NYHS Internship Program

NY Water Taxi!

2007-05-11T05:57:00.000-07:00

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

2007-03-29T06:38:00.000-07:00

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

2007-03-22T20:40:00.000-07:00

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

2007-03-22T20:34:00.000-07:00

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

2007-03-22T13:46:00.000-07:00

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

2007-03-21T07:41:00.000-07:00

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. Representati ve 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

2007-03-04T15:41:00.000-08:00

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

2007-02-06T06:12:00.000-08:00

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

2007-02-02T07:54:00.000-08:00

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

Hassan Barksdale, NYCDoT Staten Island Ferry Division

2007-01-05T06:21:00.000-08:00

During our subway ride down to the Whitehall Ferry station, Hassan explained to me the story of how he came to apply to the Harbor School and how his interest in the maritime fields began and grew throughout his four years here. It was a great opportunity for me to understand just how much of an impact a career focused maritime education can have on a teenager with no prior interest in "boats." For high school students, the process of choosing a career is not quite as easy as a regents multiple choice test. It is indeed a much more complicated process and the key to deciding is plenty of first hand experience. In other words, do something and then decide! The hands-on experience that an intern like Hassan receives while working in a large maritime operation is by no means boring or abstract. It provides an engaging and exciting means to delve into maritime occupations and begin the long path toward "deciding what you want to be when you grow up." Hassan's internship with the Staten Island Ferry is a great example of this type of well-rounded exposure to the diverse aspects of the maritime industries.

The Staten Island Ferry, as most New Yorkers know to some extent, is a vast enterprise of nine passenger and automobile ferries traveling a 5.2 mile round trip 24 hours a day, carrying over 19 million passengers annually between Whitehall in lower Manhattan and St. George on the northern shore of Staten Island. As a division of the NYC DoT, the SI Ferry is one of the few remaining vestiges of large scale, publicly funded maritime activities in the City of New York. The entire operation is one of the largest single maritime employers in the city of New York. It provides an ideal internship for Harbor School students interested in the deckhand to captain career track.

As a result of the dedication and excellent mentorship from Assistant Commissioner Keith Bray and Chief Operations Officer Jim Desimone, Hassan has been involved in nearly every aspect of the Ferry's operations throughout the course of the semester. During my visit, I was able to briefly see all aspects of Hassan's internship. First we sat down in Mr. Bray's office to discuss the internship and the big picture of the Ferry operation through a management and public relations perspective. We discussed the new safety management system which has been strongly developed in the department as a result of the most recent ferry crash, which it turns out was actually the first incident of an operations related fatality aboard any of the ferry's boats during its entire 100 plus year history. Commissioner Bray also discussed his past work experience outside the maritime field, his current managerial role, and his ideas for future development of the organization. As usual, all of this was fascinating and novel for me as an outside observer.

After the meeting, we headed out to visit the Ferry operation's storeroom and maintenance facility, a full scale shop providing every type of ship repair with the exception of hull work and drydocking. Hassan spends a portion of each day helping to complete the arduous but necessary tasks of categorizing and labeling storeroom supplies, enormous quantities of every possible mechanical and operational component needed to keep 9 ferry boats running smoothly. These are actually not storerooms but warehouses and Hassan is learning their contents, akin to an office intern filing every document in a business.

After touring the St George Ferry facilities, we boarded the Barberi and headed straight up to the Pilot's house to speak with the ship's captain, assistant captain, and various crew members who stopped in. Hassan is well known on this particular vessel as he spends a large portion of each day observing and assisting in at least one round trip voyage across the Harbor. Both captains happily explained to me how they have enjoyed sharing their knowledge and perspectives with Hassan. They acknowledged it is sometimes difficult to provide thorough explanations of technical procedures while in the midst of piloting the ship, but of course Hassan has a good sense of when and how intently he should ask questions.

We finished up the day disembarking at the Whitehall Terminal and chatting briefly with some members of the port crew. Hassan also spends a portion of some days interning with the Port crew. In this capacity, he assists passengers and helps to maintain the safety, security and orderliness of the loading and unloading process.

Daniel E. Lopez, Seamens House Prospect Park YMCA

2006-12-28T19:41:00.000-08:00

I've often said that if I were going to chose my own internship from those offered in the NYHS Program, Seamens House would be the one for me. Of course Danny stepped up and volunteered for the position before I had the chance...darn!

The Seamens House is a nonprofit arm of the YMCA of greater New York whose mission is to support and aid seafarers at port in New York City. During most of the 70-year history of this organization, seafarers from around the world were provided comfortable YMCA housing while on shore leave in NYC. Today, the Seamens House provides permanent housing to many retired seafarers but due to the highly efficient nature of today's ocean cargo system, there is no longer a need for overnight housing.

Today the Seamens House still provides invaluable services to crew members on board large container vessels. These ships now dock in the NY/NJ container terminals usually for no longer than 24 hours. On a typical day, Herb Reiss, director and coordinator of the organization, will travel to meet two or more ships docked in the area. On most Thursdays in the past four months, Danny has been able to accompany Mr. Reiss on his adventures in supporting the seafarers. This past Thursday, I was lucky enough to travel with both of them out to Howland Hook terminal, located on the western shore of Staten Island.

We boarded a relatively "small" ship (see above photos), which was in the process of having its full containers unloaded and empty ones put in place. This particular ship was a German owned vessel with a 22-member crew representing 11 nationalities, the majority of whom were Sri Lankan and Kerabatian (south Pacific island nation). The Captain was British and most of the officers were Sri Lankan. Herb, Danny, and I carried aboard loads of used books, clothing, toiletries, and small individually wrapped Christmas gifts. The crew was extremely appreciative and very interested in what we had to offer. On any given day, Herb will provide these basic services, along with health and exercise classes, and the option for shore transportation if sailors have their visas in order. On this day, several of the ship's officers asked to take a shopping trip for electronic items, so we hopped in the Seamens house minivan and headed over to the Staten Island Mall to visit Circuit City and Best Buy. We spent almost two hours wondering around with three Sri Lankan men who couldn't help but seem like kids in a candy store. Mostly they were interested in laptops, portable hard drives, and DVD's.

