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Jordan Selig stands at the baseline awaiting the serve from his twin brother, Justin.The sweat drips off his chin and onto his red Nike shirt. His black hair is plastered to his forehead. The scorching sun beats down on the hard court, and the gum soles of his tennis shoes drag along the court, as fatigue sets in. 

Both boys started playing tennis at age three, and would never have picked up a racket had it not been for a free tennis program in their neighborhood on the upper east side.

New York Junior Tennis League (NYJTL) is a non-profit organization that introduces the youth of New York City to the game of tennis. Their sites are located in all five boroughs, providing tennis rackets, court time and lessons all for free.

“ It introduced me and my brother to the game that we now play daily. It not only got us started, but it has continued to help us advance our game,” said Selig, 17.

At every NYJTL site, they provide a tennis racket for each player, along with hundreds of tennis balls. Each day is separated into two periods. In the morning, the younger children come in for lessons taught by the older players, mostly volunteers who once played at that site when they were younger. At around noon, when the lessons are over, the more experienced players have four hours of open court time, where they can do anything from practice their serves to challenging one another to matches.

Some of the more popular sites, like Wagner Middle School on Second Avnue and 76th Street, have broken up their week to accommodate the vast number of kids.

“We had about 100 kids coming to play each day and as a coach, that’s way too much,” said 19-year-old David Aharoni, a volunteer at the Wagner Middle School site. In order to give every kid equal court and lesson time, they assign Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for kids ages six to 11, while Tuesdays and Thursdays are for ages 12 to 18.
Andrew Elmorshedy, a seasoned NYJTL veteran, is in his final year of the program has a different opinion on the program’s recent growth.

“Thank god I’m getting out of here.” Andrew says. “All these little kids keep taking my court time.”

Although he knows his court time is diminishing, he admits it is great for the program.

“Its better to have the young guns on the court then us old grandpas. Plus If was their age, I would want the same thing,” he says.

Since its start in 1971, the program has expanded its reach to over 100,000 children. They have added a travel team for more experienced players, tournaments for novice players, and play host to the Mayor’s Cup Tournament each year, a competition for all players, held on the same courts as the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

And the entire time, they have kept the program free for all.

Tennis can be a huge burden on people’s wallets if they want to get court time, and lessons are an even more expensive. The Billie Jean National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, Queens, charges $65 per hour to play on one of their courts. At the Sportime Tennis center on Randall’s Island, it costs $45 per hour to play. This is without lessons. Private lessons at these sites cost over $100 per hour. Tennis rackets can cost over $150, and a can of three tennis balls goes for around $4.

Helen Nie, 17, admits that without NYJTL, she probably wouldn’t be playing tennis.

“If my parents knew how much tennis actually costs, I would never be close to a court. With NYJTL I can tell my parents it’s free,” she said.

Journalism Review on Journalism

By Yakov Gavrilov

Today would be my last post, and I want to thank all my readers for following me up until now. The program and my experience with all of you would be lingering in my mind for years to come.

It was an interesting experience, learning about journalism, I mean. It was a skill that always interested me because like many others I read the news.

What I learned about journalism was more interesting than I thought it would be. Apparently there are different types of Journalism and they actually like spelling things there own way.

Like the words lead and nutgraph are actually spelled lede and nutgraf, funny I know but it’s true.

The lede and nutgraf is the beginning of the article and the things that I’m probable never forget because it’s something I see daily.

There is so many ways you could write this ledes that it makes an article more interesting to read because it would be boring if each of them started the same way.

If everyone did start it the same way then the newspaper industry would really be a dying industry.

The history of this industry is really interesting to learn about mostly the recent history because the history of the industry is changing now.

Every article most people read is on the Internet, this article is on the Internet.

 But the industries are trying to power themselves through it and it’s really interesting, how there going about solving the problems of an industry that is dying.

Some are adapting to the Internet and others stay in print because there such a large newspaper and many have fallen because of the economic problems.

That was probable my favorite experiences in this classroom. Maybe it’s because I’m just such a history nerd.

– Thank you to my teacher, fellow classmates, and readers I wish you all the luck in life, and thank you for making me have such a wonderful summer.

Wow! Six weeks have surely gone by fast. My experience in Journalism class was so much more then I thought it was going to be. I expected to have a boring six weeks filled with schoolwork, but instead really learned in a way that was fun and informative. Through the class I have learned o write hard news stories, interview people with ease, and even keep up with current events. It is bittersweet that this class is over. I made many new friends and overall had a summer that was beyond my expectations. 

As water burst from the opened fire hydrant in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, children rushed about in swimsuits, cupping water in their hands, splashing, screaming and laughing as water flushed into the streets, disappearing down the sewer drains.

Although fire hydrants may help residents cool off, it’s causing conflict for the Fire Department and the Department of Environmental Protection. The city is working to alert the community about the dangers of opening a fire hydrant illegally, and encourage residents to use the hydrants correctly.

