How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
As the leaves turn orange and red, the NYU community is turning greener: Yesterday, a group of students spent two hours gardening in Washington Square Park as part of the JNF Bronfman Green Fellowship organized by the Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life.
Students involved in the seven-week fellowship, which began yesterday and will run through Nov. 18, will spend two hours a week gardening in the park and learning about park management in an urban setting. Upon completing the program, each student will receive a stipend of $250 intended to be spent on a community greening initiative.
"Discussion and planning these ongoing initiatives will be a component of the fellowship," said David Rittberg, the acting executive director of the Bronfman Center.
Because campus interest in environmental issues has grown in recent years, the Bronfman Center partnered with the Jewish National Fund to create the fellowship, which encompasses "components of community, environmental action and education," Rittberg said.
Wagner student Naama Lissar, who worked in the park yesterday pulling weeds and learning about the park's history, said she was impressed with the fellowship thus far.
"The whole program seems very promising," Lissar said.
In addition to working in the park, participants will also attend sessions where they will discuss environmental concerns from a Jewish and Israeli perspective.
"There's a green movement in Israel that isn't very large," said CAS senior Angelica Murdukhayeva, the fellowship's student coordinator. "I think it will be great for the students to see the contrast between how far the U.S. has come and where Israel is trying to go with their Green Party."
Though the Bronfman Center held a green fellowship last year, Murdukhayeva said this year's program provides more hands-on experience to participants.
"We decided to make it something that the students can be involved with in the city, something where they can do some work with their hands," she said.
CAS senior Sylvia Shaykis, a fellow in the program, said she was drawn to the fellowship because of its hands-on gardening component. She said that similar projects are "all talk and no action."
"I thought it was cool that they were involving ... very local work in the park along with learning," Shaykis said.
Rittberg believes that as a result of the fellowship, the NYU and Greenwich Village communities will be able to appreciate a greener park for the rest of the school year.
"The fruits of the students' labor will be visible by all NYU students as they walk through the center of campus," Rittberg said.
