2023-2024 Fellowship Projects

Sponsor: Dr. Laura Azzarito

Department: Interdisciplinary Studies in Education

Fellowship Site: MS 371 (SEED Harlem)

Number of Fellows: 1

Project Description: Planting Seeds seeks support for the implementation of embodied, social-justice-oriented, and creative pedagogies with students at a middle school in Harlem for sustainability transformation. Supported by the Visual Research Center for Education, Art, & Social Change (VRC) at TC, the proposed Planting Seeds project aims to educate and empower Harlem middle schoolers by fusing art, science, and movement in creative and collaborative ways. A school in the context of Harlem near a park offers an ideal nature-based pedagogical space for students to engage with nature, movement, hands-on learning activities, and walks as well as to self-reflect, express, and represent their embodied practices with creativity for sustainability transformations. In particular, Planting Seeds combines embodied, critical, and arts-based pedagogies along with “moving to think about” sustainability transformation, encouraging students to reflect on in-nature practices (e.g., walking, planting, touching, gardening, interacting with nature, feeling, problem solving through hands-on science activities, photographing, creating personal diaries, imagining, engaging in mapping practices, and listening to nature) while critically and artistically engaging with the material and spatial entanglement of their bodies with the landscape of their own school community.

While critical explorations of their embodied practices strengthen Harlem middle schoolers’ relationships with nature, helping them develop a commitment to sustainability transformation, art-based practices offer a creative means for opening up a pedagogical space for social imagination, releasing the transformative potential of the arts. Embodied, reflective, and creative practices with and for middle schoolers aim to create a position of agency for young people to become “active bodies” for social change; to connect the embodied self to their own community environment with mindful movement, developing a more complex and intimate relationship with their school community; to reflect, express, and represent their embodied knowledge with creativity; and to become “activists” as well as “artists,” learning how to exhibit their embodied knowledge in their own cultural terms and from their own vantage point at arts-based exhibitions in the Harlem community.

By walking, moving, exploring, picturing, envisioning, and “planting” throughout their school community, middle schoolers become attuned to different spaces and places, plants, surfaces, materials, and soils, which in turn nurtures how young people learn, become in society, and make sense of their own place for sustainability transformation.

Fellows will provide Harlem middle schoolers opportunities for embodied, reflective, and creative practices with a focus on sustainability transformation, create learning opportunities for students to fuse science, art, education, and movement and build new interdisciplinary knowledge for sustainability transformation. They will offer practices for students to become “active bodies” through a wide range of outdoor activities with an emphasis on caring for their bodies and positive embodiment and help students connect their embodied selves to their own community environment with mindful movement, meaningful relationships with the environment, and creative self-expression. Fellows will encourage middle schoolers to become attuned to different spaces and places in their own community for sustainability transformation, offer students opportunities to learn and practice photography with creativity and position young people as “artists,” releasing their imaginations about sustainability transformation in their cultural terms at arts-based exhibitions while empowering young people to become active agents and/or “social justice activists” in their own community for sustainability transformation.

Skills Sought: Zankel Fellows should teach embodied knowledge from an interdisciplinary perspective in Middle School (e.g., science, movement, arts-based practices, visual literacy, crafting personal diaries), create interdisciplinary lesson plans and/or an after-school club entitled “Planting Seeds” with a focus on embodied learning, movement, and arts-based inquiry. Zankel Fellows should have teaching experience with young people and have an interest in outdoor activities like walking, playful movement, and “moving to think about”. They should be interested in sustainability activities including gardening, seeding, taking care of the environment, have a commitment to sustainability transformation and value creativity and imagination in education. Zankel Fellows should know how to use Adobe Photoshop as well as a digital photography camera.

Sponsor: Dr. Meredith Beckford-Smart

Department: The Edmund W. Gordon Institute for Minority and Urban Education

Fellowship site: REACH partnership schools (PS 154, PS 36, FDA II, High School for Law, Advocacy and Community Justice)

Number of fellows: 9

Project description: REACH’s Expanded Learning Opportunity initiatives seeks to provide students with developmentally appropriate and diverse enrichment activities that will enhance their overall school experience. Our expanded learning opportunities are anchored in project based initiatives that affirm the culture and identities of NYC elementary and secondary students and Zankel Fellows. Zankel Fellows will support our goal to enrich the academic, social, and physical development of young people by exposing NYC students to new and complementary activities. Activities will be centered around literacy and/or STEAM that develop critical thinking and problem solving skills.

The 2022-2023 school year activities facilitated by Fellows were Environmental Science/Green Teams (STEM), Spelling Bee, Science/Math Competition, Book Clubs, Yoga, Success Mentoring, Music Production, Visual Arts and tutoring which incorporated social emotional learning, cultural awareness, and physical wellness. We intend to provide similar offerings during the next school year. Programming will take place as classroom push ins, lunchtime and afterschool clubs. Each Zankel Fellow will spend a minimum of five to seven hours per week working directly with students. Fellows can select ELO options that align with their area of expertise and/or interest. Spelling Bees, STEM Competitions, Math Fairs, Youth Summits and showcases will take place to celebrate and share student achievements with families and community members.

In addition to Expanded Learning, REACH supports each partner school with Success Mentoring, which is an intervention to support chronically absent students. Mentoring chronically absent students can help address challenges that prevent students from attending school. The goals of Success Mentoring is to promote “Every Student, Every Day”, build relationships, enrich the school experience, celebrate small successes, and increase the overall attendance rate. For the 2023-2024 school year, Zankel Fellows will also support our Success Mentoring program for at least one hour per week. Fellows will be matched with five to six targeted students, who have an attendance rate between 85% - 90%. The ideal attendance rate is above 95%. Once a week, each fellow will facilitate a small group session with their targeted students to build community. Mentoring will take place during lunch periods throughout the 2023-2024 school year.

Our REACH Instructional Specialist will provide support to fellows by providing on-going professional development, active coaching, on-site observations, and mentoring to build the capacity of fellows. The objective is to support fellows with developing and implementing expanded learning activity plans across several thematic areas that are aligned to the Next Generation Learning Standards and incorporate a variety of assessments to track progress of student learning. The Instructional Specialist will work closely with fellows to support their professional growth as educators.

