2024-2025

Project Pink Tax and Their Opinions on Abortion.

by Esme

I talked to two of the co-founders of the organization Project Pink Tax. Project Pink Tax’s mission is to spread awareness about Pink Tax. Pink Tax is working in many places giving children the period products they need to survive. They even worked in Tanzania showing young kids how to make reusable pads.
Rhaya Jacobs and Yochi Hobson Told us a little about how they both believed that Abortion was really important and how Pink Tax goes along the lines of that. Womens products are priced as a luxury item just because of the color of the product or how much a woman needs that product. They told us about how their entire organization is a non-profit and youth run. They have people in highschool in college and even right out of college.
They were a huge help and we loved interviewing them.

by Esme

by Alex Corwin

Sylvie, my citizen action project partner, and I went to the High School to learn more about trans youth in New York City. We interviewed many of the GSA members to get more personal stories about trans people, and to get a better understanding about their perspectives on the recent gender affirming care bans. Since…

by Henry

For our final fieldwork, we reached out to another non-profit organization called Hope for Haiti. Their main goal is to improve the quality of life for specifically Haitian women and children. On February 21, 2025, we had the opportunity to interview Hope for Haiti’s director of philanthropy, Briana Beauvoir.

She grew up very interested in Haiti as her dad’s side of the family is from there. Briana told us about the time that she visited Haiti. She described nature, food, beaches, and told us how beautiful Haiti truly is. There was a time when kids were playing on a beach that was filled with trash due to the lack of garbage trucks. The kids were still joyful and grateful to play on the beach. Briana talked about how the people of Haiti are so pure and filled with kindness.

In the interview, we asked her if she thought that Haiti gets enough coverage in the U.S. media. She told us that Haiti was a big country and that Port-Au Prince was a very small part of Haiti. The U.S. only focuses on the violence that is going on in Port-Au Prince. There is so much more to Haiti than all the cruelty that is happening in one place. She said that the U.S. specifically covers Port-Au Prince because they like to use big headlines such as all the massacres going on.

I think that it is truly sad how people depict Haitian people and group them all together as violent people just because of gang violence. As Briana said, Haitian people are very nice and the U.S. media needs to cover things outside of Port-Au Prince.

by Luke Niziol

We had the opportunity to meet with Briana Beauvoir from Hope for Haiti. Briana is Hope for Haiti’s Director of Philanthropy. She helps with all of the funding and emails that they receive. During our interview, we learned about Hope for Haiti’s Hike for Haiti event. The Hike for Haiti event is about registering as a team to Hike the equivalent of 200 flights of stairs to raise awareness for Haiti. As of right now, Haiti needs our help more than ever. There is violence everywhere, and the thought of being murdered comes up everyday.

The organization Briana Beauvoir works at, Hope for Haiti, is a not profitable organization aiding Haitian communities in southern Haiti. Briana had told us about Hope for Haiti’s work, giving 7,000 children schooling. What we learned from the interview was Briana’s thoughts on Haiti in the media. Since Donald Trump was saying immigrants were eating dogs and cats in Springfield, for the people that believed that, it gave them a negative view of Haitian people. Haitians people are very kind, and it is upsetting that people view them like this. The media gives Haitian people a negative portrayal whenever they actually cover the media.

by Julian Martos

For our first fieldwork, we decided to interview Pauline Ross. Pauline Ross was the Attorney State of New York for many years and was a prosecutor at the Department of Justice. With her having experienced many cases, she saw patterns in the judicial system. We asked questions ranging from how she has seen the justice system in her eyes, to cases that she covered.

During the interview with her, we got to learn many things about how prisons are made up of people who are lower class and talked about how she has seen how high prison bail is for prisoners and because of this, they might not be able to pay it. This can lead to people spending a high amount of money to be free or to stay in prison or Rikers which has terrible conditions.

by Harvey F. Mollison

We interviewed Aja Two Crows from the New York Climate Exchange. She spoke about how she was very interested in the arts and culture, K-12 education, community-based research, citizen science, and micro-grants programs. She and her coworkers essentially develop programming for the new NYC Climate Exchange trying to push forward new plans and ideas.

She also talked about how we should accelerate projects that already exist and uplift other multidisciplinary issues. In other words, thinking about it from many perspectives. This can include buildings, food, air, building decarbonization, and many more. The idea of having many partners also came up a lot, regarding their relationships with over 12 universities, 3 corporations, and 33 community partners. They are there to help forge connections between them to help the issue at large. For example, they could pull together a bunch of scientists to discuss with writers about the impacts of climate change to attempt to get the word out.

This all was very amazing to me as the entire organization is fairly new to the world. It had only been founded in April of 2023 and Aja has been there for 8 months. To already have this much work completed and in place is quite an achievement. It is good to know that whilst there is so much to feel badly about regarding climate change there are also so many people and organizations that support this effort.

by Masami Umehara

On February 7, 2025, we had an interview with Anna Bateman, the Stewardship and Development Manager of NYC H2O. NYC H2O is an organization that educates New Yorkers about the local water ecology in New York.
Anna taught us about how it’s not just important to be mindful of our waste. We should understand where all our waste is going, and how long it stays on Earth. She also said it’s important to know why we’re consuming and try to consume less. She also talked about experiences she had on the beach. Of course, she found trash, but she also found a pile of creepy mannequin legs on the shore. Sadly, she also saw dead animals stuck in plastic bags washed up onto the shore. She could see the impact of ocean pollution just by walking by the shore.
Anna thinks prevention is the most effective way to stop ocean/water pollution. For example, people can prevent trash from blowing out of trash cans, or limit how much they use or buy something that can contribute to ocean or water pollution. Things that we, normal people can do to affect this problem is beach cleanups. It’s easy to sign up for and is enjoyable(for some people).
She also told us about ways we young people can impact ocean/water pollution in the future as a job. There are many types of skills and jobs around this topic. Most people think of trash and marine debris, cleanups and marine biologists when they think of ocean pollution. But there are many more different aspects of ocean pollution, and many ways to help. Anna said it’s important to know what you’re passionate about and what skills you have and connect it to ocean/water pollution to make an impact using your skills and interests.

by Julian Martos

While interviewing Robert Gangi, we asked if we could court-monitor his organization, PROP. This organization helps count race statistics in court and end bias in court systems. On February 12th, we went to 100 Centre Street, which houses the New York County Criminal Court. We arrived at 10:00, met many people from PROP, and settled into court.

During the cases, we recorded many facts like their race, gender, what they were being accused of, and their sentence. We saw many tragic cases throughout the day. One case was about a man being sentenced and was sent to Rikers Island. One surprising fact we saw inside the court was that 7/10 people having their case that day were African American, and one person was white.

