Other News

Repack Project for Food Bank of NYC in Hunts Point.

Right before the Thanksgiving break, I had the pleasure of working with some of my friends to help repack supplies to be handed out to people in need at food pantries throughout New York City. This was held in Hunts Point at the Food Bank of NYC warehouse.

Food Bank For New York City

Through its partnership with the Food Bank of NYC, a group of students, teachers and parents recently helped in the sorting and packing of more than 17k pounds of food for New Yorkers in need!

This summer I got a chance to work for “Hillary for America” in Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign headquarters at 300 Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn.

I’ll be in Atlanta for the NAIS 2016 Student Diversity Leadership Conference or SDLC 2016, the largest independent school student diversity gathering in the country. The SDLC is part of the annual People of Color (PoCC) Conference sponsored by NAIS and is a multiracial, multicultural gathering of upper school student leaders (grades nine – 12) from across the U.S. SDLC focuses on self-reflecting, forming allies, and building community.

Some of my shots are included in the first ever SPNA Calendar 2016. You can get a copy from their website at http://spnanyc.org/

Stuyvesant Park Neighborhood Association (SPNA) serves one of New York’s most pleasant communities, both diverse and stable, from East 14th Street north to East 23rd Street and from Stuyvesant Town west toward Irving Place and Gramercy Park.

It’s been a year since my middle school, De La Salle, moved from the Upper West Side to Times Square. Most of my friends and I helped out, and moved all the books, boxes, furniture, etc. to the new building in the heart of the city.

This is a blog entry I wrote for my school website:

Before coming to Friends Seminary this year, I went to school at De La Salle Academy where there were great faculty members, as well as an optimistic environment. From day one, we always heard that we were one big family. Community was a large part of the culture at De la Salle, and everyone always helped everyone else. During the summer, De la Salle had to move from their home at 96th St and Amsterdam to a new, much bigger building at 43rd Street near Times Square. Some people came to help out; including parents and students who had graduated from the school a long time ago. I went to volunteer five days during the summer to help move all the things from the current building to the new building. Me, my friends and on some days my Dad carried heavy boxes of books, furniture and other items up and down many flights of stairs. I also helped clear out all the trash at the new building and we filled up a whole dumpster by the end of the day. I really enjoyed volunteering at De la Salle Academy and am very glad I helped.

My volunteering experience at De La Salle during the summer made me realize that even though I had to work hard to carry heavy things up and down stairs, at the end of the day, I felt good about myself. I was happy that I was contributing to the community after graduating and I was hanging out with my friends like we had never graduated. I learned that even though I and my peers graduated, we could have said, “Well, we don’t have to help out, we graduated. We can just sit home and play video games” but instead we made the effort and gave back to De La Salle what De La Salle gave to us. I look forward to doing as much volunteering as I can in the coming years.