After the Mall trip we returned to the vessel hoping to meet the captain and get a tour of the bridge. Unfortunately, the captain was in the middle of his afternoon nap, so Danny and I continued talking with the first mate about the nature of his work. It turns out he is 32 years old, spent six years in the Sri Lankan merchant marine academy and is now preparing to take his Captain's exam. All of the men we met, spoke very highly of the seafarers life and encouraged Danny to pursue such a career. Though container ships may not be his ultimate calling, it was certainly apparent to both of us that it is an enjoyable, adventuresome, and fairly lucrative career. Danny and I both ackowledged that The Harbor School should definitely be preparing students to develop careers in the maritime industries and specifically offer options for students to learn about becoming an international seafarer.

The AFL-CIO's Seafarers International Union has a merchant marine school in Piney Point, Maryland that offers a comprehensive training program and guaranteed career placement. With the support of the Seamens House and others in the industry, The Harbor School could be in an excellent position to build a partnership with this school and begin sending qualified candidates.

Alfonso Ventura, Pitney Hardin LLP

2006-12-15T13:03:00.000-08:00

Alfonso stepped up at the beginning of this program and set his mind on securing an internship position that would further his career ambitions. With no prior experience in the field of law, Alfonso pursued an internship with the prestigious NYC/NJ firm Pitney Hardin LLP. His mentor, Mike Levison, is an attorney specializing in corporate litigations. Typically his cases involve recovering unpaid debts on behalf of banks and corporations. Alfonso assists him in various paralegal type clerical tasks. He has also had the opportunity twice to accompany Mike to depositions and court filing proceedings.

During these first three months of the program, Alfonso has undergone a major process of adaptation and adjustment of expectations. As I see it, he burst into to the world of work with an ambitious open mind and very sharp suits, but little concrete understanding of the reality of business communication. The law firm environment if anything teaches an intern the value of direct communication, as well as diligence and persistence in the face of sometimes tedious work. Alfonso’s coworkers are extremely busy and often under the pressure of deadlines and long hours, which makes it even more imperative for him to assert and express what’s on his mind. These are the fundamental and most important lessons. He’s come a long way in full stride, still eager to find success as an intern in this lucrative field. His mentor Mike is nonetheless amazingly patient and encouraging. It’s now up to Alfonso to make the most out of this experience by asking the right questions with the right mannerisms, and vigorously pursuing all the available knowledge in the field.

Krystal Hinds-Dunbar, Executive Health Exams

2006-12-15T12:54:00.000-08:00

In this particular internship, Krystal has the unique opportunity to learn a model of truly comprehensive health care. Her internship is with a company called Executive Health Exams whose mission is to provide the fullest possible range of health care services to clients with the assumption that this type of health care should be universal. EHE works similar to an employer health insurance provider except the organization provides all services in house. When an employer or company signs up for the EHE program, its employees (ideally not only the executives) are provided with a comprehensive program including preventative screenings, internist visits, and ongoing health counseling. Needless to say this model provides Krystal with direct exposure to various professional fields, from the medical to the administrative.

Krystal's mentor, Dr Susan Spear set up the internship in order to give the full range of exposure to all departments within the company. Currently she is working primarily with the patient records but spends at least one to two hours per week assisting nurses in the clinic. She is extremely competent in all of her work related responsibilities and has a great rapport with coworkers. Most importantly, Krystal understands the basic concept of communication and consistency. People can rely on her, she's confident and has great sense of humor. This girl is going places!

Braulio DeJesus, Global Kids

2006-12-13T06:56:00.000-08:00

In one word, Braulio is reliable. His mentor Jill Bonitas is very appreciative of his contributions to the Global Kids office. Braulio goes to Global Kids once a week and in this four hour period completes an amazing amount of clerical work, research, and even graphic design. For all who are not familiar with this outstanding educational nonprofit, GK is in the business of providing workshops and professional developments around issues of global citizenry, human rights, and international politics. GK works with several high schools around the city and also has its own youth leadership council which meets weekly in their Soho office. They also host an annual conference on youth and human rights and send select groups of student participants to various countries around the world for educational exchange programs.

For the past few weeks, Braulio had been researching web design firms and compiling notes for a presentation to the entire staff. The staff met last week and actually chose the firm Braulio had recommended to design the new GK website. This was definitely something to be proud of. He is currently working on a moving plan for the office which will happen in April. During my visit, Jill mentioned that Braulio has had an introductory training in the Adobe Creative Suite, which includes Photoshop and Indesign. He will hopefully be using these tools in the upcoming months as he begins to get graphic design requests from GK staff members and is able to complete them on his own. So far he has been immersed in the office management side of things, which in itself is extremely helpful in gaining insight into the mission of the organization. I think however, it would be very helpful at this point for Braulio to go out to a school site and observe a GK workshop or regular class. He needs to work directly with educators, not only for the sake of learning the tricks of the trade, but most importantly to bring out his interpersonal and public speaking skills. Braulio actually has two separate internships, but this one in particular has the potential to bring about enormous growth in character and intellect. Go Braulio!