Skills sought: Zankel Fellows should express a passion for working with youth from marginalized communities, ability to promote an inclusive, welcoming, and respectful environment that embraces diversity, ability to foster academic and non-academic skills and broaden student horizons, and strong written and verbal communication skills.

Sponsor: Dr. Limarys Caraballo

Department: Arts & Humanities; Curriculum & Teaching

Fellowship Site: CUNY College Now Program (fall) and The Edmund W. Gordon Institute for Urban and Minority Education (spring)

Number of Fellows: 2

Project Description: The "Students and Teachers as Critical Researchers" project is part of a broader qualitative study that has implications for theory and practice in curriculum, pedagogy, and teacher education that honors minoritized urban students’ multiple identities and literacies while expanding notions of what counts as academic achievement, college readiness, and civic engagement. The project engages high school youth via an afterschool seminar on critical social research methods. In this program, diverse groups of students from public schools throughout NYC will improve their critical literacy skills while learning critical social theory and qualitative research methods as they design and implement their own projects. The Zankel Fellows will also learn about youth participatory action research methods, co-plan, and co-implement lessons and activities in the after-school seminar, help students with their projects, comment on students' work, collect data, transcribe interviews and class audio recordings, take field notes, and analyze data.

While working together on various research projects, the high school students and Fellows, along with the faculty supervisor (Dr. Limarys Caraballo) and program coordinator (Ms. Mijin Yeom, TC Alum), will examine how students can deepen their engagements with critical college-going literacies as they learn about their communities engaging in participatory action research. Fellows will gain educational experience in urban learning settings, both in more traditional classrooms as in the fall seminar and in an afterschool context at IUME. They will also learn about and practice conducting research for social action. There will be ample opportunities for interested students to engage in further research and publication beyond their Fellowship term.

Skills Sought: Because the Fellows would be working with youth as well as other adult allies, it is important that they be interested in and engaged with youth; have prior experience working with adolescents, be interested in literacies, and be familiar with popular youth culture as well as some aspects of multiple literacies or multimodality (such as interest in poetry, digital media, the arts, etc.). Some teaching experience would be ideal but not required.

Sponsor: Dr. Cristina Compton

Department: CPET (Center for the Professional Education of Teachers)

Fellowship Site: Our projects take place primarily in K-12, NYC public schools throughout the City. Our partnership sites for next year include Morris Academy for Collaborative Studies, Westchester Square Academy, Bronx High School of Business, Fordham Leadership Academy, Global Learning Collaborative, Brownsville Academy High School, and East River Academy. 

Number of Fellows: 5

Project Description: Through its project-based learning initiatives, (SPI and Literacy Unbound), CPET has been inspiring students and their teachers to take their learning beyond the classroom walls and into the real world. By utilizing specialized, project-based learning pedagogies, we partner with public, charter, and alternative learning settings across New York City, to co-design dynamic projects for students to develop their reading, writing, performance, and communication skills. For example, the Student Press Initiative develops customized writing projects that culminate in student-authored publications. With over 500 student-authored books published in the past 15 years, Zankel Fellows have opportunities to work directly with students and teachers as they move through the 5 phases of these innovative projects. Additionally, the Literacy Unbound Initiative supports students and teachers in deepening their reading experience through arts-based pedagogies that culminate in student and teacher performances. 

Throughout our project-based learning initiatives, we foster students’ curiosity of spirit, hone their inquiry skills, and empower students to speak out on important issues in their lives, regardless of their age. 

CPET Zankel Fellows will have the opportunity to develop highly valuable skills related to K-12 teaching, project-based learning, professional development, and coaching skills. Fellows will have opportunities to apprentice, practice, and eventually take the lead in their own project sites, working directly with students and teachers to design, implement and bring students’ work to life through print publications and multi-modal performances. Zankel Fellows are fully integrated into the CPET community.  They will have full access to our customized professional learning experiences and will cultivate methods for teaching students and adults through project-based learning. Through monthly meetings, 1:1 support sessions with the Senior CPET Coaches, and a series of SPI and Lit Unbound Intensives, Zankel Fellows receive robust support for their fellowship projects. Additionally, CPET Zankel Fellows have an opportunity to develop their own Center Project based on the intersection of their interests, gifts, talents, and CPET’s central mission. CPET Zankel Fellows deepen their knowledge and skills through mid-year and an end of year Zankel Showcases where they have opportunities to go public with their own projects.

Skills Sought: We are seeking candidates who demonstrate strong organizational, interpersonal, and communication skills who are invested in supporting students and teachers in project-based learning. Fellows who enjoy working collaboratively with young people and adults, are self-motivated, and can chart their own course of action will excel in this fellowship. Minimum 2 years of K-12 teaching experience. They must have a desire to support student learning through project-based learning in collaboration with classroom teachers. We’re working with real students in real classrooms, so strong organizational, interpersonal, and communication skills are essential!  Experience with Microsoft Office, Google Apps, and knowledge of multimedia platforms will ensure the students’ work has a smooth transition from the classroom to the printing press or performance. Optimal candidates will have prior knowledge of teaching reading, writing, and/or performance.

Sponsor: Dr. Regina Cortina

Department: International & Transcultural Studies

Fellowship Site: ELLIS Prep

Number of Fellows: 2

Project Description: The project’s site is the ELLIS Prep, a high school within the Internationals Network for Public Schools, which serves newcomers to the U.S. who have arrived in the country within four years prior to enrollment. The majority of students are emergent bilinguals (ELLs) who represent diverse ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds, having arrived from French, Spanish, and Creole-speaking countries of the Caribbean, Central and South America, as well as from West Africa, Pakistan, China, Uzbekistan, Tibet, and Yemen among other regions. At IHSPH, roughly 38% of students are classified as Hispanic, 30% Black, 19% Asian, and 13% White, and the majority qualify for free lunch. This school represents a diverse learning environment where opportunities to engage in intercultural and plurilingual teaching and learning strategies abound. 