At the end of the day, we met up with Robert Gangi for a closing statement, with him discussing what we saw and the statistics we got. With us learning many things about the court, we gained new insight into the justice system and how its flaws are biased and unfair for many people.

by Masami Umehara

On February 6, 2025, we visited the New York Aquarium in Brooklyn with Eliza and the Microplastics group(Xander, Hannah, Fox, Audrey, Taiyo).
We learned about how oysters can help the ocean. Oysters filter water and make it clear, and the clear water helps plants grow, which provides habitats for marine animals. Oysters have disappeared from New York because of pollution, dredging, and overharvesting. An organization called the Billion Oyster Project is helping restore oysters in New York Harbor.
We also learned about everyday items that can pollute our ocean and things we can use instead. Normal soap is better than antibacterial soap, because of the chemicals inside it. The chemicals will go down the drain, and into the ocean, and the chemicals can kill marine life. Regular soap works just as well to clean yourself. Powdered detergent is better than liquid detergent because it’s lighter and inside biodegradable boxes. On the other hand, liquid detergent is heavier to ship and comes in plastic bottles. We also learned that a single oil-change’s worth of motor oil dumped in the drain or gutter can pollute and ruin a million gallons of fresh water. Instead, you can go to their local auto parts store, and recycle old oil for free. When you flush old medicines down the drain, they would end up in rivers and oceans, which would damage marine life. Instead, you can return them to the pharmacy.

by Will Mankins

Theo and I watched a documentary called The White Helmets. It is about a humanitarian aid group that worked during the Syrian civil war. About 1,200 of them worked at 120 different locations. Throughout the war, they saved about 53,000 people, including 14,000 children. While doing this job, they lost about 130 different White Helmets. Watching this documentary has truly shown me how many people can be saved even with so few people over just about a decade. I have learned that just a couple of dollars can save thousands of lives.

by Jack Rosen

During this fieldwork, our group met with Nick Lesnansky, a police officer and homicide detective in Aurora, Colorado. Nick has over a decade of experience in public service. This interview gave us insight into what the job entails. He shared his journey from recruit to patrol officer, recruitment, field training officer, and finally to his current role as a detective. “In policing,” Nick said, “you go through a six-month academy before you begin working on the road as a full-fledged officer. Then, you’re paired with a senior officer for three months for further evaluation, and they sign off on you during your probationary period.” Even though we were seeing bias in the NYPD system, police are extensively trained everywhere to ensure “public safety.”

We wondered how he and other police felt about the growing prejudice in the system along with the programs aimed at defunding it. “That means less training for us, right? That means less active shooter training, that means less. That means less, you know, arrest control techniques, right? Less de-escalation training; less — like that’s the first thing that gets cut from training because that’s just too expensive. And then that means fewer cops, less well-trained cops, and less knowledgeable cops who know what they’re doing. And then, you know, the good cops who excel at their jobs don’t want to stay because they aren’t paid enough.” This resonated with us because it makes the solution unclear. Well-trained police lead to less crime, but there is still an enormous amount of bias in police systems, so what can we do? If there are no police, crime skyrockets, leading to another problem.

Overall, he wanted us to realize that these officers are not viewed as people. Like what Robert Gangi said, the public forgets that police officers are citizens like you. ” We’re not robots, we’re real people,” he remarked. “I have, you know, I have a dog and a fiancée and, um, you know, I like watching football and all that stuff, right? Like, um, we people too. um you know, I’m and like I said, we’re always trying to get better. We spend a lot of time doing training every year just to keep our certifications through the state. we’re always practicing and trying to be better. um and if there truly is an issue, um, you know, or people don’t, people have problems, I mean, we have, you know, all these different mechanisms for people to talk to the police department.” Nick does his job. In all of his 13 years of work, he never felt the need to use his gun. It’s more trained police like him that we need. Police are uncertain about what is going on, but are quick to sort out the situation without prejudice or bias. He emphasized the theme “Nobody’s perfect” meaning that he cares for improvement and feedback just as much as his colleagues. More police like Nick can change the way we arrest, try, and sentence individuals everywhere.

by Hudson Moore

On February 8th Me and my groupmate, Alex, went to the Manhattan Church of Christ to help the homeless by giving them food. A man named Carl Garrison runs it. When I got there,e we set up chai, rs, and Carl explained what to do. There were a bunch of things to do, and there was always something you could do, so it never got boring. I started by setting up the chairs. The,n I put a bunch of cookies into cups to give to the homeless people. Then we took out boxes of Oreos and chips. Then, homeless people started coming in, and I gave them cookies and coffee. Then, after a little, we started handing out meals. We did this for a while, then took a break in a room we could chill in downstairs. After a little, I checked the time, and it was almost over. It had only felt like 45 minutes,s but 3 hours had gone by.

by Hannah Huang

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.

by Alexander Donadic

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.

by Alexander Donadic

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.

by Logan Chen

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

by Klara Moss

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.

by Abigail (Gail) Pena

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.

by Esme

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.

by Esme

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.

by 29massambaa

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.

by Harvey F. Mollison

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.

by Jack Rosen

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.

by 29milesg

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.

by 29stevieh

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.

by Vivi

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.

by Antonio Dominguez

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.

by Antonio Dominguez

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%.

by Esme

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.

by Alexander Donadic

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.

by Abigail (Gail) Pena

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.

by Antonio Dominguez

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.

by 29lucetter

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.

by 29lucetter

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.

by 29ariai

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.

by 29stevieh

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.

by Hudson Lewis

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.

by Luke Niziol

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.

by Agatha Uglesich

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.

by Sylvie Malamet

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.

by 29ariai

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.

by Mabel Fox

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.

by Esme

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.

by Esme

by Xavi Solish

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.

by Alex Corwin

Bethany (Beth) Sousa is the Senior Policy Counselor for Planned Parenthood, an organization that focuses on reproductive health and advocacy for gender affirming care and bodily autonomy. This care is of high quality and focuses on people with lower incomes, making this a very accessible way of receiving healthcare. Beth was drawn to this line…

by Alex Corwin

Sylvie, my Citizen Action Project partner, and I arrived at St. Vartan Park in Manhattan at roughly 6:30 p.m. for a protest fighting for the rights of trans kids. There was already a crowd forming, with people holding signs and flags. Many of the signs had notable phrases: “New York is Helping Fascists Follow Their…

by Charlotte Vitale

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.

by Agatha Uglesich

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.

by Alexander Donadic

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.

by Sylvie Malamet

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.”

by Sylvie Malamet

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.

by Xavi Solish

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.

by Alex Corwin

Sylvie, my Citizen Action Project partner, and I watched a documentary titled “The Fight for Gender-Affirming Care.” This documentary was hosted by Arielle Duhaime-Ross, a trans journalist who fights for the rights of trans people. The documentary focused on specific stories, laws, and statistics in the United States about gender affirming care. They opened with…

by Harvey F. Mollison

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.

by Julian Martos

For our fieldwork, we watched the documentary 13th, which is an eye-opening documentary created by Ava Duvernay that shows the timeline of racism in the justice system and the real world. This shows how long racism has changed forms and found loopholes in the law.

One way that racism has found loopholes is by the war on drugs. In the documentary, we learned many things about the Nixon campaign, and the major thing was how the war on drugs was set up. During Nixon’s election, the war on drugs was fought as a criminal issue, not a health issue. This increased the number of incarceration rates and led people who smoked marijuana to be sent to jail. Because of this, federal spending for local law also increased to almost double the amount because of the mass incarceration. This led to hundreds of thousands of people being sent to jail, and the majority of them were African Americans. Later, the Nixon administration officials admitted that the war on drugs was to get African Americans in jail.

Another way that racism has affected families is with Reagan as president. Reagan’s campaign group made many ads and newsletters that criminalized black families and children of color. During his term, many media depicted black people as evil, which led to more arrests and fear of them. This led to more racism and unjust sentencing.

by Hudson Moore

My grade and I went to MCNY. We took the train to 103rd Street. When we got there they took us upstairs and talked about the importance of activism in NYC. Then we got to see all the different types of activism in NYC. We saw disability rights, Black rights, women’s rights, trans rights, and many more.

