Trace, Spin and Feel the Vibe of Journalism
By Ana Figuereo, Taryn Mclean, Arthur Sanders, Kristen Wallace, and Michelle Yakobson

On August 2nd, the College Now Journalism class took a fieldtrip to the headquarters of Spin, Vibe and Trace magazines.

The first stop was to the Spin/Vibe building in Midtown Manhattan, where the tall building and tight security hardly reflects the laid-back atmosphere inside the offices. Upon entering the waiting room, the class was welcomed by an intern who was making phone calls, and then the smiling Lynne D. Johnson, general manager of the online component of Spin/Vibe. Johnson led them to what looked like a hybrid of a conference room and a room from which editorial assistants fetch their bosses’ lunches like well-trained Dobermans. The class sat down to a chat with Johnson, during which she described herself, her role at Spin/Vibe, and the cutthroat world of journalism. This Bronx native described how she just “fell into [journalism],” even though she “did not know [she] wanted to be a journalist.”

Johnson started out by majoring in computer science. Midpoint in her education, she decided that she wanted to become a writer. At the time, a frequent to college newspapers as a tutor of sorts -- “I was writing people’s papers and getting paid for it” – Johnson decided that she might as well turn her various investments in writing into a career in journalism. But, she wasn’t exactly ecstatic about the schedule involved. “Reporting is daily, it’s exact…you have to make deadlines,” Johnson said. “And you’ve got to get those stories in.”

After writing for a publication funded by students of SUNY New Paltz and SUNY Albany, Johnson chose to pursue an occupation in magazine writing because “with magazines you have more freedom.”

Editorial Assistant Kyle Anderson, 23, was our next speaker. Anderson works for the print version of Spin magazine. Starting out as a theatre student at NYU, Kyle woke up one morning in the middle of his sophomore year and realized he hated what he was doing. He finished up his classes as soon as he could, and switched to journalism. With an amiable, humorous and slightly sarcastic tone, Kyle proudly proclaimed, “I get to talk to washed up rock stars.”

“You name them,” said Kyle, “if they’re not relevant, then I’ve talked to them.”
Over at Spin’s sister magazine, Vibe, Editor-in-Chief Mimi Valdés spoke to us about her passion for journalism and her decade-long dedication to the profession. Valdés explained how she has been in “the game” for so long that she has developed personal relationships with various celebrities in the music industry.

“If the publicist is taking too long to get Kanye West…I can call him up and get [a quote] from him,” Mimi said. The reason Valdés is so successful, she told the class of aspiring journalists, is that since high school, she immersed herself in the world of hip-hop and urban culture, the editorial content at Vibe. She read magazines and watched music videos religiously, because at the time, those were her only means of acquiring information about her favorite recording artists. This was a time before Vibe magazine even existed. Valdés realized that in order to thrive in this industry, “you have to immerse yourself totally in the field that interests you.” Basically, one has to “do their homework” to make it as a journalist, she said.

The last stop on our fieldtrip was Trace magazine, located in a humble loft in SoHo. There was a very family-like atmosphere, one in which the staff shared inside jokes and even bickered playfully at times. They’ve been working with each other for years, said publisher Amy Andrieux. Founded and operated for many years in London, England, Trace switched continents to New York in 1998. Now, its readership spans the globe. Trace prides itself on being a “classic” magazine that focuses on “transculturalism.” They define “transculturalism” as a way of embracing different cultures by exploring their music and fashion trends. Trace considers itself separate from other magazines because its editors consider each issue a “collectible.” The magazine itself is meant to be a precious item that its readers will want to keep for years to come. And unlike magazines such as Vibe, which follow the mainstream, Trace focuses on the underground and underrated artists whom they feel deserve attention.
As the class concluded its day of site visits to magazines around town, some students said they felt encouraged by the excitement of a journalism career, while others were discouraged by the competitive nature of the field. Overall, the class found the trip to be very informative. It was a wake-up call for aspiring journalists to commit themselves to what they truly love.

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Students Say Graphic Design Class “A Success”
By: Abu Ali, Brian Choi, Angeline Deschamps, Ana Figuereo and Samantha Seodas

The Graphic Design class has been hard at work, but still it manages to maintain a fun atmosphere. They have come a long way and learned about many digital techniques, using programs such as Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Flash.
As the program draws to an end, all the students are putting their finishing touches on their final projects. There are seven different groups working on digital projects, including video games, flash animation, skits and individual websites.

Victor de la Cruz, the teacher’s assistant, has been on high demand. “I just wanted to help people with digital media,” Victor said. The students often need his help when it comes to coding systems, programming and troubleshooting.

“Victor is [a] clutch; he comes through when we need him,” Matthew Gordon said. Gordon is working on a game called “Clean Up,” where players try to catch falling garbage. The final project is so complicated. We only have three days left to finish it, but we’ll get the job done with Victor’s help,” Gordon said. Gordon’s partner, David Haiman, says the game “promotes cleaning after yourself. It’s environmentally friendly.”

Dennis Martinez and Abraham Balde are creating a different video game, based on boxing. “It’s easy to create the characters, but the hard part is creating their actions,” Martinez said.
The very funny Melvin and Marvin Parasram, Jesse Flores, Eric Ayende and camera girl Rocio Gonzalez are doing skits. The group has been editing and adding music, which makes the skits entertaining. Gonzalez records the boys doing odd things around campus, such as falling and rolling on the grass.

Room 122 got an exclusive preview of some of these skits and highly recommends visiting the site when it is completed. Or, better yet, attend the Arts Festival dinner on Wednesday, August 10th and Thursday, August 11th.

Geoffrey Wong and Cora Wu are working on a flash animation. They based their animation on a cartoon they enjoy, “Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends.” They work cooperatively together. “I would still be on the first frame without him,” Wu said. They both give much credit to their Professor Mari Fetzer and TA Victor. “They teach well, act like us, and are comfortable to be with. They’re practically teenagers,” Wu said.

Laura Santos is excited about the class. “I really like this program. I like learning about Photoshop and Flash because it’s very interesting,” Santos said. She and her partner, Kavita Arjoon, made a final project on flash animation as well. Laura is also working on the playbill for the upcoming play “Kids Don’t Come with Instruction Manuals,” to be performed at the Summer Arts Festival gala by students in the Theatre Arts class taught by Professor Brian Doyle. The bill has personal bios of the students involved in the play. Santos really enjoys the College Now program. If she had a chance, she would do it all year, she told Room 122.
“It’s a very good introduction class for computer artwork,” Michelle Tait said. Tait is busy at work on a personal website as her final project.

Leah Sukenick’s final project is a front page for the upcoming play and for the College Now program. She is merging and enhancing pictures to create new ones.

Even though everyone is having fun, they are going to miss the class after it’s
over.

Access Granted
By Zorana Kesar, Joshua Brooks, Gallia Kassiano, Rachel Sanchez

“Hope”
“Promise”
“See Me”
“Survive”
“Kids”
These were the bright and powerful words that stood out against the black background of the stage. They came alive as each actor delivered his or her monologue in the Lovinger Theatre. The monologues, which touch upon real teenager issues, such as drugs, pregnancy, poverty, and violence, went hand-in-hand with the words graffitied on the stage; each was an aspiration for which the kids were striving.

The young actors’ confidence was very apparent even when mini-crises, such as forgotten lines and raspy voices, arose. While most amateurs would quickly run off stage or stand still and stammer, these kids, who have little or no acting experience, brushed off their mistakes and kept performing.

The director, Professor Brian Doyle, contributed to the flow of the monologue performances by giving suggestions on how to move about the stage and interact with fellow actors. Laid-back, Professor Doyle observed the performances from a distance, giving the occasional instruction, “Pick it up where you left off.”

One of the things that enhanced the monologues, giving them flair, was the simple yet authentic stage design. Props included a cell phone, CD player, and handbag – necessities that teens today can’t seem to live without. For these troubled characters, these gadgets are often the only source of comfort.

The cultural diversity amongst the actors appeals to a wide audience, one that is not only black and white, but everything in-between. The body language, the range of accents, and wild hand gestures grab the audience’s attention.

Even with an empty theatre, dimmed lights, and no make up, the monologue performances showcased the actors’ talents. We can only expect that the opening night on August 10th will be a packed house with a standing ovation.

