How Microplastics Can Affect Everything Around Us – Fieldwork to NYC Aquarium

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On Febuary 6th 2025, the Microplastics group and the Ocean Pollution group went to the NYC Aquarium to learn more about marine life and plastic pollution. We wanted to get more knowledge on marine life from experts, and how these animals live.
The first place we went was the conservation hall, where we strolled through in order to get to the other exhibits. There were different parts of the exhibit, where they showed different fish from different regions, the most interesting one for me was the ginormous fish from Brazil, it was called Flooded Forest.
The shark exhibit was definitely my favorite. You first enter to marine life and sharks swimming all around you, it was such a fun experience, below they showed you a description of all of the different fish that live in the shark tunnel. The most beautiful part of the exhibit was a dark area, where there were so many sharks and different types of fish. The glass was so clear that it didnt even look like it was there. The water looked super blue and it was so great to look at.
Although the aquarium wasnt just about fish, they also educated us on plastic pollution. Walking through the shark exhibit, there is a part where there was plastic everywhere. This room taught us about which items contain plastics in them, like detergent, teabags, clothing, and much more. There were activities where you can step on plastics to get rid of them, and another one that was similar, where you push a button when you see specific items in the water, like fishing lines and plastic water bottles. The aquarium also taught us about climate change in NYC. New York Cities’ seas are rising, and it can ruin our City. Aswell as there is much more precipitation in New York, it has been increasing and there are heavier downfalls. The NYC aquarium taught us a bunch of things that are important for our Citizen Action Project and for our knowledge on NYC in danger. Before we left, we visited the Sea lions, penguins, and otters. They were so cute, and in the description, there was a part where they told us what we can do to help save the otters. In order to save the otters, we have to cut down on oil consumption, and use public transportation more and to stop emitting C02. This isint just about otters though, so many animals are in danger because of how much our climate is changing. Some animals, like polar bears rely on cold weather, and icy conditions, but our earth is getting hotter, and changing their homes. We have to act in order to save all of these animals.
The NYC aquarium was very interesting, and it was a very fun field trip. I feel like I learned a lot more than I thought I wouldve. Although it was a very far trip, it was definitely worth the trip.

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DHS: A Look Into How the Government are dealing with Homelessness

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Me and my partners were lucky enough to get an interview with the commissioner of the DHS (Department of Homeless Services). We got to interview Molly Park, about what she wanted to do for the city, and what she has already done for the city. When we asked her what she wanted to accomplish this year she said she has a whole list. One of the main things was reducing the numbers of homeless people, and connecting people to permanent housing. Since she was appointed for this position, she has already increased the number of people connected to permanent housing by a lot. She then talked about how covid had a big impact. During covid everyone had more services and more help, and when that all stopped, people started having nothing to eat and nowhere to live, which has caused a massive increase in homelessness in the past few years.

We asked Molly what was one thing she would change about homelessness in NYC, and she said having more housing availability. She said that NYC doesn’t have enough housing to have everyone with a roof over their heads. If it was possible she would want to make more housing available and build more places for people to live. We then asked our last question about where she thought homelessness will be in 10 years. She said that New York City will try their best to make more housing space and get as many people housed as possible. But on the other hand she said that rent will definitely keep increasing, causing homelessness to get worse and worse. Rent is already too high in NYC, so if it gets worse and worse homelessness will become an insanely big problem.

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Coalition for the Homeless Interview

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Coalition for the Homeless has been one of the best sources throughout our project. We were lucky enough to get an interview with someone who worked there for more than 20 years! We talked to him a lot about the stereotypes on homelessness, and how it affects the homeless. He said that the stereotypes affect them a lot. He added that people stereotype the homeless to be crazy, mentally ill, drug addiction, alcoholics and raged clothing. He then said a quote that was very relatable to me, “I actually find it kind of depressing that you all have grown up in an era where mass homelessness is kind of considered a normal fact of life.” This really hit me because it is something we all see everyday, it is something that is a part of all our lives, and I completely agree with Patrick.

We then talked about homelessness in the future, and why it’s becoming worse and worse. The main reason we got was definitely inflation, and rent being higher and minimum wage not being enough. He then said he helped a man, who waited 7 ½ years on the affordable housing list to get permanent housing. He then contrasted the US to Europe. He gave us a statistic about how in Belgium, ⅓ of people in Belgium get housing with a poor income, which is insane how housing is so affordable compared to NYC.

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Mae Lee’s Views on the Chinese Immigrant Experience.

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In the afternoon of February 1st, I met with Mae Lee. She is the Executive Director of the Chinese Progressive Association. They assist newcoming Chinese immigrants as well as the Chinese people who have lived in New York City for generations. Their main goal is to serve the Chinese community as a whole. From our conversation I learned a lot more about the experience of Chinese immigrants.

She spoke to me about the early stages of immigrating to America and how the Chinese Progressive Association helps to ease the overwhelm and stress of moving to a new country. They offer English classes as well as assistance on finding jobs, justifying tenant rights, citizenship classes and help registering to vote. However, with more immigrants coming, she has had a different array of who she serves at the English classes. She has found that more parents are coming to class. This is not a surprise.

The experience of children to Chinese immigrants is similar to those of other children of immigrants. A lot of the time, they have to become the translator for their parents, even handling legal obligations. She told me that kids from even age 10 have to help their parents pay taxes or apply for a job, because their parents’ English is not up to par. In many of these families, the children also have to navigate the school system on their own. But, Chinese parents do a lot of work and sacrifice for their children. Mae said that one of the main reasons people have been immigrating from China is for educational opportunities for their children. This is a large sacrifice, especially for people with established careers in their home country.

