkers. From conversations I had with his original mentor Joelle who has since left the firm, it was clear that everyone saw his potential, but simply wanted him to step up and articulate himself more clearly and directly. The other related issue that arose in mid January around Regents time was a lack of clear communication regarding his schedule and missed work days. Braulio has assured me that this fundamental issue is completely resolved.

Braulio is excited about working both Tuesdays and Thursdays at Lead Dog and possibly continuing into the summer. His coworkers definitely value his contributions and look forward to helping him continue to thrive in their workplace.

National Climate Crisis Day of Action, Washington DC, March 20th 2007

Climate Crisis National Day of Action

On March 20th, 13 members of the NYHS civics class headed down to Washington DC to participate in day of action around climate change and environmental policy. The experience was a combination educational rally and lobbying effort. We drove down on a bus with 25 other Brooklyn residents and met up with 2000 more folks on the west lawn of the Capitol building. At the two-hour rally, we heard from various speakers, including both legislators and community activists. Representative Henry Waxman outlined his Safe Climate Act which requires an 80% reduction in global warming pollutants below 1990 levels by 2050. This legislation revolves around "cap and trade", a system which allows polluters to buy and sell pollution rights under strict limits set by federal regulators. We also heard about the need to pass legislation to ensure that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is permanently protected from all development, including drilling for oil and natural gas.

After the rally we headed over to the Russell Senate office building to drop our policy agenda with Senator Clinton and Senator Schumer’s Environmental Legislative Assistant, both of whom were very receptive to our concerns. Then from 3:00 to 4:00, we met with Representative Nydia Velazquez of New York’s 12th district for a discussion of environmental policy and the concerns of Bushwick youth. Representative Velazquez and her Legislative Director addressed the students concerns over lack of congressional on global warming. She assured us that she would be cosigning on a cap and trade bill and would also work to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We discussed issues of social and economic justice relevant to our local Bushwick community, as well as the need to hold corporate polluters of New York City’s waterways accountable. The lobbying session concluded with a discussion of students’ college acceptances and the challenge of college financing. Please see below for a copy of the students’ letter thanking the representative and summarizing the day’s lobbying effort.

Participating Students:
Jennifer Lamberty
Alex Carrasco
Maria Elizabeth Hernandez
Jose Melendez
Denisse Duran
Alfonso Ventura
Yoscar Ogando
Lariza Gomez
Daniel Lopez Timothy Romero Angelica Velez Ali Akbar
Victor Torres



March 21, 2007

Dear Representative Velazquez,

On behalf of the entire New York Harbor School, we would like to thank you for your enthusiasm and willingness to meet with members of our senior civics class yesterday during our day of legislative action on climate change and environmental policy. You showed us an extraordinary level of generosity and attention to our issues and we thank you for it.

All of us felt that our meeting was extremely productive. It’s quite clear that your legislative agenda on climate change and environmental policy is strongly aligned with our community’s needs and goals. As a group of young people from inner city New York, we believe strongly that corporations and other polluting entities should be pursued and held fully accountable for the full costs of environmental cleanup, as well as for the resulting long-term health and quality of life problems.

On the federal level, we ask you to support any and all legislation that seeks proactive solutions to our country’s environmental crisis. For us this includes Waxman’s reintroduction of the Safe Climate Act, which will establish a necessary 80% reduction in global warming pollution below 1990 levels. We also support the Markey-Ramstad Udall-Eisenhower Artic Wilderness Act (HR 39) to permanently protect one of America’s greatest wilderness areas.

As students in the midst of a changing educational system, we strongly believe that our public schools should be required to teach sustainability and incorporate sustainable design practices and renewable energy initiatives into the academic curriculum and the physical plant of the building in which they reside. We ask you to take the lead on this effort to require schools to teach and practice sound environmental policy. We feel this issue should have equal if not greater standing in the framework of No Child Left Behind.

In the local Bushwick Community, we admire your strong support of grassroots social and economic justice movements. Hearing about your personal convictions and support of these initiatives yesterday inspired and reassured us that we have an outstanding ally in our nation’s capitol. As we mentioned yesterday, the Harbor School will be moving to Governor’s Island but by no means plans to lose its grounding in the Bushwick and surrounding Brooklyn Communities. We pledge to ensure that our new recruitment policy gives preference to students from these communities. During our remaining time in Brooklyn, we aim to strengthen our local environmental and economic initiatives. This includes, amongst many other community based programs at NYHS, our senior internship program, in which students work 8 hours per week in professional organizations throughout the city, a financial literacy education partnership with the Brooklyn Community Federal Credit Union, and the “Renewable Fuels in the Schools” Biodiesel Program.

