Looking for students (grades 9-12) to participate in a two-year project... Contact Ms. MacNeil ASAhumanlyP, please and thanks!

Remember this poem?

We’re Building the Ship as We Sail It, Kay Ryan

The first fear

being drowning, the

ship’s first shape

was a raft, which

was hard to unflatten

after that didn’t

happen. It’s awkward

to have to do one’s

planning in extremis

in the early years -

so hard to hide later:

sleekening the hull,

making things

more gracious.

Who?

·       Interested in making a long-ish term commitment to social justice issues?

·       Are you curious and passionate about your work as a founding student at WHEELS?

·       Do you have questions about the making and implementing of those systems that allow us to make a thing for ourselves?

What?

Consider apply to work with me on “The Ship’s First Shape,” a partnership with folks (undergraduate students interested in service design work and their professors) at Parsons (the design branch of The New School for Social Research) and The Fortune Society (which, among other things, serves students who have formerly been incarcerated, and their teachers).  We’ll consider the larger focusing question: What does it mean when we make a thing for ourselves?

We’ll use this to guide our work as we ask questions including but not limited to:

• What sustains us?
• What nourishes us?
• What makes us healthy (in lots of ways)?

Where?

Students will work with project partners on-site at WHEELS, at Parsons, at The Fortune Society and at yet-to-be-determined fieldwork sites.

When?

This is a two year project.  Students in grades 9-12 can apply (with the knowledge that if seniors are selected, those remaining students will help to select their replacements in 2014-2015). 

Partnership meetings will happen before school, at lunch, after school, and occasionally, on weekends.  All participants will have a say in our scheduling. 

This project will require an on-going commitment (likely 1-5 hours/week).

Why?

This is the question I’ll be asking at your interview (and through-out the next two years).

Additional information

Ideal WHEELS candidates for “The Ship’s First Shape” Project should:

·       have a genuine curiosity about what it means be in community with folks and what it means to have a sense of agency in active decisions making in our school community;

·       want to serve as WHEELS student docent and panelist;

·       be in reasonable academic standing;

·       be in reasonable standing with her/his parents (as fieldwork will require some travel in NYC);

·       have an interest in notions of social justice;

·       have LOTS of ideas;

·       like working both alone and with others;

·       have interest in/openness to working with folks at Parsons and/or The Fortune Society.

Interested?  I’ll be interviewing folks in August and September; let me know!

With thanks and hope. 

Ms. MacNeil

k.macneil@wheelsnyc.org

N.B. This project carries a modest (this means not-so-much) stipend (this means CASH MONEY) with it AND a travel/meal allowance.