 |
"I am currently working at La Bodega de la Familia in New York City's infamous 'Alphabet City.' I found out about the organization on the CDO web site. La Bodega is a design project of the Vera Institute of Justice, a private non-profit organization that works to make government practices fairer and more efficient and thus expand the provision of justice and improve the quality of urban life. La Bodega is a neighborhood substance abuse support center for families struggling with substance abuse and criminal justice system response. La Bodega was specially placed in the lower East Side neighborhood of Alphabet City, or Loisaida, to help the largely Latino population which has been struggling with a high rate of substance abuse for many years. I was attracted to La Bodega because of my own strong commitment to aiding the Latino population and because of the progressive way La Bodega approaches substance abuse and community building. The community building and fostering of community pride was especially impressive to me. As the Administrative Coordinator at La Bodega, I do a variety of administrative things such as scheduling appointments and taking care of correspondence. However, I do have a few more interesting responsibilities. I design our postcards, which are sent to program participants, government partners, and funders. I have an intern who is a student at the local high school. Her school requires her to do community service every semester and she comes in once a week. I am teaching her desk top publishing and helping her put together a booklet on free or low-cost family activities in the city for our participants. This is fun because I get to tell her about local museums and history and architecture. It is my hope to send her out to see all of these things for herself so she can write something about them from a local resident's perspective in the booklet. I think (I hope) that my American Studies background helps me relate some of the great and some of the troubling aspects of American culture to her and help her analyze and question her own culture. I am also currently coordinating a mural project with a local mural artist and local youth, and I coordinate a photography partnership between La Bodega and NYU art education students. In this project an NYU student is paired with a local resident (usually a youth) to work together to photograph the community. We will have an exhibit at NYU in February and the photos will be considered for an upcoming book that we will publish next year on the history of the Lower East Side. No doubt, I will be spending much more time this spring working on the book. American Studies has led me in several directions, including museum and policy internships. After graduation I wanted to try out a more grass roots, community oriented environment. Thus far is has been rewarding though at times stressful, mainly because such small staffs run organizations such as La Bodega. The best part of my job is that I get to tap into my own creative expression and help others to do the same. I plan on going to graduate school in a couple of years, once again studying American Studies. I am interested in eventually working in a cultural center or museum." |