Diversity is especially salient at ELLIS Prep, whose student body presents challenging yet unique opportunities for educators seeking to coach students to academic success in heterogeneous classrooms. Students arrive with funds of knowledge from their home countries, and yet, schools serving these students often lack the administrative, financial, and human resources to develop and implement the linguistically and culturally relevant pedagogical supports whose cognitive, socio-emotional, and academic benefits for emergent bilinguals have been proven. Teachers must help immigrant and ELL students overcome the challenges of interrupted formal education and low literacy skills in their home languages, which make acculturation into academic English and a college-going environment extremely challenging.

While teachers and staff at ELLIS Prep specialize in ESL and use pedagogical techniques that leverage the foundational and mother tongue literacy skills of youth, they still struggle with accountability pressures and lack of time and resources. Teachers must equip students both to pass Regents exams and to prepare subject-specific academic portfolios as a measure of proficiency and college readiness, all within four years. Furthermore, in the current political climate, concerns about the legal status of immigrant students and their family members require educators to be aware of and manage complex socio-cultural dynamics in their classrooms. ELLIS Prep thus offers a promising yet realistic example of what it takes to educate an extremely diverse classroom of students in a culturally relevant manner while still meeting accountability and college-readiness standards. 

Skills Sought: Written and spoken fluency in a language other than English preferred, (preferably Spanish, French, or Arabic), Prior experience teaching, tutoring, and facilitating educational programs and/or working in public schools, especially with adolescents or young adults, Knowledge and/or experience in bi/multilingual education and of culturally relevant curricula/pedagogy; intercultural communication skills and empathy, Ability to build and maintain relationships with a variety of stakeholders, Highly collaborative and proactive; strong outreach and interpersonal skills, commitment to social justice, and commitment to advancing the field of international educational development.

Sponsor: Dr. Ansley Erickson

Department: Arts & Humanities | Education Policy & Social Analysis

Fellowship Site: Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Central Park East High School, Columbia Secondary School

Number of Fellows: 6

Project Description: Youth Historians in Harlem is one aspect of the Harlem Education History Project, a project of the Center on History and Education and the Institute for Urban and Minority Education. Youth Historians has been working since 2012 in a variety of capacities at multiple school sites in Harlem: Frederick Douglass Academy 2, Wadleigh Secondary School, and Central Park East High School. These schools serve students from the immediate Harlem community and from other parts of New York City.

The project engages high-school-aged youth in learning about the history of their local community. Over the life of the program, we have worked in small-group, after-school settings, in summer institutes, and in school-day co-teaching partnerships. In the 2019-20 year, and continuing through the 2021-22 year, the project has created a semester-long course to meet the existing NYS requirement for civics/”Participation in Government” through an intensive focus on the history of education and Black and Latinx educational activism in Harlem. In addition to continuing this work, we expanded to Central Park East HS this year, where fellows are collaborating and co-teaching a social justice inquiry unit group on the history of educational activism.

Zankel Fellows on the project have come from programs in History and Education, Social Studies Education, Politics and Education, and Anthropology and Education. For Fellows who are future historians, the program offers a unique perspective on historical research in more public and participatory forms. For Fellows who are future teachers or teacher educators, the program offers experience in engaging students in local historical research and in considering the implications of local history and community history for future work as a teacher.

Fellows participate in all aspects of the project, including at least 6 hours per week of direct class time on school sites, planning meetings with partner teachers and fellows at the same site, cross-site Youth Historians team meetings and learning sessions, and individual research, planning, and curriculum development work. 

Skills Sought: Fellows will need to have skills in classroom leadership, individual and small-group work with students, and the ability to work collaboratively with teaching partners to design a history-focused curriculum. The program depends upon fellows either already possessing, or being willing to gain, knowledge of the history of Harlem and its educational history.

Sponsor: Dr. David Hansen

Department: Arts & Humanities | Philosophy and Education

Fellowship Site: City-As-School High School (M560)

Number of Fellows: 1

Project Description: The Zankel Fellow will work with students undertaking internships that are a regular part of this school’s curriculum. They will focus on supporting students' communicative skills, especially their ability to engage in productive dialogue with both adults and fellow students. The fellow will deploy approaches developed in our Philosophy and Education program towards the arts of listening, the arts of explanation, the arts of questioning, and the associated arts of patience and persistence.

The fellow will undertake this pedagogy on site in the school in a schedule to be worked out with cooperating teachers. However, the fellow will also accompany students on a regular basis to their internship sites. There, the fellow will function as a supportive presence as the student engages in their internship work. After each accompaniment, the fellow will debrief with individual students about how they felt their work went that day, with an eye on the dynamics of communication and expressivity.

Skills Sought: The fellow must have outstanding communication skills and will have both studied and enacted approaches to dialogical learning in educational settings.

Sponsor: Dr. Maria Hartman

Department: Health & Behavior Studies

Fellowship Site: NYCDOE Schools - PS 333 (Bronx), Chelsea Prep (NYC)

Number of Fellows: 2

Project Description: The National Institute on Deafness and Communication Disorders (NIDCD) estimates that 1-3 per 1000 babies born in the United States have some degree of hearing loss, making it the most common disabling condition identified at birth (2014). While universal newborn hearing screening, early intervention, and advances in hearing technology have significantly improved outcomes for this population, students with hearing loss still lag behind their hearing peers in language development and overall academic achievement (Cole & Flexer, 2007). There are many ways for children with hearing loss to communicate. Currently, over eighty-five percent of parents of children with hearing loss elect a listening and spoken language outcome, which includes the use of hearing technology (hearing aids and/or cochlear implants) and auditory verbal therapy rehabilitation (Alberg, Wilson, & Roush, 2006). The remainder of these children use American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate.

Hearing loss disproportionately affects children from minority backgrounds (Lee et al., 1998), and children who are Caucasian and of higher socioeconomic status are more likely than their poor or minority peers to receive cochlear implants and appropriate rehabilitation (Geers & Brenner, 2003).

