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.