One of the largest reasons that Chinese immigration is happening is also that many of their family members live in the US. Family is one of the core values in Chinese life and having family in America makes the move a lot more relaxed. A big motivator of getting a Green Card in America is that it helps you be able to bring family over. It also gives many more protections, especially with Trump’s anti-Chinese attitudes, they are needed.
With Trump back in office for his second term, Chinese racism is skyrocketing. He has pushed stereotypes on Chinese Immigrants. There was even proposed legislation by Tom Cotton, a Republican Senator from Arkansas, to restrict Chinese nationals from buying property, forcing generations out of a stable home to call theirs. Mae said that if we teach children more ethics studies on Chinese history and immigration, we could have future people who fight against policies such as this and people like Tom Cotton. I want to end off with that she told me we need to realize our common interests “to unite and stand together”.

*Image from the Chinese Progressive Association’s website

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Health Clinic and Food Pantry

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At Advent Lutheran Church, we led all sorts of people, many who spoke Mandarin and Spanish to the desk for their medical check-in. Guests were nervous about forgetting their IDs or not knowing if the experience was free or not. As the guests moved along to the clothing table, many were trying on coats and taking items for children. They seemed somewhat excited to get new things. One woman was looking through the gloves and mini-face moisturizers and claimed she had 12 daughters so she needed to take several more. We knew this was an extension of the truth, although we let her take additional items, also aware of the fact that we needed to save some for others. It’s unfortunate that she felt the need to lie to be able to take extras. When guests exited the church after the medical exam and clothing shopping, we handed them bags full of yogurt, bagels, granola bars, fruits, oatmeal, and an optional warm and fresh lentil soup. There were additional flyers with various languages which read about how to sign up for the upcoming food pantry that the kitchens were already preparing for. Everyone left with a fuller smile than when they entered.

The shift we had was a little slow, although it was nice to physically see how other volunteers who come often have built personal connections with guests. The church is a safe space, knowing that there are pantries and multiple ways of support through their community. It felt good to have left with the satisfying feeling of feeding meals to people who might only eat what we served that day. It was partly sad to see some of the up-close people around our city who need the help, but also eye-opening to the fact that there are so many good volunteers who dedicate so much of their time to these programs.

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The Phantom: A Documentary About the Death Penalty

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On February 3, We watched an important documentary called The Phantom. It spotlights a case that was very significant in the world of criminal justice. The case surrounded a woman named Wanda Lopez, who was murdered in a convenience store in the middle of the night in 1983. The witnesses described the murderer as a Hispanic man. The police investigated and found a suspect named Carlos DeLuna. However, the man was innocent. Throughout his trial, he kept trying to tell the judge that it wasn’t him, but another person, Carlos Hernandez. Nobody had even considered this until much later after he got executed.

The documentary also focused on different people who had worked on that case, and their points of view. One thing that stood out was when Rene Rodriguez, the attorney for Wanda Lopez’s family was getting interviewed, and he said that “all these poor people, they were all getting found guilty, they were all going to death row, and nobody represented them”. This shows how most people from poor backgrounds got poorly represented, and no one really cared enough about them to do anything about it. Rene Rodriguez expressed regret when he recalled the case.

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School Nurse Jenna DiMarino Shares Insight on the Abortion Contraversy.

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For our first Fieldwork, Esme and I met with Jenna DiMarino, our school nurse. Because she is a school nurse she knows a lot about abortion rights. We interviewed her about her opinions on abortion laws and women’s reproductive rights and health care. She said that women should have choice over their own bodies, and that the government deciding about abortions and reproductive health care was not fair. It was really interesting to learn about her views and about how we can take action to make sure women in America have safe access to reproductive health care.
She talked about how religion sometimes restricts what is considered appropriate, and in some communities abortion and birth control are not okay. Abortion, reproductive health care, and birth control should all be accessible to every woman. We also talked about rape and how it really affects survivors who are pregnant and can’t get a safe abortion because of where they live, their religion or other reasons. States should not be able to choose whether or not a woman has control over her reproductive health, especially because a lot of the people in power are men. Women deserve safe reproductive health care no matter what.

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Interview with Bethany Sousa (lawyer for Planned Parenthood)

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Vivi and I interviewed Planned Parenthood lawyer Bethany Sousa. We talked a lot about self abortion and abortion access. She told us about the coat hanger abortion. She said it was a procedure where you stick the pointy end of a coat hanger into your uterus without touching the cervix to remove the uterine lining ending the pregnancy. She said it was not the safest method but became an emblem for abortion.
Regarding abortion access she told us about abortion funding which is when an organization provides money to a person in need of an abortion. She said because of the recent issues with abortion bans the abortion funding is not able to help everyone in need. We also talked a little about how Planned parenthood helped people in need of abortions in abortion banned states. Bethany told us that Planned Parenthood tries to connect the person to abortion funding or a facility nearby.

She was really helpful and is going to give us more patient stories and possibly a volunteering opportunity.

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Interview with Paige Oberlag and Todd Lowans

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On February 7th, me and my group interviewed Paige Oberlag and Todd Lowans. We wanted to know more about organizations that help in Haiti firsthand. Paige is the leader of Mission of Hope’s Women empowerment team. She was living in Haiti up until 2016, when she was forced to leave her home due to the rising violence. When this happened, she decided to devote herself to non profit organizations helping people in Haiti from the D.R. She has made a great impact and is fulfilling her mission every day. Todd started helping out when one of his friends who was a missionary in Haiti told him about the crisis there and he decided that he was going to make a change. He had been working there for a while untill one day, he woke up with gangs taking over his city and being evacuated. he had to be brought to another city and then the D.R. While he was in the small town he helped out get families back on their feet, and that drove him to keep going with his work once he reached the D.R. We asked about ways we could help out, but sadly, no opportunities showed themselves. They told us that the best ways to help out, especially when this topic is so overlooked and there is nothing much to do when you are so far away. They told us that simply being kind to Haitian immigrants can make a difference, because they are probably here alone, in a foreign country trying to make a living.
Overall their interview was very interesting and helpful for us to move forward with our project.

