Building the Tool Shed

Hi, this is Mandy and Connie. We are volunteers here at Hester Street Collaborative. Yesterday, we brought long beams from the P.S. 134 Community Garden to Hester Street to measure and cut them into smaller beams so that they can fit into the tool shed in the garden. Jess cut the wood into long rectangular pieces and small square pieces. Each rectangular beam had to have 2 square pieces to support it. Mandy and Claire drilled holes into these beams. The holes on the beams were all in different places because we had to eyeball where the holes should go. Because of this, there had to be sets of 3 pieces of wood. We created a system where we had to label each set of wood with a letter of the alphabet.

Today we went to the garden to work on installing shelves and hooks to organize the tool shed. In the center of the shed, there will be many hooks to hold shovels, trowels, and rakes. There will also be a total of 8 shelves, 4 on each side. On the right side, the first shelf will be 3 feet from the floor and the others will be 1 foot apart. On the left side, each shelf will be 1 and a half feet apart. Today we (with another intern, Claire) worked on creating the support beams needed to hold the shelves. We had many problems in putting the nails into the beams. Two beams split in half because to too much pressure. Later on today, we will be returning to the garden to continue to work on attaching the support beams to the shed.

Today will probably be our last day posting a new blog (Mandy and Connie) because tomorrow will be the last day we will be working here at Hester Street Collaborative this summer. Good bye and have a nice summer. :]

Finishing our designs

Hi, my name is Helen, i am one of the interns in Hester St Collaborative Design. Yesterday I've been working on t' shirt design and figuring out how to draw the letter H for "WatcH Us Grow". The design for the letter H was suppose to be a butterfly on a branch to make it look like an letter H. I tried out different ways to draw the butterfly and the branch together. It didn't work out because it doesn't look like an H or the butterfly is too big. My co workers, (interns); Melissa, Angela and Vivian were also drawing out the design and finishing the sketching as fast as we can because Vivan and Melissa last day of work is tomorrow. I am going to missed them a lot because we always have fun together and helped each other out.

So yesterday, i finally drew out a nice butterfly on a H instead of a butterfly trying to look like a H on a branch. I feel so proud of myself and my co workers. We basically gather our thoughts and design together and even our supervisor put in their designs. Its our master piece and the best design ever made. I had a lot of fun working in Hester Street Collaborative because i get to experienced a lot of things and doing something crazy such as working on the garden. I've never done that before and I'm glad i did. Afterward, we put all the letters together and scan it on the computer and print it out. This process sounds easy but its not from hours of drawing then we have to put it together. I'm glad we're finally finished with the design. Now we have to trace the design on a contact paper so we can silk screen it on a shirt. So I'll have to go and trace now!

t-shirts and shed plans

Hey, this is Connie and I'm a volunteer at Hester Street Collaborative. Other volunteers are Mandy, Daniel and Alex. Here at HSC, we are learning a lot of new things. For one, I have never made a t-shirt design before and here I experienced the process of silk screening. Everyday HSC is filled with something new to do.
At the P.S. 134 garden, there is a tool shed. Over the time, supplies and miscellaneous objects were piled and thrown in. Right now everything in it is a mess. So, one of our projects is thinking of a way to organize the tool shed. We had to draw out plans and side-views of the interior shed. Using our plans, we decided to put three to four shelves on the three sides of the interior shed. To organize everything, we will buy tubs or crates and label them.
This is Vivian. As with the silk screening, a design was picked out of the interns' and volunteers'. We worked on the design and finalized it. Everyone's been working hard and the table is now covered in layers of tracing paper.
For me and Melissa, this is going to be our last week at HSC. I'm going to miss all the fun projects we did and going to the garden. But, before I leave, I have to finish a research project. My project will be planning a proposal to build a stage at Sara D. Roosevelt Park. On every other Friday, there are performances at the park. The first one was a puppet show and I went to a Chinese Culture Dance Performance. I noticed these events are done on a soccer field. Therefore, I want to design a stage for these events because they seem to have this every summer. If there is a stage, it can be more presentable and not blocking children from using the soccer field. The stage will have to be versatile and able to be used for any kind of performance. I will show a plan of my design using Illustrator.