The project’s site will be 2 Hearing Education Services classrooms for children with hearing loss (one in Manhattan and one in the Bronx). Hearing Education Services (HES) is a District 75 Program within the New York City Department of Education that coordinates services are for over 2,800 students who are deaf or hard of hearing. Within these classrooms, the majority of students represent diverse ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds. 

The Zankel Fellows assigned to this project will work within the classroom as a tutor/mentor to individual students, who are in need of support in language/literacy skills. In addition to supporting the classroom teacher during the school day and working closely with students individually, the Fellow will collaborate with the children’s teachers, speech-language therapists, and audiologist in order to discuss and incorporate teaching strategies that support deaf children using either Spoken English or American Sign Language. The intervention will be centered on the use of specific children’s literature to support enthusiasm for reading and exposure to texts that are representative of the children’s cultural background. Texts with characters with hearing loss will also be highlighted to encourage positive self-identity and self-advocacy.

Skills Sought: If the children in the program use sign language to communicate it would be best for the Fellow to have some prior knowledge of ASL.  For all the children (listening and spoken language users or signers) it would be terrific if the Fellow had some prior training in literacy development or was enrolled/planning to enroll in a literacy course.

Sponsor: Ms. Amy Hawley Alvarez & Ms. Dorothy Smith

Department: School & Community Partnerships

Fellowship site: Teachers College Community School

Number of fellows: 5

Project Description: Each year, TC provides enriched learning experiences for TCCS students in every grade through the Zankel Fellowship program. Fellows at TCCS provide school-day support as either the main teacher in the classroom (all music classes); pull-out one-on-one interventions (literacy with 1st and 2nd graders); or as push-in supports to collaborate and teach with a DOE teacher or to work with students during class time. All fellows work a minimum of 5-8 hours directly teaching TCCS students and 2-5 hours in planning and curriculum development.

Skills sought: For the 2023-2024 school year, we are seeking: 1) At least 3 students who have experience working one-on-one with elementary students, 1st-2nd grades specifically, in literacy. 2) At least 3-4 students who have taught music to PreK-8 students (general music, violin instruction, choir, and digital music) and/or are studying music education at TC. 3) 1-2 students who have experience in teaching math to work as push-in support for middle school math classes. 4) 1-2 students who have experience in teaching subjects such as middle school Spanish and Science. Note that the needs listed above are subject to change depending on how the needs of TCCS change by the end of the school year, but in general, the above reflects the skills we are looking for in fellows.

Sponsor: Dr. Laudan Jahromi 

Department: Health & Behavior Studies

Fellowship Site: The project site is the Association to Benefit Children (ABC) Graham School at Echo Park in East Harlem. The project address is 1841 Park Avenue, NY, NY 10035. Association to Benefit Children (ABC) is a non-profit, community-based program that aims to strengthen family wellbeing and protect some of New York City’s most vulnerable youth, including those affected by poverty, homelessness, and abuse and neglect. The mission of ABC is very much in line with that of Teachers College and the Zankel Fellowship.  The Graham School at Echo Park is an early childhood and inclusive education program in East Harlem serving children with and without special needs. In addition, Echo Park has a comprehensive service model, which includes a free, therapeutic after-school program for youth. 

Number of Fellows: 1

Project Description: The ABC Graham School at Echo Park is an early childhood and inclusive education program in East Harlem serving children with and without special needs with complex support needs.  In addition to the early-intervention/pre-kindergarten program, ABC’s after-school program takes place daily from 2:30 to 6 pm at the Graham School campus in East Harlem and is designed for youth ages 5 to 21. Both the early childhood and after-school programs are critical resources for families in the school’s immediate community.   

Fellows are needed in the early childhood setting to support youth in these settings to provide individualized academic support, services, or group activities with youth. Fellows assigned to the after-school setting are needed to support the academic and social-emotional development of attendees through tutoring, homework help, and experiential learning activities. Given the complex needs of youth with disabilities in the after-school program, fellows are urgently needed to assist the volunteer staff in supporting the needs of individuals with special needs.

The ABC after school program would significantly benefit from Zankel fellows with special education expertise who can work directly with youth in this program. There are several components to this fellowship: 

First, fellows will work directly with childhood in the early-childhood program or after-school program setting providing academic instruction/tutoring.  With a growing number of children diagnosed with disabilities attending both programs, it is important to have fellows who are trained to work specifically with students with complex needs.  The fellow assigned to work in the pre-k program will develop and implement a positive, structured, consistent, and developmentally-appropriate set of activities to support children’s early language/communication skills, literacy, numeracy development.  In the after-school setting, fellows will support youth with a wide range of academic tasks, including providing direct academic instruction to help students complete homework and long-term assignments, and assisting students to develop a deeper understanding of academic subjects through the use of questioning, analyzing texts, incorporating background knowledge, and making connections.  Activities in the after-school environment will be designed so that all students are included and supported. Literacy support will be provided for those students with reading and writing challenges. Support will also include assistance with aspects of academic success related to organizing daily assignments, projects, and planning calendars. Finally, fellows will support youths’ social-emotional needs by working with students to develop strategies to support their sensory needs, providing positive behavior supports to decrease challenging behaviors, and supporting students in developing coping strategies when faced with frustration or interpersonal challenges. Thus, the goal of this project is not simply to get homework completed but to help the student develop academic skills while at the same time modeling (for the after-school team) principles of Universal Design for Learning and differentiation to further support all learners within the program.

Second, as part of their direct work with youth in the after-school program, the fellows will continue to develop a Youth Leadership Council program using a Community Based Participatory framework to facilitate the empowerment of youth in the development of meaningful experiential learning activities of their choosing that would promote positive social skills, leadership skills, and research/critical thinking skills. Youth-serving organizations often make decisions about programming and activities with little youth input.  The goal of this aspect of the program is to engage youth with their after-school community, get them involved with research and problem solving, and build youth capacity and ownership in the creation of activities that are meaningful to them. 

Finally, based on their knowledge and skills in the areas of child development and special education, the fellows will be involved in providing professional development workshops and training to support after-school staff in the use of effective strategies when working with youth with special needs, develop materials, and model strategies that can inform the staff about the core challenges of ASD and other developmental differences.