Jenny Rodriguez, C.R. Cushing Maritime Architects

2006-12-13T05:41:00.000-08:00

I could have sat for hours yesterday listening to Jenny and her mentor Ron Williamson discuss the many facets of this company's work. CR Cushing is one of the world's premiere maritime architectural and engineering firms, designing world class vessels and marine installations for the last 38 years. Jenny is in an outstanding position to learn highly specialized technical knowledge that would be extremely valuable if she pursued a career in any aspect of the maritime industries. As of now she is basically the assistant to the office manager, completing whatever clerical tasks and special projects that are assigned to her on a daily basis. The office is relatively small for the scale of its operations; three main partners, four or five designers, and three clerical staff.

Yesterday happened to be a very busy deadline day, as the entire office was frantically trying to complete the pumping system schematics for a 160-person cruise ship that is being built in Nova Scotia. Drawings were spread out all over the boardroom and the conversations seem to be very focused on the power and positioning of various pumps throughout the vessel. Besides the cruise ship, the company is also under two other major design deadlines. They've designed a unique self-unloading gypsum carrier which is now being constructed in Brazil. They've recently finished the detail designs for a floating pool in a barge to be used by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation and this project is currently in the final stages of construction. In addition to these projects for which the firm is constantly being consulted, the owner Charlie Cushing is one of the world's foremost expert witnesses in maritime related litigations and is currently working with the Spanish government in various trials related to the sinking and spilling of an American oil tanker off the Spanish coast two years ago. He is also a renown expert on maronite, the maritime equivalent of drywall, which until the late 1980’s was often composed of 100% asbestos, and is therefore now at the center of many legal battles.

I was in some ways envious of Jenny’s internship in that she is exposed to the interworkings of these projects and expert knowledge on a regular basis. They key for her is not to rely on a process of osmosis (being passive) for her learning, but to actively seek knowledge, ask detailed questions, follow up with the designers when they have time, and make the most out of this extraordinary experience. This is true for all interns, but in this obscure field full of overlapping knowledge areas, Jenny has more than most on her plate.

Melissa Flambert and Tariana Munoz, NY League of Conservation Voters

2006-12-08T05:17:00.000-08:00

In the final hour of today's workday, I made my way to the financial district to visit Melissa Flambert and Tariana Munoz at the New York League of Conservation Voters. Melissa has been a solid NYLCV intern since the program began in October, while Tariana just came on board last week. According to their mentor Joshua Kleinberg, Melissa has been consistently productive in all the tasks assigned to her. She provides a happy presence for an already friendly and focused office environment. Tariana's first task was to organize and file newspaper clippings that cover current NYLCV projects. This has given her an excellent opportunity to read up on the organization's work and gain a more complete contextual understanding. In general, the interns' work clearly supports the NYLCV's mission to educate, evaluate, endorse, and elect. The League has a unique niche as a behind-the-scenepoliticalal advocacy group without a large grassroots membership base. Part lobbyist, part research, and part publicity machine, the League seems to be extraordinarily successful in its efforts to influence the electoral and policy making process on behalf of the environment. As for the exact definition of the "environment" and what that actually means for citizens, we can only trust that what's good for the planet is indeed good for the people!

Alex Carrasco, Robert A.M. Stern Architects

2006-12-08T05:08:00.000-08:00

What can I say? Alex is vigorously pursuing his dream. From day one, he set his sights on Robert AM Stern Architects and impressed everyone with his already developed sense of professionalism and internal motivation. What more could an aspiring architect ask for than to work in the nation’s premiere architecture firm, with essentially unlimited access to its personnel and archives. Alex is working under Larissa Woo, RAMSA’s director of archives and imagery. His major work includes the labeling and categorizing of the firm’s 270,000 plus slide collection – needless to say this is a very “ongoing” project however not at all tedious for the young architect to be. When I walked in today, Alex was hunched over the light table with a stack of slides in front of him and stacks of design sketches piled on the table around him. He is also creating an organizational matrix of decades worth of sketches, drawings and blueprints representing the evolution of architectural technology and styles over the last 40 years.

By and large, Alex has access to the most extensive collection of professional resources and research materials anyone could possibly dream of. There is an extensive library of books and magazines, which he is free to peruse. Most importantly, Alex is certainly not shy about approaching his coworkers for professional expertise. He has developed an excellent rapport with the firm’s managing partner, Rob Buford. Mr. Buford has been kind enough to sit down at length for an interview and continue to answer Alex’s open-ended questions via email. After my visit today, it is clear that Alex is very fortunate to be a member of this extraordinary professional community. With 250 plus employees, this is the nation’s largest architecture firm, yet it somehow still maintains a distinct sense of quality and craftsmanship that is palpable to a casual visitor such as myself

For the time being, Alex’s plate is extremely full. He is compiling his research on the history of the firm and the development of the field itself. He aims to focus specifically on the use of LEED certification in modern buildings, which for those who are unfamiliar is a rigorous set of federal building standards for energy efficiency and environmental design. Alex has also been able to tap into the firm’s in-house training classes in digital design tools, beginning with an introduction to the Adobe suite and Photoshop. Before June he’ll have the opportunity to take advanced classes in other architecture specific applications. All of this experience should help to put him at the top of his class at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute starting Fall of 2007.

Janet Mendez, Bromley Companies

2006-12-08T04:36:00.000-08:00

Lately Janet Mendez has become very fascinated by the world of real estate development. Throughout the course of this semester’s internship, Janet has evolved from being set on a career in social service to being open to the possibilities of a career in the private (for profit) sector. I think this is a brilliant transition, and I'd even go so far to say that the world needs more women like Janet in real estate development and more men like Donald Trump in social work. Yes, let’s turn the tables for the better.

