Week 4 - Almost There

Team Greater Grand Crossing had an interesting week filled with interviews, vegan soul food and learning a little more about what our project might turn into this summer. On Monday, we worked to try and narrow down our group's interests for the project. While stress and nutrition were mentioned previously, we had not fully identified what a strong, sustainable idea might look like. In order to get inspired for more ideas, we listened to a podcast dealing with Geoffrey Canada and his Harlem Children's Promise Zone project. What really stood out was the care and detail with which he started this project, and he wanted to make sure that every family was educated on the best way to make their children successful. The theory was that creating a generation of success for the youth of Harlem would lead to greater numbers of professionals who, hopefully, would one day return to their home neighborhoods and help to strengthen the community. It was fun to listen to, and quite engaging, which was new for me since I had never really listened to the program previously.

On Tuesday we took an adventure to Soul Vegetarian restaurant which was....a unique experience to say the least. I think the food was surprisingly good, while some of it I was not really sold on. I cannot say that I will ever visit this place again, nor will I become a vegan after this, but it was fun. At least, it was fun watching the kids trying all these new types of foods. After lunch we viewed the film "Food, Inc." which was incredible and enlightening. I really enjoyed the way they worked so much information into a short film and time. It will make me think twice about where food really does come from, and inspires me to try and eat more organic and locally grown products...even though it may be more expensive.

Thursday was an other highlight because we ran practice interviews with the high school students in which we filmed them and asked general questions that they would be asked in a regular interview. Most of them did well, and it was cool to finally see 1) how their voices sound when being recorded, and 2) any body language they do without thinking.

After the end of this week we have finally narrowed down a possible project idea that would be fun and sustainable. For one, we want to have a broad "Wellness Day" here at the center that would focus on more than just stress, but also nutrition and physical activity as well. This entails having to plan a lot, because we'd have to reach out to kids at the center and also community members. Because we've identified stress as an issue in the community, we ideally would like to spread the word through using flyers around the neighborhood. The only problem is that we would want this to take place soon, so we could still reach the teens while they are still here at the center for their summer projects (Aug 6 is their last day). Another possible project that might be more sustainable would be nutrition classes for elementary students, specifically 3rd or 4th graders. If our students were able to be trained by, say, med students, and were provided with a curriculum that they could continue with teaching and mentoring the younger kids, we hope it might make a difference. Perhaps early intervention may be the way to go for nutrition?

Who knows, but at least we have an idea of what to do!