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The Director’s Cut

By Zorana Kesar, Joshua Brooks, Gallia Kassiano, Rachel Sanchez

From throwing newspapers onto front lawns, to grading papers for his theatre class, Brian Doyle, professor of theatre at Lehman College and director of the upcoming play “Kids Don’t Come with Instruction Manuals,” written and performed by College Now students, has come a long way from his small hometown in Wisconsin.

Growing up in a close knit environment, Professor Doyle enjoyed a great deal of personal freedom. But someone was always keeping an eye out for him, even if it were just the neighbors calling his mother to say, “Brian is throwing rocks at the church windows.”

In his adolescence, Professor Doyle aspired to be a poet, but quickly gave that up because “There aren’t a lot of nine-to-five jobs in poetry and so I got into theatre.” Doyle described himself as a shy person who took advantage of the drama class to meet girls. What came out of this experience was a newfound passion for theatre and directing.

Professor Doyle went on to graduate from the University of Wisconsin at Plattville, the name of which he jokingly spelled out when interviewed. He then attended the University of Utah at Salt Lake City for his graduate degree. It was here that he met Dr. David Jones, a very gifted and passionate teacher, who taught Doyle that “the words we say have an impact not only on other people, but on ourselves also.”

Professor Doyle’s first teaching experience also came about during his graduate school years. He remembers being “sort of a smart aleck about it.” He sat down in the classroom amongst the students, waited for everyone to get there, and then introduced himself. Reflecting on his overzealous attitude at the moment, Professor Doyle said, “It was probably a dumb thing to do, but it broke the ice…it made them realize that I was learning too.”

After teaching at Marymount College in Tarrytown for several years, Professor Doyle made his way to Lehman College. Over the years at Lehman, Doyle has directed different dramatic genres, but finds that he “has a flair for comedy.” The last work he directed was a night of Shakespeare last summer with the College Now Program, for which he expressed great joy.

As for the College Now Program, in which he has taught for four years, Doyle says teaching high school students has proved to be a different experience. Unlike some of his college students, high school students “tend to be very disciplined about their work.” Slightly grinning, Professor Doyle commented on the fact that college students often hand in assignments late due to their busy schedules.

“I mostly enjoy my job,” Professor Doyle said. “There are no obstacles, only opportunities,” he said jokingly, but he does acknowledge that there are various obstacles to overcome globally. “I don’t think enough money is being spent for education and I think there’s a great expectation for teachers to do more with less.”

The typical day for Professor Doyle, he says, can be summed up in five words: “there is no typical day.” But a daily routine begins with making coffee, preparing a class lesson and feeding his cats – two white Persians named Jasper and Juniper. He then goes to teache a class and might direct a play until the late afternoon or early evening. His hobbies include gardening, bicycling and reading, but “I don’t work with power tools.”

The future holds new events for Professor Doyle. He hopes to gain tenure at Lehman College and in order to do so, he is in the process of getting published. He wants to “branch out” in writing and directing. His final words to a group of reporters, delivered in his characteristically comedic manner, were, “Well, I hope you’ll come and see the show!”

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Behind the Scenes

August 4, 2005 Lehman college- It’s nearly 11:00 a.m. and members of the Visual Elements class of the College Now program seem both calm and restless as their classmates present their projects. The students have created collages that represent the costumes and personalities of the characters in the production of “Kids Don’t Come with Instruction Manuals” a play that will be performed by the students of the Theatre class. The presentations seem to drag on and one student is even sleeping in the back of the class.

CUT! Let’s fast forward to the afternoon session of the class. The students sit in the Lovinger Theatre and watch as the actors do a run-through of the performance. The students have been told to make mental notes of how certain characters should be dressed, how their make-up should look, and flaws in the run-through.

All summer and this is all they are doing?? The truth is that the students have actually been experimenting with make-up and design all summer, creating burns, scars, bruises, and learning the basics of stage make-up, practicing applying the make up on each other and on the actors. However, as the production draws closer, their main focus has been to incorporate all of their work and practice with the Theatre class and its production.

In the Visual Elements class, many students found themselves learning things that they did not realize were considered a part of make-up in theater. Throughout the weeks of the program, the class has learned how make-up is more than lipstick and powder. “We learned how to use stage make-up, how we can create different things like making masks and using blood, doing burns and bruises, scars and all that and we learned how to, like, use it on the actors,” said one student.

The class has been very hands-on. They’ve spent most of the time practicing, as opposed to studying. “Make-up is acquired by applying it and playing with it,” says Professor Osnat Greenbaum. “By doing it again and again not by me standing in front of you and talking about it. That is obvious to everybody.”

Along with learning the mechanical skills needed for the visual elements, such as creating burns and masks, the students also learned that patience is needed as well, and that in theater, acting is not the biggest part.

“I learned that theater is not just for actors there’s a lot of people that work for the production as well like make up people, the writing people and a whole bunch of stuff,” says Ana, a girl from the class.

The Visual Arts class has changed a lot, especially with their feelings about the class. Jermain Cameron, the only boy in the class, said earlier in an interview that he had taken this class since he did not want to really do any hard work. Now, when asked how he felt about the whole experience, he said “Well I feel like I have gained more information about make-up, I don’t feel funny putting it on my face and its natural and it’s not only for girls.”

“It’s a lot of work,” another student added. “I never thought it was so much work, it’s a lot of work you got to do research, you got to make sure everything is perfect to the detail, you have to know not just your own work but everyone else’s, in case they are not there. Its just too much. You just have to have lot of patience for that.”

“I learned that theater is not just for actors, there are a lot of people who work for the production as well as make-up people, the writing people and a whole bunch of stuff,” said Anna, another member of the class.

Over the summer, the Visual Elements class has been working in coordination with the Theater class on the upcoming production of “Kids Don’t Come with Instruction Manuals” for the Summer Arts Festival. They read the script and observed the manner in which the actors will be performing, so they can have a better understanding of characters for visual purposes. Visual Elements students have been practicing diligently and they’re looking forward to testing their newfound skills in the big show. The show, which will be the first of such for many of these youngsters, should be a night to remember for these teens for years to come.

Lights, Camera, Action!
By: Stephanie Sanchez, Darah Phillip, and Merlys Alberto.

The lights in the Make-Up room are shining brightly, making the room hot and stuffy. But the heat and glaring lights don’t seem to bother the woman sitting in the middle of it all – Osnat Greenbaum,48. It almost seems as if she is at ease and comfortable in this kind of environment. She sits there basking in the lights, dressed casually, with hair casually pulled back into a simple ponytail, and funky charm bracelets dangling from her wrists. She’s laid back seems herself to be glowing.

Greenbaum is a mother, actress, teacher, director, and make-up artist. During the day, she is the professor for the Visual Elements of Theater class in the College Now program at Lehman College of the City of New York. At night, she is an actress and director for The Absinthe-Minded Theater Company. And when she is not teaching, directing, or acting, Greenbaum is the loving mother to two children. Oh, yeah, and she is also enrolled in Hunter College of the City University of New York, where she is receiving her masters in Theater. As you can see she can multitask.

“A lot of aspects in my life are great; I’m not complaining,” Greenbaum told a group of reporters. Greenbaum is a very distinctive person. She was born, raised, and educated in Israel, arriving in the United States at the age of 20. Unlike her, her husband and two kids where born in the U.S.

Greenbaum didn't aspire to be a teacher when she was a child. However, she admits that she feels good when imparting information to others. "I look at it with great reverence," she says, regarding her teaching. Her goal is not only to teach her students. "My aim is not to teach, but to spark," she says. She wants to get her students interested in what she is most interested in: theater. She draws many parallels between teaching and being in theater, saying that each class is like a performance. Also, it can very tedious and you need to get everyone on the same page.
When Greenbaum is not teaching or on stage, she enjoys hobbies like ballet, cooking, and traveling. When asked what she would do if she weren’t teaching, she said, “I’d probably be tanning in the Hamptons. But don’t write that!”

Greenbaum is a polyglot, speaking Hebrew and English fluently and being proficient in Italian and French. “Theater is like a foreign language,” she offered. “You have a lot to learn about it.”
As for retiring, Greenbaum says she hasn’t really given it much thought. “I’ll probably read a lot, do theater as much as I can,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what form it is – gardening, a lot of crosswords, and traveling. I just want to be healthy.”