“Opening a fire hydrant without an approved spray cap is dangerous, wasteful and illegal,” said Carter Strickland, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), at a press conference in July.

Using Spray caps, in other words, “sprinklers” is the legal way for opening a hydrant., Residents can obtain the spray cap at any local firehouse, as long as the claimer is 18 years and older, according to the DEP. Using spray caps lowers water pressure. The powerful force of an open hydrant without a spray cap can knock a child down, causing serious injury, according to the DEP.

“It’s okay for it to be open during extreme heat, as long as they have sprinklers on,” said Sheik Samsair, 46, a resident and business owner from Cypress Hills.

Without the use of spray caps, not only will it waste water supply, it will also affect how the fire department will function if there is a fire incident in the neighborhood, FDNY officials said.

“Open hydrants without a sprinkler cap can lower the water pressure and create a dangerous situation in the event of a fire,” said Frank Dwyer, spokesman for the FDNY, in an email. “The FDNY uses hydrants every day, at every fire our members hook a hose up to a hydrant, or multiple hydrants, as needed.”

According to the DEP, an open hydrant generally releases more than 1,000 gallons of water per minute, while a hydrant with a city-approved spray cap releases only up to 25 gallons per minute.

“I wouldn’t open it. If you open it full, I think it is a water decrease for the city. If you have sprinklers, you save water,” said Jimmy Rambally, 24, a resident from Brooklyn.

The DEP has been partnering with community organizations to inform residents about the consequences for opening a fire hydrant illegally. The South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation (SoBRO) is currently in its second year of partnership with the DEP and NYC Development of Youth Community Development (DYCD), to create the Hydrant Education Action Team (HEAT) program.

“We believe that unauthorized and improper fire hydrant use, especially in the summer months, endangers important resources, such as water supply available for emergency use, hospitals, etc. that are much needed for the communities themselves and New York City as a whole,” said Eyca Ergeneman, vice president of development at SoBRO, in an email.

“Businesses have been eager and willing to support,” said said Tyza Perdomo, Project Coordinator of the HEAT team. “The DEP Protection saw a need due to a large amount of calls during the summer because of open fire hydrants. They created this program to help our community.”

The HEAT team consists of young adults who are concerned about water conservation and protecting their environment, according to Perdomo. They encourage residents to look for other ways to escape the heat, like using local pools and parks.

“Well it’s more convenient than the park. The kids can come downstairs and get wet,” said Tamaris King, 28, as she sat in front of her house in Brooklyn, watching children playing in the fire hydrant. Although it does help decrease the heat, Tamaris believes that it is better to use spray caps because it can be dangerous without them.

“It shoots too hard and wild,” she said.

Opening a fire hydrant improperly can lead to penalties and charges, including imprisonment for up to 30 days and a charge of $1,000, according to the DEP. The FDNY will “respond and close an open hydrant” if there are complaints from neighbors, according to Frank Dwyer.

Although the penalties had been announced for a while, some residents still don’t know anything about penalties for opening a fire hydrant improperly.

“I open it every day if it’s hot. The people came to put on the sprinklers on. They said it was a waste of water,” said Sarah Hines, 31, a resident from Brooklyn.

“This is the first time I ever heard about the penalties. That’s bad. It will be hot. Some people can’t make it to the pool,” she said.

Rihanna Bebe 19, said, “Usually, I don’t like it because I don’t like to be all wet in the public. [But] it should be an option. If people do want the hydrants to be opened, then let it be.”

When I first came to this class I thought it was going to be a waste of my summer vacation. I didn’t think that spending six weeks in a classroom was going to be fun. Luckily I was mistaken and judged the course before it started.

One thing I like was that we were not in a normal classroom with desks and chairs. We had a journalism studio with computers and a conference room setup. 

Another thing I underestimated was not making any friends. Turns out I was wrong about that as well. Everyone in this class was cool to talk to. For the most part we all got along like friends even though after this week we might not ever see each other again.

I thought this class was really interesting because before this class I did not know there was a different type of writing besides school essay writing. Journalists have a completely different way of writing their information and thoughts.

The introduction to a journalist is a lede, the paragraph after is the nutgraf and their title to their story is a headline.

During this coarse I also learned about the direction that news and journalism is going. Editors have told us that eventually there will not be a newspaper anymore, due to the advancement of technology.

I found the process of obtaining information when writing a story interesting. You have to ask dozens of random people questions about your story. Most of those people will either refuse to help you or claim to not know what you are talking about. 

The last thing I found good about this class was the professor. She was extremely passionate about making her students into real journalists. Her lessons really helped prepare us for what it would be like in this field of work. 

Overall it was a good experience. 

As today is the last day, I feel I should write my last blog on my experience taking this course. I’ve learned how a reporter has to deal with interviewing strangers, trying to get people to respond to your calls and emails before your deadline, stressing out over your deadline, and learning how to write like a journalist.

