Community Partner: 29th Street Community Center
Intern: Russell Hughes
Site Supervisor: Ali Warhaftig
What is the 29th Street Community Center?
The mission of the 29th Street Community Center is to offer a space for
meaningful community building and high quality enrichment programming
that adds value and vibrancy to surrounding neighborhoods and the
Barclay Elementary/Middle School.
During my time at the 29th St. Community Center I met some people
doing excellent work in the community. One fosters a familial culture
in her GED class (to the point that they had an impromptu potluck
for someone’s birthday), another organizes youth to revitalize a
neglected park. A third gave a full camp of kids the opportunity to
develop their interests for the better part of a month, and a fourth is
working to plan, promote, and execute an exciting National Night
Out for her community. And, of course, at the center we provide and
support a wide range of programming open to the community. My
coworkers’ and associates’ ability to translate their personal skills
into community impacting events and programs has inspired me to
try to hybridize my scientific interests with my desire to serve the
community. I am currently investigating the feasibility of running a
biological research STEM program aimed at local teenagers with an
interest in learning how research really works. Whether it works out
or not, I would like to thank everyone that showed me that I can do
more with the skills that I have than gather and interpret data. I
would also like to thank my Youthworkers for being the best in the
city (hands down). And I would like to give a special thanks to Derek
and Ali, who were better coworkers than I could have possibly asked
for. It’s been quite a run, and it’s been fun. And with any luck, it isn’t
over yet.
‐‐Russ
Tasks:
• Planned, prepared for, and executed an after‐camp
program for children with the help of 3 Youth‐
workers
• Helped plan professional development
opportunities for our 14 Youth‐workers
• Assisted with day‐to‐day tasks at the center
including database management, program tracking,
and supporting the multiple concurrent summer
camps and programs
• Prepared our laptops for future use by cleaning up
junk/malicious programs and placing protections
against future misuse
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