"At the end of it everyone is working like a well-oiled machine," Greenbaum concluded.

Who is Dr. Martin Zwiren?

Dr. Martin Zwiren is the athletic director at Lehman College. We interviewed him at the conference room in the APEX building at Lehman College.

Q. How many years have you been here at Lehman College?
I have been here about 11 years. I came here to open the APEX building.

Q. What does APEX stand for?
It stands for Athletic and Physical Education Complex and I take ownership of that name. (Answers the question very proudly)

Q. What school did you go to?
I went to the University of Dayton, Ohio, where I got my undergraduate degree. I went to Temple University at Philadelphia for my master’s. I got my doctorate degree at Fordham University. (Questions us whether we have heard of Fordham University. We reply yes of course.)

Q. Are you yourself an athlete?
I played football in high school and I ran the track but I wasn’t that good for college level so I just concentrated on my studies.

Q. What did you major in college?
I majored in physical education. I got my master’s degree and doctorate in school administration and supervision.

Q. Where did you work before you came to Lehman?
I worked at Fordham University as an assistant athletic director.

Q. What does your current job currently entail as an athletic director?
I am the athletic director, which means I am responsible for all the 17 varsity teams, all of the 35 coaches, and for managing this facility.

Q. What types of sports do these coaches coach?
We have eight women sports, seven men sports, and cheerleading.

Q. Speaking of women, what do you feel of women in sports?
Women over the last 20 years have really made tremendous strides in sports. They have some very good women athletes. (His face is very straightforward)

Q. What do you like most about your job?
I like the interaction with people. I like seeing things that you have as a dream come to reality. I like managing this building and the income production of the building. I like people coming from the outside and seeing what a beautiful facility we have and coming back every year. The most rewarding thing of my job is the interaction with people, managing this building, and overseeing the varsity teams.

Q. If you weren’t here, where would you be right now?
(Thinks for a moment and with a laugh answers…)I would probably be out on my boat in Arizona. I don’t know. If I wasn’t here I would be enjoying myself. I would probably be in Dominican Republic.

Q. Why doesn’t Lehman College have a football team? (Everyone in the room laughs.)
Well…it’s not Lehman College. It’s the City University of New York. None of the city universities have football as a sport.

Q. What do you feel about this?
I feel this is the right decision. Football is very expensive. There are over 70 kids on the roster. A single helmet will cost over $250. A lot of players get hurt and we would have to pay for that. There are no fields and/or stadiums for it.

Q. Is there any activity or sport that you think should be added to the APEX?
I would like to have women’s soccer and I think that would be a great addition. However we need the women at Lehman to come and say that we want a women’s soccer team.

Q. So how come you don’t put it out there so that the girls can…(interrupted by the director)?
We do! We put it out there and the students have to go out there and get their fellow students to play. We have the field for it.

Q. What are the most popular sports teams here?
The most popular sports teams here are the women’s and men’s basketball teams.
That’s the two sports where we get the spectator attendance.

Q. Is the basketball team “division one”?
No, we are division three. Lehman College and all the other city university are NCAA division three.

Q. What does that mean?
That means no scholarships for sports.

Q. Why is that?
Those are the rules of the NCAA.

Q. What is the NCAA?
The National Collegiate Athletic Association.

Q. Did you ever have to face any obstacles as the athletic director here?
Well, the main thing is always the budget, budget, and where is the budget? That is the main obstacle here. You want the teams to succeed. You want the coaches to succeed. You want the people to get paid, travel, and have good clothes and uniforms and all of this takes money. Sometimes Lehman doesn’t have the money but we try to do the best we can.
End of interview.
Dr. Martin Zwiren was interviwed by Stephanie Sanhcez, Pratik Shah, Darah Phillip, Merlys Alberto, Chris Chalmers, Gallia Kassiano, and Rachel Sanhchez.

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Public Safety, Safe or Not

By: Abu Ali, Brian Choi, Angeline Deschamps and Atanu Roy


“The campus here is an open campus,” said Mr. Fausto Ramirez, assistant director of the public safety unit at Lehman College in the Bronx. “Anybody can walk in and out of here.” It’s very possible for just anyone to come in on campus and start making trouble. Are the public safety officers ready to take control of any outrageous situation that might arise?

Ramirez explained how the public safety department works during times of emergency. There is a coordinator for each building and a specific coordinator for each floor, both of whom respond to urgent situations and alerts from other officers. The coordinators carry safety kits that contain a respirator, a flashlight, water, a blanket and a nightlight. To prevent false alarms, “We check [the contents] first before we evacuate,” Ramirez said.

How did a mild-mannered gentleman come to be the Man in Charge of such a high-stress department? Ramirez had his share of unusual jobs, beginning with his first, which was at McDonald’s. He became interested in public safety due to the influences of his family and friends. His brother is an officer in the New York Police Department, as are a couple of his friends.
“Before I got this position, I was in a position where I could have gone to NYPD,” Ramirez said. “As a matter of fact, I started off as a regular patrol officer. I just worked my way up the ranks.”
Ramirez attended John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Upon graduation, he worked at a company called Burns International as a security guard. Eventually, he made his way to Lehman and the public safety division.

The most memorable incident on campus that Mr. Ramirez recalls is one in which a girl claimed to have been sexually assaulted. The case was treated very seriously. After many investigations, the girl confessed that she made the incident up. It turned out that the girl “had a mental illness.”
More routine disturbances included officers making arrests for weapons’ possession. But, despite the seemingly harrowing tales, Ramirez insists that the campus is safe for the public.

After work, Ramirez likes to cook. If he were not in the public safety field, he would have become a chef, he says. On his spare time, he coaches a little league team and considers himself, very sarcastically, “the only Mets fan in the Bronx.” Mr. Ramirez also likes biking and dogs. He’s married with children. The oldest, following in his father’s footsteps, wants to attend John Jay.

Ramirez is satisfied with his position as assistant director, but the ambitious Nuyorican aspires to direct his own security unit one day. He would do well to take his own advice, given to those who want to enter the public safety field: “Do it, just do it,” Ramirez says.
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Where does Bias Begin and End?
By Kristen Wallace

Control Room, directed by Jehane Noujaim, is a documentary that illustrates the perspective Iraqi news channel, Al Jazeera, has on the war in Iraq. Control Room makes the point that depending on where a news channel is located, the news is going to be portrayed with even the slightest bit of bias.

Americans are given a somewhat romanticized view of the war in Iraq. American news channels tend to portray America as the great liberator of the Iraqi people and the war as a virtuous and necessary evil. On the other hand, Al Jazeera depicts the war as a cruel, corrupt, and unnecessary exercise in American bullying. During the news on this Arab channel, which is the most popular in the Middle East, clips are shown of innocent civilians killed or injured by American troops.

Control Room shows that not only American news channels are biased. Over recent years FOX news has been mocked for its biased view on the war, but when watching the film the viewer realizes that AL Jazeera is biased in its perspective on the war as well.

Overall, Control Room was an enlightening film. It is interesting to see the scenes from the war that American news stations won’t show, though they are heartrending and sometimes difficult to watch. The American population should watch a film like Control Room so that they will have a clearer idea of the unromanticized view of the war.
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Review of Control Room
By Ana Figuereo

This simple documentary directed by Jehane Nouijaim has opened the eyes of many to the world of journalism, specifically that which is practiced in the Arab world. Control Room did a great job of showing how the “other side” coversthe war. The Untied States showed American soldiers being heroic, suggesting to the American public that the soldiers indeed had a duty to be in Iraq. While Al Jazeera, the most popular news channel in the Arab world, showed the images and stories that the United States didn’t want the world to see. They were bold enough to show gruesome images of their injured and outraged civilians. These strong images made the film at times uncomfortable, but they are the reality of what was happening at the time that made your eyes not want to blink. Jehane Nouijaim did a good job of representing both views without becoming biased. It’s a great documentary that makes people more aware of what they are watching.

On the Outs

Judy Marte (Oz), Paola Mendoza (Marisol), and Anny Mariano (Suzette) are three young women at risk in the film “On the Outs.”

Ever wonder what happens in a crime infested neighborhood? Or, better yet, how an average substance abuser goes through the day? In the movie, "On the Outs," there are all kinds of mishaps that take place. As an average movie, you will probably look for a good old fashioned ending. But "On the outs" will definitely leave the ending up to you. It's unpredictable and catches your attention straight from the beginning.