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Interview With Sasha Abraham

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We interviewed Sasha Abraham from the MOCEJ. She spoke about how important the impact that communities have on the climate change crisis. She echoed a lot of what we had heard regarding the fact that climate change does not impact all people equally. She talked about how important it was to recognize that people who have more money and resources are going to have massive advantages in the future.

She continued to discuss the possible solutions to climate change more specifically in the NYC environment. This included solar power, green infrastructure, and natural resources. It was quite helpful to hear this because it really backs up what we had been talking about in our research. Since we had not previously spoken about climate with a government agency it was very interesting to hear their perspective.

Despite this, the interview largely remained reminiscent of many other things we had heard from our interviewees. She was very emphatic and passionate about her topic and seemed to want to get the word out not just to adults but also to kids like us.

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Unveiling Bias: The Role of Court Monitoring

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Our group visited the New York Criminal Courts Building at 100 Centre Street. We met Robert Gangi, the founder of the Police Reform Organization Project, along with three college interns. In the courts, we monitored the people being arraigned for that day. We would first write down the defendant’s race and sex, and report, that out of the 12 cases we monitored, only one case involved a white male, while the other 11 cases involved New Yorkers of Color. Meaning that 91% of the cases were for New Yorkers of Color. We recorded the crime that the New Yorker was arraigned for. The violations ranged from Petty Larceny to Parole Violations to even Assult in the Second Degree. Some notable cases we experienced were cases 12, 10, and 7 where the judge and police showed an extreme amount of racial bias.

During case 10, A Black New Yorker was charged with Parole violation and a form of sexual assault. This New Yorker in particular had not attended his Parole meetings since November. In two public places, one in a bathroom and one on an escalator, this New Yorker exposed himself to a female and attempted sexual assault in front of her. He threatened a security guard with a knife saying “If you come any closer you´ll regret it.” The judge set “an unreasonable bail price¨Gangi said, which was 7500 and 5000 dollars. During Case 7, Another Black New Yorker was charged with a Weapon on Transit Authority. This New Yorker was Previously homeless and avoided many court summons due to substance use, but the judge wasn’t empathetic. For possession of a knife, She sentenced him to 5 days on Rikers Island, along with a re-summons to the court.

During our final monitored case, case 12, a Black New Yorker was charged with criminal mischief, a low-level misdemeanor. The man in question had previously been arraigned and had multiple arrest warrants outstanding. However, unlike the white male and the Latino woman, the judge exhibited significant bias. Instead of giving the man an RoR and an Order of Protection, the defendant was sentenced to 10 days on Rikers Island for “Fear of escaping arrest.”

This fieldwork provided us insight into court bias while also explaining how the justice system works. Thank you Robert Gangi for providing us with this hands on experience.

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Interviewing Ronald Cook Barrett

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In our third fieldwork, we interviewed Ronald “Cook” Barrett. Cook runs a gang prevention program and has been doing this for 30+ years. He was inspired to start this program because of the gang rise in his area as well as losing a 16-year-old to gang violence. This program helps youth growing up in poverty not join gangs.
We also learned that the influence of movies and rappers is sometimes a problem and convinces teens to join gang life. For example, in 21 Savage’s music, he explains multiple times throughout his songs about gang violence. 21 Savage grew up in a low-income area in Atlanta, where he joined the Bloods. He is one of the many examples of rappers speaking this way on their songs.

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A POV Into the Fight Against Homelessness; With Patrick Markee

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We interviewed Patrick on February 11th and we mostly asked him about the causes of homelessness and homelessness stereotypes. Patrick Markee worked as the former deputy executive director at Coalition for the Homeless for 20 years. He said that one of the main causes of homelessness is the affordable housing gap. The affordable housing gap is the money difference between someone’s salary and their rent. Patrick told us that rent is growing higher and higher each year while the average salary in New York is barely increasing. Patrick also told us about how when he was a child in New York City he never saw any homeless people living on the street, making him believe there were none. It was only till he moved to Boston to college when he noticed mass amounts of homeless people on the streets, making him believe that all of a sudden homelessness had become a big problem. Even though Patrick has dedicated 20 years of his life to working with Coalition for the Homeless before he obtained proper knowledge he believed certain stereotypes about homelessness that almost everyone believes. Patrick has spent his career educating people on the real meaning of homelessness and we are very lucky that we were able to obtain a small amount of his expertise.

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Interview with Planned Parenthood Bethany Sousa

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For this fieldwork, Esme and I interviewed Bethany Sousa over zoom. Bethany is a lawyer at Planned Parenthood, and she’s worked there for a really long time. We asked her similar questions to the ones that we asked Paola Ferst, who also worked at Planned Parenthood. We asked her if she thought abortions should be legal in America, which is our opening question for almost all our interviews. She obviously said yes, and she also said that it should be legal in every point in pregnancy, and that the government and states shouldn’t control women’s bodies. We also asked if she’d ever volunteered outside her organization, and she said that she actually worked at the National Women’s Law Center in Washington D.C., and that she has volunteered. We talked about birth control and how it liberates women and lets so many people live their lives easier. Birth control has helped so many women and is such a wonderful invention that so many women rely on. We asked her about any stories with patients where birth control or abortion made a big difference, but she personally didn’t have any so she said she would send some in. The next question was, Do you think women in america have enough safe reproductive healthcare? She said no and actually told us about Care Deserts, where women need to travel really far to get abortions and birth control. Some of the reason for Care Deserts is religiously affiliated hospitals. Some religiously affiliated hospitals don’t provide abortions, and reproductive healthcare is not covered by medicaid or state insurance. A lot of women who live in Care Deserts can’t afford to travel to get an abortion or can’t afford to pay for the actual procedure. She told us that Planned Parenthood supports women in Abortions banned states by having health care centers that provide other types of care and helping with patient navigation. They also refer some patients to other organizations that will help them get faster, safer, and cheaper care. One source that is usually referred is Abortion Funds, an organization that pays for women to travel for abortions or pays for the procedures at safe clinic. They also do separate advocacy in banned states, and they try to get legislative seats with democrats. We asked her, Why do you think people think they can control other people’s bodies? She said a lot about systemic sexism, and some women being raised in a sexist world. She also said that society has a mindset about controlling women, and men thinking that women’s bodies can be owned by men. We talked about how at home abortions are becoming more popular, like coat hanger abortions, and other violent kinds of self contraception. Some women throw themselves down the stairs, punch themselves in the stomach, or use herbs to try and end pregnancies. These methods are really unsafe and do more harm than good. Now, there are ways to get abortion pills in the mail that are safe and reliable, but they are being banned by the government in some states. We need to make abortion rights a federal bill and add them to the constitution. Bethany was really helpful and gave us a lot of informational insight.

