John Adams High School
CUNY High School Initiative in Remote Sensing of the Earth Systems Engineering and Sciences (HIRES) Director, Dr. Shakila Merchant, CREST Research Scientist, Dr. Tarenra Lakhankar, and CREST Communication Manager, Srishti Tyagi participated in an recruitment and outreach visit to the John Adams High School on March 25, 2024.
During the visit, the team met with the school’s Assistant Principal, Mr. David Ricaurte and Science Teacher, Ms. Donna Gangadeen and AP students to provide a session on the CUNY HIRES summer program. Dr. Merchant provided CUNY HIRES program details to the students. She also elaborated on the application process and encouraged students to take advantage of this unique paid opportunity that helps them receive experience in advanced Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) research.
Dr. Lakhankar spoke about the The New York Urban Hydro-meteorological Testbed (NY-uHMT) project that uses autonomous weather stations to collect comprehensive, real-time data on meteorological and hydrological conditions in New York City regions. Through this project, CREST aims to create a network of citizen scientists and community members engaged in environmental research across the city, with many of the weather stations located within public schools, community colleges, a botanical garden, and several NY City Housing Authority estates. CREST aims to install a weather station at the John Adams High School in the future.
Students were enthusiastic to learn about the program and asked Dr. Merchant curiosity driven questions. Dr. Merchant commented, “CUNY HIRES has served more than 200 High School students in the last 10 years, and it is rewarding to see the impact such programs make on the pre-college students by helping them shape their future career goals”.
Staten Island Technical high School
CREST and the Earth System and Environmental Engineering (ESE) Program at CCNY participated in Backpacks to Briefcases and Visit Inside Staten Island Tech (VISIT) Program Outreach Meet on April 3, 2024 at the Staten Island Technical high School. Dr. Liubov Kreminska, Administrative Director of the ESE Degree Program at CCNY represented the institute at the event.
At the event, Dr. Kreminska helped students gain information on opportunities available to them through the CREST institute, ESE Program, and the CUNY HIRES summer program. Students also picked up goodies from the recruitment table and inquisitively interacted with Dr. Kreminska. It was an engaging event!