This internship has proven to be highly beneficial for all parties involved. The Bromley Company is a small real estate development firm located on 5th ave and 17th st. The firm has additional offices and holdings in Florida and Illinois. Janet works most closely with the firm’s office manager, Beverly Burchet and the Director of Strategic Planning and Business Development, Nicholas Haines. Thus far, Janet’s most substantial work has consisted of compiling a database of all hard copy file contents for each of the firm’s holdings. She has progressed through ten or more horizontal file drawers stuffed with years of tenant and vendor contracts. As her mentor Beverly said to me today, “these files are our business” and therefore Janet’s work has most certainly been meaningful and valuable for the firm.

Until now, the Bromley internship was Thursday only, simply because the firm had never hosted a high school intern and was unsure how such a situation would pan out in terms of matching available work with the intern’s skill level. Last week Janet suggested she begin coming both Tuesday and Thursday. Both Nick and Beverly agreed in large part because they have been so convinced by Janet’s enthusiasm and competency. The databasing project is nearly complete and Janet will now move on to a new project, much less clerical and more research based. Under Nick’s guidance, she will be researching development prospects for the firm, specifically in lots adjacent to city post offices. Janet will be looking at how to go about leasing the post office’s air rights for commercial development -- an interesting and potentially lucrative concept.

Rosario Figueroa and Diane Taveras, The Brooklyn Cooperative Federal Credit Union

2006-12-06T18:59:00.000-08:00

When I stopped in to the Credit Union on Tuesday, Rosario and Diane were finishing the tedious yet very necessary task of assembling the monthly membership statements. Stuffing envelopes is not the most glamorous intern activity, but one that is crucial to a small organization such as the Brooklyn Cooperative Federal Credit Union. In addition to helping with mailings, Rosario and Diane have been assisting their mentor Bartley in everyday clerical tasks such as filing member documents and updating member databases.

The interns have also been working on several ongoing projects, which provide them a more in depth perspective on the inter-workings of this small community based lending institution. The first project involves compiling a loan tracking database, which will be used to assist in determining trends in loan repayment. By entering member data into the system, the interns have a learned a great deal about the process of granting and tracking loans for both small businesses and individual members. Rosario and Diane have also been able to help out in translating credit union documents for Spanish speaking members.

Another exciting prospect that we discussed on Tuesday was the idea of setting up an ongoing public survey project for the interns. Specifically, they would conduct surveys in and around local check cashing stores to determine characteristics of the local “unbanked” population. The survey would ask about banking history, provide information about the credit union’s services, and possibly offer incentives to join.

Using the community connections of the credit union and its mission of local economic development, the interns are well supported in their research and creative projects. Diane and especially Rosario are benefiting greatly from their exposure to an array of technical skills and professional competencies. As a result of this experience, they will be well equipped to pursue a career in the world of finance, accounting, and community banking.

Anali Vasquez and Janet Mendez, Brooklyn Boatworks

2006-12-06T17:34:00.000-08:00

Brooklyn Boatworks is a grassroots nonprofit-educational organization started by two naval architects named Jeremy Wurmfeld and Carl Persak. For the past two years, Jeremy and Carl have set up their shop in the Carroll Gardens based School for Collaborative Studies. They teach the principles and mechanics of basic boat building and indeed they assist the students in constructing an 8-foot wooden rowboat. This year Anali Vasquez joins Brooklyn Boatworks as a full-fledged teaching assistant and naval architect in training. This is the first year that the organization has taken on an intern and according to Carl, it seems to be working out exceedingly well. Janet also began attending Boatworks workshops on Tuesdays because her internship at Bromley Companies was only intending to host one day a week. However due to Janet's stellar performance, Bromley would like to have her for both days and she has accepted.

Rest assured Anali holds it down on her own. On Thursday she works at the site independently preparing Tuesday's lessons and setting up the room. She is in continual phone contact with her mentors Carl and Jeremy and is directly supervised if need be by the assistant principle of the School for Collaborative Studies. She has designed several basic marine engineering lessons in a progression leading toward a complete understanding of density. This includes basic concepts of area, volume, and mass. Anali designs these lessons using her own personal experience and a maritime curriculum guide produced specifically for elementary students. In her own words, the kids "get it" quickly and she has been able to move quite quickly in her coverage of the material.

During the Tuesday afternoon workshop which I was fortunate to observe, there were 6 kids working simultaneously on lofting (tracing designs, cutting, and fitting boat parts) while another 3-4 worked in the hallway with Anali and Janet on the engineering lessons. Everything seemed to work quite smoothly . Kids looked very engaged and could understand and appreciate the entire process by seeing two finished boats from years past. Indeed they seemed to be getting it quite readily, and even having fun.

Ricardo Rodriguez and Stephanie Dones, Friends of the Hudson River Park

2006-11-29T17:25:00.000-08:00

Ricardo and Stephanie have both told me that working with Friends of the Hudson River Park (FOHRP) is more like being in a family than having a job. This family also happens to be very functional in that everyone in the office is extraordinarily productive and focused while at the same time supportive and caring enough so that the stress is never all consuming. FOHRP is a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization that was formed in response to legislation passed in 1999, which made way for the creation of a green waterfront corridor from the GWB at 181st street to Battery Park. Everyone involved with this organization is a member of the Hudson River Park coalition, which is an eclectic group of neighbors, activists, and businesses who have a stake in creating a healthy Hudson River waterfront ecology.

Ricardo and Steph worked over the summer with FOHRP as paid interns and both decided they wanted to continue the position into the school year even though they knew it was specifically unpaid. Their mentors Laura and Matthew have nothing but positive things to say about their contributions. The feelings are certainly mutual and Matthew and Laura should definitely be commended for providing such an outstanding level of support and attention to the academic needs of their interns. In fact everyone in the organization seems to go the extra mile. When I arrived on Tuesday, Stephanie was in the midst of conducting her interview with the organization’s director, Albert Butzel. Immediately following that, Ricardo sat down in the boardroom with the organization’s administrator, Phillip Baumgartner. Both seemed more than happy to offer detailed information toward the interns’ research.

