Thank you to Ms. Heather Butts of H.E.A.L.T.H. for Youths and all the partners who offered support to our students on their projects.
Jennifer Segundo Ramirez and Mariah Nieves, WHSAD Seniors
What has been your project?
I worked on the Corporal Thompson Park Playground Renovation Project on Staten Island. This project aimed to transform the playground into a fun and inclusive space that involves children of all ages. A key priority was ensuring the safety of all children using the playground and addressing the primary concern of parents in the community. Additionally, the community involvement was important as the playground serves the local residents and is intended for their enjoyment.
What other students were on your project’s team?
The other student that was part of my project team was Mariah Nieves. She is also a senior and she was involved and collaborative throughout this project.
How did you get involved in the project?
I became involved in this project when Mr. Codio held a meeting of all these different projects in Staten Island while I was in the room with them. Where Codio randomly called me telling me that I was part of this project with no say. The project seemed intriguing and enjoyable to me so thank you for Mr. Codio for putting me into this project.
Identify three crucial moments during the project.
Three crucial moments during the project were gathering community ideas, effective communication and documenting existing conditions.
Gathering community ideas was essential because it ensured the community was aligned and involved with the project and gave them a sense of ownership. Effective communication, particularly with Ms. Nicole was crucial for understanding necessary improvements and existing conditions at the playground. Without her guidance, identifying areas for improvement would be difficult.
Documenting existing conditions particularly by photographs was also helpful. This allowed us to gain a clear understanding of the current state of the playground which was visible in Google Earth Pro.
What made these moments significant?
These moments were significant because they provided the opportunity to integrate community ideas with our creative input. While gathering community ideas, Mariah and I were able to brainstorm ideas that were both enjoyable and inclusive to the community feedback and suggestions. Designing a playground is not only fun but also crucial in terms of placement, purpose, and target audience. Being allowed to contribute our ideas ensured that the final design would be both engaging and meaningful for the intended users.
What did you learn from these moments?
From these moments, I learned the importance of seeking community input, suggestions and feedback for any project is very important. Recognizing that the project’s impact extends beyond personal interest to affect the entire community or area is crucial. This lesson is valuable for future projects, reminding me to prioritize community involvement and preferences. Understanding that project is not solely about implementing personal ideas but also meeting the needs and ensuring the stakeholders’ desires are very essential. It is about balancing between incorporating one’s own creativity and understating it with the client or community visions and requirements for the particular project.
How did these moments impact your vision, process, etc. for your project?
These moments significantly influenced my project’s vision and progress by emphasizing the importance of understanding the playground’s current state, intended audience, and the desires of the community. Once again, prioritizing community input is key. Reflecting on my experience at various playgrounds helped me generate ideas and drive the project forward until we reached a final design. These three moments were crucial for maintaining progress. Moreover, they sparked my creativity, presenting me with many ideas that I had struggled to choose from. Eventually, I decided to merge these diverse ideas into one.
Who was one important stakeholder in your project, and how was this person influential?
Ms. Nicole plays a big important role as a stakeholder in ensuring the success of our project. Her contribution was immensely influential as she facilitated the gathering of community ideas and feedback by distributing online forms and also providing us with photos of existing conditions of the playground, despite the bad weather preventing us from visiting the site in person when it was scheduled. Her assistance enabled us to progress effectively. Furthermore, Ms Nicole’s collaboration made working with her a pleasure. She actively provided feedback and raised any concerns regarding our progress contributing to the project overall.
Why do you feel such activities are important to your high school experience?
This experience holds significance in my high school experience as it provides valuable opportunities for students to take advantage of. Projects like these offer a glimpse into the working of real-world projects and what one can anticipate. Furthermore, they have reaffirmed my aspiration to pursue architecture further, as each project presents opportunities to acquire new skills and explore fresh ideas. The significance of this activity lies in the benefits it offers, shaping my future endeavors and career path. In addition, I can showcase this project in my portfolio, allowing me to track my growth from high school to college and beyond.
Darleny Olivo, Kaitlyn Huang, WHSAD Sophomores; Orfeu Lukban, WHSAD Junior
What has been your project?
We were tasked with creating a park design proposal for the North Shore Esplanade project where we investigated the park’s present state and potential uses.
What other students were on your project’s team?
Orfeu and Kaitlyn
How did you get involved in the project?
