January 24th, 2013 – Find your Mentors

Today we had an agency debrief from our trips yesterday so that we could learn about all of the other organizations. Those included another organization about art that was more interested in dealing with graphic design, and another organization that looked at the rights of street vendors in NYC. We then had a panel discussion about urban planning and designing – something that I had never even thought about before. There were three speakers: The first speaker was a contributor/editor to an architecture website/blog that is dedicated to improving the way that cities are designed. He also has traveled around the world making documentaries about other cities and how they are designed. We also spoke with an architect as well as a representative from the Friends of the Highline agency that helped to create the NYC Highline.

For lunch, a few of us went to a diner across the street because we only had a short amount of time. Then we had a lecture on policing in NYC and a brief history of the NYPD. It was interesting to hear about the racial profiling changes that the NYPD has made over the years. We then had our first class: Urban Politics and Development. We went over the syllabus and our expectations of each other for the semester. We also jotted down our answers to questions about poverty that we will be reflecting on towards the end of the program.

We then had the opportunity to go to dinner with an alumni. I chose to go to Marlan William’s house. He and his fiancé cooked us an amazing meal and we stayed at their Brooklyn apartment for over 3 hours talking about what an amazing experience he had on the program, how it changed him, what he is doing now, what he and his fiancé are passionate about, etc etc. They were two of the most intelligent and inspirational people I have ever met. He told us to come back and visit after the program…which will be great because I am working in the city all summer!

Wake up at 7:45 tomorrow morning and headed to the Rockaways. Bed time!!

Jan 23rd, 2013 – I am a warrior

This morning I woke up at 7:01 to be ready for an exercise class at 7:15 called IntenSati, which is a combination of yoga, aerobics, and kick boxing with “positive affirmations” throughout. Basically, there are different intense dance/cardio moves and each one is called something inspirational like “strength” or “confidence” and comes along with a saying that you have to chant while doing it. Each move adds another saying, and together they make up a long inspirational story. It was an intense workout and a ton of fun!

We then went to the Church Center and discussed what we want our “learning community” to look like. We all discussed ideas on how to make this a great learning environment and what we can do to support each other throughout the process. After, we split up into our different groups for Agency Day. We each got to pick an agency out of 5 that we wanted to go explore for the afternoon. I chose an organization called Groundwells, which is located in Brooklyn. Our group decided to eat lunch in Brooklyn, and we went to a Thai restaurant that had an amazing lunch special. Then we went to the Red Hook and got coffee/dessert before heading to our agency.

Groundwells works as follows: local communities and organizations contact the organization if they want a mural painted about a particular topic. The organization employs youth and educates them about the issue and how to represent it visually. We toured some of the murals around the area, and they were amazing.

After, we took the subway back to the YMCA and stopped at a pizza place on the way. Then we all came back to the Y to do our readings for tomorrow…first class tomorrow…dun dun dun. 

Jan 22nd, 2013 - POD

            The day started at 8:30AM where we met at the Church Center for an introduction to “Person of the Day.” This just means that every day, someone will be in charge of introducing speakers, making sure the room is ready for the day, thanking speakers, etc. Then we had an introduction to the program overall, where we all shared our stories of why we are so interested in studying cities. I talked about coming from suburbia USA and how people only live there to be close to NYC. I also talked about going to a school like Lehigh where we are in this bubble of affluence and surrounded by so much poverty. Everyone had amazing stories to share, and the faculty shared their stories as well.

            Then we broke for lunch, and a few of us went to the Amish Market. It’s a supermarket and a restaurant, and there was a really nice buffet with tons of salad, fruit, meat, and pretty much anything else you would ever want to eat. It was delicious. Then we went back to the Church Center and got an overview of why the Church Center is such a historic building. It was started by the United Methodist Church and has been a meeting place of many different organizations affiliated with the United Nations. We even got a list of the organizations that were meeting in the building this week.

            Then we had a very very long run down of the rules and regulations from the Dean of Students of IHP. He was funny and charming, and we all got a lot out of it. The rest of the day (from about 4:30 on) was ours to do whatever we wanted. We decided to go to the East Village and go to the bookstore Stand. Then a bunch of us (aka 16 of us) went to a Japanese restaurant for dinner. This was as authentic as you could get being outside of Japan, so we had a fun “cultural experience” right here in NYC. Then everyone from our program met up and we went to a free comedy club, which was so much fun!!   

Monday, January 21st, 2013 – The Day One Dive In

Let’s run through today’s emotions: nervous, excited, enthusiastic, anxious…and I expect that these emotions will continue on throughout the semester. I woke up this morning in my own bed, in my own room, with lots of privacy. I went for a quick run, showered, got ready, and did some last minute packing. Of course, I knew exactly what I had to pack because it was all spelled out in lists on my desk at home. Driving into New York City was one of the most nerve-racking car rides of my life. All of the “what-ifs” ran through my head. What if no one likes me? What if everyone is smarter than me? What if this is a mistake? Blah blah blah.

My parents and I dropped my stuff off at the Vanderbilt YMCA and ate lunch in the lobby of the UN Plaza Hotel. I then went to the YMCA to meet the other members of my program. I walked into a group of people who were all smiling and friendly, and I felt a little more comfortable. I’m sure everyone was just as nervous as me.

After a few handshakes and introductions that I probably won’t remember, it was time for a few icebreakers. After about a half an hour, we walked over to the opening reception where my parents met me again, and we were introduced to all of the faculty and staff that are going to work with us this semester as well as an overview of the program. We then had to say goodbye to our parents and come back together to dive in to the program. I’m very proud of my parents for being so supportive and encouraging!!

We watched a video of a Martin Luther King Jr. speech (fitting, because today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day), and discussed it after. He talked about the irony of black and white soldiers from the U.S. going off to fight side-by-side in Vietnam to solve their problems when we have a ton of problems here that we should be fixing. This feeds into the current debate of spending tons of money on military interventions to solve “other” country’s problems when we could be spending money on domestic issues. It was a great discussion and a great tie-in to why we are studying these important themes.

We then met as a group to eat pizza and discussed what we are excited and scared about for the program, and it was great to hear people start to open up. This ended around 8PM, and then had the rest of the night off. A group of us decided to go on a tram that goes across the city. It was free and a great view of the city night sky.

Excited for tomorrow. This post was super long…I hope I can have this motivation for the duration of the trip!!