On a typical day, Ricardo and Steph will help out on many fronts, primarily working on programming and outreach with Matthew and Laura. They have helped to organize waterfront events, such as last month’s Pier 84 inaugural celebration. I have encouraged both Ricardo and Steph to get more involved in the political advocacy aspects of FOHRP’s work. This would hopefully mean that the interns could substitute one of their afternoon’s work hours in order to attend a Wednesday community board meeting or a Hudson River Alliance meeting, which also happen on Wednesday afternoons. Ricardo seems to be more motivated to increase his involvement but I think with a little healthy peer pressure, Steph will jump on board as well. Hopefully Steph will be a little more available and energized for internship once the craziness of college applications has subsided.

Jeffrey Taveras and Sammy Lopez, Recycle-A-Bicycle Lower East Side Retail Shop

2006-11-29T17:13:00.000-08:00

Sammy and Jeffrey are psyched about the fun and useful experience they are accumulating by working at the Recycle-A-Bicycle lower east side retail store. Sammy comes in faithfully every Tuesday and Thursday and Jeffrey only on Tuesdays. They work directly alongside two master mechanics, Rich Pinto and Joe. They are learning everything there is to know about bicycle maintenance, repair, and assembly, with the exception of disc breaks and full suspension systems, which the shop does not deal with.

RAB is a 501c3 nonprofit that receives donated used bikes in order to refurbish them for sale to the public. The mission of the organization is to educate and train young people in the art of the bicycle. Sammy and Jeffrey fit perfectly into this mission and will have the opportunity to become paid RAB mechanics upon completion of their internship. Currently, the guys are mostly focused on basic repair tasks such as flat fixes, stripping, cleaning, and brake adjustment. They are learning to do the entire refurbishing process and will soon begin to build up their own bikes.

During the meeting with Rich and Joe, we talked about the need to stay on the ball with journal writing and school based assignments. I once again reminded Sammy and Jeffrey to submit their first coworker interview, which they were planning to conduct that afternoon. They also have yet to submit the initial outline for the research paper, which may mean the difference between passing and failing economics for the second semester. We all know these guys are extremely smart, let’s just hope Tuesday’s meeting was enough to get their behinds in GEAR. (bicycle pun, but all kidding aside, hand in the work guys!)

Genesis Williams, Li and Fung Limited

2006-11-29T15:30:00.000-08:00

Li and Fung Limited is one of the world's largest textile manufacturers and designers -- with approximately 7% of all textiles sold in the US originating in some aspect of the company's network, it is an enormous global conglomerate based in Hong Kong with offices in over 40 cities around the world. At the heart of the operation (almost) is Genesis and her mentor Tania Vega on the 20th floor of Li and Fung's New York office located on Broadway at 36th street. Tania is Vice President of Production for special projects. Basically she oversees all aspects of specialty clothing lines from preproduction design, branding, and fitting, to production management, materials sourcing, and distribution. Genesis is her right hand woman in this multi faceted world of fashion production.

When I arrived in the office on Tuesday, Genesis was hard at work behind her computer, entering data into an excel spreadsheet budget. The budget consisted of all recent expenses relating to a clothing line called Cinge that Tania has developed specifically for Li and Fung to be sold at WalMart stores in Canada and Brazil. Genesis has also helped out during fitting and modeling sessions for Li and Fung's Bloomingdales accounts and will have the opportunity to work on Levi's red tab line. All in all, this is a bustling environment with over a hundred people on five floors, separated by departments. Genesis runs between the floors on many days gathering resources and doing errands for Tania. She is becoming very well acquainted with this complex corporation and hopefully her knowledge and experience with come through clearly in the research paper she is currently working on.

The only issue that Genesis needs to be aware of, similar to other interns in this program, is consistency in attendance. She has missed internship twice without an appropriate reason. The main consequence for this besides a loss of school credit is a lack of personal momentum. Internship hours are short and infrequent, so in order to maintain trust and commitment with the mentor, it is imperative to never miss a day unless it is absolutely necessary.

Luis Melendez; Lettie G Howard, South Street Seaport Museum

2006-11-22T06:04:00.000-08:00

Pookie has an ideal internship in and around the Lettie G Howard. His mentor is none other than the illustrious Captain Jonathan Kabak. As an NYHS student, Pookie has already had a great deal of experience sailing aboard the Lettie, mostly during our summer programs. For those who are unfamiliar, the Lettie is a tall masted schooner that was originally constructed in Massachusetts in 1893. She is currently owned and operated as an educational sailing vessel by the South Street Seaport Museum.

Pookie's internship has thus far been a purely maritime experience. Most days he works aboard the ship learning basic maintenance and engineering tasks from the crew and captain. Over the last two weeks, the main responsibility for all crew members including Pookie has been downrigging and winter storage preparations. In addition to regular maintenance duties, Pookie has also been of help within the ship's educational programs. Unfortunately due to scheduling conflicts, Pookie was not able to sail with the 9th grade Harbor class but he was there every Tuesday and Thursday to meet the class at the 79th st. Boat Basin. In the coming months, Pookie will be working directly with Kabak and Education Director Kristin Washer to help out with programming and gain insight into the educational aspect of the sailing ship.

After meeting with Kabak and Pookie, I stopped in unscheduled to the museum's education department to say hello to Juan Concepcion and his mentor Maggie. Maggie was off to a meeting and Juan was busy with his current project. They both seemed very happy with the internship experience and Juan was thoroughly engaged. I am scheduled to return for my official visit on January 18th.