Darleny- I had previously worked throughout the summer in SYEP (Summer Youth Employment), but I was then able to apply for WLG (Work Learn Grow), an SYEP program where Mr. Rodriguez offered me the opportunity to work on a project.
Kaitlyn- I was in Mr. Rodriguez’ room and Mr. Codio showed up and held the Work Learn Grow meeting there. I got offered to be part of a project, and I just decided why not since the project I was initially supposed to be on got canceled.
Identify three crucial moments during the project.
- Collaboration experiences
- Research
- Communication moments
What made these moments significant?
Building on one another’s ideas and shared understanding, our collaborative approach encouraged creativity and goal achievement. Research meetings turned into learning opportunities that expanded our understanding of the project. The feedback we received from project leaders guided us toward accomplishment, and effective communication provided consistency and allowed us to make changes effectively.
What did you learn from these moments?
Acknowledging the importance of listening and accepting the opinions of others inspires and motivates people. In group projects, effective communication is essential for promoting understanding and group advancement. Learning from one another promotes a positive environment where people flourish and achieve more through teamwork and communication.
How did these moments impact your vision, process, etc. for your project?
Darleny-These experiences had an impact on my process because they benefited me in the project, particularly in terms of communication and teamwork, as we were able to divide up the work among peers to increase productivity.
Kaitlyn- I learned to speed through things because there’s a deadline. I had to cooperate with others to get their stuff first before I could do my part like digitizing Darleny’s landscape drawing when she finished it and then having to finish it fast enough because of the short amount of time I got.
Identify one stakeholder who was important to your project’s success.
Darleny-Although I was unable to speak with the park’s stakeholders directly, I was able to speak with Ms. Heather Butts, who was an incredibly wonderful and hardworking individual. She constantly checked in on the North Shore and other projects, providing us with feedback, suggestions for improvement, and information that needed to be further investigated or added.
Why was this person influential?
Darleny- When there was new information concerning the park, Ms. Heather Butts would constantly keep us informed. She would also point us in the direction of those whom we needed to speak to. She was a huge assistance to our group on this project.
Kaitlyn-Ms.Heather Butts helped assist us on the project to make sure our project was being done correctly.
How did they assist you in shaping your vision for the project?
Darleny-When we gave Ms. Butts updates on our project, she would always stay in touch and schedule additional meetings during the week to ensure that we were accomplishing our goals and moving forward.
What was some advice/feedback you received from this person that you will remember after this project?
Darleny-The comments we received emphasized how well our research was done and how accurate it was when it came to the discussion of the significance of native and salt-tolerant plant species as well as how climate change may potentially affect increasing sea levels. together with the designs we created.
Why does such advice/feedback resonate with you?
Darleny-The advice speaks to me because it acknowledges the amount of effort that my teammates and I have put into this project. How much work we put into each aspect of our project that we discussed
What was one major challenge you encountered during the project?
Darleny- Since this was my first time, designing the park concept was one of the challenges I faced. However, I was able to start my design process by doing a little research on other waterfront parks.
Kaitlyn- Using Photoshop was a challenge since my laptop crashed a lot, but I couldn’t just wait to work on it in school since then there wouldn’t be enough time to finish my part of the project.
Why do you feel such activities are important to your high school experience?
Darleny-These kinds of activities help high school students feel more independent since they require them to concentrate on tasks outside of the classroom. High school should also be enjoyable to remember as a period of personal growth, skill development, and future preparation.
Kaitlyn-it gives me something that’s fun to do while experiencing what work environments are like to gain experience. I don’t have to stay at home doing homework and studying for super long either.
Alexander Diaz, Abraham Galindo, Kiara Guerreo Ceballos, and Jonathan Negron, WHSAD Seniors
Our project was the “Staten Island Wayfinding Project”, where our main objective was to create signage in order for tourists to find out more about Downtown-Staten Island. The team consisted of Abraham Galindo, Alexander Diaz , Kiara Guerrero Ceballos, and Jonathan Negron. This was an all senior team, which was great because there weren’t a lot of representatives from the 2024 cohort, so it was great to show the underclassmen what they could accomplish if they participated in year-long projects.
