College Readiness Program—LIC’s Premiere Education Program

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Long Island City (LIC) resident Natalia Imbrovich is a 19-year-old first-generation Russian immigrant, and as of recent months, a college student at CUNY Hunter. She reflected on her five years of hardships in the United States with a humbled look on her face, which was outlined by streaks of long blonde hair. “I never thought I would be able to go to college,” she said. “But after working for a couple of days a week at a local grocery store off the books, I saved up enough money to enroll myself at the College Readiness Program.”

Ms. Imbrovich is one of the hundreds of students aged 14-21 from the Queens area who enroll in the College Readiness Program (CRP) every year; a program that is part of the larger non-profit organization, Sunnyside Community Services Center (SCS), which is located in Sunnyside, LIC. CRP holds a proud record of getting their students enrolled into Ivy League, private, public, and state colleges by offering services that include SAT and SAT II prep, college advisement, information sessions regarding college applications, and freshmen workshops. However, despite its renowned services, some local residents believe that the program suffers from logistical issues, such as a language barrier.

While SCS has been providing free and low-cost services to the elderly, single parents, families, youth, and teenagers in Queens for over forty years, its subsidiary, CRP, was only founded in 2003. CRPs purpose, as stated on their website, is to have a low-cost program designed to “allow participants to receive a well-rounded understanding of the system of higher education in order to make the appropriate academic choices that will benefit them in the future. “

Because CRP advisors are only assigned a few hundred students, unlike the thousands that public city-school counselors have, CRP can provide more individual attention than school guidance counselors. One benefit of this is that they can take their students on college campus tours. With nearly one in three city-schools deemed overcrowded, according to an audit conducted by city Controller Scott Stringer, students have claimed that they have not received the help and guidance they deserved, which in turn stifles their college-preparation experience. “I barely got any help from my college advisors. It was hard just to even see them,” said Imbrovich. “I had no idea what to do, so many people I knew just ended up dropping out.”

According to the Census, 40% of LIC’s population consists of high-school graduates, 29% have had some high-school or less, and only 24% have an Associates or Bachelors degree. In other words, nearly 70% of the population of Long Island City is not college educated. For that reason, programs like CRP prove to be crucial in furthering higher education because they provide non-graduates and high-school graduates with the opportunity to go back and enroll in college, or get their GED.

It appears that CRP has been successful in their endeavors. “We are so very proud of the success of our CRP participants,” said Judy Zangwill, executive director of Sunnyside Community Services, in an article for QGazette. “Over 90 percent of the students in our program are accepted into college and are awarded millions of dollars of scholarships and merit-based grants each year.“

Nevertheless, CRP was not an instantaneous success. Throughout its earliest stages, CRP was completely free, which led to sustainability issues once the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development grant ended in 2004. At the time, the program coordinator Peter Wilson expressed severe concern that customers might have to begin paying for services. “I’m against that. A lot of our kids can’t even afford transportation to get to our program,” Wilson said, in an article for the NY Daily News. While the program did live to see more days, this was not without cost to the customers.

Presently, 12-week sessions at CRP have hiked up to $250, but free lunch is provided for students who qualify for it. The sessions can be taught in either English, Spanish, or Chinese, however some residents in LIC, recognizing its diversity, thinks that this is limiting the program’s goals of reaching the most students they can. “It bothers me that those are the only languages they teach the program in,” said Claire Donovan, 34, a teacher from a near-by public school, whose students are often recommended to CRP. “Many of my students are immigrants, but they come from all around the world. We have students who speak Arabic, Japanese, Albanian.”

Over half of LIC’s population (51%) is made up of foreign-born immigrants, according to the Census, with only 20% of the 51% being naturalized citizens. As far as languages go, the percentage for English speaking households is 34%, this number is almost the same as the Indo-European speaking households, which falls shortly behind at 32%. Spanish speaking households come in at 23%, while Asian households come in at 7%. “It’s hard for a good amount of students to participate in the program, which consequently deteriorates their chances of getting into a good college,” Donovan said, signifying her view that, with the exception of English, the other two languages are actually the minority languages within the community. However, to rebut that statement, CRP claims on their website that indeed “77% of CRP participants are from immigrant households.”