I liked the museum for many reasons. I liked the look of the museum and how they set everything up. It looked modern, and there was some nice artwork. I liked the activist exhibit because there were different sections for different activism. I liked this because it felt like you could toon into that world of activism. Overall the trip was really fun and I liked it.

by Julian Martos

Today, we met with Robert Gangi, the founder of the Police Reform Organizing Project (PROP). Gangi has been an activist, Public advocate, and community organizer for over 40 years. After working for the Correctional Association for 29 years, he decided to create PROP to end abusive policing techniques that harm many people, including people of color.

While interviewing him, we got to ask many questions about what he does at PROP and how young people care about this issue. One thing that he told us is that since he has been working since the ’60s, he has seen how the political climate has changed and how people fought against Jim Crow laws and the Vietnam War. another thing he noticed during the ’50s is how little activism was happening for young people, which shows how much politicly the United States changed with Nixon being elected and the war on drugs happening, which was a way that Nixon and his party arrested African Americans. The Nixon administration admitted this, which led to a massive prison increase throughout the 70’s and 80’s.

We also got to learn how he got into this career with the District Attorney who worked with the DA office and wanted to change things from the inside. they reached out to Robert and knew about their work, which helped him get into the field.

by Otis

On January 16th, 2025, my groupmates Klara and Charlotte and I went with Caroline Walker to Chisdora House. We went there to interview Caroline’s neighbor and the Executive Director of the East Village Community Coalition. We asked her about her and her organization’s efforts to combat food insecurity in the East Village.
Laura told us that there had been a food refrigerator in the area that was always being refilled. I thought that this was very special because it gave a food source to people who were struggling to get food to eat or struggling with homelessness. Laura was very invested in food for all people and I found that very powerful.
Overall, our interview with Laura was very helpful and informative. She was very great for information and sources for us to contact.

by Audrey Martin

On January 27th, my group and I decided to take action and clean up the pier. We gathered early in the morning with gloves and trash bags, ready to make a positive impact on our environment.

Walking along the pier, we encountered various types of litter, including plastic wrappers, cardboard, and even pages from books. Despite the amount of trash, it felt rewarding to know that each piece we picked up was one less item polluting our ocean. We also noticed a significant amount of trash and plastic in the river, which was shocking to see, as it affected the homes of many animals, including ducks, fish, geese, and more.

By the end of the day, we had filled an entire bag with trash, leaving the pier cleaner and more inviting. The experience was not only enjoyable but also served as a powerful reminder of the importance of keeping our environment clean, as we are not the only ones living here. It illustrated that even small actions can lead to positive changes and highlighted the importance of getting involved in small ways to help our health and the environment.

by Audrey Martin

On January 10th my group and I visited Washington Square Park to see how many people knew about composting. We talked to 16 people: 10 knew about composting and 6 did not. Those who knew about composting shared some cool facts. One person compared it to growing herbs, while another mentioned that Boston has a great composting system. We also learned that Seattle has a good composting system, and some cities even turn waste into bio.

However, some people said that their city makes it hard to compost because of a lack of support and infrastructure. Overall, this experience showed us that while some places are doing well with composting, there’s still a lot of work to be done to make it easier for everyone. This highlights the need for better systems and more awareness to support composting efforts and make it accessible to all.

by Audrey Martin

On January 8th we interviewed Valorie Tovar who is a marine biologist who works hard to protect sea life and restore ocean habitats. She graduated with a degree in ocean biology from a college in Florida and has been working very hard to protect our oceans. Valorie states microplastics are a huge problem for our oceans and explains that every ocean animal, from tiny plankton to large tuna, is exposed to microplastics. This contamination spreads through the food chain and affects humans.

Microplastics contain harmful chemicals that can cause hormone imbalances and cancer. We ingest plastic daily, even from hot beverages in plastic cups or food containers. This daily exposure is dangerous and needs to be addressed. Valorie believes that everyone can help by going to beach cleanups, using sustainable options instead of plastics and educating others about the dangers of microplastics.

by 29ariai

Mabel, Lucy and I watch a documentary called food inc. the things that food Inc is about are processed food, animal life and food waste. the animals in the documentary have been treated so badly, especially the chicken. the chicken have to live in a big barn that is overfilled with other chickens, most of them are overfed and can’t walk because of how fat they get. having this thought in mind people might go and get the organic brands after hearing what happens with your food but getting these organic brands might not be the best for you or your health.

after watching Food Inc I’ve realized even more that food is a privilege. this documentary made me really think deep about how our food is processed to us. I think that people should know about this because the food that you eat could really make a change in your health and the way that you feel.

by Jack Rosen

For this fieldwork, our group watched “13th,” a documentary regarding the historical context of the criminal justice system in the U.S. The documentary begins just after Emancipation in 1865 and goes through the years to discuss the modern-day criminal justice system. Many people may wonder, why is it so important to start right after slavery? The answer lies in the Black Codes. Following 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment proclaimed Emancipation for everyone except prisoners. It was basically used for whatever person wanted to use, so it was mass exploited. Since the South was filled with ex-Confederate sheriffs and judges, Black Americans would be incarcerated back into a system where they could be used as “slaves.” And nobody seemed to care because it was allowed by the constitution.

It’s also important to recognize the mass incarceration rates during the presidencies of Clinton, Reagan, and Nixon. During Nixon’s presidency, he introduced a rhetoric titled “A War on Drugs,” which intentionally targeted Black Americans and anti-war activists. You could serve time in prison for the simple “misdemeanor” of smoking marijuana. A quote from Nixon’s campaign team stated “We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be against the war or to be black. But by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and black with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.” During Reagan’s presidency, he enforced Nixon’s war on drugs even more. His actions led the public to believe propaganda portraying Black children as “Superpredators.” This resulted in blanket statements about black people that portrayed them as bad people. And because of that, it made it easier to accept that they should go to prison. During Clinton’s term, he was nothing short of ruthless towards criminals. He created Mandatory Minimums, the Three Strikes Your Out law, and the 85% law. These laws ensured people would be put away for life if they committed three crimes, people would have to serve 85% of their sentence, and more.

Note that many of those laws were not created by presidents. A somewhat-known nonprofit has corporations working with a select few republican senators to make laws that directly benefit the corporations focused on. Its name is ALEC: American Legislative Exchange Council. Laws like Mandatory Minimums, SB1070, and Stand Your Ground Laws have all had serious repercussions, including the publicized tragedy of Trayvon Martin, but have also had major money cuts for places like the CCA, Walmart, and other companies. However, not only ALEC corporations benefit from the criminal justice system. Private corporations like Victoria’s Secret and JCPenny run on cheap prison workforces. The fires in California were given prisoners to do the firefighting. It is just crazy to think about how much we rely on prisons and how so many people are biased against because of race.

by Logan Chen

On Thursday, January 23rd, I had the pleasure to meet Cecilia Aranzamendez. She has over 16 years of experience working with migrants especially, both in legal work and from a management perspective. She works at LSSNY (Lutheran Social Services of New York) to oversee their Immigration and Safe Haven for Children programs which works with unaccompanied minors, with many of them being migrants who were separated from their families. She says that working in that program, her and her colleagues have taken on a parenting role for kids who really need the help. We covered many topics regarding migrants, their rights in NYC, and what their future may hold.