Silk Screening! :D

After weeks and weeks of sketching, we finally silk screened our designs on paper, wood, and cloth. All of the designs came out better than we thought it would. All the work must had paid off from drawing our design on contact paper and cutting them out with exacto knife. We were so excited silk screening our designs and getting paint all our fingers. Throughout the process, we felt that we have achieved and learned a lot about designing. It also brought back our childhood memories, and for us to think once again like a child. As a child we think things simple and adorable, so our main theme is all about the kids. We had to focus on the phrase "Watch Us Grow" at the P.S 134 Community Garden. Even though the thinking part required a little brainstorming, seeing our designs come out nice made our day!!
Yesterday we started to brainstorm about our research projects. We split up into two groups. Melissa and Vivian went to SDR to take pictures of the part to build a stage for the performances. We, Angela and Helen, went to SDR to take notes of everything that takes place in the park, like the different activities that difference ages groups do. The park was long! It was about 6 blocks long. While walking from the beginning to the end of the park we noticed a lot of things we didn't know about the park. Theres a community garden that is taken care of by communtiy workers. We also learned that the houses from Grand going down to Delancy, the 6 blocks, there are different types of people living on each block. While we were exploring around the park, we saw people performing in front of the kids and the parks are open for everybody. We also saw a huge garden; which took up a whole section of the parks. But no one really takes care of it. And Helen thought of an idea to write her research project on the community gardens that no one takes care of. And as of Angela, she took notes on the different activites and different age groups in the park. Now we should get started on the project. We only have 2 more weeeks!! :(

Meeting in Queens

Hi, this is Melissa. This morning I went with Dylan and Kayan to a meeting with the Immigrants and Parks Collaborative in Jamaica, Queens. A main goal for today's discussion was to address language on signs in parks. Two days ago, Mayor Bloomberg signed an executive order that would improve language access for immigrants. It stipulated that essential public documents would have versions in the six top languages spoken in the city and that interpretation services would be available in these same languages. Unfortunately, logistics for achieving this level of communication has been slowed down by bureaucracy. The Parks Department claims that it shares the Collaborative's interest, which is in favor of the immigrants, but if there is no result to show for their supposed good will, no one is satisfied. The Immigrants continue to suffer from the inactivity of those with power. Today's discussion was often directed towards how they could impress the importance of actually translating important documents and signs. This meeting made it all the more clear to me exactly how slow the process of actually getting things done in this city is. The tiers of power always get in the way because it takes such an effort for advocates of impoverished New Yorkers and immigrants to get their point of view across to those with money and authority.
Perhaps halfway through the meeting, the guest speaker showed up. Christian DiPalermo from New Yorkers for Parks. He orally presented some of the history behind what Parks has done until now. The agency grades parks and beaches in the five boroughs and assesses safety, cleanness, and the condition of facilities. He brought up the issue of tracking crime that takes place within parks, as this is a fairly recent development. Some people presented ideas they had for there own parks in order to lower the crime rate, but it was merely brainstorming.
I found the meeting insightful. I was in a unique position because I came into the meeting knowing very little about the topics of the conversation. As someone who grew up going to many of the parks that were addressed, I found it very interesting to hear what the politics behind them are. So little is concrete because of the complications of working with the city. It was not exactly comforting to learn how much crime still exists in New York's parks, but at the same time, the rate has decreased due to all of the work that organizations for parks have done over the past decade and more.

THE GARDEN

The garden is used by students from the elementary school located next to the garden. It is a place for the students to learn and do hands on activities in an outdoor environment. The garden is maintained by volunteers daily. So far they had helped to water the plants, clean the floor of fallen leaves & trash, and pull out the weeds and perform other gardening work. Not only do volunteers maintain the garden, they also help design ways to draw the community’s attention. The garden needs to attract members of the community.

Currently, we are working to make the garden more community friendly. We are trying our best to develop ideas to make the garden much more noticeable. One suggestion is to make signs. The signs will bring attention to the people walking by the garden. Some thoughts are

the use of colorful and seasonal signs. We also want these signs to be kid friendly yet are still appealing to adults. Another idea of attraction is to make tracks leading into the garden so it would lead curious children who follow it right to it. Hopefully these signs and attractions will bring the community to visit the garden more frequently.

One recent problem was an intrusion of delinquents in the garden. These delinquents had climbed over the door, and had vandalized the garden. Red paint was splattered on trees. A couple of chairs made by the student of the elementary school were also thrown and smashed. To prevent another intrusion, an idea was formulated to prevent future cases. One idea was to hang a sign over the entrance of the garden. The entrance to the garden had a lower fence than the surrounding areas, which delinquents can easily climb over and enter during the night. The signs would not only attract members of the community - it can be used to block delinquents from entering.