Both Pookie and Juan are well supported in their research and interview process. Working at the museum, they have enormous access to primary source historical materials and tools for research. The museum staff, both administrators and educators, can provide a wealth of information for the interns if they're able to take initiative, introduce themselves, and pursue interview opportunities. It all depends on the individual's drive to seek out and investigate personally relevant information -- the process should be fun and highly motivating. It should be difficult but not boring!!

Elias Alvarez, Brooklyn Tree House

2006-11-19T11:06:00.000-08:00

The Brooklyn Tree House is a sweet little boutique perched at the end of Graham Ave in the heart of Williamsburg, with a nice balance of hipster and "regular" new yorkers. The owner-founders Siri and Rebecca are Brooklyn based clothing and jewelry designers. They sell their own wares in the shop alongside with 24 other local artists. In addition to selling artful fashion items, the space is also host to ongoing clothing craft and design classes for the community. The space is very warm and inviting, you should check it out soon!

Siri is also a teacher of craft classes in Bushwick, which is where she met Elias. Elias set up the internship for himself and then told me about it. It was all his initiative and he seems to be learning a great deal about the field of design and small business management. The only challenge is that his two mentors have little time to spare on Thursday afternoons because like any beginning business, they have to devout all of their time together to development and promotion. Elias has been extremely helpful with day-to-day organizational tasks and creative stuff such as planning window displays.

He has also been working on his own clothing design and crafting projects, however Siri would like to be able to give him more time and attention in this respect. Toward this end, I suggested that Elias work as a helper in Siri's classes or raise money to attend as a participant. I trust that Elias and Siri will find a way to make the internship sustainable with enough attention, time, and energy to meet everyone's needs. I for one am very proud his intiative and creative spirit and I hope he keeps it going.

Denise and Maria Elizabeth

2006-11-14T16:19:00.000-08:00

Denise Duran and Maria Elizabeth Hernandez, Long Island College Hospital: These girls are engaged in deeply challenging and energy consuming work -- they're volunteering in a hospital. This is difficult work even without the added demands of academic assignments, internship timecards, and me hovering around asking questions and snapping photos. Denise and Maria have thus far been working in the Elder Care program (HELP) set up and run by Dr. Concha Mendoza, a geriatric specialist who oversees the department and runs her own private practice at LIC. She is the girls' primary mentor but unfortunately is extremely busy on Tuesday afternoons.

On a typical day, the girls arrive at the hospital which is located near the promenade in Brooklyn Heights, and proceed to the volunteer office where they clock in to the hospital system, pick up their volunteer jackets, and receive their meal vouchers. Then they head to the main hospital building up to the fifth floor nursing ward where most elder patients stay. Dr. Mendoza and the girls communicate via a large notebook with patient names, notes and observations. The girls pick up the notebook every Tuesday and find a new list of patients and room numbers to visit. They have a list of questions they can ask, but generally they are there to provide warmth and friendliness to people who have few visitors and are in a great deal of pain. They'll also occasionally travel around the entire floor distributing water, ice, and snacks. In general, this aspect of their internship is neither glamorous nor overly exciting. During my visit today, I quickly remembered how strange it feels to walk around a hospital as a healthy person peering in on the world of sickness, powerless to do any healing.

Denise and Maria and I discussed why it must be so hard to be a really good nurse and why so many nurses often seem busy, stressed, or burnt out. Just to maintain one's own level of happiness and positive outlook walking around the sterile hallways is difficult enough, but then on top of that to make others feel better, healthy, more alive, even loved. Wow, what a task! More power to these girls for getting this first hand experience in the health care "industry."

Maria and Denise have amazing access to health care professionals. They are in fact free to introduce themselves to nurses and doctors, make connections, and ask questions that will provide them knowledge and insight on the field. Today, the girls sat down with a nurse manager on the fifth floor and conducted a 30-minute interview. Next week, they'll have the same opportunity with Dr. Mendoza, and if they want, they can make a practice out of it. Also, next week, they will both start spending two of their four hours in other departments. Maria will go to the emergency room where she will serve as an interpreter/ greeter and Denise will assist the nurses in the neonatology department. We decided today that they would both benefit from more diverse experience and the volunteer coordinator, Ms. Abreu was happy to oblige.

On a final note, next week the interns will make their way over to the college library where they will begin talking with the librarian about LICH's 150 year history and locating useful resources for the paper. Neither Denise nor Maria had asked about a library, but luckily while we were meeting in Dr. Mendoza's office, a fourth year medical student (see picture on right) happened to stop in and suggest visiting the library. This just goes to show that if you put forth just a little of your own genuine curiosity and effort, all the missing pieces of the puzzle will begin to fall into your lap. Of course then it's still up to you to put the thing together. But at least now, I'm confident that the LIC interns have excellent resources at their fingertips and the potential for an outstanding internship.

Marlon Antigua, November 14

2006-11-14T14:49:00.000-08:00

Marlon Antigua, High Five Tickets to the Arts: High Five Tickets is a small grass roots nonprofit dedicated to providing theater arts access and education for city youth. Their small yet elegant office is located at 53rd St and 5th Ave in Manhattan. According to Marlon's mentors Eric Ost and Laurel Anderson, and based on what I saw during my visit today, the office setting feels casual and community oriented yet focused and productive as any thriving NYC nonprofit. In general, this internship experience has been particularly beneficial for Marlon in pushing him to further develop his social skills and business understanding. Prior to this experience, Marlon had very little if any exposure to the world of theater arts and nonprofit educational organizations. One might say this experience is radically different from anything Marlon had done or even thought about before, and as a result there has been enormous growth. It turns out that Marlon's limited exposure and prior interest is an enormous asset for an organization that is charged with turning teenagers on to the world of theater, music, dance, and stage performance. Marlon is their target audience. With this idea in mind, Marlon's main independent project over the next several months will be take himself and one lucky friend (Genesis may have priority) to as many shows as he can get days off from his "real" job. Nothing is for nothing however. Marlon will be reviewing all performances and publsihing his written critiques on High Five's website or possibly on his own soon to be developed blog.

