A City Education: A Post-Sandy Day of Service in Staten Island
In our A City Education series, City Year corps members share their experiences working as tutors and mentors in schools in hopes of closing the opportunity gap and ending the dropout crisis.
"Why I serve" statements are an important aspect of City Year culture. At the beginning of the school year, corps members are asked to provide statements explaining why we choose to dedicate a year of service in schools. My teammates and I all come from different backgrounds, and we all have different goals for our future. But what binds us together is our desire to help the students, teachers, and families in the school and community in which we serve, and our decision to use this time in our lives to work towards the betterment of New York City. That has never been more true than in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.
As you've seen in the news, thousands of New Yorkers were devastated by Sandy—their homes and neighborhoods were destroyed by the storm. Staten Island was one of the hardest hit boroughs, and when New