Diving Deep in the Zone
Youth Want to Work
by Anthony Lopez, Executive Director
My first paid work experience began in NYC’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) back in the summer of 1978. The city was in financial ruin, everything was broken or in ruins and it seemed it would be that way forever. Citizens still did everything collectively. 

As Sanitation Counselor, along with nine other SYEP youth, we were assigned to a six-week internship at El Barrio Chamber of Commerce in East Harlem. At the time Mr. Louis Malave the Executive Director, served as my supervisor. During the first week, entering the second floor office of the terra cotta-colored brownstone, I walked into Mr. Malave admonishing an elderly woman. Raising his voice, he pulled out the first drawer from a metal file cabinet, to show her a ton of files. He then started to say, “you think you’re the only one with problems, all these people have problems.” He waved me over, and said “Lopez, come here and help this woman,” 

Mrs. Daskalakis, is a name I will never forget as long as I shall live. She cried as she asked me to accompany her to see firsthand, the living conditions that she and her wheelchair-bound daughter called home. She lived in an apartment located three blocks away in a six-story tenement building. The building’s hallways were dark with a smoky smell due to numerous in-home fires. In fact, Mrs. Daskalakis was one of three remaining families left in the building.

Living conditions were so bad in her apartment that she and her daughter were reduced to spending the nights sleeping in the shoe repair store she owned on the next block. Outraged at to what I witnessed, I urged Mr. Malave to do something now, and he did. He sent me on a mission to make a case for help at the upcoming community planning board meeting. At the meeting, I was given time to present the problem and requested immediate assistance. Notes were taken, promises were made, I was acknowledged for being articulate, and thanked for attending.

104th Street and Lexington Ave Today
News from the Zone
Pipeline Update
Lauching Success Starts at Lunch
by Dylan Woloszczuk, Community School Coordinator CS 111Q
While Lunch Clubs may appear like a simple concept, at CS 111Q we supplement our clubs with Success Mentoring. Not only do we facilitate fun and engaging activities for our scholars, we also have check in time to promote attendance successes. While I have Success Mentees in all grades, Pre-K is a particular joy to work with because the students are very engaged with the clubs. They also are enthusiatic to track their own attendance progress.  

Working with Pre-K has given me the opportunity to observe student growth and milestones achieved throughout the year. While there have been many great moments watching these students progress, I believe the moments detailed below are some of the most important building blocks to them launching successfully as they begin their academic journey. 
Introducing our students to their Lunch Club was a great success. Pre-Kindergarten to Second Grade clubs are arts and crafts focused, and I cohost them with Zone 126 Home Visitor and Classroom Aid, Ms. Regine Joachim. Students were selected based upon 85-90% attendance to participate in the clubs throughout the year.

The introduction of attendance tracking sheets for students was a small but significant victory. While we had been following students all along using online tools and recordkeeping, creating the logs was a great way to help the students visualize their own attendance. Students were presented with the logs during Lunch Clubs and check-in’s, and were awarded prizes after two unbroken weeks of perfect attendance. In this way, we were able to make attendance translatable to our young, Pre-K students. They were able to observe patterns in their attendance, and were eager to report their presence to us each day. 
Another personal highlight was observing one of my Pre-K Success Mentees achieve perfect attendance for the month of April (pictured here with his log). While awarding him his prizes and certificate was great, the best moment was showing him his name on the Perfect Attendance Scholar bulletin board.

Even as students age 5 and under, they have an awareness and a pride in their own progress. We see it in their club work, we see it in the hallways, and we see it as they hurtle towards their Pre-K graduation ceremony. While we strive to make the greatest possible impact, we are only a small piece of our students’ stories, and we look forward to seeing what happens next. 
From Corps Member to Collaborative Leader
by: Anju J. Rupchandani M.S.Ed., Managing Director
Laura Hamm
Executive Director, City Year
For the past 15 years, young men and women right out of high school or college put on the signature red jacket, khaki pants, and boots and hit the streets of NYC to spend a year of service in high-needs public schools. Among the individuals in the first class of Corps Members was Laura Hamm , a recent graduate of Louisiana State University who wanted to do a year of service.

