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Turner, Joyce
No full textMrs. Joyce Turner was born in 1948 as Joyce Herzfeld and grew up at 364 East 170th Street in a one-bedroom apartment with her parents and younger sister. Her parents had decided to live in the Bronx due to the proximity to their other family members until most of them had decided to begin moving out. The neighborhood she grew up in was primarily Jewish but became more diversified as she grew older and saw much diversity within the schools. During her early childhood, Mrs. Turner attended Public School 53 for elementary school, located on 167th Street, and remembers walking these long blocks daily to get there. Interestingly, she attended J.H.S 22 for junior high school, which was located down the block from her original school. While in Junior High school, she began becoming involved with the Glee Club and has fond memories of all the extracurricular activities associated with the music club. Even though she recalls some of her family being Sephardic Jews and one of her grandfathers being religious, religion was not a considerable factor during her childhood life. However, she would attend synagogue on the high holidays. In her household, her mother spoke Spanish and Ladino to her friends and family, while her grandmother prepared Middle Eastern dishes. Mrs. Turner and her family lived in the Bronx until she was around 14 when her family decided to move to Flushing, Queens.
After graduating from High school in Queens, she attended Queens College before going to Boston to pursue her master\u27s degree. Upon completing her graduate studies, Mrs. Turner was a teacher in East Harlem and was significantly affected by the budget cuts in New York City public schools during the early 1970s. As an adult, she became more religious and involved in the religion while living in Westchester County with her husband and two children. Today she resides in Florida
Langer, Eileen
No full textSummarizer: Sophia Maier
Eileen Langer is a lifelong Bronxite. Despite her world travels, she identifies the Bronx as her home. As a child, she lived in Roosevelt Gardens on the Grand Concourse and remembers walking to see her grandmother across the Concourse. As she got older, Langer remembers going to the movies, going shopping, eating ice cream, and attending the Sephardic synagogue all along the Grand Concourse. Though she went to college at City College, she completed all of her other schooling in the Bronx, including a master’s degree from Lehman College. Becoming an educator herself, she has taught and mentored at a Bronx K-12 schools, Lehman College, Bronx Community College, and more. Langer has lived in Riverdale for the last 50 years, since she got married.
Langer’s family kept kosher and would gather every Sunday with extended family at her grandparents’ apartment. They observed the holidays, but did not attend synagogue weekly, though since marrying she has become Modern Orthodox. Langer’s own Sephardic heritage is different from her husband’s Ashkenazi upbringing in some religious practices and traditional foods. Her grandmother was a great cook who made traditional Sephardic foods like pasteles and yaprakes. Langer’s grandparents spoke Ladino when they didn’t want the children to understand.
Langer feels she got a great education in the Bronx, though less collaborative than students today. In college, Langer was a member of Alpha Sigma Rho sorority. Outside of school, she enjoyed playing tennis and going to the theater. Her parents did not complete college, but she remembers her father as very intelligent and knowledgeable about world news and her mother as talented and artistic. The family moved to Co-op City when Langer had just married, and she taught high school at night there.
Langer, who originally wanted a job in publishing before becoming a lifelong educator, describes the draw of women to elementary education during that time period: pensions, benefits, off at the same time as their children. She herself preferred the older ages, her favorite being freshman English at Lehman. To this day, Langer loves mentoring young educators and loves being in Riverdale, particularly going to Wave Hill. She remembers her childhood in the Bronx as wonderful.
Keywords: Grand Concourse, Roosevelt Gardens, Sephardic, Co-op City, Lehman College, City College, Van Cortlandt Park, Wave Hill, Riverdale, food, Modern Orthodox, Ladino, Alpha Sigma Rho, education, Catskills, Alexander’s, Loehmann’s, English, gende
Katz, Helen
No full textSummarizer: Sophia Maier
Helen Katz was born to Holocaust survivor parents in the Bronx. The family originally lived in the South Bronx until Katz was one year old, when they moved to the Olinville section of the Bronx. They lived there until Katz was in her 20s, when they moved to Pelham Parkway. Each time, they moved because the neighborhood was deteriorating.
Katz describes the Olinville neighborhood as predominantly Italian, although her own family was Orthodox. Despite the differences, she remembers playing with the Italian Catholic school girls. They attended a Lubavitcher shul, and Katz attend a yeshiva for her education. She and her friends would walk to the Bronx Zoo and the Botanical Gardens, particularly on holidays. Katz tells of stores she and her family frequented on Burke Avenue, Allerton Avenue, and Pelham Parkway, including a florist, kosher food stores and delis, and clothing stores. Her family was kosher, and they typically ate her mother’s homemade traditional Ashkenazi fare. Her mother was a homemaker, and her father owned a headwear store on the Lower East Side, which allowed the family to rise out of the poverty they initially faced coming to this country after the war.