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A thirty year gang specialist tells us his opinions and experience

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We interviewed Ronald “Cook” Barrett. Cook runs a gang prevention program and has been doing this for over 30+ years. He was inspired to start this program because of a gang war that was happening in Long Island, as well as losing a 16-year-old to gang violence. This program helps youth growing up in poverty not join gangs. We also learned that the influence of movies and rappers is sometimes a problem and convinces teens to join gang life. He believes that there are multiple reasons people join gangs.

The first is poverty. Young men often witness their peers flaunting designer clothes while they struggle with dirty, ripped jeans. This fuels a desire for luxury items, sometimes leading them to illegal stuff, like selling on the black market.

The second reason is security. Many young people live in neighborhoods with gang violence and feel threatened. By joining a gang, they mistakenly believe they will gain protection. After that, they often find themselves in even greater danger.

Even though Barrett says these are the problems, he emphasizes that having strong family relationships can significantly deter young people from gang involvement. When children feel connected to their families and recognize that their parents would be disappointed in their choices, they are more likely to stay away from gang life. Engaging in family activities such as sports, game nights, or movie nights can effectively keep children away from gangs and promote better choices.

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The guardian angels

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This documentary was about Curtis Sliwa, who started an organization called Guardian Angels.
The Guardian Angels were a group that protected the streets and trains in NY. They hired volunteers from around the world to survey the streets. Curtis created it because he was attacked by many other gangs when he worked at McDonalds.

This made him create the group; however, it came with repercussions. People died and were injured, including Curtis, during the Guardian Angels. The Guardian Angels were a group that surveyed the streets and protected people from violence. The Guardian Angels are still a thing today, and gang violence has gone down significantly from the 1970s when gang violence was up 325%.

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Interview at Washington Square Park (Raw Oppinions from Random People)

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Me and my partner Vivi went to washington square park to ask random people about their thoughts on abortion. We got a lot of interviews but there are a few we would love to highlight.

Our first interview we would love to share is an interview we did with an older man who was a professor. He told us that he believes that abortions should be available for life saving reasons. He said there have been preventable deaths that could have been avoided but were not because of abortion restrictions. He also said he worked a lot in prisons and he said that the worst thing that you could do to a child is let them get born without being wanted or being able to be cared for. He said it is a disservice to the child and the mother. We also talked to a person with a different view. This person believes he does not believe in abortion but he believes that people should have the right to choose. He had a completely different view about birth control. He said that he believes that birth control is murder and should not be allowed in any place. For our last interview we interviewed this woman from the UK. She was very pro abortion. She did not know much about the states but did know that women should be able to choose for themselves.

After all the interviews we were so surprised and happy with the amount of information we learned. This fieldwork was a huge help to figure out normal peoples opinions. If we could, we would do this again.

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Manhattan Church of Christ: Hands On Helping the Homeless

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In this fieldwork me and my partner Hudson, went to Manhattan Church of Christ where we met up with Carl Garrison. When entering the building there were people waiting out front for the building to open for services at 9am. We entered the building and went straight up to the 4th floor, where we got into a room with tables and a kitchen and open space. Carl gave us and other families and kids a talk on how it’s gonna look. First things first we put chairs out for each table, and set up all the food for all the people.

At 9:30 the food area, which is where we were, opened up and people came in quickly. We had cookies set up in cups that we instantly started handing out to people. Everyone had their coffee orders, I could tell they have been there before. Many were asking for more than one cup of cookies, but Carl said not to give it to them right away, even though people were begging. Soon more and more food was let out and we walked around and passed it all out. Many people had bags and were taking as much as they could and were stocking up for the week. He does this every Saturday and everyone restocks.

There was a big poster in the room that said in bold “Black History is…” It invited people that visited to write on the poster. I thought this was really cool for the community to bond and think about a prompt. People were writing and drawing flowers on the paper the best they could. Carl really found a way to connect to the community. I can tell he knew all the people and that they have been there before. He was talking to everyone at the tables, having a laugh, telling a joke, he lightened the mood well. He was going up and down from the kitchen to the clothing area. Overall this was a great experience, and it was fun to help people in need.

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Amy Donella Tells us About the Death Penalty in the U.S.

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On February 7th, my group mates and I had a zoom interview with Amy Donella, a criminal justice lawyer. She has been in this profession for about 40 years, but has been working in her current company for 4. She gave us a lot of information about discrimination about the incarceration system.

There was one case she told us about that taught about false witness. It involved a man named William who was shot and killed; the shooter ran off. No one could really see him, but the witnesses said that he was dark skinned and 6 feet tall. One piece of evidence that the police found was a cap near the crime scene. They used forensics and found that the sweat on the cap was traced back to two different people. However, they assumed that it belonged to the person with more sweat on it. That person was innocent. Ava helped them get exonerated. In the end, they found the real culprit, and he was light skinned and 5 feet, which was VERY different than what the witnesses had said. This shows how you can’t always depend on people who claim that they witnessed something.

