We will create bike maintenace videos in our native languages and design a hands-on workshop for presentation at the Youth Bike Summit for native English speakers to experience learning a skill in a new language.
Leader
Meredith Klein
Location
712 University Ave W St Paul, MN 55104
We are urban immigrant youth.
We come from 15 countries and speak 9 languages.
New York City is our new home.
Bike Speak is our new language.
Each day we shift between our native languages and English as we learn to speak bike.
Can you help us to share our new language with others?
Students from 3 International high schools meet for 6 weeks to produce videos (planning, rehearsals, shooting, editing). Videos will demonstrate basic bike maintenance in multiple languages.
Students practice and rehearse the workshop
Students and community organize and run fundraising events
Secure permission forms
Purchase airline tickets
Reserve lodging in St. Paul/Minneapolis
Fly to Minnesota on May 27
Students lead a workshop at the Youth Bike Summit
Return to NYC on May 29 or 30
The International Network for Public Schools is a network of public schools, mainly based in New York City, that serves new immigrants to the United States. Three INPS school (International H.S. Union Square, International H.S. Laguardia, and Bronx International) have bike programs through Recycle a Bicycle, an organization that donates old bicycles to schools for repair. Students learn how to fix the bicycles, in the process acquiring mechanic skills, and “earning” their own bikes to keep. Our schools are comprised of immigrant students from over 50 countries. All of our schools are Title 1 schools with a high poverty population. Our students live in high density urban neighborhoods with limited access to green space and recreation. In New York City, bicycle riding is booming. We have a recently installed city-wide bike sharing system, and a proliferation of user-friendly bike lanes around the city. Bike shops are springing up everywhere except in high poverty neighborhoods. Many students in our school have extensive experience with nonurban casual biking in their home countries; others have never ridden a bike before. None have experience with urban biking as an inexpensive, non-polluting transportation alternative in the urban setting.
Throughout the NYC school system vocational education is dwindling. Many of our students have strong mechanical aptitude, and nowhere to develop it. One aspect of the bicycle program is to provide students with vocational mechanical experience in the bicycle sector. Finally, many of our students come to the U.S with low literacy skills both in English and native language, due to interrupted formal education. All of them are in the process of learning English. The bicycle program provides them with experiential learning, which can be linked to developing literacy skills. It also allows low literacy students with high nonacademic skills to shine and to develop confidence and leadership skills. Attending the Youth Bike Summit in Minneapolis would allow students to showcase their work to others, to meet students from around the country. And to expand their horizons beyond their local school, neighborhood and family.