She told us that there are many differences between civil law and immigration law. For example, an immigrant or migrant is not entitled to a lawyer. Although you have the right to counsel with one, the government will not provide a lawyer to a migrant. With many migrants coming in with little wealth, that makes hiring a lawyer simply impossible.

I also learned about what jobs many new coming migrants are taking, if they can find any. If you didn’t know, migrant workers are not allowed to be employed until they’ve spent 180 days in the United States. However, Biden did amend this for New York City being a sanctuary city, and it was changed to 30. Yet, Trump’s anti-migrant beliefs may change this drastically. It is heartbreaking to learn that some families aren’t even legally allowed to provide for their children especially when it’s all they want; even if they are taking minimum wage jobs in the food industry or construction.

Through all this fear with the new Trump administration coming for a second term, she told us some ways that we are trying to fight against that. Red cards are being handed out which tells a migrant what rights they have. “Know your rights” seminars are popping up everywhere. Talking with Aranzamendez, the thing I take away from this the most is that our government can be so cruel towards innocent people trying to make better lives for themselves. But, it’s good to know that there are so many people out there who are a shining example of what we can do to help.

*Photo from the LSSNY website

by Logan Chen

On Saturday, January 18th, my group mate, Oliver and I worked with Carl Garrison at Manhattan Church of Christ. Garrison works with unhoused people and migrants, and offers them food and clothes free of charge. We put together meals including hotdogs, chili, and cheesecake for dessert. I met families, and individuals all with many different lives. However, while they may be homeless, many of them are still joyful. We sang and danced around with them, and listened to their intriguing stories. For example, one man I met had been a preacher and in a choir ever since he was a teenager. He even gave a small performance. But not all stories are cheerful. I also met a father, trying to get enough food to support him and his family. He looked like he hadn’t eaten for days.

Just getting to be in the presence of dozens of people who don’t know where their next meal will come from has made me reflect on how I’ve never had this fear. This really widened my eyes to the experiences people are going through. Garrison is one of the many trying to help unhoused people, along with the over 50,000 migrants in shelters right now. Meeting fathers and children, who have traveled far for this meal has made me more aware that nutrition isn’t guaranteed, and sadly this affects families alike, including many migrant families. I learned that adults are trying to raise children on empty stomachs, or feel guilt that their kids are being sent to school hungry. This made me realize that many kids will not have the nutrition they need to focus in class. I have seen and learned a lot from this fieldwork. However, if you ask me what I take most from this experience, it is getting to be the one to provide a meal for those who really need it.

*Photo from Manhattan Church of Christ’s website.

by Violet McNulty

The other day we did an Interview with Nicole Rosow (Violet’s aunt) who works as the director of sustainability at the IE University in Madrid. As part of her job she makes sure that the appropriate departments are doing everything that they can to keep the university’s carbon footprint very low. She also tries to…

by 29lyleq

On January 14th our group traveled to NEST+m High School to find out the differences between NEST and LREI. We interviewed an English teacher named Ms. Swann-Pye and the business manager Julie Longmuir. Over both interviews we learned about a variety of things. For example we learned about where their funds come from and how they are able to make education free since they are a public school.

While interviewing the English teacher, Ms. Swann-Pye we learned about the good and bad of public schooling. For example she told us about how quality differs between different public schools. Public schools in more wealthy zones get more taxes and intern more funding than public schools in less wealthy zones. She also told us about how necessary meal plans are because 30% of Nest students qualify which means that 30% of students are not financially stable.
After that we interviewed NEST’s business manager Julie Longmuir. She gave us some great information about the school and its funding. She told us that the PTA at NEST is very important because most of the families are financially set. 97% of their funding goes to staff salaries. In short, PTA funding is really important to NEST.

by Taiyo Patterson

On January, 29th, our team decided to interview marine biologist David Jones, CEO of Just One Ocean. He first introduced himself and how he went to University in nuclear physics, afterwards he served 17 years in the military as a diver. After serving 17 years around 2013, he went to Korea and listened to a few talks about Ocean pollution and was inspired to make his own organization, Just One Ocean.

After we learned a bit about him, we asked a few questions starting off with how marine life affects the ocean and marine life and he told us about some types of plastics such as nano-plastics, entanglement plastics, and ingestion plastics. Than he told us about how fatty tissue is very suitable for plastics and he told us about how hydrophobic chemicals rise up to the ocean and 70% of plastics float up the to ocean surface and so the hydrophobic chemicals get onto the plastics like it’s a life boat and the plastics enter the fatty tissue of marine animals and the bigger the marine animal, the more toxins it has.

We then talked about what is most affected by microplastics, David then stated that everything is affected by microplastics differently. Then we talked about how microplastics affect the human body. He than said that as of now, it is unknown what the side effects of microplastics are as they haven’t been around for long enough to know for sure. However, he than said how the effects are guaranteed to not be beneficial but how it is incredibly important for people to research about that topic.

Than finally we talked about what was the worst outcome and he said how plastics isn’t even the worst habitat destruction thing in the ocean. Also how a lot of people rely on marine animals as their main source of food and if it keeps going the way it is it could be a disaster. He then stated how people don’t know how much the ocean can withstand and how we can’t filter the ocean so we should keep it in the best condition we can. Then he stated that in the last 10 years, we have produced more than we have for the past 100 years and how microplastics are apart of the ocean and now all we can do is migrate elsewhere.

We then closed out the interview by asking if there was anything else that we should know and he stated about fast fashion and how a majority of clothes made in the fast fashion industry are made out of plastics and how fast fashion are one of if not the biggest micro plastic emitters.

by Hannah Huang

On January 27th 2025, we planned on going to the Rockaways, Queens to do a beach cleanup. But since we are in the middle of January, and how far of a drive it was, we decided that the pier on the Hudson River was a better option for us. Xander’s dad drove us to the pier, so we could pick up pieces of trash, so hopefully they won’t end up in the ocean. Even though it was cold, it was fun to walk around the pier doing something good for the world.

One of the interesting things we found while walking on the pier was geese eating trash that ended up in the river. This is a big problem because all animals are being affected by these plastics ending up in multiple bodies of water. There are multiple photos of fish, or ducks insides, and seeing so many plastic pieces inside of the animal. Its so hard to see that if we are just throwing trash on the ground, it can be hurting so many animals, including us. We walked around the pier for a while, and we picked up 107 pieces of trash, but there are so many more pieces of trash laying on the floor everywhere. We found multiple trash cans on our walk. I don’t understand why you cant just throw your trash into a trashcan. It isint that much extra work. NYC is trying to solve this problem by saying if they catch you littering, they will fine you $250, but I don’t see it fixing such a big problem, as so many more people are doing it.

I hope that people figure out that they are eating microplastic everyday. They should know that they are wearing microplastics aswell. Plastic is all aground us. If you dont dispose your trash well enough, it will eventually get inside of you. Everyone should be very cautious, and take the extra step to throw your trash in a trash can, instead of throwing it on the ground.

by Jack Rosen

Today, my CAP partners and I interviewed Robert Gangi, the director of the Police Reform Organization Project. The interview provided us with insight into the significant impact of the police on the justice system, particularly regarding their brutality. His historical perspective on police brutality and prison conditions helped us understand the conditions of justice for a black person living in New York. To start, Robert Gangi shared with us why he became involved in prison reform after the loss of his father. He told us ” I couldn’t stop it. And so I think that instilled me a desire to do good, a desire to help other people; you know, sort of broadly speaking, the nature of our work essentially is to stop police practices that hurt people.” As Gangi worked as a court monitor for the organization he recorded that “anywhere from 85 to 100% of the cases we see on a given day involved in New Yorkers of color. And we um can’t New Yorkers of color as any non-white person. So it could also include Asians with the recent people.” Proving that our system has surfaced around a biased police force.