-- Arthur Sanders

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Movie Review: “On the Outs”

By Arthur Sanders

I never really watched a movie that didn’t have a great ending, or reminded me of my life. A couple of days ago, I got the chance to see a great movie which was called “On the Outs.” The movie basically was about a trio of teenage girls from New Jersey. The teenage girls went in and out of trouble. It was like I was actually there with the teenage girls. That’s how realistic the movie seemed to me. “On The Outs” isn’t your average movie. The movie took me from watching how a substance abuser lives their life to seeing how a drug dealer functions throughout the day.

The movie also showed scenes in which the girls featured in the movie were being held in prison for three different crimes. One girl was charged with possession of a fire arm, the next girl was being charged with having illegal drugs on her, and the last girl was being charged with distribution. Viewers also got the chance to see how the girls carried on with their lives after prison. You would think the girls got the message from spending time in jail, but that’s only for fairy tales. All of the girls went back to where they left off prior to being arrested.

Sometimes when a person has every intention of starting a new life, better than their old one, it can be kind of hard. From my point of view, drugs can be very powerful at times. For example, one of the teenage girls that was locked up for having illegal drugs on her, also had a daughter. While she was in jail, her daughter got taken by the state for better care. In the process, the mother was supposed to stay clean of drugs for at least a year. Being that she was so addicted to drugs, stopping became the hardest thing for her to do. Drugs proved to be more important then her daughter.

Toward the end of the movie, the brother of one of the girls passes away. On top of that, her mother, who was supposed to have checked herself into a rehab, decided she wasn’t going to anymore. I guess due to all these mishaps, the teenage girl just got tired of drugs and throws all her drugs into the ocean – drugs she would otherwise have sold to other people like herself.

“On the Outs” is a great movie. It kept me on the edge of my sit and I’m sure it will do the same for you.

-Arthur Sanders

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"On The Outs" of Jersey City Streets

By Taryn McLean

"On The Outs," directed by Micheal Skolnik, is a movie portrayed in real terms. There's no Cinderella ending. These teenage girls were what you can call “products of their environment.” Raised on the drug-infested streets of Jersey City, N.J., Oz, Suzette and Marisol were put in the same predicaments many young girls of our society face today. Oz came from a broken family. She and her younger mentally ill brother (Chewy) were raised by their grandmother. Since there was no father figure and their mother had a bad drug habit, Oz got caught up in the streets, going in and out of juvenile detention centers. She later learned to leave the streets alone after her mental breakdown from her brother's fatal asthma attack and her mother's refusal to go to drug rehab.

Suzette is the typical teenager who went to high school and is into boys. Like the saying goes, “moms always know best.” Suzette opposes this saying. She is involved with a much older guy who is a drug dealer and is somewhat manipulating her. Refusing to listen to her mother and break it off with Terrell, she later finds herself locked up in a detention center, facing a gun charge because she did Terrell a favor and held his gun which he previously used to shoot and kill a "stickup kid." To top it off, she becomes pregnant with his baby. When she is released and put on house arrest, she stubbornly leaves the house to look for Terrell. This results in Suzette getting locked up again for violating house arrest. Finally, she realizes all along that her mom was right, Terrell wasn't the guy she thought he was.

Marisol, meanwhile, is a crack-addicted teenage mother who doesn’t care about her life or that of her daughter. Along with the other two girls – who Marisol meets in the detention center – she is locked up for drug abuse. Marisol never learns her lesson, even after being locked up, having her daughter put in a foster home and seeing her grandmother put in the Intensive Care Unit after suffering a stroke. When she is released from detention, Marisol’s cravings for crack kick in again, and she goes in pursuit of the drug.

Micheal Skolnik did a great job of depicting the daily struggles of some young women of color. He showed that everyone’s life doesn't always have a happy ending and how lucky some kids are to have supportive families.

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On the Outs is in the Real World

By Michelle Yakobson

On the Outs is a striking film portraying the lives of three Jersey City girls who fall victim to drugs, unprotected sex, and some pretty bad life decisions. Directed by Michael Skolnik and Lori Silverbush, On the Outs uses local, on-the-street filming to capture the raw reality of life in a poor and coke-infested neighborhood. Despite an occasional cheesy scene or two, Skolnik’s film is biting and unembellished— a pleasant break from mislabeled depictions of drama in urban slums.

Co-Creator/Actress Paola Mendoza, along with co-stars Judy Marte and Anny Mariano, play three young women named Marisol, Oz, and Suzette, respectively. Marisol is a crack-cocaine addict, whose sickly great-aunt watches over Marisol’s young toddler while Marisol walks around the streets in search of a fix. When Marisol gets put in prison one time too many, a social worker takes her daughter, Autumn, away from her and explains that Autumn’s only options are temporary foster care or permanent adoption. Oz’s role in the drug world are somewhat different. She is a street corner drug dealer, whose experiences in jail finally help her realize the suffering she and her cellmates inflict upon their loved ones. Her doped-up mother almost joins a support group, but falls back to her dope when her mentally ill son passes away from an asthma attack. Finally, Suzette is a 15-year-old who becomes easily charmed by a local drug dealer. Pregnant and desperate, Suzette runs away and ends up under house arrest upon her return. Her desperation to see her “boyfriend” puts her in jail for the second time. The movie ends with all of these women’s stories unresolved and unexplained.

The movie itself is decently acted, though there are several unconvincing moments. Because the language is so stereotypical, there is a slight sense of Silverbush trying too hard to make her point—after all, it could not be clearer that this film is about life on the streets and its hardships. In that sense, however, the fact that this film was actually shot entirely on the streets and not in some random Hollywood set adds to the realism and authenticity of the film. In addition, the sparse use of makeup on the actors takes away the glitzy, airbrushed quality of so many contemporary films. Overall, On the Outs is worth the few dollars, which will ultimately go toward the financing of more realistic movies about real, living and breathing people.

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ON THE OUTS a story of the society

By Atanu Roy

Three young girls from the same neighborhood of Jersey City meets together at the juvenile jail, but didn’t know that they are the victim of the same society, where drugs, sex, gunshot and death are the parts of the lives. The movie ON THE OUTS shows how these girls struggle with the hills and valleys of their lives but turns into frustration again and again.

The three central characters of the movies are Oz (Judy Marte), Marisol (Paola Mendoza) and Suzette (Anny Mariano). Oz is a 17- years-old drug dealer who owns her corner of the street, as well as the respect of her followers, although she is a girl. Her mother had a record of taking drugs, which resulted the mental deficiency and asthma of her brother. But Oz tries to support her brother and keep her family together; despite of the cold behavior she gets from her mother and grandmother. Often she has to go to the juvenile jail, where her frequent presence established a status for her. At the end her brother dies and that affects the family members differently, her mother starts taking drugs again, but Oz decides to give up drug dealing.

Another character Marisol, a teenaged single mother, fights her way to deal with her drug addiction and maintain her family. Her dependence on drugs is so strong that she had to give away the food she bought with her last quarters for her child in change of drugs. Her going to the juvenile put her child Autumn (Autumn Collier) in foster care and Marisol cannot take the custody of her child until the court is satisfied with her life style. She becomes frustrated when she comes to know that no matter how hard she tries, she cannot have her child back within several years and she went back to drugs.

Suzette, 15, on the other hand, came from a family with love and care. But her teenage crush on a drug dealer led her first to an unexpected pregnancy, then run-away from home with him, experiencing a life of uncertainty and at last in the juvenile for carrying her boyfriend’s gun. She came home, but was locked at home by a devise fixed in her leg. But her hope about her boyfriend did dye yet. She cut off the device and went to look for him, only to find him having sex with others in change of drugs. She came back and hand herself over to the juvenile.

The story of these girls is one of the most common, but neglected scenes of our society. Director Michael Skolnik and his colleague Lori Silverbush with the co-creator Paola Mendoza (who also played the role of Marisol in the movie) tried to reveal this situation in front of our eyes. The life story of these inner-city girls makes an appeal to the viewers to think about these problems, to prevent these abuses and to ensure the safety of the future generation.