Regardless of criticisms, CRP continues its efforts to better the program. Since their partnership was formed with Time Warner Cable (TWC) in 2011, CRP’s Technology Center is always fully equipped with “state-of-the-art computers, computer software, Time Warner Cable Business Class High-Speed Internet service, flat screen high definition (HD) televisions, HD cable service including an HD DVR and digital cameras,” as reported by TWC. Additionally, just last year, CRP received a tremendous donation from Con Edison. “We are grateful to Con Edison for helping us help more youth to overcome barriers on the road to academic achievement,” said  Zangwill. It appears that CRP will be sticking around for a few more years.

SCS Streetview

Photo Credit: http://www.scsny.org/contact.html

 

Hipsters vs. Natives: How Gentrification Polarized Williamsburg

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When one is walking down Bedford Ave in Brooklyn, the first thing to stick out are the vast amounts of businesses that are in the area. Whether its a small cafe that specializes in fruit smoothies or a book store that sells used books, there’s something for practically any person with varying taste. Such a thing couldn’t have been said about Beford Ave back in the ’80s and ’90s, since such businesses weren’t anyway near this part of Brooklyn.

One trend that’s taken the city by storm is gentrification, the renovation of formerly run down neighborhoods to make them more appealing to middle and upper class demographics. Several neighborhoods across the city have either been completely gentrified or is in the middle of becoming gentrified, and one such neighborhood is in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

 

Over the last few years, the neighborhood has seen a significant change in both demographics and aesthetics. In the past, Williamsburg was seen as a run down neighborhood predominantly filled with eastern Europeans, Central Americans, and African Americans.

 

However, developers have sinced zeroed in on the neighborhood and started to develop new middle and upper class housing, as well as renovating existing buildings. Sure enough, a totally new demographic descended on Williamsburg: hipsters. Along with the new housing, throngs of independent businesses started sprouting up in the neighborhood to serve the new arrivals in Williamsburg. Within a few years, Williamsburg went from being a neighborhood that most New Yorkers wouldn’t have paid much mind, into a thriving and rapidly popular community.

 

The issue of gentrification has drawn many voices from both sides of the spectrum. From new residents, the basic consensus is that the new Williamsburg is a dramatically improved place to live. The general upkeep, the wide variety of businesses, and just the overall facelift lead to the conclusion from residents.

 

While some are glad about the rebirth of a once run down neighborhood, others aren’t as enthusiastic towards the changes. Several long time residents of Williamsburg don’t want their neighborhood to be labeled as a predominantly “hipster village”. Some consider that these new residents are taking away Brooklyn’s character as a rough and tough area of the city.

 

One such opinion came from Spike Lee last year. During a Q&A session with the Oscar nominated director, a question about gentrification in his home borough of Brooklyn lead to Lee going into a profanity laced rant about how whites were supposedly ruining the neighborhoods by gentrifying them and pushing out black people who have lived there before the changes started.

 

Kelvin Mata, a long time resident of Brooklyn, also weighed in on the gentrification issue. “I really don’t have any personal problem with hipsters and if they want to move to Brooklyn, more power to them. That said, I hate the fact that people are now gradually labeling the whole borough as a haven for those types of people.”

 

He then went on to explain how Williamsburg and Brooklyn in general during his childhood was a generally more gritty area that wasn’t all that appealing to those thinking about moving across the city. “I’ll bet you that none of these new arrivals in Brooklyn would even think about moving here 10 years ago. It’s like us real Brooklyn natives need to show the hipsters what it’s like to really live in this part of the city.”
Mata ends by stating that while it’s nice to see any neighborhood go through improvements that results in more people moving in, he doesn’t want it to lose its sense of character and uniqueness that makes it stick out amongst the rest of the city.

