NYC middle school students are designing their own community youth space

By Hannah Kliger

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    NEW YORK, New York (WCBS) — While many kids have spent their summer taking a much-needed break, a group of young people in East New York, Brooklyn, have been hard at work learning about building materials, scale, and interior design.

“It’s fun learning… it just helps you feel confident,” said 11-year-old Mi-kaila Davis, who is entering sixth grade.

Their 3D model of a new youth space at the Penn-Wortman Community Center reflects the things important to them: a clean modern space with tables to work at and bean bag chairs to lounge, a chalkboard for presentations, couches, and lockers for afterschool activities.

“Sometimes things happen that we don’t really have an input on. And it’s nice knowing that we had an idea on what was going to happen to our community center,” said 11-year-old Cheyanne Paris.

It’s not just a summer project

The space will be transformed based on the students’ designs this fall.

Amid ongoing construction work at the development is a five-week pilot program launched in two locations in Brooklyn and Queens.

More than a dozen students have been working with the Salvadori Center, which promotes science, technology, engineering, art, and math education.

“If we’re teaching things and they’re only through memorization or textbooks, it’s not going to come alive for kids. It needs to be practical. It needs to be relevant. And so what better way to be relevant than to actually get to re-envision your own community space?” explained Trenton Price, executive director of the Salvadori Center.

The kids presented their final design to a room of professionals and answered questions from a development company they got to tour as part of the experience.

“The youth here have watched a lot of construction happen, so this is giving them an opportunity to be a part of it and design a space for themselves,” added Gingi Pica, senior director of community investment at L&M Development Partners.

Leaders hope the experience in project-based learning can inspire future careers in STEAM.

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