Katz credits Beth Jacob yeshiva with providing her a great secular and religious education, and says it was even more rigorous than Lehman College, which she attended after. The yeshiva was “open minded,” allowing both boys and girls in the school — though they were in separate classes — and encouraging the girls to go to college. Originally, Katz attended the school with other children of Holocaust survivors, but as she got older more children with American born parents started attending, causing the language of translation from Hebrew to shift from Yiddish to English.
Katz left the Bronx when she was 30, first moving to Borough Park, Brooklyn to live with a friend. After a few years, she married and moved to Queens, where she has lived the rest of her life. Katz decided to leave the Bronx because it was time to get out on her own. Nonetheless, she has very pleasant memories of her childhood there, which she says was like an “out of town” experience, being so isolated from socioeconomic difference.
Keywords: Holocaust, South Bronx, Olinville, Pelham Parkway, Florida, Orthodox, Lubavitch, Beth Jacob Yeshiva, Bais Yaakov Yeshiva, kosher, food, education, Lehman College, Brooklyn, Queens, Yiddis
Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adolescent Substance Use: The Roles of Emotion Regulation and Attachment Security
No full textSubstance use among adolescents is on the rise and is a risk factor for a number of negative life outcomes. The relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and behavioral health outcomes, such as substance use, have been well-documented. However, the relationship between ACEs and substance use in adolescents, as well as the role of mediating and moderating variables, has not been sufficiently explored. Using data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), this study aims to further examine the relationship between ACEs and adolescent substance use as well as to explore the role of emotion regulation and attachment security. The results show that there is a small but significant relationship between ACEs and adolescent substance use. The findings did not support the role of attachment as a moderator between ACEs and adolescent substance use. The findings further show that, though the relationship between ACEs and emotion regulation is significant, emotion regulation does not mediate the relationship between ACEs and adolescent substance use. The implications for social work policy and practice include an enhanced focus on early intervention for and prevention of ACEs as well as a focus on trauma-informed care in social work education
Modern Human Sacrifice: Environmental Injustice in Cancer Alley
No full textThis paper explores Cancer Alley, a large stretch of land along the Mississippi River in Louisiana, home to nearly half a million people. Unfortunately, this community must also share space with hundreds of chemical processing plants. Residents of Cancer Alley, most of whom cannot relocate or choose not to, face disproportionately higher risk of cancer and other diseases due to the damaging effects of these neighboring factories. Moreover, this population has been sacrificed by federal and state policies for the economic gain of said industries, from which the government benefits. This paper seeks to address this case of environmental injustice and highlight it as an example of modern-day human sacrifice. Chapter 1 describes the factual background of the issue including the geographical location, target group demographics, and quantitative medical data. Chapter 2 sets forth a historical perspective of environmental sacrifice that is augmented by particular instances of this phenomenon in the United States over the past few centuries. Chapter 3 entails a discussion of the economics behind the industries in question to explain their longstanding pervasiveness and control over the region. Chapter 4 exposes the politics behind the environmental racism in Cancer Alley, including the obstacles to progress for residents and the harmful governmental policies that allow this situation to continue. Chapter 5 outlines proposed federal and state regulatory policies to limit harmful industrial practices and provide protections for the people in Louisiana. It is imperative, in order to eradicate environmental sacrifice in the United States, to push for public policy that is created with social and environmental justice at grounding principles.