Ava went on to talk about some more general information about the death penalty in the U.S. For example, she told us that America is one of the only countries in the world that still use the death penalty, alongside Japan, China, and other Middle Eastern countries. There are also hundreds of people every year that are exonerated after cases that were unconstitutional. We asked her what communities are affected the most by false imprisonment, and she said that the Black community is the most affected. Recent studies have shown that most prosecutors will seek the death penalty more often when when the defendant is black than any other race.

Overall, I learned a lot from my interview, and I’m looking forward to having more meetings with her.

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Interviewing gang specialists

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Our first fieldwork experience was with Alex Vitale, a crime professor, social justice project coordinator, and a parent at LREI. With 30 years of experience, he shared some insightful thoughts during our interview. He kicked things off by explaining what a gang is and the differences between the two main types. The first type is more like a close group of friends who hang out together regularly, while the second type refers to gangs that are involved in selling drugs or weapons. It was fascinating to hear his take on the topic! He believes that tackling gang violence starts with addressing poverty, as many people join gangs primarily for money and a sense of security. Alex Vitale said that some people live in super dangerous communities, and gangs represent a support system for the kids that live in these communities. This support system keeps gangs relevant because of protection.

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Watching Food Inc

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Over the past few days, I and my group have watched a documentary titled Food Inc. This documentary teaches us about where food comes from and how unhealthy big companies can be. It was so unsettling to learn how bad some food you see at the grocery store is for you. It made me think about people who don’t have enough money to afford the more expensive healthy/organic food. I think that it is crazy how much of the food in our stores is just from one or two companies.

A crazy fact we learned is there is corn in diapers, batteries, and peanut butter. As a country, we need to get better at mass production and food waste. It’s so bad for our environment and is a major cause of the food industry throughout the nation.

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Talking with Abby about Gods Love

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This week I and my group interviewed Abby Diess She works there and is the head of the youth program. She told us about the work they do at God’s Love and how they help make good healthy meals for people who can’t make them for themselves. They work with people who are elderly or sick to make sure they have food and are checked in weekly.

Another point Abby brought up was that you don’t have to be homeless, poor, or in a food desert to be food insecure.Many of Gods Loves customers are food insecure but not for the usual reasons ,they may be too sick to cook for themselves or not able to get food on there own even if they live near a grocery store.Overall God’s Love is really trying to helps those who sometimes go unnoticed in the bigger picture.

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Our Interview With Abby Diess From God’s Love We Deliver

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On February 6th Mabel Lucy and I went to God’s Love We Deliver. We went there to talk to Abby Diess about Food insecurity in NYC. Abby told us about how they deliver food to people who can’t get on there own. They deliver it to people all across the Burrows. Abby also took us on a tour of there kitchen so that we can see where all of their food and form and how they make it. There were lots people there that were very helpful and put all of the meals together so that everyone they serve can have a meal. They also make 17,000 meals per day and a breakfast lunch dinner and dessert plan.

After going to God’s Love We deliver I noticed even more about how much we should care for others about food. Everyone there loves to volunteers and help out. The kitchen also takes volunteers year round. Everybody there is very friendly and loves to do what they do. Having all of these people come out and spend time caring for others really makes a difference towards others health.

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Homelessness and its Raw Statistics

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Franklin Spurbeck works as a senior research assistant at Portland Universities Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative. Franklin’s job is to turn data into a clear and efficient analysis. For example, if 10 people are interviewed about how expensive their rent is Franklin will take their answers and turn them into statistics and graphs regarding past information and future prediction. After Franklin has created new statistics and compared them to other versions of data figuring out the causes and effects of homelessness becomes a lot easier. We asked Franklin some questions about homelessness and its main cause. The three main answers we got were, housing costs, income, and substance abuse. All of these things Franklin believes are the main causes/contributors to the homelessness epidemic. Another big takeaway that we took from our interview was how mental health affects an unhoused person. Specifically how negative stereotypes affect an unhoused person’s mental health. There are certain stereotypes that all homeless people are drug addicts, and that every homeless person wants to kill you and those things are just not true. Even though, yes there are some crazy people out there, they are less than ⅓ of NYCs unhoused population. It’s because of these fake ideas people have been so unempathetic towards the unhoused community. Franklin proved our thesis that New York City’s homeless community is often stereotyped and standardized as a crazy group of individuals all living on the street due to mental institutions closing almost 100 years ago by explaining to us that due to people’s fear and unwillingness to trust, homelessness has become a norm due to no one wanting to disrupt the century long tradition of normalizing the unhoused. If people were able to see past the stereotypes and minority of mentally unstable individuals they would understand that being unhosued is not a self brought curse. It is something you cannot control. If the public opened their hearts up, maybe landlords wouldn’t raise their rent a crazy high amount or an employer would look past the fact that someone didn’t have a home a couple of years ago. If people were able to do that the world would truly be a better place and we know this because of Franklin Spurbeck.

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Interview with Gabrielle Ramos-Solomon

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Hudson. L

On January 17, 2025, our field group interviewed Gabrielle Ramos-Solomon, who works at the Robin Hood organization which is a charitable organization for those who have less money to afford things like food, child care, and education. Whose mission is to get people out of poverty. Their main mission is to get people out of poverty. In the past, Gabrielle Ramos-Solomon was the chief of staff to the chancellor of the NYC Department of Education.

When we interviewed Gabrielle Ramos-Solomon, we learned that she used to work in schools that had low test scores, one of the reasons is because of funding inequality. Some of her eighth-grade students were stuck at a second-grade reading level, which is also partly because of funding inequalities. This was very frightening to hear because some schools don’t even teach their students how to read at a proper reading level. We also learned about the funding formula in schools. This is where schools get more money for kids with extra needs. Gabrielle said that the funding formula is very outdated because it does not cover the needs of kids now.

