Today we had the chance to meet with some of New York City’s influential public servants and activists while exploring their workplaces! We met with U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer and briefly toured the Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse. Mauricio, StreetSquash Harlem class of 2019, highlighted this as his favorite meeting: he loved learning about why Judge Engelmayer enjoyed his career and appreciated that he had so much positivity around his work after so much time in it. Then, we had a lunch meeting with Deputy U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom McKay at the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Students loved hearing about both of their experiences with prosecution and with both their setbacks and wins in their attempts to fight for a more just legal system.
After lunch, we met with former United States Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy Dina Powell. Idalis, MetroSquash class of 2021, and Naima, SquashDrive class of 2020, very much enjoyed hearing Ms. Powell explain how she works to empower women in her daily life at work. Naima shared that Ms. Powell “wants women to be in the same leadership roles as men. Her goal is to make sure women overcome their challenges and reach powerful positions.”
After that, we had the opportunity to meet with Andrew Heyward, former president of CBS News. Last but most certainly not least, we met with Nisha Agarwal, Senior Advisor to the Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives, who spoke to our students about her role and her mission as an activist. Students were incredibly inspired by her story, citing her strengths as a person and as a politician.
We ate dinner as a group, then went on a guided night tour of the South Street Seaport, Brooklyn Bridge, One World Trade Center, Statue of Liberty, and Ellis Island. We ended the night with our student prep meeting about tomorrow’s itinerary. Today was definitely busy and filled with learning from exciting people!
SEA Citizenship Tour 