Thank You Notes from BHSEC Recipients
by Deborah Lanser
Introduction
For years, LLI has provided financial help for students in the Bard High School Early College (BHSEC) in Manhattan for expenses incurred during summer internships. This year, four students in BHSEC’s New York City schools each received a $500 scholarship LLI grant. The thank you letters they wrote to President Robert Beaury show they took full advantage of the learning opportunities the grants afforded. Here’s what they had to say.
Gideon Mizner
Dear Mr. Beaury,
I am writing to express my appreciation to you and the Bard Lifetime Learning Institute for sponsoring my summer internship at Earth Matter on Governors Island. I had a deeply rewarding experience learning about and taking part in the organization’s efforts to help the environment by practicing and promoting composting.
The core goal of Earth Matter is to reduce organic waste in New York City’s garbage stream. A major long-term project of the organization is Zero Waste Initiative, which aims to reduce the amount of waste that Governors Island exports to zero. I spent about half of my time at Earth Matter learning about the process of composting from start to finish. The first task was to pick through food scraps from around the island to make sure there wasn’t any trash inside. Although sorting through compost in the hot sun wasn’t easy, it felt like a very direct way to make an impact. These food scraps then went into piles that would eventually, after many months, become usable soil to be distributed around the city. All compost needs oxygen to decompose properly, or else the compost won’t get the nutrients it needs (and will smell terrible). Earth Matter had a machine that pumped air into the large piles of food scraps. However, the smaller piles that contained things like animal poop, leaves and straw needed to be aerated manually. This meant that, about once a week, we used pitchforks to take the piles out of their containers and mix them around.
Another important part of my internship was working on Soil Start farm, where some of the compost is used. The farm grows many different types of plants, including corn, tomatoes, potatoes, lavender, basil, and so much more. I did a lot of weeding and helped harvest the vegetables, which are donated to a soup kitchen in lower Manhattan. The work was repetitive but calming, and I liked that I was helping to provide organic produce to people in need.
But perhaps the part of the internship that I most enjoyed was working with the animals on the farm, especially the two goats, named Egg and Potato. Although their bleats were so loud they were practically screams, I loved helping to take care of them. This involved feeding them, cleaning up their waste (which was composted), feeding them, and taking them for walks on leashes twice a day. Unfortunately, there was another goat who died from worms over the summer. In line with the mission of the organization, his body was composted.
Finally, the internship allowed me to learn about not only Earth Matter but other organizations throughout the city. I went on multiple field trips to different composting sites, including Queens Botanical Garden, The Brotherhood Sister Sol, and BK Rot. It was very interesting and inspiring to observe the different ways that New Yorkers composted and also to connect with other youth around the city who were doing the same work as I was. People from these groups and others also came to Earth Matter. This gave me the opportunity to share my knowledge that I had gained over the course of the summer with visitors from around NYC.
Once again, thank you so much for sponsoring me and helping to make this amazing opportunity possible.
Sincerely,
Gideon Mizner
Matteo Edesess-Hardy
Dear Mr Beaury,
I am writing to thank you and the Lifetime Learning Institute for the generous grant to support my volunteer work at the migrant welcome center at St Mark’s Church on the Bowery.
This weekly program is designed to foster community and meet a variety of needs for newcomers to NYC. The majority of guests are unaccompanied minor immigrants and asylum seekers from West Africa. These young people, mostly men, traveled alone to New York, live in the city shelter system, and attend our public schools. Most of these newcomers are multilingual; many speak Fulani and French at least.
The center provides an amazing array of services. There is an area with carpets for prayer and volunteers who offer free haircuts, which are incredibly popular. An adjacent organization, Cafewal, is a job training center for migrants with a commercial kitchen and provides free hot dinners to all the visitors. There is a team of volunteers with legal training who help the young migrants seek SIJS, which stands for Special Immigration Juvenile Status. This status must be secured before an asylum seeker turns 21 and provides significant protections during the process of seeking legal status. A committed team of volunteers helps the migrants secure health insurance through the NYS medicaid program, and other volunteers run adult ELS classes for older migrants. Volunteers also run a “store” of donated clothes and shoes where the guests to the center can “shop”. I have learned that clothing is particularly important to this group of young adults because it increases their sense of safety if they wear clothes that do not identify them as migrants.
Originally, I sought out this center because I was determined to find a way to respond to the federal policies criminalizing immigration and asylum-seeking. My paternal grandmother was an immigrant, and both sides of my mother’s family migrated to escape either poverty or persecution. When I first arrived at the welcome center, I was immediately struck by the commitment of the volunteers to protect and support these inspiring, courageous young people, but I was unsure how I could help. I began by sitting at tables with the guests, talking and playing games. Despite the incredibly painful and complex obstacles they faced, they were also really interested in talking and relaxing with peers over a game of UNO.
Very quickly, I realized that schoolwork was a major source of stress in their lives. The young adults are determined to complete high school despite the language barrier; however, because they live in shelters, which are often incredibly long commutes from their schools, they do not have the energy or a quiet place to complete homework at the end of each day. Many of them were also working part-time.
Since my sophomore year, I have participated in BHSEC’s incredible CLAW program. CLAW has developed my confidence to support learners facing challenging work and instilled in me a joy for teaching. I was further inspired by Dr. Shields’ seminar class that explored learning theory and pedagogy. I wondered if I could establish a kind of CLAW outpost at the welcome center. I reached out to the leaders
at St. Mark’s, and they were really excited about the idea and confirmed my sense that the young adult guests at the center were really overwhelmed by school work, given all the other stresses and responsibilities in their daily lives.
I began by offering homework help to the young adults with whom I was becoming friends. In a week, there was a line for my help. I approached Dr. Shields and asked if I could recruit volunteers from CLAW and if she could support our work with some guidance about tutoring ELL students. Dr. Shields was both incredibly generous and wise, and many of my friends at CLAW were eager to help.