Skills Sought: Fellows will need a background in special education and first-hand experience working with youth with complex support needs. As there are increasing numbers of students with special needs, including Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), being served by these programs, fellows should have experience working with these student populations in particular. Moreover, fellows should have a strong interest in working with culturally diverse children and their families.

Sponsor: Dr. Richard Jochum 

Department: Arts & Humanities

Fellowship Site: Teachers College Community School  

Number of Fellows: 2

Project description: The proposed project will fund three STEAM fellows to develop and implement an after-school program in technology-infused art education in partnership with TC's Community School (TCCS). The afterschool program will allow kids to engage in collaborative making projects including but not limited to digital storytelling (stop-motion animation, videography), digital fabrication (3D modeling and printing), physical computing (with Makey-Makeys, electronic circuits, and crafts material), and creative coding (with building blocks such as Scratch). The program will provide pupils with opportunities to personalize and integrate what they have learned in their day-to-day classrooms and engage in additional hands-on explorations, collaboration, creative inquiry, and play. It will enable them to approach technologies as creators, not consumers while activating rich connections between art, technology, youth culture, and education. If life under the pandemic allows, we would like to facilitate part of the program in our Thingspace.

Skills Sought: The students are expected either to have completed the first year of the Creative Technologies curriculum, which will teach them basic skills in digital storytelling, creative coding, physical computing, and digital fabrication, or have a significant amount of teaching experience with creative technologies. They have to be excellent communicators, reflective practitioners and show deep care for communities, students, and learning.

Sponsor: Dr. Pamela Koch 

Department: Health & Behavior Studies

Fellowship Site: MS 371 School of Earth, Exploration, and Discovery, or SEED: Harlem, a NYC Department of Education middle school opened in Fall 2020 in Harlem Community School District 5 (at 425 W. 130th Street), and partnership urban farm/garden sites. This School was started by TC alumnus Meredith Hill.

Number of Fellows: 2

Project Description: MS 371 SEED: Harlem is a middle school in its second year focused on hands-on project-based learning experiences, with a critical focus on “Sustainable Earth” and “Community Justice” projects that have a specific eye toward food systems, nutrition, and garden-based education.  Zankel Fellows support the development of this programming as “Garden Fellows” and “Food and Nutrition Fellows” working directly with students and teachers.

The school partners with local food and garden non-profit organizations to launch the curriculum and wellness plans developed by the design team.  The Zankel fellows provide a critical support system for environmental justice and food and nutrition-related work, primarily through directly working with MS 371 students. 

Two Garden Fellows specifically support weekly garden-based clubs and workshops, both onsite to build a school garden at MS 371 and at partner organizations, including local youth gardens and Earth Matter’s farm and compost learning center on Governors Island. Two Food and Nutrition Fellows work with teachers and students on-site at the school in food- and nutrition-based lessons and clubs, as well as in supporting the development of positive breakfast and lunch practices. All fellows collaborate with teachers and utilize curricular resources including those developed by the MS 371 Design Team and those published by the Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education & Policy. 

The Garden Fellows spend 2-4 days per week (for a total of 7-9 hours) with groups of students and teachers on-site developing the school garden or at Earth Matter and other urban farms, and the additional 1-3 hours working with students and teachers to reflect on these experiences and prepare for future experiences.  Garden Fellows will be trained on-site at Earth Matter and at the school and will be responsible for leading students in completing garden-based tasks and supporting teachers in working with small groups of students both during these projects and in preparation and reflection stages. 

The Food and Nutrition Fellows work onsite 3-4 days per week (2-4 hours per day, depending on the stage of the project) supporting the projects involving food and nutrition.  These include nutrition-based lessons that align to curricular standards that are embedded in PE classes, literacy, math, science, social studies, or lunch experiences. Food and Nutrition Fellows may also spend time prepping projects, working with small groups of students in this preparation phase as often as possible so students can be involved in the entire process. In addition, the Food and Nutrition Fellows will support students in some of the school’s positive breakfast and lunch culture programming, such as family-style meals and garden-to-cafe menu options.  

Both Garden Fellows and Food and Nutrition Fellows will work alongside certified Department of Education Teachers in all student-facing endeavors.  These positions will enable the school to launch and support development of innovative, progressive curricular approaches that we hope will create a model to share with other schools.  If we are not granted four Zankel Fellows, we will adjust the model for support as we did this year (i.e. one Garden Fellow and one Food and Nutrition Fellow shared across grades, or a scaled-down model with one fellow’s support in aspects of both capacities at each grade level).  These Zankel Fellows will provide much-needed support as MS 371 expands in its third year.

Skills Sought: A desire and passion to work with middle school students and to care about food justice, earth justice as well as increasing equity and decreasing health disparities. Experience farming, gardening, food systems, and nutrition is a plus.

Sponsor: Dr. Megan Laverty 

Department: Arts & Humanities

Fellowship Site: The Bronx High School for Law and Community Service

Number of Fellows: 1

Project Description: The Fellow’s responsibilities will be to assist a teacher of English at the Bronx High School for Law and Community Service by implementing some pedagogical practices intended to support their approach to preparing students to sit the New York Regents Examination. These pedagogical practices will reinforce what the students learn in writing by connecting them to the procedures of disciplined and communal philosophical inquiry.

Skills Sought: The Zankel Fellow will have a background in teaching high school English and be familiar with philosophy and the principles of communal philosophical inquiry.

Sponsor: Dr. Patricia Martínez-Álvarez

Department: Arts & Humanities 

Fellowship Site: Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School (WHEELS) and Dos Puentes Elementary School (M103)

Number of Fellows: 6 bilingual (Spanish and English) fellows

Project Description: The VWR invites teacher candidates who are interested in bilingual education and in working with children with a disability to join this learning experience. The 10 hours of weekly work will divide as follows: 5 hours of VWR afterschool program direct service including working with family members once a month, 1 hour reflective meeting after the first session of two each week at the school with in-service teachers and teacher candidates, and one 2 hour planning meeting with professors and the teacher candidates from the program in BBE, 2 hours will be dedicated to individual reflection, planning, and data transcription and analysis.