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Looking in at On The Outs

By Rachel Sanchez

I had my doubts about the movie On The Outs. I was terribly afraid that it was going to be another story about a “good girl gone crazy” (or in this case, three good girls gone crazy). However, I realized just minutes into the movie that I would be proven wrong. Immediately, I was sucked into the rough streets of Jersey City as we were introduced to three unforgettable characters.

The film begins with Suzette (Anny Mariano), a 15-year-old girl who falls in love with and eventually gets pregnant by Tyrell, a drug dealer. Suzette runs away after her mother wants her to get an abortion and goes to live with Tyrell. One day, Tyrell accidentally shoots a young boy and leaves Suzette literally holding the gun. She is caught by the police and taken to jail for possession of a weapon. Suzette eventually gets released, but is required to wear a monitoring device at all times that would alert the police whenever Suzette went out without permission. The streets are still a temptation and Suzette goes out to look for Tyrell, ripping off her monitoring device. The police catch her and Suzette is sent to jail again for a second time.

Marisol (Paola Mendoza) is a single mother who seems to love her young daughter, Autumn, very much. Yet, Marisol is a drug addict who is always looking for more drugs to get high on. One of the saddest scenes in the movie happens when Marisol gets some rice and beans for Autumn to eat. As Marisol is coming out of the restaurant, she spots drug dealers and tragically trades her daughter’s food for more drugs. She is so distraught by what she did that she gets hit by a car. Although she is alright, the police at the scene of the accident notice that Marisol is high and take her to jail. While in prison, Marisol learns that her daughter has been taken away and placed into foster care. The only way to get Autumn back is to stay off drugs for a long period of time. Marisol desperately tries to stop, but becomes so stressed by her situation that she ends up using drugs again.

Oz (Judy Marte) is a 17-year-old drug dealer who is released from jail. She gives the impression that she is a very tough, in-your-face person. However, we quickly see her soft side when she is around her mentally ill brother, Chuey. Most of the poignant scenes in the film are built around the loving and tender relationship between Oz and Chuey. Oz tries to handle a mother addicted to drugs, her brother and drug dealing all at the same time. And just like the other girls, Oz gets caught by the police while struggling to survive and is sent to prison. There, she encounters Suzette and Marisol.

The real climax of the entire movie happens after Oz comes out of prison and spends some time with Chuey on the streets. Oz sticks up for her brother during a street brawl and makes Chuey run home. All the action has caused Chuey to have a severe asthma attack without his pump ready at hand. During this heart wrenching scene, we hear Chuey gasping for air and then suddenly stop. We see darkness until Oz runs in to find her beloved brother dead. After this dramatic turning point, Oz begins to reevaluate herself. The final scene of the movie shows Oz looking at a sunrise over the New York City skyline. She reaches into her pocket and throws away her bags of drugs, symbolically burying her tragic past lifestyle. But whatever happens to these three girls is completely up to us; the ending leaves plenty of room for discussion.

Overall, the movie is beautifully shot and directed. With little music and real footage of the Jersey City streets and people, the film could easily pass as a documentary. What made this movie even more extraordinary is that it’s wretchedly real. Directors Lori Silverbush and Michael Skolnik spent time with teenagers in prison and on the streets, getting their life stories and weaving them together to create On The Outs. Each teen they talked to believed she or he had nothing to offer. But Skolnik believes that everybody has a unique story to tell and making a movie like this one helps share those exceptional stories.

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A Classic Story

By: Kristen Wallace

On the Outs, directed by Lori Silverbush and Michael Skolnik, is an independent film that depicts the life of three troubled teenage girls who live in the ghetto of Jersey City.

The girls, Suzette, Marisol, and Oz, live what some may call the typical ghetto life. Suzette is impregnated by a drug dealer and then runs away from home to be with him. Marisol is a teenage mother with a nasty cocaine habit. Oz is a drug dealer who is repeatedly incarcerated. Throughout the film, the girls suffer life altering and devastating experiences that either guide them to a new path where their old lifestyle is no longer appealing or lead them back to their old habits.

The directors do not want you to experience just one emotion when watching this film. There are scenes during the film when the audience sympathizes with the characters, scenes when the audience laughs, and scenes when the audience may want to throw something at the movie screen in anger or disappointment.

“I feel that sometimes [when we watch films] we are bullshitted or fed on a silver spoon on how we’re supposed to feel” said Skolnik.

To make the stories of the three girls more authentic, the directors talked to incarcerated teens from the Hudson County Detention Center. They asked the girls of Hudson County to tell their life stories growing up in Jersey City. They then adapted their stories to the film. In fact, On the Outs is so authentic that all three main characters (and some of the supporting actors) actually exist and the whole movie was shot in Jersey City.

Unlike other films where there seems to be an underlying moral, On the Outs simply wants to tell the story of three inner city girls.

“All my films are about people who don’t get the chance to tell their own story,” said Skolnik. “This story’s a classic story…”
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Girls gone wild
By: Stephanie Sanchez

On the outs directed by Lori Silverbush and Michael Skolnik is a dramatic narrative based on the actual stories of three girls from the streets. Suzette (Anny Mariano), Marisol (Paola Mendoza), and Oz (Judy Marte), all come from the mean streets of Jersey City and at one point all of their paths cross when they all wind up in a juvenile penitentiary. Watching these girls in “juvie” you would probably consider them all the same, but they all have incredible stories you would never even think of.

The film introduces the character of Suzette first. Suzette, while at first portrayed as the innocent, sheltered, 15-year-old, is soon lured into a life of drug dealing and crime by her older boyfriend, Terrell. Once Suzette finds out that she is pregnant with Terrell’s child, she runs away from home and is forced to jump from house to house with her boyfriend and unborn child. When Suzette is told by Terrell to hold a gun for him, it is then that she is “busted” for gun possession, ending up in her being sent straight to “juvie.”

There is where she encounters Oz and Marisol. Oz is a strong, respected, drug dealer on her street corner. Oz becomes a regular in juvie and gains a strong reputation. But drugs are not the only thing that Oz deals. She must also deal with a mentally retarded brother, a crackhead mother, and christian grandmother who has something to say about everything. Oz tries hard to keep her hustle flowing and keep her family together, but both seem to repeatedly fail her and juvie becomes her second home.

Marisol is the next victim of the streets who is introduced to the audience. At first glance, Marisol seems a loving mother to her young daughter, singing her songs and playing in the playground with her. However once Marisol knows that her daughter is safe with her aunt, she goes on a mission to get high. Marisol begs drug dealers regularly to get her daily hits, and at one point stoops to more degrading levels to get her hits. However, getting sent to juvie gives Marisol an immediate wake-up call, especially when she finds out that her daughter may be sent away to foster care, or even worse, adoption.

Silverbush and Skolnik do an excellent job of portraying the true feelings and emotions of these distressed young girls. The film has the look and feel of a documentary, just with a narrative. There’s no fancy make-up, no proper hairstyles, no high fashion clothes. The characters wear clothes that real people in the “ghetto” wear: Baby Phat, Pepe, Ecko-red. These characters ARE the streets. Silverbush and Skolnik also do a great job of using the scenery around them. The film uses no sets, just streets. What you see in the film is the real thing and that vibe that the scenery gives off adds more authenticity to the film. Even Skolnik said “the community embraced us.” As if the characters and scenery didn’t do their best in portraying the authenticity, the title itself came from a phrase that the young girls in juvie actually used. The girls in the penitentiary used the phrase “on the outs” to refer to life outside of their four walls. “The girls would tell me ‘Yo, could you say hi to ma boy ‘on the outs’ for me?’” said Skolnik.
On the outs brings the true stories and true emotions of these three girls to the screen in a way that no film has ever done.

ROOM 122 Responds to a Visit from Gloria Altieri, subject of a July 26th article by David Gonzales in the New York Times.Read Gonzales’ article.

Clearer Outlook

By Rachel Sanchez

Often, after reading an article in a newspaper or magazine, we’re
left with several questions and doubts. I know I have wondered why a
writer wrote this instead of that, or why the writer even bothered to
include certain facts and details at all.

After reading David Gonzales’ article in the New York Times about
healthcare in the Bronx, there were many questions and comments floating around amongst us. Luckily, Gloria Altieri, featured in the article, came to speak to us and answer anything we asked her. I felt that Ms. Altieri’s visit was very helpful and made certain parts of the article much clearer.