Keep in mind that none of our current ideas are final, and that we will continue to work to improve this garden.

Allen Street Pedestrian Malls

            One of the projects we are in the middle of is renovating the Allen Street Malls. Funding for this project began in 1996 and planning began in 2003. This past Wednesday, HSC hosted a scope meeting to get suggestions from people who live in the neighborhood and find out what they would like to see in the new malls. Those who came to the meeting were split into groups and given line drawings of panoramas of different malls on Allen Street. They could draw all over them to give visual aid to their suggestions about how to renovate specific blocks.

            For the local residents’ benefits, there were ideas of creating a peaceful area for relaxation or an area for events such as dance performances, holiday festivals, etc. To make living in the area more comfortable, local markets would benefit from their long walks to buy groceries. As for residents that walk their dogs in the morning or daily joggers, their own greenway would really benefit them. Families would be able to go to the malls and take a stroll.

            There is a safety issue around the Allen Street Pedestrian Malls. On each side of the malls are wide roads which can cause a hazard to pedestrians. People hope that there will be a way to decrease the amount of traffic and lessen the pollution. In effect, it can also minimize potential accidents. There is also an idea of putting bike lanes around the malls, which can also minimize the traffic. However, it might not happen because by law, all bike lanes have to be on the right of the road.

            There was a scope meeting with people from the DOT and Parks Department to discuss ideas about renovating the malls. Representatives from each group shared their ideas.  

David Byrne’s "Playing the Building"

David Byrne’s new art installation is quite the auditory experience. It plays with the sounds already present in the former terminal of the Staten Island Ferry. A single organ is situated in the center of an empty room that has hardly been restored since the building was used for its original purpose. Byrne used wires to attach each organ key to fixtures located all around the room. The wires are connected to different aspects of the building that can make sound. When the building is “played,” sounds are produced that simulate those of conventional musical instruments from woodwinds to strings to percussion, except that the sounds are more primitive in nature. When a key is played, vibrations are sent to the connected wire and travels to the motor. Each motor produces a different sound and pitch. When multiple keys are played, a gathering of clanks, whistles and booms rise up the empty room and echo off. This piece of art is something that you must hear with your own ears to understand. The beauty of this installation is its interactive quality. Visitors can play the organ and actually create the clanking sounds of an ancient building. The installation is like an art gallery, but it is at the same time very unique. To get the complete experience, it is beneficial to walk around the room and hear the sounds from different angles. Unlike in an art gallery where walking around allows for a different perspective of the visual display, the location in which the visitor stands gives a new perspective on the sound as well.

We have referred to the other interns for ideas on what to do with students on a class trip to the exhibit. We have played with the idea of having students respond to a drawing or writing prompt. As far as the drawings go, we came up with ideas such as the students drawing what they think the space might have used to look like, drawing an imaginary instrument that they think could produce a certain sound they hear, or designing some sort of basic design inspired by the clean lines of the room. A writing activity would allow the students to pay more attention to the sounds they hear, rather than the visuals. Prompts included the question of whether what they hear is music and what they believe music to be. Another prompt questioned whether they consider the exhibit to be art. We also like the idea of students simply listening to the sounds. If they spread out and sit alone in different parts of the room, they will be able to better appreciate what they hear. If students are not with their friends, they will listen to the sounds rather than talking, and there will be less miscellaneous noise that may distract people from hearing the clanks, rings, and whistles of the installation.

Done Cleaning...

Today, we did the usual going to the garden and watering. It was good weather, not too hot and a bit breezy. We're just about done with the cleaning, but still have the tool shed to clean. In the future, the garden will be easier to handle. 

We're thinking about ideas with the signage in the garden. We want to make the garden more appealing and want to attract more people to come in. As of now, we're just brainstorming and throwing out ideas. 

vivi signing off...:]

First day of work

Hey, we are the 2008 summer interns. Our names are Angela Huang, Helen Liu, Melissa Gollance, and Vivian Kong. Today is our first day of work in Hester Street Collaborative. It was such a great experience. We first went to the P.S. 134 garden. There was a lot of work to do because people from the neighborhood have thrown lots of trash through the fence. We had to sweep up all of the dead leaves, pick up trash, organize the tool shed, water the plants, and weave the vines through the fence. We were there for hours, but there is still so much work to do that we will be returning each day to make it presentable for the children who will be learning in this outdoor classroom. 