As for how all of us were involved, Abraham was already working on the roots of the project, using computer programs like AutoCad and Illustrator, while the rest of the team was assigned by the senior architecture teacher, Mr. Codio. Speaking of which, the roots of the project are as follows, Scaling, Extruding, and 3D-Printing. All of these “roots” were done with Illustrator and Autocad not only to create the 2D signage, but also to develop the physical 3D model of Downtown Staten Island. The great thing about these “roots” is that the team was able to learn new skills that can apply to Engineering or Architecture and these skills made us less reliant on teachers/facilitators.
Throughout the project, we didn’t have a crystal-clear vision as we didn’t have a lot of mentorship regarding the project; it was really us four taking initiative. Essentially, we used the idea “capacity to set a goal, reflect and act responsibly to effect change” as a guide.
We had Mr. Codio to help us whenever it was needed, but it was usually just us making our own path. Mr. Codio was influential as he trained people to help us, which made it student-led for the most part. Mr. Codio was also influential in terms of feedback, as we had to learn to project our voices and look at the audience when presenting our final project. Additionally, Kiara was told to use fewer words in her signage, as words may confuse people and that images are way more helpful than words as images are more of a common language. Abe, on the other hand, believes that Mr. Codio made him more of a project manager/facilitator in order to be able to guide other students into creating and presenting projects.
Jake Kadar, Jordan Louis, and Jayden Maitland, WHSAD Sophomores
What has been your project?
The project we have been working on is the Richmond Town Native Encampment for the last year and a half. The project was to recreate a structure of the Lenape people
What students were on your project’s team?
Jayden Maitland, Jordan Louis, and Jake Kadar
How did you get involved in the project?
We were contacted by one of our architecture teachers, Mr. Rodriguez, in freshman year to choose a project. We chose this project because we found it would be a simple introduction to architecture since the main goal was to create a fence design to enclose the encampment .
Identify three crucial moments during the project.
The site visit was crucial because we needed to know what the site was like to visualize it. Another crucial moment was finding out what software to use as a beginner since we needed one to fit the project. We ended up using Rhino 3d since we were making a structure that was supposed to be simple but well designed. The final crucial moment was meeting with our stakeholder to see if our vision was something similar to his.
What made these moments significant?
These moments were significant to the team because they were a way to learn how to work as a team and learn how to communicate with each other to know what got done, what needs to be done, and what information we need from the stakeholders to make the project to scale. An example would be when we would go on a 1 to 2 hour meeting every 2 weeks and discuss any questions, problems, or ideas. Also, these moments taught us how not to be afraid to ask questions and have a comment or a concern on our project.
What did you learn from these moments?
We learned how to develop good communication and teamwork skills while doing this. Also, we improved our 3D modeling, email composing, and presentation skills working on this project
How did these moments impact your vision, process, etc. for your project?
It has impacted our vision and process because it taught us that what you may want to go in this project may not be the same for the stakeholder, such as the structural idea being completely different in terms of practicality and design. Eventually, we found a middle ground. That is why it is good to communicate and ask questions to find a compromise in the project we were working on.
Identify one stakeholder who was important to your project’s success.
Mr. Luke Boyd
Why was this person influential?
Mr. Boyd was a very nice stakeholder and very influential because if we had a question or needed something from him, he would give it to us in no time with him sending an email to us as soon as possible. He was very communicative and was very open to our ideas on what the project should look like while also giving us ideas on what the project should look like or giving us feedback on what we did well and what we needed to improve.
How did they assist you in shaping your vision for the project?
He assisted us by guiding us to a desirable outcome that fit in with our own spin combined with practicality.
What was some advice/feedback you received from this person that you will remember after this project?
He said the project was great, but there will be a few modifications due to budget. It wont change much and the concept will still be in use but just with more in tune with nature. I see this as a good thing since budget and nature are difficult elements to control, and he was still able to make what we envisioned.
Why does such advice/feedback resonate with you?
Simply since it implies to us that we were pretty much spot on in creating a sound project that people can learn and benefit from.
What was one major challenge you encountered during the project?
A challenge we encountered was how we were going to design the fence and how it was going to be done. We really wanted to make the fence practical, and we just went along and overcame the challenge through various designs till we hit gold.
Why do you feel such activities are important to your high school experience?
It definitely shows a sense of progress throughout the years which adds on to our experience which leads to those learned skills being used in everyday life and future careers/pathways. For example, during interviews or resume reading it would be great for the employer or admission officer to know we are capable of college level work while also knowing how to be good with communication and design.