I chose this course to improve my writing for the SAT. However, taking this course allowed me to realize I am willing to consider going into journalism for college. I’ve learned how essay writing differs from journalism writing. Journalism writing is short and to the point.

My favorite part of this class was going out to interview people on the street about Bloomberg’s soda ban policy and how people in NYC are dealing with the heat. By taking this course, I have been given the chance to meet new people and experience what a college course is like.

Being a journalist is hard and stressful, however, it is the best feeling to have your work read by people. I’ve enjoyed interviewing people on the streets and overcoming my shyness. I would recommend taking this class for everybody who wants to improve their writing and socializing skills.

To anybody who reads this, addio, aurevoir, and goodbye for this will be my last blog post.

Today it’s everyone’s last day at blogging on the Paw Print. It’s hard to think of something to write when it’s your last day at College now. I see the people around me and all they have is a blank word document open, and staring at it wondering to write.  Sometimes I wonder if I will ever see my classmates again, maybe one day in college without knowing I go into a class and I see someone from college now sitting right next to me and tells me, “Hey, you remember me?” These past few weeks in my Journalistic Writing class, I’ve learn a lot of things that I wouldn’t have known until I actually go to college. Now I am sure that I want to become a journalist in the future. I came here into the class with little knowledge and now I’m leaving with a lot of knowledge J. This was an amazing experience because it helped me get out of doubts that I had about becoming a journalist.

Thank you, Jeanmarie for teaching us the true meaning of journalism and giving us that once in a life time experience. You made it seem so real, like if we were in an office writing a newspaper due the next day. I would always remember this experience J

                                                                            Thank you once again. 

Today is our last class together. Everyone is on their computers blogging about their experience when taking this class. Journalistic writing was different than what I thought it to be. I didn’t think that we would be learning about how newspapers and reporters work. However it was fun. We had to go out in groups and do man on the street interviews. We were all shy at first and didn’t know how to approach people who would answer our questions. But we had other chances to practice on our interviewing skills when we went out to do the summer heat story and when we went out to do our story on study abroad students. We got to meet new people from our classes and had fun during classes. The college now program gives us a whole hour to eat our lunch while in high school, we only have about half an hour lunch. This summer, a lot of Baruch High School students are taking college now classes so most of the time we would sit together in the area outside the cafeteria or go up to the 8^th floor lounge to eat our lunches. Because we were taking journalistic writing, our room is a computer lab. It is nice that we get surrounded by mac computers and get to sit in nice chairs; it is freezing cold in the room. It seems like the air conditioning is turned on full blast every day. Now that it is time to leave this room, it’s a bit saddening. Now everyone is off to spend their last few weeks having fun and going on vacation because soon school would start again for us. 

Time flies by so fast it seems like college now class just started a few days ago. I can’t believe that today will be my last day here. Of course, I will miss the free lunch and metro card opportunity, however, I will miss being in a college class and working with my peers. It was a great experience, to work and meet with classmates I never seen before. Class was just like a college environment where we listen to lectures in the morning and take notes individually. Then, we use what we were able to grasp from the lectures and put it in exercises and practice. To be honest, I never thought about Journalism being a major I would consider for my career. After taking this class, I had a clear understanding of what Journalism is and how it affects our life. I have a notebook filled with notes from the lectures and I have to admit that the presentation and notes provided from the professor, JeanMarie were great tip points to help us out through the course, and understand what Journalism is.

At first, I was really shy and didn’t want to do real reporting on the streets. It was really difficult for me to open up and have courage to do reporting. But after the practices we did, it got easier and became something fun to do. Not only did I develop better writing skills, I also gained extra writing techniques such as writing news article and opinion pieces. I was able to compare articles we read in newspaper, to the essays we write in school, and realize how different they were in terms of writing style.

Before this course even began, I was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to catch up with the class and learn in a fast pace. But when class had been starting for weeks already, I realized that Professor was capable of teaching us in depth and in a pace where every student is able to follow. I love how she would elaborate in depth and make sure we were able to understand the concept. To be honest, I was never confused with the lectures she gave and it helped a lot for workshop in the afternoon and other exercises. The most important thing is that I don’t feel pressured by the Professor and that’s what I want college class to be. I love how I can do my work independently, and Professor will be there to help me out.

Normally, I don’t really like to read the newspaper, but after taking this class, we were required to read certain articles from different news company and be quizzed the next day. It became a habit for me to actually pick up a newspaper in the morning to glance at upcoming news.  

On some certain days, Professor will invite editors and staffs from different news company to give us a speech about their career in Journalism world. This was really helpful and relevant to what we are learning and it was a great experience to actually talk to people who write news for us everyday. It gives us a chance to compare how each company work.

 Altogether, I really enjoyed being in this class and it was a fun and great experience. I will definitely miss every moment in this class.

It’s the final day!