Multimedia Reporting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-x_kh85n-8

Bridget De Leon stands in front of her Zumba class, handing out CDs in paper envelopes to every woman that comes in. On top of being a mother of three, a grandmother of one, and a fitness instructor, she’s found the time to burn a CD for each of the women as an Easter present, featuring the “greatest hits” of the class. The women are grateful but not surprised. In the past, De Leon has given out socks and cellophane baggies of Valentine’s Day candy for her “Zumba Valentines”.

De Leon dedicates much of her time to her classes, picking out each song precisely, ensuring that each song is perfect. Hips and glutes get an intense workout in her weekly classes but she makes sure that her music choices aren’t pushing the envelope too far. “I always want to make sure my music is really fun but it’s appropriate. There are a lot of lyrics out there that I would be really embarrassed to play for my students. I really respect them and I want them to respect me. I don’t want them to think that this is a trashy class.”, says De Leon.

De Leon, a working mother of three, has been working for years to master the art of time management. “Being a working mother when I was raising my son (now 22) was a different story. I had to drag him around. I had to drag him through college, through my graduate degree. He was always sitting next to me in the classroom. But I think now with two younger daughters, I have to manage my time. It doesn’t always work out like that. I mean, I do my best. I make sure I take care of their homework and you know, what’s important. I guess what every other working mother does.”

However, after her husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in February 2012, the multitasking mom had to pause the music and decide what was worth her time. Back then, De Leon worked for New York City Transit as a bus operator. When she resigned, her friends and family thought she was crazy, sacrificing her “real job” with medical benefits to be a Zumba instructor. “I think after my husband was diagnosed with that illness, everything changed in my life. I realized there were so many things that were very important and there were other things that weren’t important. And I had to make a lot of hard decisions.”

From her careful decisions and her sacrifice came something wonderful. De Leon brings a contagious energy and a genuine smile to every class and has it reflected right back to her on the faces of her students. She hands out CDs, socks, candy and belly dancing scarves that jingle as you move but her greatest gift is joy. De Leon says it best, “I come in here. I want to bring joy. And it comes from my heart.”

Foster care: what it means to give a hand.

Communication consulting and mediation is located in Brooklyn NY; this is a center that helps children in foster care interact with their biological parents. Every Saturday morning, rain or shine, the parents and children come together for a four-hour visit. During this time the families interact with each other and catch up on their week, along with sharing a meal together.

Anita Petikans has been working for CCM for about 5 years. She first went as a volunteer and from that moment she stayed on. She loves kids and helping reunite families on the Saturday visits. It means a lot to her because a lot of kids in the system do not get to see their parents; she stays in contact with them to make sure they eventually reconnect with their kids. She started out 12 years ago by adopting her husband’s nieces, and later became apart of CCM “if they knock on my door I won’t turn them down.” She’s also an adoptive parent of four girls; they were toddlers when she adopted them. She has children of her own and that is why she started working in the system, she consistently reminds everyone that “kids need a chance” and that’s why she is there, to give them their chance. Although the visits only last 4 hours, there have been times when she stayed past those 4 hours to give the families more time to visit with each other.

https://vimeo.com/93667008

Every child in the center needs to have an achievement/dream, and in order to remind them of their dreams the kids write/draw on a piece of construction paper which is then hung up at the center. Their dreams help motivate the workers and volunteers everyday; the goal is to help these kids achieve that goal they have. The dream board is essentially there to help achieve your dream. “If you want to be whatever you want to be, you have to go for that dream and shoot for the stars. It helped my daughter, she has a 4-year scholarship and it’s a blessing because she worked hard”. Ms. Petikans daughter achieved her dream. “It helped me because I didn’t have the money to send her and it really helped me.” She thanks CCM because they pushed her and helped her accomplish her dreams. According to Ms. P, her daughter was not apart of the dream board nor CCM but every time she came to visit CCM she would look at it and it motivated her to accomplish her dreams of going to college.

Mother Cabrini High School in Washington Heights will close its doors in June 2014 after educating girls from the neighborhood for 115 years.

Mother Cabrini High School has been “educating the mind, character, heart, and soul since 1899.” Located in Washington Heights, across the street from Fort Tyron Park, this small all-girls Catholic high school is home to a few hundred students. Many students come from low-income, immigrant families in the neighborhood. Though Mother Cabrini High School continuously carried out the saint’s vision to educate less fortunate students, doing so has contributed to its financial troubles and imminent closing in June 2014.

On January 14, 2014, the high school’s Board of Trustees, with approval of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, announced the closing of Mother Cabrini in its current school year. “Increased costs and diminishing revenue made it impossible to continue operations,” the school said in a press release.

