Summer Smarts: Institute for Urban Ed Welcomes NYC High Schools
The New School helped New York City high school students prepare for college this summer through the Institute for Urban Education (IUE) at Eugene Lang College.
In July, 60 high school students from all five boroughs took courses at Lang as part of the EnGAGE program. A two-year initiative that begins in the summer before the junior year of high school, EnGAGE gives students the opportunity to take courses for credit. This year’s courses, including What Does America Mean? and Everything Bad Is Good for You: Issues in Pop Culture, dealt with topics outside of the traditional public high school curriculum and were especially appealing to the students. EnGAGE also offers mentorship support from current Lang and Parsons students, writing and critical thinking workshops, and hands-on media production training. The students will return to their high schools this fall with additional credits and college preparatory experience in Lang’s small, seminar-style classes.
In August, the IUE turned its attention to New York’s high school teachers, launching Creative Pedagogies for School Change, a program that develops ways to improve instruction in high schools. For two years, teachers from six high-need public high schools collaborate with IUE faculty members from Lang and Parsons on a study of innovative teaching methods. Over the course of the collaboration, the high school teachers earn 36 tuition-free graduate-level credits from The New School. The results of the research will be unveiled at a citywide conference at the conclusion of the project.
For more information on the IUE or to get involved, visit www.newschool.edu/lang/institute-for-urban-education.