Fellows who are selected for the VWR Zankel project will be placed at WHEELS or Dos Puentes, bilingual schools with integrated co-teaching classrooms (ICT) where children with and without a disability are learning in two languages. Integrated co-teaching classrooms have a high need for varied ways of approaching teaching and learning to read and for innovation. For working in the afterschool program, VWR will provide children with iPads and cameras (from prior projects) with which the students will generate photographs and videos, and create other multimodal compositions described as cultural tools.

Participating children will use the technology to explore their communities and bilingual/bicultural knowledge and make sense of and produce multimodal and digital texts (understood from an expansive perspective). An interdisciplinary exploration integrating multimodality in literacy, technology, and art will be facilitated to learn about how children can expand what counts as knowledge and learning as they work with Zankel fellows, in-service teachers, and professors from the program in BBE.

In the program in BBE, as well as other programs at Teachers College, teacher candidates are required to complete field hours during their first year, but they do not typically start their student teaching placements until their second year of studies. Teachers and professors are seeking opportunities for clinical experiences for candidates to practice teaching during their first year. In-service teachers who teach in bilingual classrooms with children with and without a disability are also in need of professional development connected to their practice. Additionally, the program will promote a community of learners by including teacher candidates from the first and second years of their teacher preparation program working together.

Skills Sought: To successfully participate in the VWR project, the fellows will need several skills: Bilingual in Spanish and English, interest in working with bilingual children with a disability and with their families, and knowledge of foundational theories in bilingual/bicultural education and inclusive education. Other preferred skills include familiarity with the use of instructional technologies and applications such as Note Taking, Comic Life, photographs and video editing (preferable), and some formal or informal teaching experience.

Sponsor: Dr. Susan Masullo

Department: Health & Behavior Studies

Fellowship Site: READ 718: https://www.read718.org/

Number of Fellows: 2

Project Description: The Fellows would be responsible for: receiving training from the site in evidenced-based methods (e.g., Orton-Gillingham-based instruction) for addressing problems in areas that many struggling readers find difficult; delivering remedial intervention for 3 hours a day, twice per week after school.  The remedial support would be a small group (3 students) and/or a one-on-one basis; agreeing to work under the supervision of the site director, a trained Reading Specialist.

Skills Sought: The Fellows must be committed to working with special readers and writers and inner-city youth, and want to learn about evidenced-based strategies and programs in order to develop some basic proficiency to implement them with this population in a professional manner. Prior experience teaching and/or tutoring children would add to the applicant’s profile.

Sponsor: Dr. Sonali Rajan

Department: Health & Behavior Studies

Fellowship Site: The Zankel Fellow will be engaged in work in at least 2 public elementary or middle schools in NYC.

Number of Fellows: 1

Project Description: The purpose of this project would be for our Zankel Fellow to directly implement and support an evidence-based health education and life skills after-school program, Girls on the Run, in three Title I public schools in New York City during the 2023 – 2024 academic year. This project would take place in conjunction with the support of the staff of the non-profit organization Girls on the Run: NYC. Each Girls on the Run season is 10 weeks in length and the curricula are implemented twice a year (for a total of 20 weeks of direct service to youth during the 2023-2024 AY). Currently the program takes place in approximately 80 elementary and middle schools in New York City. It should be noted that Girls on the Run as an organization has served over 2 million girls thus far across the United States.

The program addresses a range of critical social emotional learning skills (managing emotions, cultivating empathy, thoughtfully making decisions, addressing impulsivity) via a creative curriculum that fosters an affinity for physical activity and also discusses key health topics (including nutrition, bullying, and substance use/misuse). More details on the Girls on the Run program content and learning objectives can be found here: https://www.gotrnyc.org/programs.

The program is implemented directly in each school, twice a week, by volunteer coaches who are trained at the beginning of the school year by the Girls on the Run staff (coach training length is 5-6 hours and our Zankel Fellow would be expected to attend this training). Our Zankel Fellow would directly implement the Girls on the Run program in one of our highest need sites (Site A) twice a week during the fall 2023 and spring 2024 seasons.

Our Zankel Fellow would then spend an additional 4 hours per week during the 2023 – 2024 AY providing critical programmatic support to two other Title I public schools (Sites B and C) who are also implementing Girls on the Run. Specifically, this portion of the fellowship would involve our Zankel Fellow assessing program implementation and fidelity (via measurement tools developed by Dr. Rajan in conjunction with the Executive Director of Girls on the Run, Allison Hauser), providing instructional support and assistance to the team of coaches at Sites B and C, and working with the coaches and Girls on the Run staff to use these data to improve program fidelity and ultimately maximize the effectiveness of this program.

Each Girls on the Run season concludes with a community-wide 5K running event, that celebrates the 700 girls each season (1400 total across the academic year) across the NYC public school system who participate in Girls on the Run each season. Our Zankel Fellow would be a part of this event in both the fall and spring.

Skills Sought: A high-energy, passionate, and reliable Fellow, dedicated to fostering the well-being of young girls.

Sponsor: Dr. Carolyn Riehl

Department: Education Policy & Social Analysis; Sociology & Education and Education Policy

Fellowship Site:  Parkside School (P.S. 130)

Number of Fellows: 1

Project Description: With funding from the Spencer Foundation several years ago, Dr. Riehl studied teachers’ use of student data for instructional planning in four Title I elementary schools in New York City. The research has focused on whether and how teachers gather and use different types of information about their students as they make decisions about their teaching and attempt to respond to student learning needs. Graduate student researchers and Dr. Riehl engaged in sustained fieldwork that included observation of schoolwide planning meetings, grade level teacher meetings, and classroom instruction, along with interviews of teachers, instructional coaches, and school administrators. We worked with two grade levels in each school, usually second grade and fourth grade.