Many of us believed that it was a little weird for Mr. Gonzales to
focus so much on Ms. Altieri when it was supposed to be about healthcare
services. It should have instead discussed more about her injured
employee, Yvonne Pagan. To my surprise, Ms. Altieri felt the same. “I was a little taken aback by the article. I had wished it would focus more on Yvonne,” Ms. Altieri said.

Ms. Altieri also thought it was strange for Mr. Gonzales to drop in
the comment about other workers referring to Ms. Pagan as “bullethead.”
This was also another line that raised a little red flag for me. It gave
a light-hearted tone to a very serious issue and I was relieved to know
that Ms. Altieri felt the same.

But the article has motivated Ms. Altieri to keep on working for Bronx
patients’ rights. She will get help from the Bronx District Attorney to
further push this case into the spotlight. Ms. Altieri knows it’s a
complicated issue but she knows that anything is possible if you work hard
to achieve it.

Although Ms. Altieri has faced a few challenges in the Bronx, she
refuses to leave. She lovingly describes the Bronx as a place where you can find “people who take care of each other and support each other. It’s
so special. Why would you want to leave that?”

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New York City Healthcare

By: Kristen Wallace

On June 28, 2005, Gloria Altieri came to speak to my College Now class to speak about poor healthcare in the Bronx. Due to distressing incidents that her friends and co-workers experienced, she believed that healthcare in the Bronx is inferior to healthcare received in other boroughs, especially in Manhattan. Having never personally experienced unsatisfying healthcare of any kind in the city I wondered if healthcare in the Bronx was really that appalling or if poor healthcare was a citywide problem. To answer my question I interviewed my mother, a registered nurse who works in Manhattan, about New York City healthcare.

Q: Do you believe New York City healthcare is inadequate?
A: As it is nationwide, poor people, people without health insurance, and the elderly living on social security, are at a disadvantage in New York City.

Q: So you believe that inadequate healthcare is not only a problem in New York City, but throughout the United States as well?
A: Yes. For a developed country, America’s healthcare sucks. There are health indicators that determine how well a country’s healthcare is doing. Compared to other developed countries, America is rated the lowest in most of them.

Q: What are some of those indicators in which America is rated the lowest?
A: They include infant mortality rates, the amount of patients that go to the Emergency Room for non-emergency illnesses, and life expectancy. This makes no sense, since America spends the most money on healthcare. What I want to know is where this money goes.

Q: Do you believe that healthcare in the Bronx is more inadequate than healthcare received in Manhattan?
A: Yes, especially in the South Bronx where the poorest people and the wide majority of the underprivileged live.

Q: Why?
A: It’s a vicious cycle in this area. A lot of people have little or no insurance so you find them going to the Emergency Room for non-emergency care because that’s the only way they can get healthcare.

Q: What do you believe might be the cause of poor healthcare in the Bronx?
A: One thing that causes all of this is the nursing shortage [in New York City]. Sometimes there’s an assembly line thing going on where you can’t meet the patient at a humanistic level. There you have a decrease in quality of care. Also, although you have this threat of pain and suffering lawsuits, [hospitals] don’t see these poor people [that live in the Bronx] as a threat. Another problem is that in the Emergency Room people are being asked in a subtle way if they have health insurance and in a way this affects their healthcare. [If they do not have health insurance] hospital staff won’t give them proper care because they don’t want to get fired.

Q: So do you think that national free healthcare would solve this problem?
A: Yes, but American politicians don’t want to take the risk in providing national healthcare by pushing out all these big name insurance companies.

Q: So what would be another solution?
A: Hospitals are [currently] getting grants for their employees to have mandatory in-services on cultural competence and “customer service.” These are geared towards improving the quality of healthcare in order to eliminate healthcare disparity.

The Story That Wasn’t Told

By Zorana Kesar

Bronx, July 28 – Gloria Altieri, education director at Easter Seals Child Development Center, a social service organization in the South Bronx,stood in front of the journalism class at the LehmanCollege Now Program, ready for questions and eager totell her story. The woman who at first glance seemedto have a tough exterior quickly proved she was asoft-hearted and caring individual. Her story was farmore intriguing than a news article about her that appeared the NewYork Times would suggest. There was so much more to Ms.Altieri thatthe New York Times reporter, David Gonzales, failed toreport. The more she talked about her life at EasterSeals, the more the students understood thefrustration Ms.Altieri feels with Bronx healthcare andthe treatment her friends receive at the hand of healthcare providers and administrators.

Ms.Altieri was quick to express her love for theBronx and all the people in it. “Being here is absolute heaven,” she said. The men and women she met in theBronx are, in her opinion, “amazing.” Ms. Altieri also mentioned that the loyalty she’s witnessed amongst thewomen in the Bronx, “doesn’t happen anywhere.”

As the conversation, which included comments from the students as well as Ms. Altieri’s, went along, the students got a more detailed description of what Easter Seals was all about and what made this program so dearto Ms. Altieri’s heart. Working as the educationdirector at this program, she gets to play, learn, andteach “autistic” babies between the ages of 18 months to3 year olds.

The smile on Ms. Altieri’s face warmed myheart because it showed how much these babies meant to her. It was a meeting that gave us, thestudents, an insight into Ms. Altieri’s life and thestruggles she faces on a daily basis. I’ve learned alot about her personality and who she is as a person.The passion she has for her work and helping herfriends is obvious just by listening to the way shespeaks about those subjects. The meeting with Ms.Altieri finished with success and she told everyone,“Come and visit sometime.”
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For Social Workers, Bronx is Home

By Michelle Yakobson

Education Director Gloria Altieri, a social worker at the Easter Seals Child Development Center on 167th Street, paid a visit to the College Now journalism class at Lehman College on Thursday, July 28th to respond to an article by David Gonzalez of the New York Times called “In Bronx, a Fight for Health and Dignity.”

Gloria describes working with special education students as her “biggest joy,” and traces back her motivation to the learning problems endured by her eldest son— who now works in Hollywood and collaborated with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on the movies Ray and Collateral Damage. The dream-come-true of recovery displayed by Gloria’s son inspired her to work with babies who come from abusive backgrounds, right here in the Boogie-down Bronx.

“Services in the Bronx,” Gloria said, “are not up to par.” Why, then, do Gloria and other reputable social workers, choose to work in a borough that has less-than-perfect standards?

“I work here because of the people,” Gloria said with a smile. She describes her coworkers as a great support system that she “would never leave.” Gloria has met men and women who have changed her life, including her coworker, Yvonne Pagan. Ms. Pagan, who was shot in her neighborhood and thus suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, encountered despicable behavior when seeking help at a Bronx hospital. The drawn-out waiting time and apathy at Lincoln Medical Center were “big problems” in the eyes of Ms. Altieri.

Pagan is certainly not the only Bronxite to suffer from unfair treatment during a time of crisis. At the end of April this year, my mother was crossing a street during a green light in her favor, bringing a shopping cart full of groceries home. As she crossed, my mother saw a sanitation truck headed in her direction, but before she could move away, it drove straight into her shopping cart. The impact caused her to fall onto her shoulder and roll down the pavement, while the life-saving cart was crushed under the vehicle. She quickly stood up and asked the driver if she could call my father, but he curtly said he would compensate for the damages with twenty dollars and nobody would have to know what happened. Of course, my mother found a pay-phone and phoned my father. In turn, he called 9-1-1 and the EMT quickly arrived on the scene. Following her drop-off at the hospital, my mother was notified that nothing but inflammation was detectable at the time, and an MRI would be necessary to assess any sort of serious damage. She hastily filled out the forms for insurance purposes, hoping that her pain could be eased as soon as possible. Three weeks later, after going for a checkup, my mother accidentally saw the untouched forms still lying in her medical folder.

When she complained to the secretary of the office about total lack of regard for her dire situation, the secretary kept replying with a shrug and a “this isn’t my job” excuse. There was not a single receptionist who would speak to my mother about what occurred, and every person just referred her to another indifferent individual. Finally, my mother saw her doctor and explained the situation; without an apology, he threw the quickly-scribbled-on forms on her lap and quickly escorted her out of his office. Because of the protracted response time of the New York City Department of Health, my mother’s MRI was conducted only last week. She had to wait an absurd three months to find out if she might have a very serious medical condition.

Like Ms. Altieri, my entire family was incredibly disappointed with the inattention of the healthcare providers in our local Bronx hospital. However, we are very dedicated to local institutions and their improvement. Like Ms. Altieri, my sister is a social worker who practices in the distressed South Bronx. And for the same reason as Altieri, too— the people and the experience. “There is nothing more fulfilling,” my sister said with a grin, “than knowing you changed someone’s life for the better. Especially when that person has a hard time coming across someone who will.”

Gloria Altieri’s Visit
By: Angeline Deschamps

Recently, the New York Times posted an article about bad health care in the Bronx. Gloria Altieri was the main focus of the article, although that's not how she wished the piece was written.

Ms. Altieri confessed that she had an agreement as to what was going to be in the article and who it was going to be about. Apparently, David Gonzales had other views about the article. Ms. Altieri wanted the main focus to be Yvonne Pagan, the woman who got shot by a stray bullet and received poor medical assistance at Lincoln Hospital. No one cleaned her wound; the nurses told Ms. Altieri that that “was not their job.” Yvonne got shampoo and giant rolls of paper towels from a nurse and told to take a shower herself.

Another issue that bothered Ms. Altieri was that none of the positive aspects of her job or the parents and children she works with were discussed in the article. She said that every one at Easter Seals takes care of each other. What hurt Ms. Altieri was to see how races – Latinos and African Americans – treat their own with disrespect and no compassion as illustrated in the incident at Lincoln Hospital.

A few readers agree that the article was missing elements that the article promises. The article was written to talk about health care problems in the Bronx and it ended telling us about the downs of Ms. Altieri's job. There was no further analysis on the health care topic; in fact the only valuable example given was Yvonne's situation.

Personally, I think that Ms. Altieri could try harder to fight for health care in the Bronx because in the article she said that she has to take her people to hospitals in Manhattan. Why is she taking people out of the Bronx instead of helping the Bronx?

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The Truth Behind Gloria Altieri
By: Darah Phillip

Our meeting with Gloria Altieri the afternoon of the 28th showed me that journalists don’t always write to please the subject of the article, but often to achieve their own goals. Ms. Altieri revealed that when she saw the article, she was surprised and not completely pleased. She had hoped the article would be more about Yvonne Pagan, who was shot in the head, instead of being a confusing piece about her and others that she knew. Although everything in the article was true, it was presented in a way that did not justify Altieri’s desire for an article to be written.

Speaking with Ms. Altieri, we got the chance to further understand her situation. She gave more reasons for why she would stay in the Bronx, saying that it’s because of the people and “the life lessons I have learned here.” After speaking with her, it was much easier to understand her situation since the article did not make it clear. She explained how she runs a special-ed preschool in the South Bronx, and how difficult it is for many of the parents since they have to deal with rudeness when they go to doctors or social care offices. She also explained the appeal of working in the South Bronx, which is often about women helping women. The positive attitude of her workplace, Eastern Seals Child Development Center, keeps her coming back, day after day, despite the challenges.

This meeting proved that stories often get twisted, and the only way to know the complete truth is to get it from the source itself.
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Is it racism, or simple stupidity?
By Abu Ali

A bullet wound to the head would most likely kill a person. But not Yvonne Pagan, who was
shot near her house by a stray bullet. Gloria Altieri, who runs a child development center in the Bronx, tried to seek proper help for Pagan, but to no avail, and later claimed that if Pagan had been white, she would be treated humanely. Altieri loves the children in her development center. She says that they are, "the sweetest" kids she knows. Altieri said that she learned lessons from these kids that she wouldn't have learned elsewhere.

"I'm not questioning the medical care that she got, I'm questioning the care that she got," Altieri said. Altieri believes that the fact that Pagan was of Hispanic descent caused her to be treated poorly. "All the nurses and doctors were white," said Altieri, and she believes that that issue was the cause of Pagan's poor treatment. Altieri is trying to deliver fair treatments for all people in Bronx hospitals. However this will be a long process that in the end will benefit everyone in the city.

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“The Real Deal With Gloria” Altieri
By: Cris Chalmers

By no means did The New York Times article do justice to the head of Easter
Seals Child Development Center founder Gloria Altieri. In a group interview with Ms.
Altieri, we found out the real deal. Ms. Gloria Altieri, 52, is a Puerto Rican Bronx native. She is the head of the Easter Seals Child Development Center on Rev. James A. Polite avenue in the Bronx. The kids in the center are split into three groups according to age: from 18 months to three years, three to five years, and special education teenagers in the afternoons. Children
are not the only people Ms. Altieri is trying to help though. According to her, the hospitals need help too.

When an assistant to Ms. Altieri named Yvonne Pagan was shot outside her building one night, Pagan was taken to Lincoln Hospital. It was there that Ms. Pagan got some very lack-luster treatment. “They didn’t even clean the wound,” said Ms. Altieri. The hospital did not treat Ms. Pagan properly. This led Ms. Altieri to try and get hospital policies changed. Ms. Altieri soon found that her friend Yvonne was only one of her many employees to be treated in the same way at Bronx hospitals. Ms. Altieri, now on top of running the Easter Seals Child Development Center, is taking on the hospitals in hopes of getting Bronxites better treatment at the places where they need it most.

To do this Ms. Altieri sought out David Gonzales of the New York Times. She figured some exposure of the hospitals’ malpractice might lead to change and maybe it could have, had the
reporter reported the story. Instead, he talked about Ms. Altieri. Then, in the article, he touched on the hospitals for a little, then about her employees stories of nicknames and over-the-counter beatings. Had he done things how Ms. Altieri intended, maybe there would have at least been an investigation. Gloria Altieri is a woman who just wants to do right by her borough and her friends.

She is a truly kind person.

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July 28,2005-Gloria wonders anxiously why an article she wanted to be about her friend turned out to be an article about herself. The whole purpose of Gloria's interview with the New York Times was to show how her friend was shot in the back of the head and subsequently received poor medical treatment because, Altieri asserts, she was a low-income Bronx resident.
Altieri was born in the Bronx . She now runs a pre-school for kids with mental health issues. Gloria enjoys working with the children. She is very interested in making other people's lives better than her own. For example, her friend, Yvonne Pagan, who was shot in the back of the head. Gloria is now fighting to get Pagan moved out of the building in front of which she had gotten shot.

Gloria feels that if she had to start over she wouldn't change anything. There are two reasons Gloria stated that she wouldn't change. One of them was that Gloria is used to “people who don't have and are happy.” The second reason is her job at the pre-school she runs. Gloria said she totally fell in love with the kids that she works with.

She also says "how can you leave when there's still so much to do.” Gloria doesn't plan to retire from her job at the pre-school that she been running since 1992 any time soon. She still lives in the Bronx and doesn’t plan on leaving any time soon either.
-Arthur Sanders

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Gloria Altieri loves the Bronx. As a matter of fact, she wouldn't want to live anywhere else. ''I've been here for so long that it makes me want to stay here longer,'' Ms. Altieri said. She is thinking specifically of the parents and children that she comes in contact with every day at Easter Seals Child Development Center down in the South Bronx. “It's because of the people that I stay here. They're special,” she said.

However, Ms.Altieri does not have the same feelings about the healthcare provided in Bronx medical facilities.

Lack of compassion, Altieri says, is the problem plaguing Bronx medical facilities, not the actual healthcare. She feels that the attitudes that are displayed are improper and have no business being expressed in hospitals.

Ms. Altieri is particularly perplexed by the fact that it is members of her own race (she is Hispanic) that are showing this lack of care towards each other. She believes that we should all help each other out instead of thinking that we are much better than one another. ''What makes us that much different from each other? We are all just human beings and we should be treated like one,” she said.

Her response to the Bronx medical facilities health care was simple: we should all try and help each other and display positive attitudes.
-Joshua Brooks

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Ms. Gloria Altieri, Fighting for the betterment of our borough, the Bronx
By Atanu Roy

If you have ever had an awful experience in the hospitals of the Bronx, you are not the only one. The question of health and dignity in the medical system of this borough is not new for us. But how many of us are actually trying to make this situation better instead of just complaining about it? Ms. Gloria Altieri is one of the people who not only realizes the problems, but also tries her best to solve them.

On her visit to Lehman College on July 28, Altieri discussed her experiences and the difficulties of her job.

