Students and staff from WHSAD and Community School partner, Curtis High School, are ready to bring more literacy opportunities to the New York City area.
Ms. Marie Rodriguez, of Curtis High School, collects students’ ideas for the Little Free Library project.
This 2017-2018 school year WHSAD has taken on the responsibility of being a New York City Community School. Such a title brings its share of responsibilities and opportunities. For instance, students must now complete between 60-90 hours of community service in order to graduate. These hours enhance the high school experience in a number of ways: from students getting first-hand experiences in assisting their communities become more vigorous to students meeting people outside the realm of the microcosm of WHSAD. A number of students experienced the latter this week as WHSAD launched its partnership with Curtis High School on Staten Island to bring Little Free Library boxes to various areas in the two boroughs. Special thanks to Health for Youth Partners, Heather Butts and Anthony Antonucci, and Curtis High School staff members, Marie Rodriguez and Sean Cogan, for their tremendous assistance in setting up this collaboration. Below, Juniors Milana Baldizzi and Trevon West provide their thoughts on the day.
WHSAD and Curtis High School students engage in the initial planning of the Little Free Library project.
WHSAD (Brooklyn) and Curtis (Staten Island) high school students are currently collaborating on a project in which they will design, market, and create little free libraries. The libraries are public book exchanges where they are stocked and open for anyone to take and give a book. Students have split into groups consisting of designers, marketers, presenters, and logisticians. Each group has a specified role that will contribute to the completion of the project, estimated to be finished by April, 2018.
Students have met twice so far: Once in Staten Island on Tuesday, November 7th and once in Brooklyn on Thursday, November 9th. On Tuesday, WHSAD students traveled to Staten Island, where we were introduced to the staff and fellow students with whom we will be working. We conversed with each other, agreed on a general plan, and were offered a tour around the facility. The students from WHSAD that went on this trip were Zeal Patel, Patryck Pozarlik, Milana Baldizzi, Ethan Ikegami, Ryan Singh, and the staff consisted of Mr. Codio, Mr. O’Brien, and Ms. Heather.
On Thursday, November 9, students met in Brooklyn and further discussed the project. The students, with aid from the supervisors, planned the entire outline of the project. Collaborators from Curtis High School conferred with WHSAD students, where they were given a tour of the facility, which includes the architecture and computer labs. These rooms will be used by the students in order to draft, design, render, and model their ideas. We decided our groups, thought out the premise, and determined the dates in which which we will meet again, which was decided to be Sunday, November 26th.