Angelica's World

Happy 2009! I was talking to some friends the other night and realization hit...it was almost the year of our graduation! Kind of crazy to think that in just five and a half months I'll be a college graduate--I'll be entering the real world (job market pending haha) and have 4 more years of amazing memories stored up thanks to my time at NYU.

I spent today at my brother's house celebrating my nephew's 1st birthday--I believe I blogged about that back then and posted some pictures--and I guess that's a good place to start recollecting what this year has brought. I spent a lot of last spring semester hanging out with my friends who were graduating and going to a number of formals which were tons of fun. I traveled to Greece for spring break with Steinhardt's Dean's Research Travel Colloquium where I celebrated my 21st birthday. I finished the semester with a 4.0 GPA and a full year of student teaching experience under my belt. I spent this past summer working with children who have autism and learning about alternative treatments for this population. I went to Florida to visit family and saw Billy Joel play at Shea Stadium. I was involved in my fourth year of OutReach at NYU which ran at the same time as RA training. I had an amazing (and busy) fall semester this year and even got to spend a weekend at Penn State and go to my first college football game! I organized one of the most successful Steinhardt Days of Service and got involved in a number of programs with my residents. I just spent two weeks of my winter break working at my high school job and learning an incredible amount about working with children who have autism. That was a very valuable experience...and now it's 2009!

I can't wait to see what's in store for 2009...my last semester as a college undergraduate, a spring break trip to Atlanta to do community service, organizing and attending the annual Steinhardt Semi-Formal at Tavern on the Green and the Steinhardt Day of Service, visiting friends at their colleges, going to Florida for my cousin's wedding, GRADUATING NYU, and hopefully traveling and having a job that I'll be good at, learn a lot in, and love going to each day! Wow!

For Christmas this year, my brother and sister-in-law gave my sister, brother-in-law and myself tickets to go with them to see the last performance of All My Sons--the Arthur Miller play being performed on Broadway with Katie Holmes and John Lithgow. The tickets were for today so we spent the day together in NYC and it was really great. The five of us went out to lunch at Trattoria Trecolori which was DELICIOUS--I highly recommend it--and then headed over to the theater.

The show was pretty good--since I didn't know the storyline I was interested in finding out what the plot had in store for us. John Lithgow was amazing--he really is a very talented actor and it was great to see him live. It was also pretty cool to see Katie Holmes, though I think she's a better onscreen actress. I liked the set, or lack thereof--it was very "primitive" (as my brother said) but I thought it worked for sure. And, though I have seen a number of Broadway performances, I've never been at the final performance of any show but it was pretty cool...and of course I got to see all the paparazzi waiting outside the stage door after the show--oh, the life of a celebrity!

Last semester my Co-RA and I hosted a program in our residence hall for students to learn more about the Department of Homeless Services. It was an incredible talk and we certainly became more informed NYC residents. We also found out about a great opportunity which we were fortunate enough to take advantage of this past Monday night.

One night every year, traditionally (one of) the coldest night of the year, the Department of Homeless Services sends volunteers out into each of the five boroughs to survey people on the streets to create an estimate as to the number of homeless people who are currently not seeking the free housing they have the right to. The program runs from 10:30pm-4:00am which includes time to gather, receive training, learn about the sites you're responsible for, and hitting the road!

My Co-RA and I brought seven of our residents to the program on Monday and we split into two groups and walked around the West Village early Tuesday morning. The team I headed up had two areas on the street to cover as well as two subway lines we had to survey and basically the surveys had us approach each person we encountered on the streets and, after introducing ourselves, ask them if they have a place they can go back to that they consider a place to live (in words better than those I am formulating right now) and if they respond yes, we ask what kind of residence it is (house, apartment, etc) and if they respond no, we learn that they are homeless and offer services. There is more to the survey but ultimately our goal is to assess and determine how many homeless people are on the streets.

During training, we learned that this year 2800 volunteers would be out in the boroughs completing surveys and that this is the 6th year HOPE is occurring. Once the Department receives our surveys it takes them about 6-8 weeks to process the information and share the numbers and estimates they've come up with. Their results are used to influence policy and services that are provided.

I thought this was a very valuable program and gave us a new perspective on homelessness and homeless services. I definitely had a unique experience that I won't ever be able to replicate but I will be able to use in my future, especially as a NYC resident.

Jenna and I have been working together since August 2007 to develop a non-profit organization for children with disabilities and as of last week it's official--our creation is now recognized as a NYS Non-Profit Organization! We were both thrilled when we received the email and are continuing to plan how we want our program to run. Little Engine Creations, Inc. is going to be an after-school theater program for children with various disabilities. We currently plan to work with elementary-aged schools but hope that we will be able to expand soon. Wish us luck!