Aside from the grand scheme of things, Marlon plays a pivotal role in the daily workings of the education and development departments. This includes helping out the whole staff in ongoing projects, day to day clerical tasks, preparing PR folders, stuffing envelopes, emailing for events, and designing outreach media, such as flyers for open houses. All in all, Mr. Antigua seems to be appreciated by his coworkers not only for his natural charm, but because he is productive. Now let's just make sure he hands in the research paper outline and interview write-up on Friday!

Interns in the Field

2006-11-12T12:28:00.000-08:00

Octavia Moses, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz’s Office: Octavia describes her internship with a shy grin as if she’s embarrassed by how much she loves it. Until Yesterday, all I had to go on was her journal entries and some brief conversations with her mentors Nan and Sandra. Octavia has been assigned to the Community Relations Department at the BP’s office, which is primarily responsible for fielding and addressing the myriad of complaints, problems, and issues that come in on daily basis directly from Brooklyn residents. On any given day, Octavia will answer the phone to as many as ten complaints, ranging from section 8 housing problems, to fallen trees to potholes, to noise pollution and the occasional “bird flew in my window and I can’t get it out” that she happened to receive while I was in the office yesterday. During the course of a call Octavia records the constituent’s information and creates an official documentation of the complaint. She then passes this directly to her supervisor and decides what the appropriate next steps will be. Octavia has also taken on the responsibility of outreach to Brooklyn based organizations in need of volunteers and community service. She calls the organizations to update contact info and discuss volunteer opportunities to list on the BP’s website. In general, her supervisors and coworkers are extremely friendly, supportive, and very appreciative of their high school intern.

Octavia has an amazing opportunity here to gain some real exposure to the interworkings of city politics. She has expressed strong interest in researching explosive political issues, such as development and health care. Specifically for her independent research paper, she plans to focus on the Atlantic Yards/ Forest City Ratner development, seeking to assemble a balanced assessment of the varying perspectives, pros, cons, and current status of the project. Her research paper should provide a very unique critical analysis of the issue – be sure not to miss her portfolio presentation along with other exciting interns from around the city January 23rd and 25th, NYHS Campus Library 1:00PM

Jennifer Lamberty, Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education: She's very supported by her mentor and staff of environmental educators and consultants. Small office with a focus on green design and sustainability. Jen is working on a major library organization project, cataloging and reviewing books and curriculum resources -- very relevant work for the organization and also for her own internship research paper. In general, she's committed and slowly opening up to the concepts and work environment.

Miguel Pedraza, GMD Shipyards: His mentor Mike Dimesa is the second in command at GMD, supervisor of quality assurance. Miguel is his right hand man, helping him design schematic diagrams for barge and tug repairs. The setting is amazing -- the last working NYC dry-docks outside of SI, 200 guys doing an assortment of welding, engineering, basic maintenance, heavy equipment operation, etc. Lots of great personalities who have been working in the industry for years. This would be a great site for us to partner with as a new career and technical high school. Overall Miguel is a superstar intern -- he provides the organization a valuable service and can handle himself in any environment they put him in. On the other hand, he needs lots of pushing to complete journal and research assignments from school.

Hector Acevedo, Bridgman Art Library: Hector is working in a small NYC branch office of an international art publishing and licensing company. He is well liked and very helpful to his mentor, so much so that they decided to give him a food and travel stipend. This obviously provides him extra incentive to be consistent. His regular duties include internet based copyright infringement research, clerical duties, and some errands. The office is small and he feels a little isolated spending many hours at his desk and computer workstation. He needs encouragement to explore the art history field and gain background knowledge. He is handling the independent work and making the most out of his time, which he does in part by making himself several cups of coffee each day.

Christine Monserrat, Bushwick Impact: After a rocky start, Christine has actually begun to enjoy her internship. What really drives this internship is the close-knit personal relationships with her mentor and coworkers. Bushwick Impact is small nonprofit offshoot of ACT NYC which provides outreach services to local parents, helping them to procure daycare and early childhood education, health care, housing, and even employment. Christine is developing her own long-term project in which she will conduct an outreach program specifically targeted to teen parents. She is getting ready to do outreach at local schools and encourage teen parents to come to the office on regular basis to benefit from the education and health care resources. In general, she seems happy but still expresses concerns about dealing with travel in the cold weather.

David Peralta and Joshua Duran, Environmental Defense: David and Joshua initially complained a lot that their internship was boring or somehow they were being exploited as filing slaves. This may have been partly true in the first two weeks as they were settling in, but as far as I can tell after my visit last week this not at all the case. Environmental Defense is the largest environmental nonprofit in the country, focusing on political advocacy, legislation, and some conservation trusts. The NYC office is a spectacular 4-floor space full of light and busy bright-eyed people working on issues they really care about. In addition to the diverse staff, David and Joshua work alongside 7 other interns (all girls) from two other small high schools. David's mentor runs the donor records department -- he has been working with the database management system and his personal project focuses on developing a new system for tracking matching gifts from large companies. He is exposed to the finance systems of this large nonprofit. Joshua works for two women who run the organization's website -- he has been updating and uploading news articles relating to oceans. His ongoing project has been the development of an excel spreadsheet comparing energy efficient light bulbs -- he may develop similar consumer tools for other home appliances and green technology. In general, both interns don't quite realize how good they've got it. They've been told that ED historically offers summer jobs to successful interns. ED provides ample resources for their academic assignments and though their mentors are busy and need help with clerical tasks, they are very supportive. Now it's just a matter of the interns stepping up and taking advantage of their coworkers and resources.

