As the summer wound down, our programs and participants were still busy with their various summer excursions and activities!

Thirty of our BridgeUP+OUT Scholars were able to head out into the field for an amazing summer of protecting and restoring public green spaces around New York City. One crew created a series of check steps and water bars to mitigate erosion on trails at Van Cortlandt park. Another crew focused on removing invasive species, including multi-flora rose, phragmites and mugwort around Randall’s Island Park. A third crew spent time at both Highbridge Park and Freshkills Park, building drainage dips, clearing a corridor, removing invasive species, and building a rustic turnpike with organic material. Beyond their many impactful conservation accomplishments, crew members developed new friendships and lasting memories. 

Our Scholars at the Mount Sinai Racial Health and Justice Program have closed out on a hugely successful summer! For the final day of the program, the Scholars all presented their Photovoice presentations in front of their families, friends, Mount Sinai staff, and community partners. Afterwards, a reception was held where the attendees could walk around a gallery of all the visual components to the presentations created by the students. “The girls were beaming with pride as they shared more about their perspectives and heard how their presentations had impacted people.” – Alyssa Gale, Director of the program. The girls shared how the program has impacted them spending the past six weeks in a safe space with girls who share common identities with them, and where adults are genuinely invested in their wellbeing and expressed that care through affirmation, kindness, and encouragement. 

Our GiddyUP riders had quite the month as well! They participated and were showcased in the Pitch Paddock, hosted at the Morton Museum in Collierville, Tennessee. The top 8 ranked riders presented their pitches with poise and grace. It is amazing to see the students excel not only in the saddle, but also in their scholarly and societal pursuits. The Pitch Paddock was a stunning example of what life with horses brings to a community, even when away from them. The judges panel consisted of educators, like Ms. Sharon Gray, alongside entrepreneurs and equestrians who all took their jobs very seriously! The rubric for scoring included sections for overall delivery & coherence, impact on the equestrian & mainstream economic ecosystem, disruption factor, and efficacy of visual advertising. This meant a lot of work for our students, but they were absolutely up for the challenge! We are so incredibly proud of the student riders for their pitches, and so grateful to the larger GiddyUP family and community who helped put this all together. What a wonderful success!

Our BOLD Scholars at Middlebury College are finishing up their various summer internships and work experiences, and are looking forward to going back to school! One BOLD Leadership Scholar, Rodaba, describes her summer internship in New York City. “This summer, I was presented with a unique opportunity to intern at a private architecture firm, which surprisingly aligns with my academic pursuits and contributes significantly to my understanding of global security dynamics. The architecture internship at Joshua Zinder Architecture + Design (JZA+D), a renowned firm known for its innovative approaches to sustainable urban development, offers me a platform to explore the intersection of architecture, urban planning, and global security. My position at JZAD will provide me the opportunity to delve into the profound influence of cultural contexts on architectural design.” 

Another BOLD Scholar, from the University of Connecticut, Kaitlynn, has been successfully collecting interviews with local mental healthcare advocates for her leadership project on culturally engaged mental healthcare access. She’s been happily surprised with the amount of success she has had in finding participants for her project and is energized to put her creative project together. We are so happy to hear how the young women have spent their summer doing various activities they feel passionately about! 

At the Brown Institute for Media Innovation, Columbia held the final pitch session for its third annual Venture Challenge winners. Four teams presented their projects and one won a Magic Grant – congrats to In Old News! It is the culmination of 10 weeks of work in their Summer Entrepreneurship Program – Justin Hendrix led the teams through the basics, from business models to user-centered design. When asked about this year’s cohort, Eric Chen wrote “This year’s group has a strong focus on journalism and is passionately exploring solutions to challenges the field has been grappling with. In the face of all the uncertainty surrounding journalism, the dedication of the people in this program to advancing the field gives me hope for the future.” 

There is also an update on a Brown Institute Magic Grant that was received last year, from the project California Floods: A Living Archive. “We are preparing for the launch of our immersive site about the stories of flooding around Pajaro Valley in California. We have received incredible support from the whole team at Brown, including Eric Chen an Impact Fellow at Columbia. The site features interviews with five members of the Pajaro Valley  community as well as a myriad of contemporary and historical archives, scientific studies, and interactive spatial representations that all work together to bring a complete picture as to why the floods of March 2023 occurred. We’re excited to share our work with the world and are currently building out the site and looking at how to get the word out about the project.” 

Such amazing work is being done by amazing people, we can’t wait to hear more updates!