Feature Writing 3060 Spring 2013

Right in the middle of East Harlem, across the street from project housing, and inside a school that houses kids from Kindergarten to 12^th grade, it’s hard to notice any differences in the students who pour in every morning and leave every evening other than their age. The outside may look like any other school for the local community, but a small section inside tells a different story.

The East Harlem Scholars Academy is a charter school located on 106^th St. and Madison Avenue inside a larger school called the Jackie Robinson Educational Complex. You have to walk through several doors, encounter several students from other schools, and up 4 flights of stairs to get to it but the artwork in the staircase let you know you’re in the right place. The school first opened its doors to educate young children on August 29^th 2012 with Cheyenne E. Batista Sao Rogue serving as the Head of the Charter school. Although NYC residents can apply through the application process, children from the school district have a better chance of being accepted.

The East Harlem Scholars Academy serves grades K-1 as part of the beginning phase and is now expecting to expand its space within Jackie Robinson to serve grades K-12 starting August 2013. The sister school will be called The East Harlem Scholars Academy II. E.H.S.A needs about 3 million dollars annually to cover expenses which is a number expected to increase pending their expansion. Charter schools and Public schools are repeatedly compared in regards to performance. A comparison showed NYC Charter school children perform better in English and Math in terms of meeting the standard. However, who attends these schools varies. The East Harlem Scholars Academy is still very new without much statistical evidence on performance but their initiative is to provide a learning environment that helps them succeed in higher education, help develop leadership skills, and promote a fun but challenging learning environment.

Due to the Charter school being new and placed into a building that already has another school that serves the same grades, people of interest to interview would be parents and/or faculty from the separate schools. If possible, the Head of The Charter School, Cheyenne E. Batista Sao Rogue, can be interviewed to get her thoughts on the expansion of the school and the goal they hope to achieve.

Here are a few links to articles I found from my Factiva search: (not much has been written on the school)

http://global.factiva.com.remote.baruch.cuny.edu/aa/?ref=MRKWN00020110826e7930008c&pp=1&fcpil=en&napc=S&sa_from=

http://global.factiva.com.remote.baruch.cuny.edu/aa/?ref=TARGNS0020110605e75p001s1&pp=1&fcpil=en&napc=S&sa_from=

This is a sign indicating what SCHOLAR stands for

This is the artwork with the name of the school right before you enter the 4th floor

 

Here are a few children eagerly waiting for their parents to pick them up

Vignette: East Harlem Scholars Academy Information

The East Harlem Charter School is a brand new school that opened last August and has been around for less than a year. It is located in a community surrounded by several different types of institutions. There is an all girls school located an avenue away on Park Avenue, a private school across from that school, another public school 2 blocks up on Madison, another 2 blocks down the same avenue, and not to mention the school that houses it. There is a hearing on March 11^th for them to expand their school to more grades which might take over the place of one of the current schools inside the building, either Central Park East I or Central Park East II. Are more of these new Charter Schools going to move into these other buildings and phase out other schools? Charter school education is compared to Public school education often. This Charter is new and its “progress” over long periods of time can’t be compared so there is a small sample size. Many of the students who attend were selected through a lottery at random for an equal opportunity but kids within that school district have a better chance of being accepted. Each classroom is named after a “big time” college such as Syracuse and contains about 25  kids with 2 instructors.

by Alex Goetzfried

The Baker St. Pub is named after a road in England, and is also the address of Sherlock Holmes, but on the Upper Eastside of New York City it is the second home to many Irish immigrants.

Baker St. Pub on 1st Ave

The Pub was the location for the original scenes from the film Cocktail starring Tom Cruise, as well as the location of the original TGIFridays.  Now the pub is a place where Irish immigrants can go to see soccer and rugby games, and to chat about the old country.  It is ironic that a bar with an English address serves mostly Irish customers.

This is a true neighborhood bar, the bartenders know everyone’s name and there is a family atmosphere that most bars in a city as big as New York don’t have. The place is packed at random times like 10 on a Saturday morning because they get all of the major soccer and rugby games. With St. Patty’s day around the corner a feel good story about Irishmen and their sports bar is appropriate.  The history is interesting as well.  Tom Cruise has acted there and it was where TGIFridays took off, originally planning on opening a TGIMonday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc. until realizing that Friday is what bar patrons are looking forward to. It is also located around the corner from Sloan Kettering and has a good number of nurses who go there, and they serve traditional Irish breakfasts as well.

The profile of Sherlock Holmes watches over Baker St.

I will interview the bartenders, managers, and patrons, who are Irish and a few patrons who are not but live in the neighborhood.  A few short articles have been written about this pub but nothing substantial the links are attached.

http://nyclovesnyc.blogspot.com/2011/03/baker-street-irish-pub-in-new-york-with.html

http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/c/cocktail.html

http://nymag.com/listings/bar/baker-street-pub/

A colossal fireplace sends sparks through its mouth. Cheerful children gather around it in a dim lobby. Behind them, a heavy oak-wood door and a small staircase let in the light and sound of a busy Murray Hill. Secrets are reveled to the curious visitors who dare to enter.

Tucked between high-rises on a busy Murray Hill block stands this opaque architectural pearl, with a blue-black-white flag flying on its façade, exposing its pride and revealing its foreign nature.

