As many of you may or may not know, I am very involved with the non-profit New York Edge, in fact I am on the Young Professionals Council (YPC) and am a co-founder of the council. New York Edge is the largest provider of free after school programming for students K-12 in NYC.

Today we hosted our first volunteer event since the pandemic began. The event was a virtual speed mentoring program with MS355Q in Jamaica, Queens (unfortunately, due to school restrictions, we are not allowed into the schools). We did 3 rounds of cluster mentoring with the 8th graders of MS 355Q.

It was interesting to hear what the students were thinking when it came to careers and the entire HS process. They all had a diverse interest in careers and high schools. If you know me, you know how much I value learning and education - in fact my platform as Miss New York was “empowering youth through education, by providing them with the tools necessary to succeed in life.“ It was through third platform that I actually initially heard about New York Edge and became involved.

For those of you who are not from NYC, the NYC public high school process is like applying to colleges. There are so many high schools, general high schools, those that specialize in different subjects and magnet and specialized high schools that you need to take an exam to get into. I feel like most people do not fully understand the how rigorous the process is, so I am always happy to speak about it as I can relate and the experiences my friends and I had at the various schools.

Thank you to all of the volunteers, staff and everyone who helped coordinate this event! Hopefully we will be able to do more and bigger events soon… and in person!

If you are interested in getting involved with this event or getting involved with New York Edge, do not hesitate to reach out. I have been involved with New York Edge since 2013 and love the work that they do to provide free after school programming to students across NYC!