Keywords: environmental sacrifice, environmental injustice, public policy, environmental racism, social justice, environmental economics, environmental la
Colonial Legacies and Contemporary Struggles: The Paradox of Globalization as an Agent of Neocolonialism in the Caribbean
No full textThis thesis examines the manifestation of neocolonialism in the Caribbean through the intersections of contemporary foreign investment and globalization. Historically, Western powers like the UK and the United States played a major role in shaping global power dynamics through colonialism. However, a shifting paradigm sees emerging nations from the East, notably China and Taiwan, exerting influence in the Western hemisphere and previously colonized regions like the Caribbean. Using qualitative comparisons and drawing from diverse sources, the study analyzes academic literature and reports from international organizations, critically evaluating theoretical frameworks in international relations and postcolonial studies. The research uncovers a pattern where globalization acts as an agent of neocolonialism, revealing intricate dynamics where economic interests intersect with geopolitical strategies, shaping the destinies of Caribbean nations. Beyond documenting current economic strategies, the study reveals enduring imprints of colonial histories resonating in the region\u27s economic and social structures. The Caribbean, with its varied historical trajectories, political statuses, and economic landscapes, serves as an ideal arena for this inquiry. By shedding light on the intersections between foreign investments, globalization, and historical legacies, this thesis raises crucial questions for future examination. Contributing to ongoing dialogues about the impacts of foreign investment on identity, sovereignty, and geopolitics in the Caribbean, the study aims to enrich our understanding of the complex dynamics shaping the region\u27s contemporary economic and political landscape
Attitudes around Circulatory Migration in Puerto Rico, 2017-2023: Puerto Rico Without Puerto Ricans
No full textPuerto Rican migration to the United States has historically been circulatory, as is characteristic of Caribbean migration and migration from territories. After the mass exodus from Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in 2017, newspapers are reporting that Puerto Ricans are returning to the island. This study used posts from social media to obtain people’s perspective on return migration, and understood these through a framework of push and pull factors. The study created an informal database in order to break down close readings of social media. From that, a table was created that quantified recurrences of common patterns. The study determined that Puerto Ricans overwhelmingly criticized returning migrants, citing various economic push factors such as the common worker’s conditions, the cost of living, and the housing crisis. Meanwhile, those with positive outlooks on return migrants and return migration overwhelmingly reflected strong links to their communities and Puerto Rico itself which is consistent with transnationalist experiences
We Are What We Eat: Unsustainable Food and Diet in America
No full textThe following paper addresses the issue of unsustainable food and diet in the United States, specifically, the problems related to the US industrial food system that lead to the exploitation of ecosystem services, public health burdens with social inequalities, and economic costs. Possible solutions may include an increased awareness of nutrition through education and policies, as well as urban agricultural technologies like the vertical farm. Chapter 1 analyzes the quantitative data on today\u27s industrial food problem and its degradation of ecosystem services, with concerns for social injustice and ecological instability, including the global over-consumption of beef and its negative effects on human health and the environment. Chapter 2 explores the history of the evolution of industrial agriculture in the US food system, which has led to environmental degradation. Chapter 3 delves into public health burdens, specifically the effects of the US food system on human health and the economic costs of poor public health caused by an industrial diet, comparing the Western and Mediterranean diets. Chapter 4 discusses existing government policies and practices in the US and global food systems, as well as other political players on the federal, state, local and grassroots levels. Chapter 5 draws from previous cases of US and global policy, proposing new policy program management and approaches, particularly in education and technology, that could be developed to encourage more generally healthy diets towards an increasingly sustainable food system
It’s Giving Tory:” Youth Satirization of Elizabeth Truss on TikTok as Political Commentary
No full textThis study extends political humor effects research as a means of engaging in political discourse. The current body of research into the influence of social media on political attitudes largely focuses on adults with extreme ideations and organized groups on the internet. This study seeks to better understand young people as newcomers to political discourse. It focuses on how the behavior of women in positions of power is critiqued and analyzed by the youngest voting and pre-voting cohort through analyzing the content produced by young Britons during the Elizabeth Truss administration. Data was gathered using hashtags on TikTok videos posted from September 1st to October 30th, 2022. The analysis used a close reading technique, rhetorical and connotative analysis, tracking patterns and variations. Findings yielded a strong demonstration of political criticism without explicit party allegiance, and how young Britons use different types of satire to enforce gendered norms on women political leaders
Evaluating a Web-Based Curriculum Designed to Empower Adolescents to Build Mentoring Relationships With Adults
No full textFindings from nationally representative data indicate that youth who can identify one naturally occurring mentor are more likely to attain higher levels of success academically, socio-emotionally, and vocationally. Unfortunately, mentoring relationships are unequally distributed, with historically marginalized youth (e.g., youth of color, and/or youth from low socioeconomic status families) being less likely to access the benefits of mentorship compared to their more privileged peers. To address these imbalances, the present dissertation used a randomized controlled design to test an evidence-based online curriculum, Connected Futures. Connected Futures aims to teach youth practical skills in creating and maintaining connections with mentors alongside in-vivo exercises designed to empower youth to seek support in reaching their academic goals. Analyses revealed the intervention significantly reduced negative beliefs about seeking support from adults and medium effect sizes were observed for reductions in negative network orientation and help-seeking avoidance and threat. The findings from this study indicate that Connected Futures leads to meaningful shifts in youth\u27s beliefs around the effectiveness of seeking support for educational goals and in reducing high school students’ avoidance of support-seeking behaviors. Connected Futures can therefore be an important tool in reducing the imbalance of social support that has been documented within marginalized groups of youth in the United States