Learning all of this information was very helpful, and good to know because it helped me really understand how big and important my topic really is. Especially when she said that her eighth-grade students were reading at a level six grades below them. I always thought kids in New York had a decent education, at least decent enough to read at a level close to their grade. Hearing this made me actually feel sad because people deserve a better education. I think that because of this interview, I am actually starting to get more interested in my topic.

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Interview with Mission of Hope’s Todd Lowans and Paige Oberlag

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We had an interview with Paige Oberlag, the leader of Mission of Hopes Women Empowerment Team, and Todd Lowans, Mission of Hopes Vice President of operations. It was a pleasure interviewing them as they work at a Non-Governmental Organization that helps Haiti. Paige Oberlag currently lives in the DR with her husband helping out on the issue. In this interview, we learned Todd’s and Paige’s thoughts of Haiti in the media and some personal stories of theirs.

During our interview today, we asked the two how they think Haiti is portrayed in the media. Todd said that there is little to nothing about Haiti in the media, but there are some things when there is a heavy assassination, like the president a couple years ago. But ultimately, Todd thinks Haiti is covered when there is an American person stuck in Haiti and can’t get back to America. There are a couple things in the media, but once they are back to America there is nothing new. Paige had previously lived in Haiti in 2019, but when the gangs were on the uprise, they had to go to the DR, and they went from the north coast to the south coast only because of the gangs.

Todd had a story where overnight, the streets where he had his campsite were completely destroyed, and there were hundreds of roadblocks in the area. Another note, this only happened overnight. They had been trapped in the area, and someone had to come help them. Some friends from a separate organization had been kidnapped by some gangs in Haiti, but thankfully they were able to rescue them.

With all of the stories they told us about, it really just tells me how dangerous and quickly things can escalate there. The part with the media also just screams at me that the US really just doesn’t care about issues in places like Haiti.

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Suko Bey Shares Insights on Her CAP Project and Maternal Health Advocacy

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On February 6th, Paige and I traveled to the LREI high school to interview a senior, Suko Bey. When Suko was in 8th grade, she did a similar topic to ours. Suko focused on solutions for discrimination, like doulas and different prenatal and postpartum care centers. She told us about the organization with which she and her partner interned. Suko also told us about people she talked with, like an OBGYN and she gave us the contact information for the OBGYN. Although she didn’t remember much from her project, she still shared an amazing amount of information. Suko even expressed interest in coming to our Ted Talks when we present.

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Personal Stories From the High School GSA

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Alex, my citizen action project partner, and I met with the LREI high school GSA. On our walk over, we were practicing what we were going to say, but when we got there the unexpected happened. Alex and I were already in the library, where we told them we were going to meet, when a few members of the GSA started to arrive. We got up and walked over to them and said hi and they had completely forgotten about the interview. But that wasn’t even the worst part; when we sat down with them, we asked if other members were going to join, and they didn’t realize that we wanted the whole GSA. After everything got settled, they went and found three more members who we could talk to. And then we started the interview.

We had a very small amount of questions because our goal was to get more stories than information. Our first question was about each trans person’s experience with being trans in the high school, and in high school in general. Two people answered, and they both talked about how the community at the high school is really supportive and that when both of them came out, they only had to email one teacher, and the message got out about them switching pronouns.

Then we narrowed it down to specifically talking about gender affirming care, and there was only one person who has actually gone through any care. We asked about their experience with it, and they said that it wasn’t really a big deal when it happened, because they had been waiting for so long, that when their first appointment came along, it was only a few minutes long. Then we asked them if there was a reason that the rest of them didn’t get any care, and most of them said that them and their parents decided that it would be best to wait longer. Our last question was pretty brief, asking them about their opinions on the gender affirming care bans in NY hospitals and if it changed their opinions of NY itself. Pretty much everyone just said that they were angry and scared and even a bit disappointed in NY.

They were all very nice, and overall, it was a great meeting.

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Filling A Community Fridge

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On January 10th Mabel Lucy and I went to a community fridge. The point of a community fridge is to give out healthy food to people who can’t buy it on their own and need a bit of help. Lots of community fridges aren’t fill plus there aren’t many left for people to use if they need too. Most things that you think shouldn’t go into the fridges like chips, homemade food and perishable foods. But what you should put in there are milk, bread, cheese, and healthy foods. Having these fridges can really make a change in others lives.

After going to fill my first community fridges I started to think why don’t other people do this more often. Having these fridges makes a change for others health. As we were filling the fridge there was this person who was waiting very patently for us to finish so that they could all take the food. Once they took the food I could see it put a smile on there face. I never really thought that others getting food could put a smile on their face after receiving a meal.

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Our Interview With Abby Diess From Gods Love

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On February 5th Lucy Aria and I went to go and meet with Abby at the organization Gods Love We deliver. This organization is a great place. They deliver food to people with any kind of sickness that may make it harder to get food. Some people have things that make it harder to leave their house. Gods Love brings breakfast, lunch, and dinner to these people. If there is a mom or dad who is sick and is unable to leave the house, cook food, or they don’t have access to any Gods Love will deliver to them. The interesting thing is that the children will still not have food, Gods Love delivers to them as well.

All of the food is very healthy. In the summer volunteers grow food outside in a community garden. The food does not have sugar or too much salt so the way it tastes good, is because of the spices. God’s love provides 15,200 meals each weekend. The kitchen takes volunteers year round. Everybody in the kitchen is very nice and does incredible work everyday. We got to meet with the kitchen manager that showed us around. The oven, mixers, and freezers are huge because they store so much food.

We had an interview with Abby Diess. She talked about the relationships with the people they bring food to. A lot of the people look forward to seeing the driver every day. God’s love has build a very big community with everybody they help. Abby said that there are so many stories about how This organization has changed peoples life.

