On Governors Island

I had a lively week that concluded with an all-day trip to Governors Island with 50 youth ages 12-17. Friday was the first of five such programs that CUCE-NYC will run in July and August. Not surprisingly, we had a lot of preparation to do on Wednesday and Thursday, and we learned a lot on Friday about how to do a better job next time. My role was to plan and lead the icebreaker at the beginning of the day and the evaluation activity at the end. I also helped out with supervision during the other activities (marine ecology, urban forestry, and a scavenger hunt) and with logistics before and during the program.

On the most basic level, it seems that the program was a success. The participants showed up in time for the ferry, the weather was great, no one got seriously hurt, the food arrived on time, everyone got to do all of the activities, etc. However, we definitely struggled to integrate and engage the youth. As my supervisors from CUCE predicted, convincing youth from different day camps to join together for the activities was not easy. I think that the main benefit of my icebreaker was that it let them know that we were serious about splitting up the cliques and having them follow directions. I would have preferred to have them learn about each other instead, although I guess that under the circumstances, setting the tone was important. I think that next week, I may try a different activity that requires subtle rather than explicit group mixing. And of course, next week’s groups may be more interested in meeting new people. Interestingly, the youth I interviewed from last year’s program talked a lot about how enjoyable that component was.

The evaluation activity yielded mixed results. I was sorry that we did not have time for the first part, a game that involved informally polling youth for their views. Having a sit-down activity was good, though. Everyone was very tired by 4:30! We had written a newspaper article about the day with lots of blank spaces for them to fill in in groups. It occurred to me after my supervisor suggested the method that this might not be so participatory, but I don’t think we would have gotten anything at all from an open-ended assignment. I did get to talk to some of the youth during an afternoon activity as well to hear their less-structured opinions. As I became more aware of my integral role in the program as an instructor and disciplinarian, though, I decided to fore go my plan to request follow-up focus groups with some of the day camps in attendance. I do not think that I would get very honest feedback from the youth to compare to my interviews from last year. I think my study will be more complete and valid (if I can use that word) without mixing up different programs and types of data.

Although I enjoyed looking for themes among my transcripts earlier in the week, my critical incident would have to be the day on Governors Island. It was fun to see what I had been hearing about and nice to be working with youth again. It was also a good reminder of how much energy it takes to run a positive program while constantly trying to re-engage a few disinterested, disrespectful teens. And lastly, it was a useful nudge for me that I am not an un-biased participant, observer, and researcher when it comes to camp-type programs. In our CUSP, class we have read and talked about how as qualitative or action researchers we are not and should not strive to be “objective.” I agree that my familiarity with camp and with the Governors Island programs has helped me ask appropriate interview questions and will help me with data analysis. That’s the positive aspect. But I also need to acknowledge, at least for myself, that when experiencing a program like Friday’s, my emotions are not totally clear and straight-forward. It's been a year since I worked with kids, and this past fall, I dealt with some pretty upsetting stuff related to the camp where I used to work. I think that being in a similar setting and leading similar activities on Governors Island was a little harder than I expected (and than I realized as it was going on). I’m glad I’m writing my CUSP report mainly on interviews from last year’s program rather than based on participant observations.