{"id":318769,"date":"2026-08-11T17:15:05","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T17:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/318769\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T17:15:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T17:15:05","slug":"how-a-queens-school-transformed-a-local-playground-and-its-students-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/318769\/","title":{"rendered":"How a Queens school transformed a local playground \u2014 and its students\u2019 lives"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter<\/a> to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n

How do you make high school feel less like, well, school? And how do you get kids to show up, especially those at greatest risk of dropping out?<\/p>\n

A class devoted to community service projects at Voyages Prep<\/a> in Elmhurst, Queens might offer some clues. <\/p>\n

The school, which serves older students who transferred in after falling behind at other schools, partners on the elective course created with Hire Cause,<\/a> a nonprofit that focuses on career skills through hands-on projects aimed at improving communities. Two years ago, the students decided they\u2019d focus on renovating Playground Ninety<\/a>, a run-down basketball court in Jackson Heights where some of them played after school. <\/p>\n

The students got to work. They collaborated with artists to design the space. They learned how to fundraise \u2014 organizing bake sales, a basketball tournament, and a carnival \u2014 and netted about $2,100. <\/p>\n

Then they decided to shoot for something bigger, submitting a video<\/a> to the \u201cEvery Court Has a Story\u201d contest, a worldwide initiative led by Project Backboard,<\/a> a nonprofit that funds renovations of public basketball courts. They won $50,000, beating out scores of submissions from around the globe and marking the first time a student-led entry won the contest. <\/p>\n

\"AVoyages Prep student Ashely Marquez painting the court at Playground Ninety in June. (Courtesy of Traci Molloy \/ Voyages Prep) <\/p>\n

\u201cToo often, many students can\u2019t see how the classroom connects to the broader community,\u201d said David Dvorkin, CEO of Hire Cause, which worked with 28 public schools and 1,450 students across the city this past school year. \u201cThat\u2019s part of the gap that we\u2019re collectively working to close here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Playground Ninety\u2019s renovation wrapped up last month with a repaired basketball court and a mural painted on the ground with flowers representing the diversity of Jackson Heights and wavy lines symbolizing New York City\u2019s rivers. The kids at P.S. 90 have been especially delighted: The elementary school exclusively uses the space during the school day. <\/p>\n

With its intensive focus on job skills, Voyages\u2019 Hire Cause class fits into the city\u2019s larger effort embracing career readiness<\/a>. Nearly 180 high schools across the five boroughs are part of the Education Department\u2019s FutureReadyNYC program<\/a>, providing students with hands-on classes and career training<\/a>. About 105 career and technical education programs<\/a> offer certifications for a range of post-graduation careers. But the Voyages class differs in its emphasis on social impact and its student-led approach. Students pick a cause they care about and have to raise money to see their project through.<\/p>\n

It gives them something bigger to be part of, educators involved in the project said. And they get to see the fruits of their effort. <\/p>\n

It gives them a reason to show up, students said. <\/p>\n

By the time Kamrin Jones took the class, the project had already begun. Initially, it was just an assignment to him. But when he saw the excitement of the elementary school kids, his perspective shifted: \u201cIt started off as an obligation, but then became a passion.\u201d<\/p>\n

It felt dramatically different from his previous school where he would travel about 1.5 hours to just \u201csit around,\u201d the 19-year-old said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only do I have a reason to be here, but like it\u2019s proof that I can do more with myself than I thought I could,\u201d he said. \u201cLike it\u2019s proof that I\u2019m more than just sitting in class and just waiting, twiddling my fingers. It\u2019s proof that when I do actually put myself to the task, I can meet expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones believes his path might have been different had he not landed at Voyages and dove into the playground project. After graduating from Voyages in June, Jones is spending this summer learning about economics and marketing through investment banking firm Centerview<\/a> (that he is getting paid for). He is planning to go to a trade school in the fall.<\/p>\n

\"AA drone photo of the new basketball court at Playground Ninety. (Brandyn Magee courtesy of Voyages Prep) A lesson in joy, leadership, and local change<\/p>\n

As a transfer school, where students come and go, graduating at different times as they accumulate enough credits, Voyages had about 60 students in all working on the project at some point, with about 35 of those students more intensely involved. Ten, including Jones, devoted after-school hours ensuring Playground Ninety got done. <\/p>\n

Jones became the project manager, making sure everyone stayed on track. He would spend his lunchtime organizing things, sharing reminders to his peers in morning announcements he made over the loudspeaker. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy for us students to get distracted,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI made sure we stayed on task.\u201d <\/p>\n

Some students who were struggling with attendance, \u201cturned a corner\u201d after getting involved in the course, said Anthony Drzal, one of the co-teachers of the course. A student who was chronically late, knew that missing the second period class would have significant consequences, not just for her. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t like another class where maybe she just missed the worksheet and she would deal with it later,\u201d Drzal said. \u201cIf she had a responsibility, she had to take care of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He believes that led to a different type of engagement than in more traditional classrooms. <\/p>\n

We’re on a need-to-know basis.<\/p>\n

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The sense of community and connection created by the class is something the school overall works hard to achieve. It has a high-needs population \u2014 nearly 90% are from low-income households, nearly 30% have disabilities, more than 70% are overage and undercredited. It also struggles with outcomes: Just 17% graduated from high school and enrolled in a post-secondary program within six months. <\/p>\n

\"YoungPeople play basketball on the new court at Playground Ninety on June 12. (Emil Cohen \/ NYC Council Media Unit) <\/p>\n

Even though the course is rooted in social change and social justice, that was never explicitly part of the conversation, said Traci Molloy, one of two artists who worked on the playground project alongside the course\u2019s co-teachers.<\/p>\n

The goal was to make something beautiful. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn doing that, you\u2019re transforming the park, you\u2019re transforming a neighborhood,\u201d she said. \u201cThe way it was framed was always: We have to have fun. We have to have joy, and then that joy becomes a change.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Voyages students will move on this school year to a new project of their choice, but those like Jones, who are graduating, are taking many skills they learned from the project, Molloy said.<\/p>\n

As she told Jones: \u201cThis isn\u2019t the last thing you\u2019ve done. This is the first best thing you\u2019ve done.\u201d <\/p>\n

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[120190,9,24,63,120189,120188,103662,122,124,123,120187],"class_list":["post-318769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-community-service-projects","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-p-s-90","tag-playground-ninety","tag-playground-90","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-voyages-prep"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}