The support will focus exclusively on mathematics. For part of each day, the Fellow will assist small groups or individual students with the material being taught, as designated by the teacher, in their classrooms. During pull-out periods, the Fellow will tutor students through math games or directed practice. Tutoring will focus on math fundamentals such as multiplication tables and the steps of multi-digit division.

Skills Sought: The Fellow should have the ability to work comfortably with elementary school children with an understanding of fundamental math skills for young students. They should be reliable and willing to commute to the school in Brooklyn, approximately a one hour commute from TC.

Sponsor: Dr. Ann Rivet

Department: Math, Science, and Technology 

Fellowship Site: Open to all students in NYC public schools

Number of Fellows: 2

Project Description: Climate change is the most serious threat facing our planet today. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which includes more than 1,300 scientists from the United States and other countries, estimates that human activities have caused approximately 1.0°C of global warming above preindustrial levels. If conditions remain the same, global warming is likely to reach 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052. TC research shows that the majority of Americans support teaching climate change/global warming in K-12 schools (Pizmony-Levy & Pallas, 2019). Other reports, however, suggest that most teachers aren't actually talking about climate change in their classrooms; and fewer than half of parents have discussed the issue with their children (NPR/Ipsos polls, 2019). The emergence of Fridays for the Futures, an international movement of school students who take time off from class on Fridays to participate in demonstrations to demand action to address climate change, is a clear signal that youth are concerned and mobilized. In response to these developments, the Center for Sustainable Futures is launching a new project titled Climate Change Education for NYC: Youth at the Center. As part of this project, the Center will partner with the NYC DOE Office of Sustainability’s Youth Leadership Council to mentor and empower youth activists. The Center will also engage NYC K-12 parents on ways to better support their children in the context of climate change.

Zankel Fellows will work with NYC students who are already taking part in local initiatives, such as the Columbia Youth Climate Summit. The Fellows will serve as a bridge between TC/CU/Earth Institute and youth activists; they will help student-led groups to develop and implement strategies, coordinate events, etc. The Fellows will also help the TC Center with organizing 1-2 mini-conferences for parents. We believe this project is important because teachers and parents are not engaging youth, the social group who will suffer the most from the consequences of climate change, with the topic. This intervention, with a focus on the Bronx, will ensure that youth regardless of their socio-economic background, have the opportunity to engage with the most pressing issue of our time.

Skills Sought: Interest in working with middle and high school students; experience with informal and non-formal education; interest in sustainability and climate change; strong communication and presentation skills; and independent work.

Sponsor: Dr. S. Garnett Russell

Department: International & Transcultural Studies

Fellowship Site: Newtown High School, International Community High School, Dual Language Middle School

Number of Fellows: 3

Project Description: In recent months, Department of Education Schools in New York City have welcomed an unprecedented influx of newcomer students, more than 5,000, who have recently crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and then been bused to New York from Texas or Arizona. The majority of these students are from Venezuela, from which now seven million people have been displaced outside its borders, as well as other countries in Central and South America.

In this project, we seek to continue our work supporting newcomers in three schools, including two high schools that serve newcomer students who have been in the U.S. for anywhere from several months to several years, as well as a middle school that has received a large number of recently arrived newcomers this academic year. For this school, we will focus on providing literacy and language support and then transition to human rights education later in the year.

Human rights education (HRE) is a source of empowerment for marginalized communities across the globe—providing access to the transformative knowledge that every human being is deserving of the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), as well as the skills to advocate for oneself and others (Bajaj 2011; Tibbitts 2002). In New York City, where inner-city youth often face stark inequalities, legal and economic uncertainties, knowing your rights is essential, particularly for newly-arrived immigrant students attending public schools. As a lack of cultural and institutional knowledge can make newcomer youth more susceptible to discrimination and exploitation, the ongoing arrival of newcomer students in NYC schools calls for heightened attention to human rights education and related support mechanisms.

Newtown High School and International Community High School

In two high schools, Zankel Fellows will implement Human Rights Education (HRE) curricula developed by Zankel Fellows over the past four years, and also work to modify the curricula in discussion with the school and students to attend to current needs. The curricula are focused on developing knowledge and action around human rights but also include modules on socio-emotional learning (SEL) and literacy skills to fully access and exercise their rights. SEL and literacy education are closely intertwined with making human rights knowledge practical and applicable for newcomer students in NYC schools.

Dual Language Middle School

In addition, the fellows will provide English language literacy support for newcomer students who have arrived in recent months, particularly in one school where we have been working to support newly arrived students. For the recently arrived newcomer students in the middle school, Zankel Fellows will utilize an English-language curricula that is trauma-informed and fits the needs of these newcomer students.

Many of the students, particularly those from Venezuela, have had interrupted formal education of up to 4 years. Using ideas from Freire’s (1970) pedagogy and literacy approach, Zankel Fellows will continue to teach English language and literacy through a lens of empowerment and human rights that recognizes these educational blocks as an enabling right.

Schools will be able to select modules from our existing portfolio of HRE and English language curricula, in order to best address their needs. Working closely with the classroom teachers and school leadership, the fellow(s) will design a customized HRE program for students drawing from activities on the topics of defining and understanding human rights, self-awareness and decision-making, financial independence, healthy relationships, and community-based resources to protect human rights.

The fellow(s) will then facilitate these lessons as an elective or after-school course in the selected schools, drawing from HRE pedagogies and creating a participatory, inclusive learning environment.

Based on an initial needs assessment carried out with the teachers and school staff, the HRE program may conclude with a school or community-wide project to improve awareness of human rights or address a human rights issue, or projects related to social enterprises that allow students to practice their SEL and financial management skills.

As the program is being implemented, the fellow(s) will regularly meet with stakeholders to make any necessary adjustments and further adapt the content to the students’ context. Their observations will also be useful in developing the knowledge-base in the HRE field regarding which aspects of curricula resonate cross-culturally and can best be adapted for newcomer and refugee youth an inner-city, domestic context. Lastly, the fellow(s) will experiment with defining metrics for success and assessing whether the curricula achieved its intended goals.