Jacob Constantino, Timothy Romero, and Romano Belgrave, NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign: A challenging internship for these three guys because they spend at least half of their site time riding the trains to compile the data for NYPIRG's annual subway report. The research process is concrete and they are helping. My main concern is that they are not sufficiently engaged in other aspects of the organization. They have learned how to write a press release and phone bank to media outlets but all in all they seem somewhat lost. Their mentor Charity Carbine is well intentioned but busy. The department consists of two people, including Charity. The subway report is a great project in that they will see it develop from start to finish in the springtime. I am working with Charity to set up work for them in other NYPIRG departments to diversify the experience and hopefully make it more engaging.

Victor Rosario, Cornell University Cooperative Extension: Victor is an outstanding intern at an outstanding internship site with an outstanding mentor, seriously. He is working under Lisa Babcok and Gretchen Ferenz (Tom Fox's wife), in the education department. His ongoing project is an outreach database to south Bronx elementary and middle school teachers. The organization offers environmental Ed PD and in this case Victor is promoting a program called Garden Mosaics. He is mapping school locations within a specific congressional district where the program's funding originates and then will be conducting phone outreach and eventually participating in the PD workshops at schools and Garden sites. His mentors are very grateful to have him and he is taking full advantage of the experience. They've been helping him with college apps and discussing how they might help him get in to Hunter. All in all, both sides are investing great amounts of time and energy in the partnership which will hopefully serve for years to come.

Yoscar Ogando, Scholastic Inc: Yoscar has another "ideal" internship. His mentor is an old friend of mine who is now a program manager for Scholastic's education technology department. Their main focus has been the development and testing of educational software such as Read 180. Currently, Yoscar spends two hours per day helping to set up and run an after school pilot program at the Scholastic store in Soho. The program is run by a teacher and gets middle school students and their parents to use the software programs that Yoscar's department has developed. On other days, Yoscar helps his mentor Isaac with ongoing database and clerical projects. By far the most exciting part of this internship is Yoscar's ongoing independent work, which consists of researching a new internet based game system that Scholastic wants to develop in combination with a book and card series. The game would be interactive, fantasy/role play, building literacy and fun at the same time. This kind of project has never been done before and Yoscar is at the forefront. His research is published on an in-house wikipedia system in which all project members post findings and discuss new ideas. In general, Yoscar is very psyched to have this opportunity.

Jessica Mendez, Jose Rueda, Lariza Gomez, Bideawee Inc: As many have seen from the bulletin board pics, the Bideawee interns are getting very technical hands-on experience in the field of veterinary medicine. The Bideawee staff is very friendly and supportive of the interns learning experience. Lariza and Jessica have been very consistent and have established very respectful relationships with their coworkers. Jose has for the most part done the same; however I did get a report that Jose was asking some strange questions about drugs and cancer, openly expressing his morbid curiosity that we all know well. He has also been absent twice without reporting to his mentor. As a result he is on his last chance and will hopefully pull it back together. Even with Jose's issues, the interns are collectively doing great. They assist with surgeries and major medical treatments on Tuesdays. They also wash animals and do daily medical rounds for the cats and dogs awaiting adoption. I've been asking their mentor, Dianne Alexander (clinic manager) to provide the interns some exposure to the business management side of the organization. Bideawee was founded in 1908 and has a rich history. Currently the organization occupies an entire four floor building on the Upper East Side.

Starrie Thomas, Urban Spring Cafe and Juice Bar: I've been able to check in on Starrie several times and get regular reports from her mentor because she is interning around the corner from my house, literally. Her mentor, Gordon Kindlon is the owner of a newly opened juice bar and cafe on deKalb and Carlton. Before the juice bar, Gordon and his wife worked for the UN in Afghanistan and Iraq for four years. He opened the business with the intention of promoting green design/renewable technologies to local businesses and community. Starrie is of course helping to run the everyday aspects of the business, which includes learning how to make all the menu items, work the register, restock and order items. Everything in the place is organic and or renewable/recycled. This is itself good exposure for Starrie, but even with a free lunch and smoothie everyday, she is still "bored" at times. The idea for Starrie's independent project is for her to create a marketing program for local high school students (Brooklyn Tech), develop some educational advertising to bring the students up to the juice bar for an after school special. Gordon also has plans for her to help him run elementary school workshops later in the year. According to Gordon, Starrie is a great worker but as we all know has some barriers in her personality. She is reserved and reluctant to communicate at times, but Gordon recognizes that this is the main challenge of working with any high school kid, especially one as unique as Starrie Thomas, and he's psyched to keep innovating.

Wilfredo Garcia and Jimmy Sanchez, NY Water Taxi: These guys love their internship mainly because they know they're gaining skills and moving up in the ranks in a way that could not have happened working only as paid employees. I was originally concerned that their internship would not offer new specialized experience, but this is not the case at all, mostly because their internship site is the Red Hook homeport of all Water Taxi ships as opposed to collecting tickets and working as deckhands. Most of their hours are spent with ship and port engineers learning regular maintenance and repairs. Rob Wall, their primary mentor, has been busy with season-end projects until last week, and as of now will begin to introduce the interns to the management/financial side of the company. They've scheduled interviews with coworkers and next week will be sitting down for a company vision talk with founder Tom Fox. This discussion will also include info on the Atlantic basin proposal, which these guys have taken a special interest in as Harbor seniors. The homeport office is small but does provide workstations for two interns. Wilfredo and Jimmy are excelling while Kereem and Ali are less consistent, with the majority of the concern being on Ali. The day I visited neither Kereem nor Ali was present. We need to keep encouraging all of the Water Taxi interns to stay on the ball with research, interviews, journaling and timecards.