After lunch, we passed out flyers around chinatown. The flyers were about a design meeting on Wednesday night. Posting the flyers around chinatown made me(Vivian) understand how tiring it was. I sympathize with people who pass them out in the streets under the sun. 

we cleaned out the planter outside the building. We had to weed the whole thing. We only left behind the marigold plants. Later on we will plant flowers and other plants. Hopefully this will discourage people from throwing trash into our planter in the future. We are looking forward to the next weeks of our internship and sharing it with you!

Great Experiences Will Always Be Remembered

Hey this is Tracey. I started out as a volunteer during the summer and became an intern when school started. Well today is my last day at HSC so this is my first and last blog. Anyway, I have had a great experience interning here. One of the first things I learned was to help maintain the garden. My favorite part about going to the garden was the pick cherry tomatoes. It was exciting that a bunch of new tomatoes ripped each time I went there (once a week). I didn’t like going to the garden so much when fall came because then it got cold, the garden looked lifeless, and there were endless amount of leaves to sweep up.

I also learned how to silkscreen which reminded me of my printmaking class in LaGuardia HS. We silk-screened tees as a fund raising project for P.S. 134. It was fun (until we encountered problems but we always managed to solve them) and inspiring. For Halloween, Mindy and I silk-screened our own costumes. We were (defected) Crayola crayons.

Chinese New Years was just last week. Happy Chinese New Years everyone =). It’s the year of the rat and here in HSC we helped students at M.S. 131 make lanterns with rat prints on them. The students came up with some really interesting and funky lamps. Now they are hung all over the ceilings at the office and at the nearby park. They look great at night with the lights illuminating them.



Rat pattern made by me. Well, it has been a fun half year spent at HSC. Good-bye!! I will come back to volunteer/visit in the future.

Lanterns In The Making...Jellyfish Style

Hey everyone! This is Mindy again. It has been almost half a year since the last time I have posted. Well, sadly to say, this will be the last day I will intern at HSC but I will come back to volunteer.

Well, what have we been doing at HSC lately? We helped with a lantern installation at Sarah D. Roosevelt Park with students of M.S. 131. This project was done in relation to the celebration of Chinese New Year. According to the lunar calendar, 2008 is the year of the rat. Using this point, both HSC and students of M.S. 131 used stamps of rats and printed them onto different colored large plastic sheets. Then, we cut these plastic sheets into smaller and more manageable sizes for the students to design and create their own lanterns. They used different techniques in designing and creating their own lanterns. The students twisted and bent the sheets around, used different colors, used various pins and tools to attach pieces together, and used many other ways. After the creations were completed, Dylan and Annie, Leroy Street Studio, and we interns helped attached small battery lights in each lantern. We helped tighten pins, reassembled lanterns, and etc.
Before:

After:
The M.S. 131 students who worked on the lanterns:

The materials we used:

Hanging lanterns at Sarah D. Roosevelt Park:


In addition, Tracey and I designed our own lanterns. I wanted my creation to be different and unique and came with an idea of creating a lantern in resemblance to a jellyfish. It was a fun and interesting process. I cut, folded, and attached strips of clear plastic sheets together with pins. Here are a few photos of my creation:

Steph's Last Day! Again?

Today is officially my last day at Hester Street Collaborative, so I will sum up my experiences here. I discovered HSC through the Summer Youth Employment Program at CPC last summer. Alex, our supervisor, assigned us (the interns) three different projects: build a work table, find ways to improve the playground at Sara D. Roosevelt Park, and help reconstruct the P.S. 134 community garden. While doing such hard work on our projects, I learned how to use many tools in the workshop and some design programs on the computer. By the end of August 2006, we finished the table, gathered plenty of research/data on SDR Park, and began work on the garden. I had such a great time working at HSC that I wanted to come back during the school year as a volunteer.

In September, Jennifer and I came back to see Annie with some recruits. Our first project was to continue the research on SDR Park. We extended that research to other parks around the city, allowing us to compare them to SDR. Instead of doing boring data charts like we did that past summer, Fiona came up with the brilliant idea of filming the parks and creating a documentary. By the end of November, our project was complete and presented to the New York City Parks Department. That didn’t leave me feeling as accomplished as building a table, but it came very close.