Camille Palarpalar, a junior at Mother Cabrini High School, is one of many students who receive a scholarship at the school.

In addition to increased costs, many students were attending the school on scholarships. When asked why she chose Mother Cabrini for high school, junior Camille Palarpalar said “To be blunt I got a scholarship here, so I wouldn’t be so hard on my parents financially.”

Lauren Robertson, an alumna who graduated in 2013, also chose Mother Cabrini High School because it gave her the most financial aid. The school, however, was giving out more scholarships than it could keep up with.

“We were giving out unfunded scholarships. We were giving out discounts without any money hoping to attract kids,” Bruce Segall, president of Mother Cabrini High School, told the Daily News in January.

The school’s closing came as a shock to students and parents, who received no warning before the press release was made public. Students and parents were also unaware of the school’s financial troubles.

“They announced [the closure] on the PA while the students were all in their classrooms one morning,” Rosa Biaggi, a recent graduate of the school said. “[There was] no warning. [It] was designed in a way for no revolt whatsoever.”

Despite the lack of notice and shock, many students, parents and alumnae joined together in hopes of saving the school and raising funds to get it out of its $7 million debt. Biaggi, who graduated from Mother Cabrini in 2012, took the first steps by going to the school and collecting signatures for a petition. Biaggi eventually took her petition online, where more people became aware of the school’s closing and joined the cause.

The Cabrini Movement started an Indiegogo campaign in hopes of raising money to save the school from closing in June.

Efforts to save the school became known as “The Cabrini Movement,” which quickly turned into a hashtag used on social media. Advocates of the movement tweeted celebrities and other online influencers in hopes of gaining publicity and getting donations. Supporters were directed to The Cabrini Movement’s Indiegogo campaign. The goal of the campaign, which started on January 18, was to raise $100,000 of the 7 million in one month as a way to “gain leverage with the sisters who own the school in an effort to change their mind.”

On January 27, representatives of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (MSSHJ) met with Cabrini Movement members to confirm the closing of the school. The Indiegogo campaign remained open and by the end of the one-month fundraising period, $62,850 was raised. With news of the irreversible decision to close Mother Cabrini High School, the purpose of the campaign money was changed.

“The funds will go directly toward transitioning the current 200+ students at Mother Cabrini to other parochial schools in the area,” said the campaign. “Currently, 75% of the school’s students are on financial aid. Many parochial schools are unable to honor these scholarships, as they were funded by the MSSHJ.”

With Mother Cabrini High School closing in a month, many students have already made arrangements for where they will spend the next school year. Others, however, are still in the decision-making process. Despite the school’s impending closure, students continue to participate in classes and extracurricular activities as normal, showing that the “Cabrini spirit will live on.”

Students share memories of Mother Cabrini High School from Pamela Ng on Vimeo.

Password: jrn3510 [Don’t watch in HD]

Strolling down Lexington Ave. between 53rd and 47th streets, one would be hard-pressed to find an establishment that isn’t a hotel. There’s the Hyatt on 48th, the W on 49th, the prestigious Waldorf Astoria on 50th and what seems like a million other hotels you have seen on a Travelocity commercial. Though on this block of overly advertised temporary domiciles, the one that stands out most is the one you probably have never heard of, Hotel Roger Smith.

With its massive vertically hanging neon-green sign, gold doors, fire engine red carpets and odd figurines guarding the main entrance, the Roger Smith looks less like a hotel and more like the entrance to a medieval art exhibit—which is exactly the point. In addition to its main function as a hotel, the Roger Smith serves as owner James Knowles’ personal display case for his art pieces. When Knowles took over the reigns at the Roger Smith, he insisted the hotel serve as more than just a leisurely retreat. He wanted it to be a cultural retreat as well and thus the Window at 125 was born.

It’s hard to believe, but the Window at 125 actually seems more out of place than the hotel it belongs to. It is literally a 7’x7’ window with an art display behind it being presented to those walking by. By the description of it one would expect to find the Window at 125 nestled on some cobbled street in the Lower West Side of Manhattan. However, it is located on 47th street between 3rd and Lexington avenues, where daily on-lookers usually consist of business clad professionals and Italian tourists. Not the tight jeaned and flannel topped folk you would expect to find around an exhibit like this.

Though the obscurity of its location is what makes the Window at 125 so magnificent. Those who walk by it are almost always in hurry to get to their destination, whether it is their next meeting or the shuttle bus to JFK. Yet in their time of haste, most people walking by stop to look. The Window is like nothing else in their daily routine. For people too busy to even sit down and eat their lunch it is a Window into the beauty of life beyond the cubicle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr40MWSQ5NU