This summer I had the opportunity to intern at the Renaissance Youth Center, a youth enrichment organization in the South Bronx, NYC. At Renaissance, kids and teens learn how to play instruments, code robots, play sports, plant trees, and more. The Center also has a youth council that meets throughout the school year to discuss issues in their community and coordinate participation at NYPD precinct board meetings.
Most recently, the Renaissance Youth Council presented their ideas to assemblywoman Chantel Jackson. To support their endeavours as young activists, I spent the summer developing a political education framework for the council.
I worked closely with Renaissance founder, Mr Bervin Harris, and he recommended I start by breaking down how the American government works and what all of our elected officials do. This would directly aid the youth council’s work, as they hope to continue meeting with NYC government workers. To this end, I created a large poster that identified key figures and agencies at all three levels of government (federal, state, and local). This poster is on display at the youth council’s meeting room.
Photo 1. This poster serves as a visual reminder of who does what in the American government.
Through conversations with youth council members, I then decided to develop a website for the youth council. This website serves as an informational hub for the council, as it contains clear and easy-to-understand articles on NYC, NY state, and federal affairs. I spent a significant amount of time this summer conducting in-depth research for the articles published on the site.
Each article contains key information on political developments, with the goal of encouraging youth council members to think critically about the actions of our government. The articles also clearly explain how we, as constituents, can influence these actions. For example, in the “A Casino in Queens?” article pictured above, I wrote out a phone script for those interested in calling their representatives about a proposed casino development (Photo 5).
Apart from my work for the youth council, I also contributed to the STEM curriculum at Renaissance in a team of 3 interns. We developed 8-week lesson plans in different subject areas, adding up to more than 100 hours of STEM teaching. I specifically focused on making hands-on lessons for the students, including activities like building model lungs and exploring states of matter with ooblek.
At the end of the summer, Mr Harris invited me to record an episode on his podcast about my experience as an undergraduate and intern at Renaissance. I also helped the Renaissance team to run their annual Christmas in August event and filmed a testimonial with the media team to aid in advertising efforts.
Photo 6. Decorations for the Christmas in August event.
I will continue to work with the Renaissance Youth Council throughout my junior year. I have committed to continue publishing on the Council website and to participate in their meetings, which will begin in September.
I want to thank the Class of 1978 Foundation for their support, which made this project possible. Renaissance is a place that I wish I could go to when I was a kid, so working there is really meaningful to me. In the future, I hope to bring Renaissance to Princeton in some way, whether it be inviting their youth band to perform at McCarter or giving Renaissance students interested in STEM a tour of Frick.