During the next five months or so, we mastered the art of silk screening (thanks to Dylan) and made t-shirts to fundraise for the P.S. 134 garden. Using Winnie’s design of “cartoony” vegetables, we made over $300. When Spring came around, it was time to go back to work at the garden. There was a lot of cleaning up to do. Since then, the garden has taken an entirely new form. Some of the plant beds were rearranged; new plants were growing; and a new, bigger shed was built. (Actually, two new sheds were built since last summer, but a second one was built because we needed a bigger shed.)

At the beginning of this summer, new interns from SYEP and LaGuardia began working here. They learned how to silkscreen like pros in a matter of days! …Well, maybe weeks. They worked on the design camp and individual research projects (see previous posts). Now, everyone’s gone =(. This has been an awesome fourteen months at Hester Street Collaborative. I hope all the other interns had as great a time as I did, if not better. Enjoy the rest of the summer, everyone!

- Steph

Amanda's Research Project

In my research project, I connected three factors of the Chinatown community: history, social issues, and the usefulness of open spaces. I did this by internet research primarily based on the Rebuild Chinatown Initiative website, an interview with Chinatown Progressive Associate member, other websites containing information on Chinatown environmental issues, and a memoir of Chinatown history called Tea that Burns. I wanted to learn more about the history of Chinatown because I felt it would benefit my understanding of Chinatown and the effect of history on present day. Chinatown has an interesting history; for example, when Chinese men first arrived many married and had children with Irish women because both were seen as an unwanted class in American culture. Many were also opium addicts. In relation to its history, Chinatown has, in many ways, remained unassimilated due to the need to survive in a community that has denied acceptance towards Chinese cultural practices.
There really has been no need to change; everything anyone needs to live is available in relation to Chinese culture. With these problems come problems with health and the environment. Obviously, Chinatown has poor sanitation and smells funny, traffic is congested, and the air is polluted. In a survey done by the CPA, “a five person household, already has at least one member with asthma.” Living conditions are extremely cramped. These are issues that can be changed through developing opening spaces such as the East River Waterfront, an area used for parking and garbage. This project incorporates different parts of Chinatown that if changed, could relieve pollution, traffic, and make use of public land. I visited the East River Waterfront. It was a long walk, the back of my shirt was filled with sweat, and everything basically looked the same. It is a desolate area that the occasional pedestrian passed by, and the constant silence was broken up by the sounds of moving cars up on the FDR. Basically, it is not a place people consider to hang out.
The East River Waterfront development will incorporate that area and the areas that directly influence it most, such as Pike Slip, Montgomery Slip, and Catherine Slip. These areas are important to connecting the Waterfront to the Chinatown area. There are plans to beautify these areas, decongest traffic, and increase parking in the project. The influence of green spaces towards decreasing pollution rates is undeniable and will positively affect the Chinatown problem with pollution. Trees cool down areas by blocking out the sun, filter pollution from traffic, soot and dirt, cleaning the air. It will benefit the community by bringing people together in an unassuming public area.

Where it's "AT" one last time

Good morning for the last time this summer, because this is Annie and it’s my last day here at HSC as a “citizen design” intern. This will be my last blog in this HSC weblog, and I guess it really hasn’t hit me yet. I’m going to miss working here, coming downstairs and chillin’ (sigh) with my coworkers, and doing the relatively easy work we interns do.

Anyways, as a last day thing, we all presented our research projects that we’ve been working on since the beginning. I collected a lot of information and went to about ten gardens, so you can imagine how much work I had ahead of me. I worked hard on my presentation, and messed with the animation features a lot in my very first Powerpoint presentation (shocking, seeing as I’ve been in school for twelve years and never touched Powerpoint). I am proud of my work on community gardens in New York City, particularly in the Lower East Side, which I reported on so diligently. After doing my research, looking at the huge amount of history of community gardens, costs (real-estate space) and benefits (which are countless), and looking at different gardens, I concluded that the gardens are worth being in the city because they preserve the humanity of the communities they reside in. It was a long presentation, though: it took me an hour and ten minutes to finish presenting, much, much longer than everyone else. It was exhausting, but in a good way, as Dylan said haha. Although Dennis, Eric, and pretty much all my coworkers say it was too long, I know it was good.