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Interview with Former Planned Parenthood Educator Paola Ferst

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We interviewed Paola about her experience as a Planned Parenthood educator. An educator is someone who goes to schools and jails and educates people on periods, abortions and sexual health. She was not only an educator though, she worked in screening the patients and scheduling appointments. We asked her if she had any stories she could tell us and she gave us two. SHe told us the story of a girl who did not want an abortion but whose mom was forcing her to get one. During the screening process Paola saw that she did not want an abortion and they would not permit her having one. The screening process is completely confidential and no one but the patient can go into the room. She also told us the story of a woman who was battling addiction coming in to schedule an appointment. Paola said that the woman was a little rude but she saw that she was dealing with something and did not judge her. The next week when the woman came back for her appointment she gave Paola a hug and said thank you for no Judging me. A lot of people have to get abortions but some people don’t agree.

We asked her if any people would come to Planned Parenthood to protest its existence. She told us about the 40 day life group. This was a group of people who would stand outside of the planned parenthood for 40 days in protest of abortion. We also asked her to talk a little bit on the effects of birth control banning. She told us that everybody uses birth control for different reasons such as period pausing, and acne control. To take birth control away from people without knowing what they need it for and how much they need it is inhumane and wrong.

A lot of people suffer and die because of abortion. It is unfair and cruel to be banning healthcare that people need to live. Paola helped us understand so much more and we are really grateful to her for all that she has done. She was a huge help for our research and gave us a lot of great information.

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Interview with Former Planned Parenthood Educator Paola Ferst

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We interviewed Paola about her experience as a Planned Parenthood educator. An educator is someone who goes to schools and jails and educates people on periods, abortions and sexual health. She was not only an educator though, she worked in screening the patients and scheduling appointments. We asked her if she had any stories she could tell us and she gave us two. SHe told us the story of a girl who did not want an abortion but whose mom was forcing her to get one. During the screening process Paola saw that she did not want an abortion and they would not permit her having one. The screening process is completely confidential and no one but the patient can go into the room. She also told us the story of a woman who was battling addiction coming in to schedule an appointment. Paola said that the woman was a little rude but she saw that she was dealing with something and did not judge her. The next week when the woman came back for her appointment she gave Paola a hug and said thank you for no Judging me. A lot of people have to get abortions but some people don’t agree.

We asked her if any people would come to Planned Parenthood to protest its existence. She told us about the 40 day life group. This was a group of people who would stand outside of the planned parenthood for 40 days in protest of abortion. We also asked her to talk a little bit on the effects of birth control banning. She told us that everybody uses birth control for different reasons such as period pausing, and acne control. To take birth control away from people without knowing what they need it for and how much they need it is inhumane and wrong.

A lot of people suffer and die because of abortion. It is unfair and cruel to be banning healthcare that people need to live. Paola helped us understand so much more and we are really grateful to her for all that she has done. She was a huge help for our research and gave us a lot of great information.

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Interview With Billion Oyster Project

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My partner Harvey and I interviewed the Billion Oyster Project and learned about what they do to make New York more sustainable to climate change. They hope to build a stronger connection with New Yorkers and their environment and have a bigger impact on what is going on.

They hope to plant 1 billion oysters in New York Harbor by 2035. By planting the oysters it can naturally strengthen the shorelines of New York to minimize the damage caused by high wave energy brought by large storms. Putting the oysters in the water can improve water quality, boost biodiversity, and protect the shorelines from erosion and storm surges. This fieldwork really showed us how there are so many different ways to combat climate change.

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Interview With Former Teacher: Caroline Walker

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My group met with Caroline Walker, a former teacher of ours who taught us about food insecurity in 5th grade. We asked her about how food insecurity affects children’s ability to learn. She told us that children have a lot of anxiety about when their next meal will be. She also said that it impacts the child’s life to wonder when they will eat. She also talked about how many children rely on school meals food to be fed. We also asked about how food desserts result in unhealthy eating outcomes. She told us that many parts of town don’t have access to a grocery store with fresh veggies or produce and that many places where people shop are delis that only sell very expensive fruits and vegetables so it is cheaper to buy unhealthy food.

Another question we asked her was: Why do you think food prices have changed drastically and why is packaged food becoming the alternative? Her response was that:
– Big business have taken over the food industry
– Hard for small farms and businesses to stay alive
– Hard to make a profit.
We also asked which neighborhoods are most affected by food insecurity. And she said that neighborhoods in the Bronx are highly affected by food insecurity.

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A Heavy Conversation: Chrissy Sample’s Story of Racism and Unbearable Loss

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On February 5th, Paige and I interviewed Chrissy Sample through Zoom. Chrissy Sample is a mom of two boys who lives in Brooklyn, NY. Chrissy had her first child before the pandemic; he is 12 years old. During the pandemic, Chrissy became pregnant with twins. When you are pregnant with multiple children, you are required to see your doctor twice a week. However, with Chrissy, her doctor’s appointments were not beneficial. Chrissy told us that her doctor’s bedside manner was rude and indifferent. When Chrissy would ask a question about her health, the doctor would say, “It’s all relative.” Chrissy told us she had no idea what this meant, but the doctor would not explain anything to her. Chrissy told us that she did not want to initially jump to the conclusion that she was being discriminated against, but eventually, it became clear that that was the case. Chrissy said that she began to feel neglected by her doctor but there was nothing she could do because the entire world was dealing with a highly infectious virus. She could not change doctors and she could not receive proper prenatal care.

Chrissy also discussed the cost of having a baby in the United States. Paige and I were both shocked that it could cost up to 40 thousand dollars to give birth. Insurance will cover most of this cost, but you are still left with 3 to 5 thousand dollars in debt to the hospital. Even if money is not an issue, access may be. Women need proper prenatal, birthing, and postpartum care, which is not offered and is accessible everywhere, especially in less wealthy areas.

We discussed so many issues over our 40-minute interview that were helpful to our research and provided a lot of insight into our topic. We closed the interview by asking Chrissy, “How can we help?”. She told us the most important thing we can do is keep learning, build a community, and then educate the community. If we can teach more people about these stereotypes and the stigma involved, it will bring more awareness. Our conversation was extremely heavy and taught us the importance of having everyone tell their story.