That first year of service in NYC continued to fuel a deep passion for volunteerism and building a vision around the importance of mentorship. I recently had time to sit down with Laura to talk about her pathway from Corps Member to being the new Executive Director at City Year after serving in several other roles across the organization, and most recently the Executive Director of City Year Baton Rouge the community in which she grew up. Laura spoke passionately about working at City Year New York during the first few years, and how she was able to be a part of visioning and strategizing with a number of intelligent leaders. “It’s been a dream to come back to where I first started and lead the organization to its next phase,” said Laura.

It was clear that Laura is all about relationship building, when she said “I am drawn to relationship building, and I want City Year to be a fun filled place to work and for that to trickle into all facets of the organization.” “At the end of the day it’s about humans caring for one another she also said, and the work I want to do is having everyone co-create the strategy, the vision, and take pride in moving the organization forward.”

Zone 126 would like to thank the 246 Corps Members serving students across all of NYC, and a special thank you to the four teams serving in the Zone at PS 112Q , PS 171Q , IS 126Q , and IS 204Q . 
Summer Learning Abroad
by Anita Williams, College Mentoring Coordinator Long Island City High School
For the past four years, the Palazzo Strozzi Renaissance Foundation has awarded deserving eleventh grade high school students in the New York City, Los Angeles, and Detroit public school systems with a fully funded opportunity to travel abroad for four weeks in Italy. This year, two outstanding students from Long Island City High School , Kevin Chen and Batur Shairdezah were chosen based on a written common application essay and an interview conducted by the foundation. They will join fourteen other scholars as they visit the cities of Rome, Venice, Milan, and Florence. Most importantly, the students will embark on an academic program about the cultural changes of the European Renaissance era. 

For Kevin, this opportunity will allow him to travel and witness other cultures and lifestyles. He hopes to learn about starting a business and educating students overseas. Meanwhile, Batur hopes to become an endocrinologist and one day join Doctors without Borders. Both students have done exceptionally well at LICHS. We wish them all the best in their endeavors. 

Ciao Italia!

2018 Palazzo Strozzi LICHS Scholarship Winners: Batur Shairdezah and Kevin Chen
A Day of Impact: Deloitte Family Literacy Day
Photos by Child Center of NY
On June 08, 2018, Parent-Child Home Program hosted a Family Literacy day packed with food, read-alouds, arts and crafts. Special thanks to Deloitte for their sponsorship and support on this wonderful Impact Day.

Parent-Child Home Program's mission is to strengthen children and families with skills opportunities, and emotional support to build healthy, successful lives.

Learn more about PCHP at www.parent-child.org , facebook.com/parentchildhomeprogram, @parentchildhome on Twitter , and @parentchildhome on Instagram
What We Are Reading
  • Critical Mentoring: A Practical Guide by Torie Weiston-Serdan
Congratulations
Class of 2018!
2018 Michael G. Officer
Memorial Scholarship Winner
Oscar Rivera (Scholarship Winner), and Anju J. Rupchandani (Managing Director, Zone 126)
at Long Island City High School 2018 Graduation Ceremony
Earlier this year, Michael G. Officer a long-time Advisory Board Member for Zone 126 passed away suddenly. As a way to honor his memory, Zone 126 created the Michael G. Officer Memorial Scholarship Fund to support a student as they enter the next chapter of their life. This year's recipient of the Michael G. Officer Memorial Scholarship Fund is Oscar Rivera, a senior at Long Island City High School who will be attending CUNY LaGuardia Community College this fall to student music recording.
College Student Success Program
Summer Opportunities
for Middle School Students
Let's Get Ready
Let's Get Ready is accepting Success Program applications for students who plan to attend Temple University, SUNY Albany, SUNY Buffalo State, UMass Dartmouth, and CUNY Baruch.

This program is FREE to participate and offers in-college peer support and connections to on campus resources.

For more information, contact: vhulit@letsgetready.org
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Global Kids
Astoria & Long Island City, NY

Global Kids is hosting a FREE Summer Camp, open to all middle school students from
July 09-August 03

Contact sophie@globalkids.org for an application to enroll today!
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We would like to thank all of our funders for their support: Thomas & Jeanne Elmezzi Foundation, New York City Department of Education, Altman Foundation, Pinkerton Foundation, and Phyllis Backer Foundation.
  *Some names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of the individual