Working so hard on the project is getting me back into the school mood, which I will definitely need for Columbia. It’s a good end to this job, which I have been working at for the past six weeks. From the silkscreening (and making t-shirts for myself) to the exhaustive design camp to the weekly blog entries (which I’m used to because I have my own blog somewhere haha) to the laughing with coworkers to saying “Good morning!” everyday and generally being enthusiastic, I am going to miss this job. It’s been a great summer with you all, and it successfully completed my goal for the summer before college: to have a fun, lazy summer with friends and earn some money at the same time. Thanks to everyone, Dylan and Anne, to all my coworkers, Dennis, Eric, a-Mindy-ah!, Carmen, Ming, Amanda, the Brooklyn Tech (!) interns we occasionally worked with, and just to everyone and everything for my wonderfully laid-back and even educational summer. Till whenever, this has been where it’s AT. (get it now? A.T.? Annie Tan? Gosh, I’m corny haha).

Good Bye HSC, hope to see you soon!!

This is Ming here, writing my last blog of the summer for the HSC blog. Today is also the last for the CPC SYEP interns, including me. A series of presentations by each of the HSC interns, also took place today. First up was Dennis, who talked about the facts on energy usage, and also steps people can take to save energy use. After Dennis was Mindy, she presented on an organization known as CYI, the Chinatown Youth Initiative. In her presentation, she mentioned the history of CYI, its projects, challenges it faces, her interview with the former board executive, and her suggestions on how they can improve CYI. As soon as she had finished we rushed out to lunch, as we get ready for Annie’s 27 pages PowerPoint presentation. Annie who did her research on community gardens in the downtown area had an extremely long but detailed presentation. In her presentation she mentioned the history behind the existence of community gardens in NYC, along with descriptions of different gardens she visited. Even though it was an interesting topic, we were still glad when we finally finished. After a dew minute break, Eric did his presentation on Teardrop Park. And what a odd and funny presentation it was. In his presentation he mentioned the history of the park and described the different parts of the park. Also he mentioned how the park users felt about the park and how they used it, all according to the result he got from his survey. Last but not least was Carmen, who presented about the Van Cortlandt Park. Using the park handbook that she made, she described the history of the park and the different facilities that the park offers to the park users. Also she mentioned 2 group/organizations that help keep the park in shape. Then she finished up the map of the park that I thought should have been in the front.
After hearing all the presentations, I would say that my favorite presentations were Annie’s and Dennis’s. I like Annie’s because I though the history of how community gardens in NYC came to be was really interesting. Her presentation was also really organized especially the yearly timeline of the events that happen through out times. Also I though the many different types of effects that community gardens have on people was really interesting. However I also liked Dennis’s presentation, one was because the way he presented it. The presentation demonstrates humor and it was short and straight to the point, which I liked. Also the topic he presented on was quite amusing, the little notices that he gives really made me want to do something about this problem. Like how when too much rain falls in to the sewer, all the sewer water would be pushed out into the sea, instead of the filtering plants.
As we each finish up our final blog entry, we cherish out last chance to hang out at HSC’s basement workshop. Some would be coming back to work soon, other would be going off to college. Even though we can still meet up sometime we would still miss each other. We will miss all the good times we shared and all the bad times we push through together. So I here by say good bye to everyone and HSC for the summer, and hopefully I can come back and work here again, soon…

^In memory of al the good times we had....

Again, Eric is my name..

Hi, my name is Eric Yuan. This is my last week working at Hester Street Collaborative and I will miss the workers at Hester Street Collaborative. During these workdays I have learned a lot such as silk-screening that was really fun and how to take care of the garden. I have to give my thanks to Dylan House.
Today we presented our research project. It is my first time presenting and I was a little shy. I did not make eye contact while I was speaking; I was looking at the paper so I messed up my first presentation. The other workers keep giving me tips that I need to know so the next time when I do my presentation I will rock it! Well the best presentation I think was the best today was Annie Tan and Dennis Chen because of their great work and a great way to present their research project with power point. For my project I did some hardcore research. I made some surveys for the people in the park to fill out and I found out that most of the users love the park.It’s free time for me now. I will be chilling with my friends and doing what a teen is suppose to be doing and I hope I will get picked next year so I can come back and work. Bye Dylan and Annie and all the good workers that helped me out.

Hello everyone out there!