“I am used to people who don’t have, and think they are happy.” Ms. Altieri said. She runs the Easter Seals Child Development Center on the Rev. James A. Polite Avenue at the South Bronx. The recent accident of Yvonne Pagan, one of her teaching assistants, brought her face-to-face with the terrible reality of the Bronx healthcare system. Ms. Pagan was hit in the head by a stray bullet outside an apartment building last month. She went to the Lincoln Medical Center in Bronx for treatment, but eventually had to move to a Manhattan hospital. Ms. Altieri was with her throughout the ordeal, experiencing the horrifying reality of the medical system in the Bronx.

“I am not questioning the medical care she got,” she said. “I am questioning the attitude. The New York Times journalist David Gonzalez put Altieri in the limelight when his article, “In Bronx, a Fight for Health and Dignity,” was published on July 26 in the Metro section of the New York Times Altieri started her career as a teacher. She now works with Easter Seals Child Development Center, helping children to grow with all the facilities they should have. Overall, Ms. Altieri is trying to make our society a better place, not only for the present, but for the future.
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07-31-05

Gloria Altieri has been working with children who have special needs and their parents for the past 13 years. The children are autistic, or have birth defects because their mothers were alcoholics or drug abusers during pregnancy. Altieri’s main job is to help these kids relax and face their common, everyday fears. Altieri is not troubled by her job because it’s one of the enjoyable things in her life. But she is deeply disturbed by the treatment her students and their parents receive from the health profession.

On July 28th, when Altieri spoke to students in the journalism class that I am taking at Lehman College, she shared her opinions about the heath profession. She has a problem with healthcare in the Bronx, due to a personal experience. Her friend and client was treated poorly at a hospital to which she was taken after being hit by a stray bullet outside her apartment building. Her friend survived the horrible incident, but received poor treatment at the hospital. Altieri was incensed by her friend’s experience and sought to do something about it. She contacted the hospital officials and received the same treatment as her friend. She then decided to contact a reporter so that her friend’s story could be read by everyone.

In the process of recounting the events and her reaction to them, Altieri managed to offend one of the students in the class by making a biased comment. She said that if a person were white, she would receive proper treatment. The student, who is white, was offended because she too had a personal experience in which a family member received poor treatment from heath professionals, regardless of her race or color. After hearing the student’s story, Altieri defended her statement by saying that she was disappointed that people of color (the people involved in the incident were Hispanic) did not treat each other with respect.

Altieri’s meeting with the class was interesting in many ways, from the methods she used with her students, to her views of the health profession, to her opinions of who gets treated better by healthcare workers and why.

-- Samantha Seodas
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BRONX, July 28 – Education director Gloria Altieri of Easter Seas Child Development Center, a Bronx facility dedicated to helping people with disabilities, visited Lehman College to express her feelings on a recent New York Times article. The article, written by David Gonzales, was reported when Altieri felt that Yvonne Pagan, her close friend and co-worker, was neglected
during a recent emergency visit to Lincoln Medical Center. Pagan had been hit by a stray bullet near her home in the South Bronx. With her hair soaking with blood, none of the nurses helped wash Pagan. Instead, she was given shampoo and towels to wash her hair on her own.

"I'm not questioning the medical care that she got. I'm questioning
the care that she got," Altieri said.

Altieri says the negligence that exists in hospitals in New York City, primarily in the Bronx, is frustrating. However, she felt that Gonzales’ article focused more on her own job than on what happened to her friend.

Gonzales missed the mark on the article’s main point, she said. Instead of focusing on her, Gonzales should have exposed what was going on in New York City hospitals. But, even though she was disappointed by the outcome of the article, Altieri was quick to point out that nothing Gonzales wrote was a misrepresentation. “As much as I didn't like it,” Altieri said. “It didn’t misrepresent.”

Brian Choi
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Come to think of it
by Ana Figuereo

I felt my heart beat slowly and heavily as I opened my eyes from the slumber I was in. I was met with people scurrying about me, pumping my chest and counting to five. I felt fear creep up from the tips of my toes to my brain. Something was wrong. Soon the doctors stopped pumping and I was fully awake. I went into cardiac arrest after receiving the wrong dosage of Morphine, a drug used to dull pain. My mother was hysterical and I at the time didn’t understand, since I couldn’t remember what had just happened.

People say that they change after having a near death experience. I have not changed my outlook on life, but I have changed my view on Bronx Hospitals. Now I am always on alert and it’s scary to think that a person can’t truly rely on their hospital when they are in need.

I and my fellow classmates were lucky to engage in a discussion with Gloria Altieri who was mentioned in the New York Times article “In Bronx, a fight for health and dignity” by David Gonzalez.

Gloria works at Easter Seals Child Development Center in the Bronx. Her oldest child, now a successful producer in Hollywood, suffered from developmental problems growing up, and that is why Altieri chose to work with special education children. She loves working with the children and has also taught high school and college.

Altieri admits that it’s not the quality of Bronx hospitals that she questions; it’s the attitude the staff dishes out to patients. And I agree. Unfortunately, most of the staff of these hospitals are black and Hispanic. “It breaks my heart,” Gloria, who is Hispanic, said when she referred to the way visitors were treated by healthcare workers and attendants of their same race or ethnicity. The staff seems to put their own people down. I think this is the true definition of betrayal. There are immigrants in the Bronx who need help in adjusting to their surroundings and these hospitals should be the first place where they can find some solace.

I may not have experienced any attitude, but I have seen it happen. Most of the time, hospital staff seem impatient and irritated. They sometimes roll their eyes and suck their teeth when someone asks a simple question. It’s like they don’t want to help at all. It’s a shame that the hospital hires these.

“But what about her dignity?” Gloria asked when she talked about the time she tried to get help from hospital staff to clean her friend’s head wound. She talked about how her friend was given large paper towels to dry herself after her shower in the hospital bathroom. Gloria knew that “services are not up to par,” but a clean towel would have been preferred. A person’s dignity can be easily diminished in situations like these.

Dignity is what every person has and no one should feel like it’s being walked all over just because they asked a simple question or because they don’t know any English. Gloria wants everyone, especially those who think that whoever is in charge knows best, to stand up for themselves. She said that Bronxites needed to ask questions and be more aware.

Now that I think about what happened to me three years ago, I can’t help but think if I indeed needed to wake up. Would my mother have spoken against the hospital if I had died? Or would they just mark me as another notch on their bloopers belt?
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Human Rights and Medical Negligence
By Pratik Shah

There are numerous accounts of people being mistreated at hospitals in the Bronx. Personally, I think it is a crime to ignore a patient or to refuse a patient his or her rights.

Yvonne Pagan, a teaching assistant in the Bronx, was hit in the head by a stray bullet outside an apartment building on 163rd Street and Prospect Avenue on the night of June 8th while she was relaxing with her friends. She was taken to Lincoln Medical Center for treatment. Her hair was unwashed, matted, and bloody. The doctors didn’t even bother to clean her wound. When the nurse was asked to wash her hair she said that it “wasn’t her job” to do so.

The next day was hardly better for Ms. Pagan. The doctors said they didn’t want to operate on her head because they thought that the bullet fragment was difficult to reach. Doctors said it would be better to leave the bullet lodged in Pagan’s head.
Pagan was released. But her suffering had just begun.

Yvette Martinez, Pagan’s sister, is still worried about how Pagan is dealing with the emotional effects of the shooting. Martinez had to help her sister on July 4th, when fireworks led Ms. Pagan to hit the floor in panic.

And then there was the shoddy treatment Pagan received from Lincoln Medical Center. Martinez claims that she had asked the hospital to refer her sister for trauma counseling, but said that the hospital made no attempts to follow through. "It's almost like she should have been used to being shot," Ms. Martinez told David Gonzales of The New York Times. "Their attitude was so cavalier. Not the main doctor, because she was good and explained stuff. But her staff was lacking."

The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation said in a statement that Ms. Pagan received referrals and information regarding social services that she requested. Ms. Pagan is just one case of patient dissatisfaction with hospital care in the Bronx. Here in our borough, there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of cases similar to hers. Instead of prioritizing patient care, hospitals are more concerned with their profit margins. Compounding the problem is the fact that those responsible for informing citizens of their rights – the mass media – have also made profits their primary goal, above civic duty. I hope that one day both of these industries will come back to their primary objectives of helping people.