Skills sought: The ideal fellows for this project will have: familiarity with human rights frameworks and human rights education pedagogy; familiarity with the New York City public school system; experience working with high school students and vulnerable youth, such as newcomer and refugee students; experience with curriculum design, adaptation, and evaluation; the ability to confidently liaise with teachers and school administrators; advanced facilitation skills; and foreign language skills (ie. Spanish, French, Arabic) would be an asset.

Sponsor: Dr. Sandra Schmidt

Department: Arts & Humanities

Fellowship Site: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem 

Number of Fellows: 1

Project Description: The Junior Scholars Program at the Schomburg Center for Research on Black Culture is a historical literacy, art, and inquiry-based program that invites 125 youth, ages 11 to 18, to explore Black history through the lens of the Schomburg’s vast collections, exhibitions, and educational resources.

The Junior Scholars Program is a tuition-free Saturday program that promotes historical literacy through college-style lectures and presentations and project-based learning. The Zankel Fellow will support Junior Scholars as they conduct individual research and create original art inspired by their intensive study of the Schomburg Center’s archives, exhibitions, and educational resources. Through this program, the

Schomburg's Junior Scholars increase their knowledge of Black history and cultivate themselves to be the next generation of intellectual, social, cultural, and artistic influencers. The program runs for ten months on Saturdays, from October through June, and culminates with an annual Youth Summit presentation to the public.

The Zankel Fellow will support the Schomburg Education Department’s mission to provide high-quality learning experiences related to the Schomburg Center’s archival collections for students, educators, and people of all ages, by building on the long Black community tradition of education for liberation. Through the Schomburg’s programs and activities, learners of all ages can gain new perspectives on Black history, culture, and politics and can acquire skills of inquiry, critical thinking, creative expression, and social action. The Schomburg Education Department also works with all types of educators to share and develop best practices for teaching and learning. Our programs provide, for people of all identity expressions who share an interest in Black history, culture, and politics, a dynamic, holistic, and engaging way to access the rich resources of the Schomburg Center.

Responsibilities for Zankel Fellows may include the following: conducting curriculum research, facilitating small group cohort discussions, leading guided tours for school groups & youth programs; assisting instructors/scholars with research projects, attending weekly youth programs on Saturdays and supporting digital exhibition of youth projects.

Skills Sought: The fellow will need to have skills in facilitating individual and small-group discussions with youth, and the ability to work collaboratively with instructors and the program director to support the Young Scholars Program. The fellow will also need to have skills in supporting individual youth projects including archival research and the creation of original art. The fellow will also need to be comfortable leading guided tours of the Schomburg Center for school groups and youth programs. Skills in archival research, digital media and curriculum development would also be an asset. The fellow will also need to be reflexive about their own racial identity and how it shapes their understanding of Black history and culture.

Sponsor: Drs. Lalitha Vasudevan & Jacqueline Simmons

Department: Mathematics, Science & Technology

Fellowship Site: Fellows will be placed at a K-8 school in Washington Heights with an alumna of Teachers College

Number of Fellows: 4

Project Description:  The project will be supervised by Prof. Vasudevan who will support the cohort of Fellows placed in fifth through eighth grade classrooms in a K-8 school. A cohort model will amplify the impact of service learning that the Zankel Fellowship promotes, by inviting the Fellows to meet together regularly during the academic year, visit each other’s classrooms, and reflect on media and justice from a variety of perspectives. Fellows familiar with the project will be able to mentor newer team members, and Fellows will meet regularly with their site collaborators, bimonthly with all of the MASCLab Zankel Fellows, and attend weekly MASCLab meetings where they will be invited to share their experiences, receive feedback on their media work, and will have the opportunity to work with and support one another.

Skills Sought: Interest in contexts for learning, literacies, media, and forms of representation; experience teaching or facilitating workshops with children or youth – experience inside or outside of schools welcome; experience with and willingness to experiment with a variety of technologies and media tools, social media platforms, commonly used applications (Google Drive, Dropbox, Mac iLife suite); strong communication skills, as this position will require fellows to be engaged in writing, speaking, listening, and creating media for multiple audiences with children and youth from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds; ability and willingness to work collaboratively in a team setting and demonstrate strong interpersonal skills; ability to work independently to problem solve and demonstrate strong organizational skills; willingness to be flexible and responsive to dynamic teaching and learning circumstances; and a sense of humor.

Sponsor: Dr. Tyler Watts

Department: Human Development – Developmental Psychology

Fellowship Site: First Workings (non-profit)

Number of Fellows: 1

Project Description: This Fellowship will support graduate students build deeper connection with NYC youth from underprivileged communities through college advising and mentorship.

First Workings, a Manhattan based non-profit that seeks to provide internship opportunities to NYC kids from underserved communities, is built on the idea that kids from minoritized, underserved, communities lack opportunities to build social capital, as social connections are crucial for breaking into high powered industries. First Workings partners with a number of charter schools in NYC and recruits high schoolers (91% students of color; 67% from the Bronx) to participate in a summer internship program. They then place students in internships at influential companies (e.g., Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, etc.), and provide them with a host of professional development opportunities (see their website for more information: https://firstworkings.org/).

Our partnership with First Workings began with college application preparation assistance. In initial conversations, we learned that many of their students struggle with writing essays for college admissions, so we started hosting an annual workshop to provide essay assistance. For the past three years, we have organized an event in which TC graduate students read and edit essays for high school seniors in the First Workings program. This event has grown each year and we have received positive feedback from students on the assistance provided.

Last year, we decided to expand the partnership by piloting a mentoring program for first-generation students entering college. First Workings selected a small number of students to participate, and we matched those students with TC graduate students (primarily PhD students in Human Development). The TC students met monthly with their matched mentee and provided advice on navigating college life. We found that students had a lot of issues around adapting to life in college, leaving their communities, maintaining academic standards, and mental health. Several students developed strong connections with their mentees, and First Workings was excited to see us expand this mentoring program for the 2023-2024 academic year.

With the director of First Workings, TC Fellows would have the opportunity to support students in the organization as they transition into college.

Skills Sought: Fellows should have strong interpersonal skills and knowledge of college life and experiences.