(Pictures by Ashley Feinberg; Gizmodo)

 

 

West Hempstead High School Accommodates Increasing Number of ELL Students

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The halls of West Hempstead High School fill with under 1,000 students off to their lockers and classrooms before the next bell that will ring in four minutes. A few freshmen scurry through the junior hallway with their heavy backpacks and some seniors carry a single notebook as they meander to class. Black, white, Asian and Hispanic faces weave into one another as the hall splits by flow of traffic.

Loud voices, laughter and chatter fade in and out with footsteps and suddenly cease when the bell rings. Many languages are spoken among the student body, but not all are bilingual. Increasingly each year, West Hempstead High School enrolls non-English speaking students who move to the district from countries such as El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Dominican Republic.

With a tight budget and limited resources, the faculty tries to accommodate the needs of English Language Learners, otherwise known as ELL students, and help them keep up with the rest of their peers, pass state tests and graduate on time.

“[They come from] Central America, El Salvador, and there’s no English language. None. It’s scary,” English teacher Jared Kufta said. In 2012 the West Hempstead school district released a final report that included a demographic analysis of the community. It showed from 2000-2010 there was a decline in the white population, from 75.4 percent to 63.4 percent, and an approximately equal rise in the Hispanic population, from 4 percent to 17.3 percent, along with an increase in all other ethnicities. “The school district’s enrollment reflects the community’s ethnic distribution,” the report stated. With 1998-2009 data from the New York State Education Department, the West Hempstead report displayed a similar pattern among the student population of the district in contrast to the community population with a decrease in the white students, from 71.3 percent to 48 percent, an increase in Hispanic students, from 13.5 percent to 27 percent, and the other ethnicities of students growing. West Hempstead High School, alone, is following the same trend of diversity. The NYSED released the enrollment demographics for just the high school this year. For the 2012-2013 school year, 51 percent of high school students were white, 25 percent were Hispanic, 17 percent were black, and 6 percent were Asian/other.

As the rate of Hispanic students, not all ELL, grows so does the rate for non-English speaking students who are placed in the state-required classes, such as Kufta’s English class. Kufta thinks of one Hispanic student who is expected to take the English Regents despite her inability to read, write or speak in English.

Kufta’s students are reading The Great Gatsby and he explained that Fitzgerald’s novel can be a “complicated text” with some tough vocabulary for the average English speaker. He said while teaching about the novel, a non-English speaking student named Crystal sits quietly at her desk.

“Sweetest kid ever,” Kufta said. But she speaks “zero English whatsoever, I mean zero.” Without a translator by his side, Kufta turns to drawing out pictures and printing out translations all for her. He teaches his class with a co-teacher because it is also an inclusion class for special-ed students. His co-teacher does not speak Spanish either, so sometimes he depends on the other students to help Crystal understand what is happening in class.

“Gotta lean on kids that have a different skill set than I have… and they’re more than willing [to help],” Kufta said. He’ll ask an English-speaking student with Spanish competence to try to explain to Crystal what the class is doing.

Kufta recognizes the small victories when Crystal smiles and says, “Oh! Oh!” after finally making a comprehended connection. Kufta and Crystal share a moment of relief in this success.

These time-consuming efforts to make illustrations and translations for students, like Crystal, to understand some instructions aren’t enough to equip them for the English Regents and other English Language Arts state tests that can only be taken in English. “It’s going to be on us to get them to pass these Regents exams, to meet the state’s standards and the Common Core standards… because at the end of the day all anybody cares about are the numbers that are printed in Newsday,” Kufta said. “There will be no asterisk in the paper saying, ‘Well the…insert number here… of kids who failed this…have English as a second language or don’t speak English at all.’” In the 2012-2013 school year, seven students that are “limited English proficient” took the English Regents according to NYSED’s report. Approximately three of them scored over a 65, two scored between 55-64 and the other two scored below 55. No one scored above an 85. Out of all 241 high school students that took this exam, 2 percent scored below a 55, making that about five students, two of which are ELL.

NYSED permits some tests to be translated in languages other than English. Regents exams for math, science and social studies are offered in Chinese, Haitian Creole, Korean, Russian and Spanish, according to NYSED, for those are the most commonly-spoken languages in the state. For elementary- to middle school-aged students similar language alternatives are offered for state tests in those core subjects. Although translated state tests are offered, ELL students still need to take and pass the relevant classes taught by an English-speaking teacher.