In our interview, Gangi referenced the impact of the media on police officers, displaying them as “the heroes.” Because of this, we have created a society where people “don’t care about people being locked up. I’m not so sure that’s totally true, but people know that prisons are bad places. Corruption happens. brutality happens.” He mentioned that the problem with police brutality reform is that there is no clear solution to how we can end this corruption, saying “Researchers show that none of that works. Training doesn’t improve things, and more diversity doesn’t improve things, because when you become a cop, you have to get with the program.” Since the system doesn’t have a clear problem, nobody knows where to start. Resulting in cops choosing to follow the lead of biases.

A story he told us about these biases happens in Yankee Stadium. He had a group of kids watching the game when one kid caused a bit of a disturbance, and the police came. “One of the kids uh, who was in the group is his name is George, and he was the total sweetheart, not like Charlie andolf. So what says, be cool. And one cop Jean of course made to attack George or apparently being like, you know, flip with disrespectful. And another cop jumps into me. And I’m like 22 years old, right? So I never seen anything like this. I thought the second cop was going to grab the first cop who was actually obviously no, but he starts standing on George.” This story was shocking because it shows that cops can act in legalized brutality, and nobody cares.

Robert Gangi taught us about how the placement of police affects communities, how their quotas will make them make outlandish arrests, and so much more. Thank you Robert for the amazing experience. We hope to do court monitoring with you soon.

by 29victorias

Me and my group went to Weill Cornell to watch a conference Led By Shannon M Bennett. The start of conference was mostly information about the Cornell Youth Mental Health workplace and goals. That did help let us know that this conference would be showing ages from 13-28.

As the conference kept going I got the names of a lot of doctors, that would be great for interviewing. In the conference I got to know more about the brain development in teens. This made a lot of sense to me as it connected to what we are learning in choices. The conference was also easily understood because of the amount of graphs. It showed us a example of what we could use in our presentation.

It was also interesting to me that mostly doctors were the ones who attended this talk. Overall, this conference was very helpful. I took a lot of notes and can’t wait to write about our interview with Shannon M. Bennett next!

by Charlotte Vitale

My group met with Laura Sewell, the Executive Director at EVCC (The East Village Community Coalition), to talk about her organization’s work on food insecurity. Right from the beginning we talked about EVCCs work on food insecurity. One of the things she told us about was the community fridge that she maintained for many years. She said that they had to move the fridge because people complained about fights or noise due to the fridge but it still exists just not as close to the area. Another thing we talked about were the causes of food insecurity in the East Village. One of the things she highlighted was covid´s effects on people in the area. She talked about how many people became food insecure without even knowing that they were at risk of becoming food insecure.

Another thing we talked about was food waste in the area, especially considering restaurants. Laura told us about how many restaurants do not want to waste food and how local restaurants are actually some of the best resources for community feeding. She also talked about the amount of food that bakeries waste because they have to cook in batches and cannot always predict the amount of food that will not be sold by the end of the day. She also mentioned how originally when she was giving out food she tried to keep it healthy but in the end, realized how special it is for people to get a treat. She also said that people are never too young to start trying to make a difference.

by Abigail (Gail) Pena

On January 29, I had a zoom interview with Lauren Roberts, a lawyer from California who works to get people out of death penalty. Lauren has been working for almost 8 years at an organization funded by the state. She told me about what she does, and her experience from working with many clients. For example, there was one client she had named “Bill” (the real name is classified). He’s now in his 40s, and was arrested when he was 19 for a car robbery that went wrong and killed a woman. While he was the one who planned it, he took no part in actually committing the crime. Lauren did manage to get him out of death row. There are other types of cases where her clients claim that they are innocent, but the most that they usually get is a reduction of their sentence. Lauren has only had 2 cases where her clients were found factually innocent.

During the interview, Lauren also gave me a lot of facts about incarceration in general. Some things I learned was that California has the most people on death row today. However, no one’s been executed since 2006. There are other countries that do execute people regularly such as Texas, Florida, and Missouri. I also learned that the majority of prisoners in the U.S. are Black/Latinx men. Shockingly, the majority of people on death row in the U.S are white men.

I also asked Lauren about what people are trying to do to remove injustice in the court system. One thing she told me about is the Racial Justice Act. It was passed in 2020, and its purpose is to prohibit racial bias in leasing and jury trials. Another law was passed called Elder Parole, where incarcerated people over 50 who have been in prison for over 20 years can automatically be put on Parole. Overall, I learned a lot of important things from my interview, and it was fun talking with Lauren.

by Hannah Huang

On January 29th, 2025 we went on a Zoom with David Jones, who is in charge of an organization called Just One Ocean, where they focus on marine biology, and how plastics can affect ourselves and our planet. David spent 17 years in the military to pay off his university debt, where he studied nuclear physics. In the military, he had a side job where he was the head of the diving team, which got him interested in diving in the ocean, which lead him to getting interested in plastics and ocean life. In 2013, he went to Korea and listened to other presentations and decided to make his own organization called Just One Ocean. David made a film called Plastic Ocean, that is shown on Netflix.

David gave us lots of information, he taught us about measo-plastics which are microplastics that are distributed and transported in marine environments through ocean currents, wind and wave action, and biological processes. Another term that David told us about is Bioaccumulation (Food chain) which are toxins becoming higher and higher and higher the bigger the animal. Toxins magnify abnormally based on size. Bioaccumulation is harmful for the environment because it allows toxic substances like heavy metals and pesticides to build up in organisms within a food chain. These are all new terms to us, that are very useful. He had a lot of knowledge about plastic in the ocean, and he even said that plastic isn’t the worst habitat-destruction.

Did you know that in the last 10 years, we have produced more plastic than we have in the last 100 years? We have produce so many microplastics, that its impossible to clean up all of the plastic. We have produced 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic. Which is 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic. Which is 80 million blue whales, or 822,000 Eiffel towers. Because of how much plastic we have produced, there isn’t any way that we can clean it all up. All we can do is reduce the amount of plastic that we use.

Even though we have interviewed a few marine biologists and a few people who work with the ocean, he still taught us a lot about the ocean, and I think its cool that he has traveled so many places to learn more about the ocean. I found it so cool how he got inspired by other people to start his own organization. Thank you so much David and Just One Ocean for letting us interview you!

by Fox Sullivan

Yesterday at lunch we interviewed marine biologist Valorie Tovar over zoom. Tovar works with the Loggerhead Marine Life Center Education located in West Palm Beach, Florida. They are dedicated to cleaning up beaches and helping injured sea turtles who have ingested microplastics.

When we were interviewing her we learned a lot. She told us about the ways that microplastics can affect Marine Life negatively. Microplastics can be cancer inducing, and the ocean is filled with them. This makes it really easy for them to be consumed by animals. Scientists have even found microplastics in plankton!