This is Carmen speaking. This will be my last post on the Hester Street Collaborative blog. I have finally presented my research project on Van Cortlandt Park. Through all the researching and surveying, I gained a great deal of knowledge. Because the Van Cortlandts donated their property to NYC to be used as a public park, we now have numerous recreational facilities available to us. This public park has been around for years and continues to develop today. We are very fortunate to have many different organizations such as the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park, Van Cortlandt Nature Center and The Fellowship Group to maintain and enhance this park. They also offer various programs to educate the public about local environmental issues and gain sense of park stewardship. There are some problems in Van Cortlandt Park that the public and I thought should be taken into concern. We thought that there should be more bathrooms, lights, and trash cans scattered throughout the park. These things are pretty important in places where a lot of people attend. The park’s visitors will always need to use bathrooms. Lights will help them find their way and trash cans will remind people not to litter. Hopefully we will see some beneficial changes in the future.









As an intern at Hester Street Collaborative, I learned many new skills such as silk screening, gardening and working with kids. I also learned about product design which is something that I have great interest in. I plan to further explore this area in the future. If it is possible, I would like to come back to Hester Street Collaborative during the fall. I looked forward to coming into work everyday this summer. This program was not only a terrific working experience, but was also very enjoyable. Let’s hope that I will be back soon so until then, good bye my friends! Go out and do something good for your community!

Woh! This is going to be my last blog entry

Today was a pretty long and productive day. Today we presented all of our individual presentations. My internet died yesterday so I had to finish putting the final touches on my presentation in the morning. Soon it was eleven and it was show time.

Being the lucky person that I am, I was selected to present first. But presenting first wasn't so bad for I got it over with and the feeling was pretty liberating. Anyway, my presentation was about how the individual can make a difference in conserving energy. As well all know, global warming is real and it is happening. People think that the individual cannot make a difference but on the contrary, individuals add up together and a big difference can be achieved.
During my presentation, I just told the group simple and effective ways in which we can save energy, whether it is saving water, electricity, or gas there are tips for conserving everything. My presentation was about 10-15 minutes long and I felt that it was pretty decent. After my presentation was over, Dylan gave me a review about my presentation and the criticism was pretty constructive.

The other members of the work group also presented their projects and their projects were pretty successful as well. Some presentation were oral, and others were on powerpoint. No matter what method was used, each one of them was able to convey their ideas effectively. There was also a q and a session after each presentation as well.
Overall the internship here at Hester Street Collaborative was pretty successful. From the silk screening project to the design camp, everything ran ever so smooth. This is all because of the endless efforts of Annie and Dylan. Their support and help was great and none of this would have happened if they didn't do a partnership with Summer Youth Employment Program. Even though I'll be leaving this establishment, I will be taking good memories from it. All in all. This internship is worth doing. If you are ever accepted into SYEP or if you are looking for a place to volunteer your time, Hester Street is the place to be.

Guess what? Mindy is back!!

Sorry I lied about my last post on my last entry. I will continue posting. Hope you guys didn’t miss me too much! Well today I presented my research project on Chinatown Youth Initiatives (CYI) to my fellow co-workers. Basically, CYI is a non-profit volunteer-ran organization. It serves as a guide for high school students to develop skills to articulate needs of local communities through community projects. Volunteers are all high school to college students who are from different parts of NYC (such as Chinatown, Long Island, and Coney Island). On August 12, I participated in CYI’s Chinatown Beautification Day. Chinatown Beautification Day is an ongoing clean up event that takes place every once a year. About one-hundred teenagers volunteer each year to clean up the streets of Chinatown using brooms, dustpans, tongs, gloves, and garbage cans. Two volunteers counted the number of cigarette butts they picked up and resulted with at least ninety butts each. Do people smoke a lot or what?! I also interviewed the former executive director of CYI, Jennifer Chang. The interview provided much personal understanding of CYI than online research.

Interesting things I learned from the interview were:
- 1999, CYI was found by Gloria Chan who wanted to promote realization and improvement of the ‘forgotten parts’ of the community.
- CYI is named after Chinatown because Chinatown is used as a lab for young people to practice leadership and community work skills.
- CYI does not have a permanent office space, therefore it is difficult for CYI to stay organized and put.
- All projects are based on ideas of the youth participants. (Chinatown Literacy Project, Interschool Film Forum, and Chinatown Beautification Day)
- Advertisements were mainly through the word of mouth but also through by handing out flyers, and sending emails.
So besides my research project, this will be my last post on this blog for this summer. I had a great working experience here at HSC. Met a group of wonderful people and learned useful skills that would definitely help me in the future. Now I know how to silkscreen, use Illustrator, garden and work with young kids. Hopefully I would keep in touch with the people I’ve met here and develop more skills. Well it’s almost time to end work. Tata! I will be back soon!