“Last year I had an entire… Algebra Workshop [class]…and it was all ELL,” math teacher Melissa Benson said. Benson has been working at the high school for over 17 years and noticed the increase of ELL students around 2010. Benson said at first it was “crazy” the amount of ELL students coming in and now “you come to expect it.”

ELL teachers in West Hempstead High School “co-teach” Algebra and Living Environment for students in any of the three ELL levels, high school counselor Donna Seeberger said. Although state testing in these subjects are offered in Spanish, the ELL co-teacher is there to help the students “acquire the English language.”

Benson referred to another math teacher having a class of 29 kids that don’t speak English. “So it’s like an algebra class taught by a math teacher and the ELL teacher. But it’s not enough,” Benson said. In order to meet state requirements for graduation, new students are “given credit for high school coursework that they have previously completed and have documentation for,” Seeberger explained. Although given credit and placed in Benson’s algebra class, “some of them never heard of an integer, can’t multiply, can’t divide, can’t add,” Benson said.

West Hempstead has revised their ELL program in the last two years, Seeberger said as it had been explained to her by Kathleen O’Farrell, the district ELL director and English department director in the high school. There are three levels to ELL with level one being for beginners. At this level students are scheduled for a three-period block with an ELL teacher to focus on learning English. The ELL teacher joins them in the Algebra and Living Environment classes for all three levels.

“The district offers professional development to teachers and has resources available for teachers including an ELL consultant,” Seeberger said. One resource is the utilization of the SIOP Model, which stands for Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol. The Center for Applied Linguistics calls SIOP “a research-based and validated instructional model that has proven effective in addressing the academic needs of English learners throughout the United States.” The hired ELL consultant coaches and works with the teachers to help them with the SIOP methodology.

“District wide we have hired three new ELL teachers this year,” Seeberger said. While the district receives Title III federal money for ELL programs and resources, under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, new ELL teachers’ salaries are taken from the district’s budget. “The state is proposing a mandate for bilingual education and this will lead to greater costs for the district,” Seeberger said. Bilingual teachers in core subject areas would need to be hired in order to satisfy this state regulation if it comes to pass. “All students who reside in New York are entitled to receive a free and appropriate education. We follow all state regulations with the goal of meeting the needs of all of our students,” Seeberger said. ELL students, though growing, are a great minority to English-speaking students who would have to be a part of these bilingual classes.

Prior to working at West Hempstead High School, Kufta worked at a school in Brooklyn that had a bilingual program. “Every core class would be in a bilingual classroom. It would be with a bilingual specialist who spoke in Spanish and English and it was literally taught in Spanish, and English would be incorporated every now and again,” Kufta said. “But that was also three, four years of work before we allowed them to take the English Regents.”

At West Hempstead High School ELL students receive extended time on exams, can have the listening passages repeated up to three times and have translation glossaries, that do not include the definitions of words, for English state testing. “We support them as we support all of our students,” Seeberger said. “I think people are drawn to West Hempstead because it is a great place to raise a family and we have a great school system. The staff works hard to make that a reality for all who live here.” There’s a special meeting the night before “Back To School Night” conducted in Spanish for ELL parents. Any messages and announcements sent home from school, whether by phone or mail, are in Spanish and English. The strides to accommodate ELL families are small, but they’re being done. The structure of the classroom may be changing but the dynamic student-to-student and teacher-to-student interaction has remained the same despite the demographic shift.

“I like the diversity…I love the fact that West Hempstead looks like a school you see on television,” Kufta said. “It’s the weird thing about this school. It’s like a big team. You don’t see these clefts and these divisions amongst the kids in the hallways and the classrooms. You don’t see it. Everybody just kind of works together.”

Writer Profile – Eddie L. Bolden Jr.

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Eddie L. Bolden Jr. – Writer. Composer. Songwriter. Arranger. Engineer. Producer. Journalist.