Most of the microplastics being consumed come from the garbage patches. Garbage patches are areas in the ocean that have tons of garbage in them. A lot of Marine Life currently live in these garbage patches. When we were on zoom, we learned that they are formed because of ocean current patterns. When she was talking to us she said “the currents connect us.” meaning that the ocean currents go all around the world. She told us this story of how one time she found an octopus trap on the beach in Florida that had washed up all the way from Africa.

Microplastics don’t only affect Marine Life though, they affect humans too. Another thing Tovar told us about was how microplastics can also end up in humans. She told us that in 2021 scientists found microplastics inside a human. This is because when fishermen catch fish who have eaten microplastics, we eat those fish, meaning we eat the microplastics too. Another way microplastics affect us – we learned – is because 50 percent of the air we breathe comes from the ocean. This means that without a clean ocean we can’t have clean air.

After she had told us this we wanted help, so we asked for some tips to get trash out of the ocean. We learned that some of the best ways were to educate people, reduce the amount of plastic we use, and make sustainability affordable. What she meant by making sustainability affordable was, a lot of people in low income communities cannot afford to get organic things because they are more expensive. If we change this less trash will go into the oceans, less animals will die, less plastic will end up inside of us, and the air will be cleaner.

by 29victorias

We met with Ever Ramirez, our school counselor. During this interview we got the chance to know him better as a person and get to know our topic better. For example, we asked him what he thinks is a main cause of the rise in mental health. He stated that now awareness for mental health has risen. The rise in awareness has now resulted in more cases of mental health illnesses being found. It could also be how our world is getting very complicated at the moment.

Another thing we asked was, how does social media affect mental health? His answer was that though there isn’t much harm in it, if you spend too much time on it, it can. He also mentioned that on social media cyber bullying can come up a lot. People might feel less shame commenting online rather than saying it to a person’s face. If you do get cyber bullied it can lower your self esteem. Overall, this interview was very helpful and I am so grateful we got to interview Ever Ramirez.

by Laila Henry

In December we interviewed Donna Ross who is a member of the LREI community. Ms Ross has a physical disability and has little sensation in her legs. She previously was able to walk but now she uses a wheelchair. During our interview we asked about her experiences of being in a wheelchair.
We asked her about how she got around New York, Ms Ross said that she uses an uber and tried going on the train once before but has not been on one since. When we asked her about places she thought that were not accessible she said “I could be anywhere. Some sidewalks are difficult to navigate.“ and “On a very travel heavy holiday, it is hard to find accommodations”. She also has to plan to be able to go places and do a lot of research to make sure when she gets there it won’t be a problem. She said this is because A lot of places can say they are accessible but aren’t what she is looking for. When we asked if having a physical disability makes her life more expensive she said yes, because in terms of transportation an uber is more expensive than taking public transportation. She also talked about how grocery shopping is hard because “I (Ms Ross) can’t run out and having groceries delivered is more expensive”. For her it was small things that she was able to do before but can no longer do those now.
My group asked her stories about her experiences. She shared about how sometimes she feels unsafe when riding in an uber because; “They give you the service they want to give you, not the service you need”. She also talked about her worst experience. She was going through Newark airport, the TSA agent searching her continued to ask and search. She felt violated because she did not show any kindness and made her feel bad. Ms Ross felt as though the agent “(was) just not trained or sensitive enough to do their job”. She wished there was another individual who was more experienced or wishes the agent was self aware enough to realize that she was uncomfortable. She treated her (Ms Ross) as if it was a personal offence when Ms Ross seemed uncomfortable and upset.
At the end of our interview it felt as though we learned more about NY in the lens of someone in a wheelchair. I also noticed how some people were discriminating because they thought they were doing what was best. These invisible acts of discrimination are what isn’t accessible. Ms Ross constantly said how she wished people were more self aware or just had more sympathy or understanding instead of assuming.

by 29ariai

Mabel Lucy and I set up an interview with our head Chef Eric. Eric was talking a lot about how much food waste there is during lunch. he was talking a lot about how kids would put a lots of food on there plates when they wouldn’t even finish it after lunch is over. Having all of that food go to waste is really bad because the food that kids didn’t eat should go to people who need it much more than them. Most of this food waste is coming from our salad bar. kids would be talking more than what they can even eat and then waste it. people should just remember to take what you can eat.

something that I was really surprised about was how much food is being wasted every day at our school. after having this interview with Chef Eric I realized how much food I was putting on my plate at lunch. during our lunch time I noticed kids putting mountains of food on their plates and then watching them throw it all out without even making a dent in it. that just really breaks my heart because that food that they didn’t eat could have gone to someone who needs that food more.

by 29milesg

On January 28th me and my partners watched an important documentary on gang violence in New York. We learned some important facts and statistics about gang violence. we learned about people and groups that worked to stop gang violence. The most important group we learned about were the Guardian Angels.
The Guardian Angels were a group of people who fought against gangs. They had nothing to do with the NYPD or the goverment. The leader and founder of the Guardan Angels was Curtis Silwa. He was inspired to make the Guardian Angels because he experienced gang violence a lot and wanted to make a change. He was constantly peer presured to join gangs and it got to the point that he would thrive as a gang member. This is why he created the Guardian Angels.
As the Guardian Angels began to grow members the state goverment started to hate them. They even started arresting and killing them sometimes. By 1976 the Guardian Angels were over 1000 strong and growing so the goverment couldnt stop them. The Guardian Angels steped in to protect the city when the police could not.
They became a memorable group of people who fought against opression and violence putting their life on the line and will never be forgoten.

by Charlotte Vitale

Me and one other member of my group volunteered with Food not Bombs, an organization made entirely by mutual aid that has existed since the 1970s. We volunteered in Bedford Stuyvesant with a group of people who volunteer weekly. Some of them cook food and others get day-old food from different stores around the city. Many of the people who volunteered took home food with them. This is a form of mutual aid, a system where people help others but they also help themselves. They might be feeding other people but eating at the same time. Food not bombs has existed for over 50 years and has helped many people. One of them being my dad Alex Vitale, in the 1990s he volunteered with food not bombs by cooking and rescuing food but he also did not have a lot of money and so he ate the food as well

When I got to the place that I volunteered at, there was already a line forming of locals who come every week. They would ask for a ticket that would signify the place that they would stand in line and wait for us to set up. You could sometimes see the shame on peoples faces when they asked for food. It was heartbreaking for me to understand how hard it is to ask for help, and the amount of bravery it takes to ask for help. This is why mutual aid is so great because many of the people helping are suffering from the same things and won’t look down on you for needing help.

by Paige Destin

January 8th, 2025, Agatha and I had a discussion with our school nurse Jenna DiMarino about her experience with racial bias in the health care system. At the beginning of our talk, Jenna mentioned she had worked in the ICU, a place where kids who are very sick go to receive care. I was very suprised to learn that before she was a school nurse, she worked in a hospital and took care of babies right after they were born. When we asked her about experience with sterotypes among minority women, she said it is common for their pain to not be believed. She stated that this is still a big struggle many people are facing in the healthcare community, and that some of her patients have told her this is the first time they felt as if their pain had be believed and properly managed. Towards the end of our conversation, when we had asked her about what she thinks people can do to eliminate racism in the healthcare community, she stated ” I think that it’s just really everyone’s opening up their minds and learning that their experiences are not everyone else’s experience and really listening and learning to everyone and I think that everyone telling their stories is really helpful in the healthcare community. And especially with social media, everyone is able to share their stories very readily.” This talk with Jenna was very impactful to me because it showed me that people had felt very emotional when they are respected and listened to. This interview was a great start to learning more about this topic.

by 29lucetter

On Jan 10th my group went to fill a community fridge near the school. It was a long walk but it was worth it. We left at 9:30 and got back at 12 so it was a long trek. The closest community fridge is a 30-minute walk from the school. There used to be more in the area but a lot of fridges have been closing down. I am not quite sure why this is but it may be due to funding or not enough donations. Donating to fridges is very important because many New Yorkers don’t have food and depend on fridges and organizations for their meals. This fridge helps cater to the homeless of the area as well as people who don’t have healthy food to eat.