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Interview with Homelessness Research Expert

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In this fieldwork we interviewed Franlin Spurbeck, a researcher on the homeless. I again was a note taker, and so was Hudson, and Stevie did the talking. She shared very valuable information with us and helped us learn more about our topic because they are an expert on it. They educated us on many things such as facts about effects from homelessness, and ways to stop homelessness.

Something that they said that caught my attention was that being homeless can make kids have a less likely chance of having a better future, and a good education. She said education can play a big role in being homeless, because when so, you must make good choices to maybe make it out. If you have a bad education it can cause being an alcoholic and making bad choices to help yourself.

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NYU Protest For Gender Affirming Care

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Alex, my citizen action project partner, and I went to the protest in front of the NYU buildings to fight for them to bring gender affirming care back.

I got there early, around 6, when the event was supposed to start around 6:30, and me and my dad looked around and got a feel for our surroundings. It was at Saint Vartan Park, right next to one of the main NYU buildings, on 1st avenue and 35th street. When we met up with Alex, and their dad, we entered the park, which was already starting to fill up. It was already dark out and the park lights were the only source of light. The stage was very small, and from where we were, we couldn’t see it. However, the speakers were incredible, and we could hear every single word spoken to the audience. It was incredible. There were many speakers who came up and told their stories. Many of them were trans and most of the trans people had gotten, or were still getting gender affirming care at NYU when that happened. If the speaker wasn’t trans, they were a parent of a trans person, and a huge ally. It was incredible to hear about all of these heartbroken people, facing first hand, how horrible the next four years of everyone’s lives will be. Many people were carrying signs or flags and every person there was ready to fight. There were many cheers, and one of the most common ones was, the speaker says,”When trans rights are under attack, what do we do?!” The audience yells back, “Stand up; fight back!” There are many different versions of the question, but the answer is always the same. This symbolizes how there will be many challenges thrown at our community, but we always have to do the same thing, “Stand up; fight back.”

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Bethany Sousa: A Health Care Advocate

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Alex, my citizen action project partner, and I interviewed Bethany Sousa, a reproductive and gender affirming health care advocate, who works with planned parenthood. When the meeting first started, we gave Bethany a heads up that some of the questions may be hard to answer, either from a legal standpoint, or because they may be unknown at the time based on the state of the government and country. We also told her that we knew that planned parenthood is being federally funded, so they could get shut down at any moment, and she clarified for us that they don’t actually get funded from the government, but that the insurance policies would change, and people who use Medicaid, which is a form of coverage for low income people, wouldn’t be able to go there anymore.

When we started by asking our first question, it was about the overall goal of planned parenthood, and Bethany told us a bit about the mission for the national office, where she works. She told us that their whole thing is about advocacy and standing up for what’s right. Then she told us about the mission for the whole planned parenthood, and it was pretty straightforward; providing quality healthcare for all patents. We then asked her why she chose to work at planned parenthood, and she told us that she had worked on the federal level at a different organization before she went over, and that she wanted to make an impact and change. She told us that she had always been very passionate about equality, and especially with rights over your own body. Planned parenthood hadn’t even started working on LGBTQ+ treatments until quite recently and they’ve expanded a lot already. We then asked her many more questions about how the government is affecting their work and what her hopes and fears are for the future. She said she had a lot of fears with what Trump is trying to do, and that she thinks the government will try and target gender affirming care first, even before abortion rights, given the current circumstances and what he has already done.

Something that really stood out to me was what Bethany said, when we asked her about her hope for the future. She says, “I you know, I do have some hope that even before Trump is out of office, for whatever reason, whether it’s four years or less, I do have some hope that there will be some culture change. I think I think that we need culture shift on, you know, transgender rights and I’m a little bit hopeful that we will see some in the next few years because there are a lot of advocates that care about working on this issue and that that the problem is so clear now… So I think that gives me a little hope too.” I think that should give everyone a little hope.

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Interview With Keanu Arpels-Josiah

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My partner Harvey and I spoke with Keanu Arpels-Josiah, a former LREI student and climate activist who works for Fridays for Future. He told us how important it is to speak out about climate change and to push for a better future. He said how important it is to find common ground with the people who don’t believe in the climate crisis and call it a hoax.

He spoke strongly about how there is still hope for the future. He said that I lot of people tried to ignore climate change. Keanu said that this is the worst thing that could be done as well as letting the people who don’t believe that climate change is real have a voice in what is best for the planet that we live on. The most important thing that we can do is to get outside and have our voice heard and speak out on what we to do to help our planet.

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Interview with Keanu Arples-Josiah

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We spoke with Keanu Arples-Josiah, a former LREI student and climate activist who works for Fridays for the Future. We learned about how important it is to get the word out about climate change. He talked about how important it is going to be to act and push for a better future. He also said that it was very important to find common ground with people who do not believe in the climate change crisis. This point was very important as there are many instances of racism and socio-economic strategies to put fossil fuel plants and refineries close to these so-called “undesirable” real estate locations.

He was very vocal about how important it was to remember that there is still hope for the future. A lot of people just covered their eyes and tried to ignore it. However, this is the worst thing to do as it is just opening the door for people that deny climate change. In other words, if the only thing being said is a lie, it will only be a matter of time before it becomes the truth. It is important to get out there and be vocal about this issue because that is the only way progress can be made.

Our president, the people that control the things we buy everyday, and many more, are vocal deniers of this enormous issue. The overlying factor is, there are many people with money, wealth, and power, that are going to fight against everything that needs to be done. This could include misinformation propagated by oil companies such as the so called “carbon footprint,” which in fact, is targeted to glaze over the massive effect that oil has on the climate, or the widespread belief that climate change is just a hoax, they both share that same opinion.

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