New York  – Eddie L. Bolden Jr., 23 from The Bronx, has a passion for sports, music, writing, and news. As a senior at Baruch College, he is pursuing his Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Creative Writing after receiving his Associates Degree from the Bronx Community College in 2013.

Eddie Bolden became immersed in writing during his junior year in high school, where he received one of the highest grades in the English regents in the Bronx.  He attributes his development in his writing proficiency to his high school teacher.

“Mr. Q pushed me to enhance my writing skills. He said I had a gift for it,” he stated.
He used to tell us “What the media doesn’t tell you can hurt you.”

Bolden has interned at The Brooklyn Game, a website focusing on the Brooklyn Nets, where he acquired some experience in publishing stories and although he loves writing about sports, he did not want to limit himself to one genre.

“I think I want to be able to do a little bit of everything,” he said about his future as a writer.
“It’s good to be multifaceted. I’m a creative at heart.”

Bolden recently published an article on the Baruch College’s award winning Journalism magazine Dollars and Sense, Where Typewriters Get a New Lease on Life.

“I’m so glad I was able to get that published,” said Bolden.

Bolden was awarded the Chris Brown Institutional Investor Journalism Scholarship for next semester and wishes to continue his writing career in hopes that he can better the world.

When not writing stories on sports, news or publishing articles, he is writing and editing his own music.

“I want to make sure I set myself apart.”

A Passion Without Borders (Gilberto Vazquez)

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We are each born with a unique set of gifts, predestined upon us before our birth. It is up to us to identify, develop and nurture them appropriately.  However, there are some instances when the dreams and passions of some remain unfulfilled.
 For Gilberto Vazquez, 33, it was during his time as a Field Artillery Officer, in the United States Army, that his constant, “quest for knowledge,” became apparent.  Vazquez’s creative roots trace back to his childhood years growing up in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York.
 “I used to write short stories and really wanted to be a video game designer when I was a kid,” said Vazquez. “Growing up, I also wanted to be an archaeologist because I wanted to unravel ancient bones.”
 Vazquez’s innate humanism followed him through his childhood and into his teenage years. In 2004, partly inspired by the terrorist attacks on September 11th, Vazquez enlisted and was deployed to Iraq to fight in the war against terror.  It was here that Vazquez’s underlying spark for journalism was lit.
 “I like information so I started to learn a little bit of Arabic, about 100 conversational words to help me tell the people in Iraq what I needed to,” said Vazquez.  “Once I came back home, I took up German.  It’s all about my desire to gain more knowledge.”  To date, Vazquez can speak English, Spanish, German, French and Arabic, although he admits to not have used Arabic in the past ten years.
Documenting and protesting during Occupy Wall Street

Vazquez showing support of Army Veterans while documenting and protesting during Occupy Wall Street

Instead of following the route of most returning Veterans, Vazquez did not look to become a cop or security officer.  He chose to remain committed to his dreams and pursue a career in journalism.

 “The military was a stepping stone for me. It helped me pay for 90 percent of my education and it opened up a lot of my passions,” said Vazquez.  “I feel as if I always had the passion, but it definitely helped.”
 Vazquez attended the Borough of Manhattan Community College where he eventually earned his Associate’s Degree.  He is now nearing the end of his third semester in Baruch College as a journalism and creative writing major. Other than his educational responsibilities, Vazquez is a father to a two-year-old daughter and works full time at Costco Wholesale in the Rego Park section of Queens, New York.
 “I believe that it is more important to work towards your career than it is to just work to pay the bills,” said Vazquez.  “I don’t want to just end up at the same job for five years either.  I want to focus on my career as a journalist.” 
 Vazquez views his character development and maturation as his unyielding desire to constantly do better for himself.  Vazquez prides himself on his education and his goals.  An activist at heart, Vazquez plans to start his own website and surround himself with a talented team of reporters to assist him write articles and make documentaries on the the ever-changing state of the world.
 “I am a jack-of-all-trades with so many different passions and with things that I have excelled at, so it is hard for me to focus on just one goal for myself,” said Vazquez.  Journalism allows me to utilize my diverse skill-set to branch out to all of the different passions that I have and incorporate those into my life.”