Hello from Harlem!

This is the beginning of my fifth full week as an AlumniCorps fellow – I can’t believe how quickly time has flown! Between my job and handling the nuts and bolts of settling into NYC, every day has been packed. This transitional period has definitely been challenging. I moved into my apartment the weekend that Hurricane Irene hit NYC, which definitely made my first week in the city a bit stressful. Thankfully, things are finally starting to calm down, and I’m finding the time to fully appreciate my new life in one of the greatest cities in the world.

I work as a grantwriting/communications associate for New Heights Youth, a Harlem-based nonprofit that aims to help at-risk NYC students gain admission to high school and college. We use basketball as a ‘hook’ to get our kids more excited about school and their future. New Heights currently runs 15 AAU basketball teams with girls and boys from all over the city. We serve about 200 kids total. Most of these kids are from low-income areas in the Bronx, Harlem and central Brooklyn, and about half are the first people in their family to go to college.

I don’t do direct work with the kids - I’m in charge of managing our organization’s grantwriting/fundraising efforts and social media. However, our East Harlem office gets frequent visits from New Heights coaches and kids. We also have a couple of program alumni that now work for the organization. On a daily basis, I’m reminded that my job has a direct (and significant!) impact on the community that I work in. Seeing all that my organization has been able to accomplish in just 6 short years (we became an independent nonprofit in 2005) makes me really excited for the upcoming year.