Elijah Sivin’s Student-Led SLT Addresses Poverty in NYC

“It’s not about “helping,” it’s learning, listening, and comprehending that the world is a heck of a lot more complicated than you thought… And I don’t want this to be a one-shot thing. I want to keep on volunteering, even if it’s just little things every now and then. I would also like to take note of the systems within the world, how food gets into people’s hands, how resources are delivered, and where gaps are. I used to drive past things like community fridges without giving them a second glance. Now, I see them completely differently.” –Jaxon Hernandez Berliner ’27 

Proposed by student leaders Andrew Sion ’27 and Zoë Kim ’27, who envisioned a Service Learning Team (SLT) dedicated to addressing poverty in New York City, this summer’s second SLT program brought students’ visions to life–deepening Poly’s partnerships with local organizations and providing a unique opportunity for peer-to-peer learning. 

Through thoughtful planning for the immersive program and long, open discussions where feedback and ideas flowed, students stepped into leadership roles—becoming true partners in Poly’s service work, during the summer months outside the structure of classes and grades. Their week of service aimed not only to address poverty in the city but also to combine service with learning. It  empowered students to recognize their ability to create positive change, and introduce participants to practical steps they can take to confront the challenges. The SLT also provides an affordable and meaningful way to meet Poly’s service graduation requirement.

“My time at Harlem Grown has sparked an interest in me that will stay with me for the rest of my high school career. I have already signed up to volunteer at the New York Common Pantry and plan to contact Harlem Grown and do more work for them.” –Sean Messina ’27 

Headed by Director of Service Learning and History faculty Elijah Sivin, the SLT took place from Monday, August 4, to Friday, August 8, following a structure that balanced reflection and learning with applied action and community service. Uniquely, the program began with student leaders Sion and Kim leading the first day’s activities. They guided their peers through engaging icebreakers, such as the fun question, “What is the best way to prepare a potato?” before facilitating free-write prompts and focused discussions designed to uncover and challenge biases related to food insecurity, houselessness, and other issues affecting unhoused populations. These activities encouraged participants to reflect on the power of unconscious bias, connect their own lived experiences to the broader socio-economic landscape of New York City, and engage with systemic issues such as redlining. This grounding work provided the lens and foundation of knowledge essential for their upcoming collaborations with community partner organizations.

“This SLT taught me that service can take many forms. Whether it’s helping people, growing food, or caring for animals, I want to keep finding ways to make a difference in the future.” –Julian Miravete ’27

Over the course of three days, students visited local organizations including One Love Community Fridge, Sure We Can, The Campaign Against Hunger, RISE Rockaway, Harlem Grown, and the West Side Campaign Against Hunger. At each site, they learned how these groups work to improve conditions for New Yorkers by directly addressing the effects of inequality.

As with all SLTs at Poly, the program concluded with reflection and self-directed projects, providing students with a platform to share their insights and envision how they might continue applying their knowledge to effect meaningful change. Final projects took many forms—presentations, written pieces, or podcasts—and included options such as writing to a member of Congress about poverty, analyzing its causes and effects in a neighborhood of their choice, or crafting a socioeconomic biography. Each project encouraged critical thinking, creativity, and a commitment to continue engaging in anti-poverty work beyond the SLT’s weeklong program.  

More Student Reflections:

“I used to think about poverty mostly in the language of money or homelessness, but this experience widened my vision to how much more there is. Poverty affects the availability of food, education, housing, mind and body health, and even the ability to feel safe or to be valued. What surprised me most was how different individuals’ experiences of poverty could be—and how varied were the ways organizations reacted in order to help.” –Bodhi Kehoe ’28

“This experience also pushed me to reflect on my own privilege and recognize the importance of using it to help others. It wasn’t just eye-opening, it was a call to action. I now have a clear plan for how I want to stay involved this year: I’m joining the One Love Community Fridge student board and using my journalism skills and podcast platform to raise awareness about their work and the broader issue of food insecurity. This service learning team didn’t just teach me, it inspired me to take meaningful, ongoing action in my community.” –Ella Klingensmith ’27

“These past five days I have learnt so much about addressing poverty, food insecurity and so much more. The program has inspired me to want to do more to help those in need, whether it’s helping out with distributing food like One Love Community Fridge and WSCAH, or farming the food like Rockaway RISE, Campaign Against Hunger, and Harlem Grown or something different like helping out others with money like Sure We Can. All of those programs really made me realize how much help people are in need of and how easy and satisfying it can be to provide that help.” –Alex Arniotis ’29