A Stars and Stripes next to it reminds us that were are still in America.

East 34th Street is the center of a bustling Midtown district – Murray Hill, also known as Kips Bay towards the East River. Modern condominium building have lately sprung up like mushrooms between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, in a stretch that once used to be filled with single-family houses. Most of them are gone now.

This five-story house at 243 E. 34^th Street that was built in 1898 comes from a different era but mysteriously still stands. Since 1946 it has belonged to the Estonian community and is called the Estonian House serving as a cultural center for thousands of Estonians and their friends.

1. Old-timers’ memories. Professor Mardi Valgemae, a Lehman College professor.

2. Many events that have taken place there: Latvian folk dancers practice there who I’ll interview.

3. Interview with the house’s manager Katrin Albaz on a recent renovation.

4. Exchange thoughts with Urve Ruut, a long-time bartender, about her experience and the meaning of the house when she first came from the Soviet Estonia in 1990s and the meaning for her now – being the soul of the house. She relieves the thirsty ones and extends an ear for those in need to talk.

5. Interview Ambassador Margus Kolga who has hosted receptions for the diplomatic corps.

6. I know lots of people who visit the bar often, even decades, and who like to be  interviewed

Factiva and NY Times links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/15/dining/15blood.html?_r=0

http://global.factiva.com.remote.baruch.cuny.edu/ha/default.aspx

http://global.factiva.com.remote.baruch.cuny.edu/ha/default.aspx

Place Story Proposal

Few people know about the International Youth Fellowship center, which is primarily a small church located one block away from Baruch College. Recently, this Christian-based non-profit organization decided to expand its volunteering work among CUNY campuses. After submitting all the paperwork to create the IYF club at Baruch, they still need the Bearcat students to join the club and participate in changing the global community by teaching English in Mexico and Haiti. IYF strives to advance Christian mission work in developed and developing countries, administer alternative methods of post-secondary education and to facilitate short-term and long-term volunteerism domestically and overseas. And all of this is happening in a small two-room apartment, on third floor on Lexington avenue. The tiny church consists of a small number of pastors and about 40 volunteers from Korea who worship every Sunday in a small room filled with guests. The volunteers live there from Monday to Saturday, eat there and educate themselves in this place. This story is important because the IYF organization is willing to promote goodwill and send college students abroad to volunteer and provide them with many workshops that teach how to become a leader. But since no one is aware of this organization, its work and its kind-hearted people, it seems like the IYF club at Baruch college is going to remain half empty without students getting all of the possible opportunities that IYF wants to provide. I also think that it’s going to be an interesting place story, because this small place is unique in its atmosphere and people. This place is a home for many young people who dedicated themselves to spread the goodwill. It’s a place where people of all ages come to become better.

All my research is based on interviews with the volunteers and workers at IYF. I haven’t found anything on Factiva, but for the article I will ask IYF if they have any press clips about their organization.

Sources:

Ayleen Mota – [email protected], 1917-288-0547

Mykee Baluyut – mykee.iyf @gmail.com

Maria Parra- [email protected], 1718-607-0454

Vignette:

As I have mentioned before, the IYF and its church are located a block away from Baruch, it’s on the third floor, it has two rooms, one big one – with the cross in the middle for the worships on Sundays, and the smaller room is for the workers and the volunteers who live there. It’s packed with office necessities, as projectors, books, notebooks, chairs and tables. On the photos the room has been already cleaned for the next day and all the furniture was gone. When I came for the interviews, there were a few people, mostly young volunteers, who were waiting for their supervisors to come from a new location that is supposed to open soon, because of the excessive amount of volunteers who from South Korea. The room appears to be empty because the interview was conducted in the evening.

Tucked between a co-op for senior citizens and a parking lot is a synagogue that at first glance looks strangely out of place. No one comes in or out. It is as if it does not exist as people walk right past it without looking twice, heading two blocks up for the livelier atmosphere on Delancey Street on the Lower East Side.

The Synagogue, Beth Hamedrash Hagadol, has the most vibrant history in the Lower East Side and is still standing because it is a city landmark. The building has been there since the early 1800’s, originally a Baptist church with impressive Christian art on the glass windows that were taken out after it became a synagogue. Inside there are high ceilings, seats in beautiful oak that complement the gold accents inside the once impressive synagogue. Today it is the ghost building of the neighborhood. The synagogue closed in 2007 after a series of storms in the late 90’s that caused a lot of damage to the building, making it inhabitable.

It is estimated that 3.5 million dollars is needed to repair the building, but Rabbi Mendl Greenbaum, The current owner of the building, wants to work with developers and make this New York City Landmark a condominium. The synagogue is more than a beautiful building. It is part of Lower East Side history, a witness of the German and Jewish immigrants that are such an ingrained part of the neighborhood and always will be.

Many organizations such as the Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy have tried to raise money to renovate the building and are outraged at the bid to destroy the building. Thus, people from the conservancy would be good sources to talk to, as well as the Jewish people in the Lower East Side who used to attend the synagogue and the Rabbi.

Factiva:

Petition Started to Save Norfolk Street Synagogue

Welcome to Blogs@Baruch!

This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging.