Spreading the Word in Scarsdale

Today’s guest blogger is Emmanuel Paul Sterling, City Year Recruitment Manager on the Regional Recruitment team. Emmanuel is a CYNY ’08 & ’09 alumni and now focuses on recruiting passionate and energetic individuals to serve with City Year.

Brian Guggenheimer, a corps member on the PS 48 Alcoa team in the South Bronx, and his family took on the task of taking an Open House to the next level. At City Year, we host Open Houses to give potential applicants the opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the organization. With that in mind, the Guggenheimer’s wanted to build awareness among families in Scarsdale, NY. In December, Brian and his parents were featured in an article in the Scarsdale Inquirer and decided to continue spreading the word by opening their home to families and friends of prospective corps members on Thursday, March 8th.

Brian chatted with Mr. & Mrs. November, parents of Pete November, City Year VP & Regional Director, Office of Site Leadership.

The intimate event gave Brian and his parents the opportunity to share their perspectives of the program. Brian was able to talk about his experience working in the South Bronx and the opportunities given to him. Brian is a graduate of Scarsdale High School and with the support of his parents decided to take advantage of a gap year or a “bonus year” as Liz Guggenheimer alluded. In addition, we took advantage of this opportunity to share the impact of City Year, our recruitment efforts, and how attendees could support the cause and get involved.

This was a really unique event that gave me a glimpse into what future outreach events could look like. More importantly, it’s because of efforts of family and supporters like the Guggehheimer’s that help build a better understanding of National Service. Thank you to the City Year staff members on the local and national level for attending the event. And a special thank to the corps members who attended the event and openly shared their experiences.

Brian and Mr. Guggenheimer chat with a parents of a City Year New York Alumnus, Matt Sternman.

PS 48 Wins GLEE GIVE A NOTE Contest

After submitting a fun and energetic video that highlighted the musical talents of the students at PS 48, we’re excited to announce that the school has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the GLEE Give A Note project. We’re proud to partner with this Alcoa sponsored team in the South Bronx.

Up until this point, students at the school didn’t have adequate music equipment and music class was a rarity during the week. With the support of the entire school, PS 48 entered the contest with the video submission below.

To encourage people to rally around the school and vote, Team Leader, Kelly Barrameda wrote a blog promoting the school’s submission into the contest. In that blog, Kelly stated,

“I spoke with Ms. Difilippi and Ms. Salguero, the music teachers at P.S. 48, who said that this initiative was ‘completely driven by the kids, who refused to stand idly by and watch their music program die.’ ”

That statement certainly rings true with over 12,000 votes collected for the school’s video. We want to take a moment and thank all of you who voted (sometimes daily) to help this deserving school in the Hunts Point community win the ultimate prize: keeping their music program alive.

Alcoa Teams Up With City Year To Clean Up

by Aaron Benson, Service Leader at City Year New York

On Monday, City Year joined forces with the Central Park Conservancy and Alcoa to beautify Central Park.  We were able to remove debris from Sheep’s Meadow, a much needed project that will enable park visitors to fully utilize the park.  Alcoa brought out 38 volunteers to serve alongside the 25 Corps Members they sponsor at PS 48 and MS 424. This was a unique day, providing a space and time for the Alcoans and their corps members to not only serve together, but to get to know one another through meaningful conversation and team building activities.

(c) Michael Simon

“Working with motivated and caring professionals to do service is an opportunity I may not have again until after college. It’s really inspiring to see that Alcoa not only sponsors us in our school service, but is willing to get their hands dirty and demonstrate their true commitment to service and the betterment of the community.”  – Lindsay Korsen, Alcoa Corps Member at PS 48

After the service was complete, we gathered to dedicate 20 new recycling bins to the park. We were joined by Carl the Can Man for a lively recycling competition. We are incredibly grateful to Alcoa CEO Klaus Kleinfeld, who joined us on the day alongside Doug Blonsky, the president of the Central Park Conservatory. Thank you Alcoa for another inspiring day!

(c) Michael Simon

Five Things Friday

1. A New Partnership

We are pleased to announce that City Year New York was awarded a $10,000 grant from Brooklyn Community Foundation this week.  As Brooklyn’s first and only community foundation, Brooklyn Community Foundation is supporting our in-school and after-school programs in the East New York neighborhood. We are thrilled about this new partnership and would like to thank BCF for their support!

2. Do you know about Jumo? 

Earlier this month Facebook launched Jumo. Jumo is an application provided through a Facebook account that helps do two things - find smart people doing meaningful work on the issues you care about and helps you keep in touch with them and support their work. We encourage everyone to register for Jumo, check out City Year’s page, and start connecting with other like-minded people.

3. It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year…

…and CYNY teams are making sure their students get to celebrate! A number of CYNY-led Winter Wonderlands and Holiday Carnivals have been taking place at many of our schools this week and we’d like to highlight a couple here:

On Wednesday, Dec. 15, the PS 111  team engaged close to 300 students and their families in some holiday cheer with carol performances, sandwiches and hot cocoa, card and origami creation stations, and even a penguin bean bag toss. PS 111 Team Leader Ryan Davis said his personal joy was when a boy in the 2nd grade told him, “Now THIS is what you call a Winter Wonderland! This is the best ever!”  Thanks to City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer for stopping by to join in on the fun, too!

City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer visits PS 111.

Today at PS 48, the CYNY team held a Winter Wonderland carnival for all students who had perfect attendance in the month of November. There were refreshments including hot chocolate and assorted cakes, a gingerbread-man decoration station, an ornament creation booth, and a table to make glittery snowflakes, just to name a few.  A 1st grader yelled between bites of cookie, “I’m having so much fun! I’m getting perfect attendance all year!”

A couple of PS 48 students show off their handiwork at the Winter Wonderland carnival today.

4. Calling Home

As a part of a plan to better engage corps members’ parents and family this year, we set up an interactive conference call yesterday to welcome them to the City Year community. Parents and family heard from Executive Director Itai Dinour who spoke about the history and trajectory of City Year New York. They then heard from Deputy Executive Director of Program and Service, Tony Shaw, who described the importance of our work in schools and the impact on the students our corps members work with every day. Then corps member Ariel Dumas of the Credit Suisse P.S. 50 team in East Harlem described why she came to City Year, her day-to-day experience in the schools and how she knows she is making a difference in the lives of her students.

ED Itai says a personal highlight from the call was “hearing of a parent that walks around telling everyone – from the  ’clerk at the post office to the check-out lady at the grocery store clerk’ about how great City Year is.”

Tony adds, “My highlight was hearing parents talk about how proud they are of their child’s commitment to serving students in NYC.  I was also inspired by how the parents talked about the personal growth and development they have observed in their children since joining CY.”

5. Slots Are Filling Up Fast!

We are exactly one month out from our MLK Day of Service. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. believed that, “everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.” On January 17, 2011, City Year invites you to be great as we celebrate the life of Dr. King through inspirational physical service projects. Click here to register: