Kris French: Citizen Reporter

 "You are important in the world of stewardship, whether it's stewarding a park or stewardship in a neighborhood." Vin Cipolla, President of the Municipal Arts Society of New York (MAS), spoke with encouragement when he addressed high school students at a recent award ceremony for the CITI Youth Program. With more than two million people in New York City under the age of 20, it's never too early to have a voice in shaping an urban vision for the city's future.

CITI Youth stands for Community Information Technology Initiative, a MAS project that takes high school students into the heart of urban planning, with maps as their guides. After learning how digital maps can be used as an important tool in community decision-making, students are placed as Map Technicians in paid internships with their community boards. Teenagers from the Bronx to the Lower East Side are finding that not only can they attend meetings and speak out ...read full post