Cornell Undergrad Research To Action - Youth (CURTA-Y)
2023 - Ongoing
The Cornell Undergraduate Research To Action - Youth (CURTA-Y) club originated through the efforts of Najeh Abduljalil and Alisha Starr, who were undergraduate student researchers in the Just Places Lab in the spring of 2023. Initially launched as Research-for-Change South Central New York, CURTA-Y is now an established student organization and participatory research initiative uniting Cornell undergraduates with Binghamton area high school students to work toward transformative change. Cornell graduate student researchers in the Just Places Lab and a researcher from the Circular Construction Lab also serve as instructors for the program. Dr. Jenni Minner is a mentor and advisor to CURTA-Y.
The overarching mission of CURTA-Y is to shed light on persistent challenges within New York communities. High school co-researchers learn how to conduct research in their community, devising potential solutions and communicating them to policymakers. The organization is dedicated to cultivating the development of high school students by enriching their community engagement experiences, honing their research skills, and nurturing proficiency in public speaking and communication across various media. Through participation in CURTA-Y, high school co-researchers grasp the art of connecting research to action.
Volunteer instructors, including Cornell undergraduate students and guest speakers, engage youth co-researchers with various research methods and multiple media to gather data about their community, envision improvements, and communicate change. Using Photovoice, youth co-researchers gather photographs and videos and then employ interview techniques to interrogate what they have observed in their community. Youth also learn of additional methods, such as methods of estimating greenhouse gas emissions and the use of creative media, such as zine-making.
CURTA-Y student leaders Najeh Abduljalil and Alisha Robbins receiving a grant award from Cornell's Einhorn Center for Community Engagement.
Mission
Cornell Undergrad Research-To-Action Youth organizes underserved youth in South Central New York to study community issues and find solutions. CURTA-Y aims to highlight and solve ongoing problems in the underserved communities the youth researchers represent. CURTA-Y also seeks to develop the youth participants’ community engagement experiences, research skills, and comfort with public speaking.
Goals
The goals of CURTA-Y are to...
• Give a voice to underserved communities through youth representation
• Facilitate youth-led research-to-action projects for community issues
• Develop youth participants’ skills and experiences in the areas of research, public speaking, and community engagement.
Dr. Minner and the Just Places Lab team are supporting the efforts of this student organization and research initiative. CURTA-Y is also partnering with Broome County Workforce Tioga NY and Circularity, Reuse, and Zero Waste Development (CR0WD). CURTA-Y has received grants from the Community Partnership Funding Board, the Contribution Project, the Clarence S. Stein Institute for Urban and Landscape Studies, a Robinson-Appel Award, and a Janet McKinley ‘74 family grant.
Before establishing CURTA-Y, Najeh worked as a lead researcher at a youth-led research-to-action program in Reno, Nevada named Research for Change NV (R4CNV). Two professors at the University of Nevada recruited 15 low-income, first-generation high school students to study and act on issues such as uneven infrastructure development in Reno’s low-income neighborhoods and the death of Reno’s unhoused people during the city’s deadly winters.
An example of RC4NV’s work is the Sun Valley sidewalks project in Reno's most impoverished neighborhood. Youth researchers observed that instead of walkways, ditches filled with needles and broken glass lined the sides of the roads, forcing residents to traverse dangerously close to the traffic. The lack of sidewalks was responsible for two pedestrian accidents from 2016-2019, one of which was fatal. Once the youth researchers gathered enough data on the issues of infrastructure neglect in Sun Valley, they put together a policy proposal and pictures to share at a Sun Valley General Improvement District meeting. Today, because of the contributions made by R4CNV and other advocates for a safer community, sidewalks line the roads of Sun Valley.
Cornell Undergrad Research-To-Action Youth is working to similarly benefit the South Central New York community by bringing together a cohort of youth to bolster building reuse, deconstruction, and preservation— a central mission of the Just Places Lab and the Circularity Reuse and Zero Waste Development (CR0WD) network, a group of community leaders and research labs working toward a more sustainable built environment.
Nazish Ahmad
Nazish is a student at Binghamton High School. She is Pashtun and lived in Brooklyn, NY most of her life. She moved to Binghamton in 2019 and is currently a senior at Binghamton High School. She is thankful for where she is at and is very proud of her family for coming this far as an immigrant family. Nazish enjoys problem-solving and creativity and is very initiative. She is also involved in Project Lead The Way at her school. She believes there should be more women in STEM and plans on going to college for Software Engineering. Nazish also loves helping out in her local community. She is the president of a Multicultural club at her school, and they often help volunteer at the American Civil Association. She also loves helping out at her local Mosque and working with children there.
August Guba
August Guba is a senior attending Binghamton High School and plans to pursue his interests in design and architecture after graduating. He is presently completing the Project Lead The Way (PLTW) engineering program through RIT at the high school. August eagerly anticipates his internship with the CURTA-Y project and is thrilled to have this opportunity.
Hibah Rahman
A member of the class of 2025, Hibah Rahman attends Vestal High School, where the branches of science hold her interest. She looks forward to exploring the topic of material waste in Broome County with the CURTA-Y team.
Maria Mustafa
Maria Mustafa is a Binghamton High School junior. Her hometown is Binghamton, New York, where she was born and raised. Maria is active in her community, serving as president of the Environmental Club, Sisters 4 Sisterz, and Student Council, as well as secretary of the National Honor Society. Not only did she participate in a highly competitive opportunity within our country known as the National Student Leadership Congress, but during her time in DC with the NSLC, she advocated for first-generation students because her parents immigrated to America from Kurdistan, and she is very grateful to be able to attend school and pursue her dreams because her parents did not have the same opportunity.
In her free time, you can find Maria at her local mosque, helping the youth and volunteering in any way she can. Maria enjoys reading and painting, as well as playing lacrosse.
Keyahn Sethi
Keyahn, born and raised in Binghamton, NY, is a senior at Seton Catholic Central High School. He works alongside students at Cornell University and fellow high school students to make a difference in his local community through the CURTA-Y project. He feels passionate about the project and the fact that he gets to make a difference in the place he calls home.