We look forward to the opportunity to discuss the further progress of our initiatives and your legislative efforts. The civics class aims to take another full-day lobbying trip to Washington before the year’s end, at which time we hope to meet again with you or your Legislative Director. Thanks again for taking the time to meet with us yesterday and making our trip to Washington so valuable.

NYHS Marine Technology Class, Henry Florian, Juana Garcia, Angel Torres

I've stopped by the Marine Tech class occasionally throughout the year to check up on the interns, but because of jury duty back in January, I had yet to make the formal observation visit until last Tuesday. Brendan and Tizoc's reports on their interns' performance are nothing less than stellar, so I was in no hurry. On Tuesday, it just so happened that Tizoc was not in school and so when I came in, the interns were essentially teaching his half of the class. Brendan was on the shop side of the room, giving a demonstration on framing and gluing. On the classroom side, Angel and Henry were leading a discussion on weather emergencies. Their students were eagerly completing a worksheet that required them to study a small booklet on weather. Angel and Henry were quite effectively helping to clarify students' questions and keep them focused on their task at hand. Juana on the other hand was seated at Tizoc's desk, diligently grading the quizzes given in the first half of the class. Together they comprised a functional team of student teachers accomplishing a fairly complex lesson.

According to T and Brendan, the interns have been invaluable and grown enormously in their teaching capacities throughout the year. I've confirmed this whenever I've popped my head in, but most certainly no doubt remains in my mind after Tuesday's visit. With that said, I must also mention that Henry and Angel both need some major encouraging when it comes to completion of their own written assignments. They may be great teachers and hard workers, but without handing in those sometimes tedious homework assignments of their own, it'd be hard to say they're completely successful. In my civics class this means handing in the weekly article reviews and completing the current assignment, which is to do a write up of results of a civic involvement survey that has been distributed around school. All in all, I'm very impressed by the quality of their internship, but I question how much comittment they have to their day to day academics, which is of course equally important to real world experience.

NYHS Internship Program Shines for Professional Audience

On Thursday January 25th, New York Harbor School held its first annual Senior Internship Portfolio Presentations. These presentations were an opportunity for successful senior interns to share their knowledge and insights with a professional audience, including mentors and representatives from eight internship organizations, NYHS staff, and fellow students. According to most everyone, the presentations were generally outstanding and the question and answer period that followed each was informative and thought provoking.

Most interns chose to guide their 5-7 minute speech with a PowerPoint slide show, highlighting the main points of the experience, including photos and visual documentation of the organization’s work. Some notably well developed PowerPoint Presentations were given by Ricardo Rodriguez, Yoscar Ogando, and Jenny Rodriguez. Other students, such as Elias Alvarez, chose to provide a hands-on demonstration, which in his case included modeling a hand sewn, extremely fashionable shirt that he had made recently.

After each intern’s presentation, the floor was opened to questions from adults and fellow students. Interns fielded complex questions thoughtfully and exhibited a sense of professionalism rarely seen amongst high school students. The dialogue was inspiring. For example, Sandro Carrasco, an intern at Robert AM Stern Architects, prompted the audience to think critically about the evolving field of green architecture and environmental design. Alex fielded questions confidently and enthusiastically. According to NYHS marine tech teacher and mentor Brendan Malone, “I’ve never been more proud of our students… sounding so professional and exhibiting such amazing growth in these four short years.”

The Internship Program has provided Harbor School students with an opportunity to experience the world of work, twice a week leaving school independently to work in a professional setting. The School has recruited a wide range of internship sites, including hospitals, architecture firms, law firms, educational nonprofits, credit unions, shipyards, and numerous other maritime and non-maritime organizations. The Program is open to academically successful seniors through a competitive application process. Please encourage students in the 9th, 10th, and 11th grade to begin discussing their interests for next year’s internships – sooner the better!

NY Times Articles to Review

Please click on these links to find two possible articles for your review. A one page response to one of the two articles is due on Monday. Have an excellent weekend.

Bagdad Article

Presidential Powers Article

Food Article