One and a half blocks from the site of the Twin Towers, the 14-story high school on Trinity Pl. serves about 650 students.
While everyone returned to the zero degree weather in Syracuse, six students and I headed not to the Orange but to the Big Apple for a semester as public affairs interns at the High for Leadership and Public Service in lower Manhattan.
The seven of us will be team-teaching “Participation in Government” at the public high school that was founded in collaboration with SU’s Maxwell School. Every spring semester, the undergrad policy studies program sends a handful of students to New York City for the hands-on experience and a chance to take a couple courses on education policy at SU’s Manhattan admissions center, the Lubin House.
The Lubin House on 61st Street at 5th Avenue houses an admissions office, alumni center, seminar rooms, an art gallery and rooms for faculty and other SU visitors to stay in the city.
So far, everything has been fantastic and everyone is ecstatic about the internship – and living in New York. After moving in on Saturday, we’ve spent the week getting to know the city – and each other. We’ve toured the high school, had our first urban education policy class with SU’s NYC admissions director Dr. Lonnie Morrison, eaten sushi, met with SU alums, ridden the subway about five thousand times, shopped in Chinatown, persevered through broken toilets and malfunctioning Internet connections (the latter being much worse), laughed at Shrek the Musical, resolved conflicts with SU’s mediation guru Neil Katz, and driven public affairs placement coordinator Michelle Walker completely crazy.
The other SU interns go for a stroll down 5th Avenue. From left are Mehreen Nayani, Julianna Malogolowkin, Zach Lax, Samantha Wiese, Courtney Pew and Sally Irmer.
And I know you must be terribly worried at this point about where I’m fitting into CitrusTV this semester, but they don’t call it the city that never sleeps for nothing. I’m still staying on as Web media director, and I’ll continue working on our Web site (whose new features, including this blog, we pushed live over the break) and videoconferencing in for the weekly executive staff meetings. Plus, I have plans to come and basically live at the station during my breaks in February and April, hopefully getting the chance to photog some bball, work on some shows and accomplish other various tasks around the station.
So I look forward to keeping in touch and working with you all while I’m off the hill. Shoot me an e-mail or give me a call if you ever have any ideas for the Web site or notice any problems. And stay tuned for plenty of new and exciting things in Web media land.
Stay warm.
The Brooklyn Bridge and this view of the Manhattan skyline are just a few blocks from our student housing in Brooklyn Heights.