I think it’s important for people to think about what they could do to help others who are having a hard time. Perhaps if you have extra food from a party you could take it to your local food bank volunteer at a shelter or help with a canned food drive. There are many things anyone can do to try to help. It comes down to the fact that not nearly enough people know about food insecurity as a major issue.

by 29lucetter

I think that it’s important for people to think about what they could do to help others who are having a hard time. Perhaps if you have extra food from a party you could take it to your local food bank or volunteer at a shelter or help with a canned food drive.There is many things anyone can do to to try to help.It really comes down to the fact that not nearly enough people know about food insecurity as such a major issue.

by 29lucetter

On January 14th, we sat down with Chef Eric, the head chef at LREI, to discuss our lunch system. Every day, the amazing chefs in the cafeteria prepare lunch for us, and we were curious about what happens to any leftover food. Eric explained that most of the food is either reused in dishes for other days or given to the after-school kids. He also shared that food is only thrown away if it’s either leftover and not finished by students or if it becomes contaminated. We also asked about the possibility of donating some of the leftover food to a community fridge or organization. Eric mentioned that while attempts have been made in the past, they weren’t successful because food-help organizations typically require specific amounts and types of food.
From this interview, we learned a lot about how the kitchen at LREI operates. One thing that stood out to me was how small the school is—I had expected there to be more food waste, but it turns out the kitchen team does an excellent job of preparing just the right amount of food for everyone. Although I’m not quite ready to donate food to an organization just yet, I believe it should definitely be a long-term goal for the school. With careful planning and more partnerships with local food banks or community fridges, there’s potential to make an even greater impact in the future.

by Vivi

On Jan 24, 2025, our whole 8th grade class took a field trip to the MCNY. We went to the activism exhibit and we learned about different influential events and activists fighting for change. Me and Esme went to look at the women’s rights activism and we learned about different protests and events and activism that people did for women’s rights in America. We learned about the Ms. America competition and other female activists. We also learned about other topics like the Young Lords and we learned about immigration activism. It was all really interesting and at the end we got to ask the tour guide questions which was really helpful and interesting. Esme asked her some questions but we didn’t really get very much on our topic from this field trip. It was interesting but we didn’t really gain any extra information about our specific topic. It was still cool to learn about other activism though like the disability rights movement. We got to learn more about the activism and the protests that happened like when Denise Mcquaid fought for her rights by sitting on the step of a bus for over 7 hours. It was really inspiring and this field trip was a great opportunity to learn about our topic and other examples of important activism.

by Sylvie Malamet

Alex, my citizen action project partner, and I watched a documentary called The Fight For Gender-Affirming Health Care which was a recorded meeting of five people, most of which are trans, talking about gender affirming care. Arielle Duhaime-Ross is the moderator of the interview.
…
Arielle starts the interview by asking what gender affirming care is, and what types of things fall under its category? Dr. Goepferd, a pediatrician, answered by saying when someone goes to a gender health program, they’re looking for a supportive place where youth and their parents can talk to medical and mental health professionals who specialize in that care. I learned that something most people get confused about is that it often requires no medical treatment at all. Gender-affirming care, at its core, is about supporting where the young person and their parents are at, and there are other non-medical treatments, like shapewear, voice therapy, or helping to affirm someone’s physical appearance with haircuts, clothes, and names and pronouns.

The documentary also included two video clips of two different kids who had gotten gender affirming care. The second clip is about a teenage boy who was struggling to find access to treatment, because he lived in Texas where there wasn’t very good trans medical care, So he, and his mother, drove away each time, just to get better access. They could barely afford to though, so it was a huge struggle, but the mom knew she had to because Drew, the kid, was very suicidal before he got treatment. Drew’s mom, Brandi, said, “I’d say, like, a month to two months in, I started seeing that kid come back, come out of his shell, talk to us more, laugh… It was like, that’s it. This has been the answer all along. Why would anybody want to take that away from him? Why? And take that right away as a parent?” Those two clips show just how important gender affirming care really is.

Most gender affirming care is also used on cis people. Dr. Goepferd explains how some non cis people go through puberty too early, which can be harmful to their bodies, so doctors use the exact same medications to pause their puberty until they’re of an age to continue. And so doctors and medical professionals have been using puberty-suppressing medications in kids who are not trans for thirty to forty years. In fact, it is the most common reason to use puberty suppressing medications. Another way that gender affirming care is used in non-trans people is estrogen and testosterone. They are both used in cisgender people as well, especially when that person has lower to no levels of that hormone being produced in their body. These medications are used on cisgender people, so it is a hundred percent discrimination to not let trans people use it, simply because of their gender identity.

Finally, Arielle asks Arli to wrap up with ways to help make a difference. She lists a few main things that you have to do to help. That list is, use your voice; make sure to speak up about the things that you believe in, pay attention to what’s happening in your state and country, sign action alerts when they come along, contact your representatives, follow your local trans-led organizations, and on a more personal level, speak up with your friends and family.

by Mabel Fox

On January 14th we had the opportunity to interview Eric Baer, the head chef at LREI. We learned a lot about food waste at school. A lot of the food waste was food from people that had been opened, put on plates, but just not finished. Eric said “It is good to try new things but it’s also good to take food in small portions. You can always get more.” Eric also mentioned that there were many attempts in the past to reduce food waste, but there were many problems that he faced in doing so. There are many great organizations that will drive to you school or restaurant and take leftover food. This is usually free but to get somebody to come you would have to have a certain about of leftover food which LREI does not have.

Something that I was really surprised about was that most of the food waste at our school comes from the salad bar. If things in the salad bar stayed separate, like the yogurt did not touch the fruit, then it would be reused for the next day. The reason there is little to no food waste after each day is because the kitchen staff do a great job preparing and knowing how much food to make each day. They make more popular food and less of the food that is eaten less. Even though we learned that it is really hard to manage the waste in a good way, we hope to find efficient ways of reducing LREI’s food waste in the future.

by May Edelstein

On January 21st, Niro and I went to the Trans-Formative schools in Manhattan, to Interview Ro Pena, the Co founder. This was two days after Donald Trump, was elected. We talked a lot about how that choice is going to affect queer kids in America and what he’s going do that affect these kids. We…

by Harvey F. Mollison

We visited the museum of New York City and learned about various activists who fought for different causes and rights. When I looked at the way others had persevered through hard times, I made a strong connection with the current climate change crisis. I thought about how despite the fact so many people had struggled with their activism, they were able to push through and ensure that their cause was fought for.

