Bronx Students Investigate Transit Pricing

Why does subway fare cost what it does? Who decides?

Fifteen Bronx public high school students will investigate that issue this summer, with your help! 

Join us in making this summer youth education project possible! CUP’s project-based learning model takes students out of the classroom and into the city to ask—and answer—tough questions about how the city works. 

The students will learn how to be investigative journalists, interviewing a broad range of stakeholders — from MTA leaders to transit advocates to communities impacted by fare hikes. They will learn technical skills and work with a CUP Teaching Artist to create a short documentary about this issue that impacts all New Yorkers.

More importantly, students will learn that the places where they live are the products of decision-making, and that they can talk to decision-makers themselves and hold them accountable. And they will explore a complex issues, with many sides, and have to think critically to decide what they think about it.

As a recent student said:

“I learned how to ask questions like a reporter and I learned how to observe deeply. The project was different than a regular class because we got out of the school and we were investigating by looking with our own eyes, and the questions were being asked by us.” -Rosanny Peralta Lopez, student, Government in Plain Sight project

The students will present their final documentary short to the public in the early fall. In gratitude for your support, you will be invited to meet the students yourself, to hear about what they learned, and to watch the video.

All donors will be listed on the CUP website. If you donate $500 or more, you will also be listed as a supporter on the project and in all related materials. Most of all, you will have the satisfaction of knowing your support helps CUP provide this unique summer experience for Bronx high school students.

This project will be a collaboration of CUP, a Teaching Artist, and 15 students from five Bronx public high schools serving low-income communities of color: Bronx Academy of Software Engineering, Bronx Collaborative High School, Bronx Compass High School, Bronx International High School, and Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School. 

During the summer program students will:

• Engage in rigorous field research by interviewing decision-makers and stakeholders

• Identify how decisions impacting their community are made and how they can participate in the process

• Learn 21st century skills including critical thinking, collaboration and leadership, and public speaking

• Receive a stipend for their participation

• Collaboratively create a documentary video that community organizations can use to educate their constituents about the issue

• Present the project at a public launch event where the students will present their work and debut the video

Urban Investigation projects like this one are a key part of how CUP fulfills its mission. Students have rare access and opportunities to interact with neighborhood stakeholders, community groups, and city agencies. In doing so, they learn how civic engagement is within their reach, how important it is to incorporate into their daily lives, and how they can use it to have a voice in shaping their city.

For this program, CUP will work with low-income students who have limited summer programs available to them. These students will learn skills they can use in the future—technical skills like audio and video editing—that can help them get internships and jobs, and critical thinking and communication skills that will help them in future paths. 

To see an example of a previous Urban Investigation project, check out Who Rules? on the role of New York’s City Council in local government. 

Partnerships like these can take years to build, but we have a unique opportunity to collaborate with these schools now, and — most importantly — to provide engaging, educational programming for 15 young people of color who would otherwise have no summer program available to them.