The St. Mark’s Welcome Center Peer tutoring initiative was born.
Each week, 10-12 students from Bard (and eventually a few other schools) meet me at the Welcome Center, where I help pair them with a young adult migrant for academic support. I also work as a tutor and simultaneously troubleshoot and support as needed.
I quickly realized that academic resources were needed, including ESL and NYS Regents’ workbooks, along with age and English-level-appropriate reading material. I approached my neighborhood independent book store, Terrace Books, and they were willing to donate a few copies of ESL guides, which was amazing. But many of the migrants asked if they could take these guides home to continue their learning, and it was honestly painful to deny this request, but the books were really needed each week at the welcome center.
I have used the money from my grant to purchase more books for this initiative. I am spending the total amount of my grant on these books. I am excited to continue and further develop this initiative in the coming school year. We could use more tutors, more training, and always more supplies. But we have tremendous excitement about helping. Honestly, many of the tutors have shared that tutoring these inspiring, dedicated young asylum seekers anchors their week and elevates their mood by putting their own stress and struggles in perspective.
Personally, I am deeply enriched each week by my time with these incredibly smart and hopeful young men. I am grateful to have a way to push back against the despair and hopelessness I sometimes feel about the future of our democracy.
This grant is making an important difference. Thank you so much for selecting this initiative for your support.
Sincerely,
Matteo Edesess-Hardy
Zephyr Sosin
Dear Mr. Beaury,
I am writing today, full of verve and sincerity, an enthusiastic thank you to your and your institution’s generosity for providing the monetary resources to allow me to pursue my work with the New York City Central Labor Council this summer. Throughout the month of August, I worked in their office on a variety of assignments, from research work to visiting other union HQs, attending demonstrations, and even marching at the head of the Labor Day Parade! It has been an informative and enjoyable experience, and I am massively grateful for your support.
The Central Labor Council is a coordinating body of labor unions, and while I’m passionate about the labor movement (more on that later), it was also a very educational experience acclimating myself to an office environment. Before this internship, I had never really worked in an office before, but by the end of it I had become a lot more comfortable in the workplace and made lasting connections with many of my coworkers!
The most exciting part of this internship for me, though, was learning about the modern practices and history of the labor movement. Growing up, I had really been inundated with talk of unions. My family on both sides going down many generations were very proud union members (my maternal grandfather was a Teamster, my paternal grandfather was a lawyer for the Teamsters, and my paternal grandmother was a member of the UFT, just to name a few), and on my fathers side particularly they are still very active activists in the field of worker’s rights. So in a sense, I had always been in the world of the labor movement, but never of it. Through this internship, I was able to learn how a coordinating body operates (as well as many of its constituent unions), attend multiple demonstrations, meet key figures in the modern labor movement including New York City Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani and Senator Bernie Sanders, and really form a cohesive understanding of the logistics and history of the labor movement, specifically in New York City. An added benefit was the way I was able to connect with both my living relatives and family history through my involvement in the labor movement.
Before this internship, I hadn’t really considered how groundbreaking and influential the labor movement has been through the course of American history. After marching with the labor day parade though, and later watching all the delegations from the Central Labor Council’s over 300 individual unions and locals, the thousands upon thousands of people showing up to celebrate the rights of the working people, it struck me just how important the labor movement and union is as a defense against exploitation by humans of humans, and how important the maintenance of a fair contract and working conditions, in any industry, is.
So again, thank you not only for the privilege of your support in being able to work in a field I am passionate about, but also for allowing me to form a greater understanding of my family history, the history and modern manifestation of the labor movement, and even, a little bit, myself.
Sincerely,
Zephyr F. Sosin
Mina Glanz
Dear Mr. Beaury,
I am writing to thank you and the Bard Lifetime Learning Institute for sponsoring my summer activities. Through the program, I was able to buy art supplies for my art summer camp hosted in Harlem. This way, we were able to keep the cost of attendance free, as well as provide attendees with supplies that they could keep with them after the end of camp.
We focused on figure drawing and promoting creativity. Many children have a lack of support and supplies from schools to fully explore their creative sides. Imagination and exploration are incredibly important for both development and mental health. Fostering a healthy outlet like visual art helps individuals blossom into well-rounded and high-achieving adults. Furthermore, it allows children to explore interests that can be too costly for them to do independently. High-quality art supplies are costly and rarely supplied by schools.
In addition to this, we were also able to host an online creative writing workshop. Participants came from across the country, bringing with them unique ideas and incredible talent. Just like visual art, creative writing is overlooked in schools in favor of essay writing. A strong connection with creative writing can foster a love for writing itself, leading kids to be impassioned writers in school. Throughout this online summer program, children learned different rhetorical strategies and wrote short pieces of writing. Using the money from the Bard Lifetime Learning Institute, we plan to compile
all of this writing into a physical anthology that students can keep free of charge. This serves as a physical reminder of all the hard work that they have done over the summer.
In both programs, I recognized a true passion in participants that I tried to grow throughout the program. Creative processes can be difficult and challenging; however, I watched as they pushed through and created pieces that they can cherish forever. Just having an encouraging voice can be a life-changing experience. Although the summer is over, they have both the continued support from me and my team and the means to continue their creative endeavors.
Furthermore, I spent much of my time updating my website and compiling free resources. I hope to continue this process, creating a series of how-to guides that can help people without having to attend a class. In addition to that, I hope to add digital copies of finished work as reminders of what students have accomplished and how much they have grown.
To reiterate, I extend my gratitude to the Bard Lifetime Learning Institute. Without their assistance, I could not have accomplished what I have done this summer.
Sincerely,
Mina Glanz
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