When you put this into the context of climate change it has a different type of feeling simply because disability rights affect an enormous amount of people but they don’t quite encompass the entire world as climate change does. However, that does not eliminate the comparison, you can still think of climate change in a similar way that you would women’s rights because they both are instances of people fighting for something that they believe in. This is not to dismiss the weight and importance of these issues but simply to put this into perspective. If you combine every civil rights movement ever, they still affect less people than climate change.

Something about women’s rights particularly struck me because the way that so many people can come together as one to fight for a cause is truly incredible. Despite the comments I have made above, women do truly encompass a lot of the world and are an irreplaceable part of the human race. To be able to all agree on a set of ideals is really impressive. This serves to me as an example of although we can’t all have the same ideals when it comes to climate change, there is surely some middle ground we can reach when it comes to this issue.

by 29milesg

Last Friday we visited MCNY. Specifically the Activist New York exhibit. We learned about different activists and activist organizations who fought for the rights that they deserved.
Some activists we learned about were the Young Lords who fought for clean streets when the Sanitation department was not willing to clean their part of the city. The Young Lords were Black and Latino and a part of the black panther party.
Overall it was a great experience and I definetly recommend it to anyone.

by 29emilen

On December 19 we interviewed Kate Quarfordt. Kate Quardfordt co-funded a charter school called ‘’City School of the Arts.” In this interview we learned about how difficult it was to be in charge of a school with strained resources. Another thing we learned was that a lot of the school funding comes from property taxes and that bigger and nicer houses pay more property taxes. She also said that it is possible to go to schools that aren’t in your zoning but they are harder to get into.
Kate also talked about how housing taxes go more towards elementary and middle school. Kate teached us about how charter schools receive money from the state and not from taxes. Something else I learned is that Charter schools can be more innovative and be creative with their curriculum but only receive 80% of the funding that regular public schools receive.

Something else that I learned during this interview is that zoning laws makes it more likely you will go to school with kids That have similar experiences and are similar. This means that depending on your zoning you will go to school with similar people. Another Thing that Kate taught us is that the American Dream is that you go to school then college and that you will live a nice life.

by Antonio Dominguez

On Friday, the 24th, my class went to the Museum of the City of New York. At the museum, we learned about the transgender movement, the women’s movement of the 1960s, and more. The artifacts we saw were simple yet very important to our discussed topics. The field trip helped me understand how to directly impact these issues. After our tour, we asked the tour guide about our topics and her perspective. She provided some excellent answers that helped me see my topic in a different light. Overall, the field trip was enjoyable, and I learned a lot.

by June Van Patten

We interviewed Donna Ross, a wheelchair user on December 19th 2024 at 11:00 am . We asked her numerous questions about her view on Disability rights . We asked her if she thinks NYC is accessible for people in wheelchairs. She felt that for the most part yes but subways , curbs and even not having ramps is a struggle in the day to day . We also asked about her personal experience which she said her worst experience was at the airport or when her wheelchair uber driver didn’t buckle her in allaway . I learned that even a curb on the road can make you not able to access the place you want to go and that wheelchair accessible ubers are more expensive than normal ubers .

by 29walterh

I listened to a podcast where Shannon M. Bennet was being interviewed these are the most interesting notes/facts I learned from it
In 2021 42% of HS students reported feeling persistent feelings of sadness. To avoid and withdraw is a sign of mental health troubles. Depression changes energy levels. Parents try to protect their children when they see their child scared. We all experience feeling in different ways. Social media link – connection between using social media and mental health issues.
Whatever is important to you, you will always see someone doing it better or differently than you and then you feel bad about yourself. Passive scrolling can be a way to avoid and also when passive scrolling you see those people doing things you like better than you do. People say things online that they wouldn’t say in person.
Climate change can also affect people’s lives because knowing our planet is in peril is hard. We can’t predict what our generation will go through trying to undo the wrongs of the past. How to talk to others with Self Harm and Suicide parental point of view – talk to mental health doctor, going to ER treating it like the emergency it is.
Early 20s hard b/c of financial trouble and pressure to get a job.
It’s not just enough to manage symptoms, we have to get kids back on track.

by Abigail (Gail) Pena

On January 18, 2025, my groupmates and I had a zoom interview with Louise Normand, a member of the Death Penalty Project located in London. She is a lawyer who works to take her clients out of death row, and has been in this job for at least 30 years. We asked her questions about what kind of work she does, and what communities are the most affected by the death penalty.

We learned that the Death Penalty Project is an organization that mainly focuses on getting people out of death row and provides free legal representation. It was founded in 1992, and has been thriving ever since. The organization has capacity building and training programs for lawyers who work there. They also publish articles and have debates on different cases. Normand told us that recently they’d been working on abolishing the death penalty in Zimbabwe, and they were successful.

Normand also told us about how false imprisonment has a lot to do with the death penalty being popular in some countries. For example, though she didn’t have any information on the U.S., she did talk a lot about the death penalty in other places in the world, such as Asia. Normand told us about how clients from there often come from vulnerable backgrounds. Based on her experiences, drug trafficking was criminalized a lot and the associates are targeted with the death penalty, but not the actual people behind it. This shows how people who come from poor communities are often susceptible to be exploited.

by Audrey Martin

On December 13th, we interviewed Colombe Jacobsen-Derstine, a chef and food system expert. She discussed the impact of microplastics and their potential effects on our health. Colombe highlighted that seafood, while nutritious, can contain significant amounts of microplastics due to marine pollution. Larger fish, such as tuna and swordfish, tend to contain higher levels of toxins, so it’s better to consume them less frequently.

Microplastics can disrupt our hormones and infiltrate vital areas of our bodies. To minimize risk, Colombe recommends using glass or metal containers and avoiding plastic wrap and microwaving plastic containers. Microplastics predominantly enter our food supply through the ocean, as fish ingest these particles. In addition to fish, microplastics can be found in various other products, such as sea salt, plastic water bottles, BPA-free cans, and saran wrap. By opting for alternatives like glass or metal containers and choosing Himalayan salt over sea salt, we can reduce our exposure to microplastics and protect our health.

by Hudson Moore

On January 17 our group interviewed Marcia Flores. She is the education partnerships manager at Advocates for Children of New York. What this means is she tries to get kids who are homeless, schools near their shelter. Because the shelters are assigned randomly a lot of times kids are put in homeless shelters far from their school, Marcia tries to help kids by changing their shelter to somewhere closer to their school.

Marcia explained that her and her team have to look at data from schools to tell if a kid is homeless. They do this by checking how many times kids have been absent. If a kid has been absent more than 17 times they investigate. They do this by contacting the family and child. They then try to work with them to get a closer shelter.

by Charlotte Vitale

My group met with BJ Neal the Director of NYC Program Services at City Relief. We asked him about the work that City Relief does to combat food insecurity. He told us that City Relief has two main things that they do, one being directly offering food, an immediate solution but not a long term solution. He compared this to grabbing buckets to stop the flood. Another one being City Relief uses their connections to connect people with services (employment, shelter, food), and also navigates people with assistants and connects people with where they need to go to really help. BJ says when helping people with food insecurity you have to meet them where they are. He also explained that it takes a long time for people to turn their lives around and that you have to “actually just get in the trenches and join people where they are”. We asked BJ Neal about different reasons for people not being able to turn their lives around and the main reason he gave us was mental health. He talked about how people are not alway prepared to accept help and their pride gets in the way.

In this interview BJ also talked about his personal experience with homelessness, as a child he lived in shelters with his mom and two sisters. He said that that influenced his choice to work with City Relief.