News & Events
City Tech Awarded $197K Justice Department Grant
To Give At-Risk Youth Insight Into How Education Changes Lives
Almost three years ago, Len Friedman, chair of the Department of Dental Hygiene at New York City College of Technology (City Tech) received a phone call from an administrator at Passages Academy, a high school that serves 4,000 teenaged offenders at secure and non-secure sites citywide. Could he and some City Tech students come talk to these young people, who were at risk of dropping out of school, about careers in the healthcare fields and what the College had to offer?
Friedman, who has taught at City Tech since 1971, is one of several dedicated faculty and staff members who exemplify the College’s longstanding reputation for providing community assistance. He soon decided that these young people, who had gotten into trouble with the law at an early age, deserved a chance to turn their lives around. So, he and his students began bringing City Tech to them, planting seeds about the future that education in general and City Tech in particular represent.
It wasn’t long before two other City Tech academic departments -- Advertising Design & Graphic Arts (ADGA) and Hospitality Management -- sent students and faculty to do presentations for the Passages students at three of the academy’s sites.
Looking to expand the College’s participation to include two additional academic departments -- Radiologic Technology & Medical Imaging (RadTech) and Computer Systems Technology, another Passages site and campus visits for Passages students at non-secure sites, Friedman turned to Jerome H. Blue, the College’s vice president for research, governmental and corporate relations. Blue, with the help of Congressman Ed Towns and support from members of the City Tech administration, obtained a one-year $197,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to fund the initiative through August 2006.
Blue
“The student visitors from City Tech open opportunities for further education and careers that our students did not think were possible,” says Sydney Blair, principal of Passages Academy, which is a collaboration between the New York City Department of Juvenile Justice and the New York City Department of Probation. “Our participating faculty report that students continue to discuss City Tech’s presentations and want more information, including how to be considered for admission.”
This past fall, each departmental team made visits to four Passages sites, three in Brooklyn -- including Willoughby Street in Downtown Brooklyn, within walking distance from the College -- and one in Lower Manhattan on Broadway. In addition, staff members from City Tech’s Placement Office and Office of Public Safety have also participated.
The grant also enabled the College to purchase some equipment for use by the participating academic departments during campus visits by Passages Academy students. In December, Darren Hoyte, a senior RadTech college laboratory technician, organized the first visit of Passages students, faculty and staff to City Tech.
“Many of the Passages students have never been out of the neighborhoods in which they grew up and have never been to a college campus, so coming to City Tech is an eye-opener,” says Friedman. “When they come and see the equipment students here work with -- from the big mixers in our hospitality management kitchens to the printing equipment in ADGA to the computerized tomography equipment in RadTech -- it may be the spark that motivates them to set their sights for a college degree and a career.” For City Tech students, many of whom have had to overcome challenges to be where they are today, visiting Passages Academy sites is a chance to gain experience speaking in public and to give the teenagers hope that their lives are not over because they made a mistake. That the Passages students are able to relate well to them was brought home early on to Friedman, who accompanies the City Tech students to each site visit.
“At the end of our presentation on one of our first visits, a Passages student asked one of ours if she was a ‘BK girl.’ My heart sank; I thought she was referring to a gang. The City Tech student matter-of-factly asked what she meant, and was told BK meant ‘Brooklyn.’ Without missing a beat, our student said, ‘No, I’m from Queens,’ to which the Passages student replied, ‘You’re still from the ‘hood.’ That, to me, was a sign that our efforts were being well received and connections made.”
Friedman
On a brisk winter day, Friedman and two of his City Tech dental hygiene students, Anaika Forbes, 21, and Maria Caputo, 20, went through the metal detectors in the lobby of the building on lower Broadway housing a Passages Academy site.
Forbes, who has lived in East New York, Brooklyn, since the age of five when she emigrated with her family from Panama, says she “understands where these students are coming from,” because she knows several young people in her neighborhood who went on to sell drugs or became teenage mothers or are in the juvenile detention system. Another point of contact is that she tutors young people their age on the weekends.
“My goal is to show the students that there’s something else to do besides getting into trouble,” she explains. “They perk up when you tell them they can earn up to $40 an hour as a dental hygienist and can set your own hours.”
Caputo, who lives in the Tottenville section of Staten Island, comes to the experience from a much more sheltered perspective. “I had never heard of a school like Passages Academy and being involved with the project has shown me that there are other aspects of life than the ones I’ve experienced,” she explains. “It has given me a chance to interact with people very different from myself and come to understand that everyone, regardless of their background, is worthy of respect.”
Dr. Friedman, an orthodontist by training who lives in Bernardsville, New Jersey, hopes to follow all of the Passages students who attend the career sessions to see how many enroll in college. In the meantime, the successful collaboration between Passages Academy and City Tech in Brooklyn and lower Manhattan has led to a similar initiative starting up in the Bronx between Passages Academy and Hostos Community College, which, like City Tech, is part of the City University of New York.
However, Dr. Friedman is concerned that in the near future, the New York City Department of Juvenile Justice is going to close two of the four sites partnered with City Tech. “We will continue to visit the ones that are still operating in order to continue providing this valuable and well-received service,” he says.
2/15/06
