Kailey Hu Ye was nominated by Assistant Professor of the Practice Danielle Russo to represent the Department of Performing & Media Arts in the Act for Change summer program with the Einhorn Center for Community Engagement, Cornell Cooperative Extension, and 4-H in Ulster County. Kailey worked closely with CCEUC’s director, Melanie Forstrom, and the 4-H program leader, Andrew Ruiz, to expand their Act for Change program, which was created by Melanie Forstrom and Malinda Ware to promote anti-racism discussion and dialogue amongst teens across Ulster County. With Danielle Russo as her advisor, her main goals were to include a greater emphasis on performing arts as tools for social justice, community organizing, and youth advocacy, and to adapt the existing curriculum for a younger and in-person audience. Through including more visual arts activities to engage a younger audience, as well as lessons on movement, acting, fashion, and music as forms of protest, Kailey implemented new creative models for personal storytelling to collective collaboration. While doing so, Kailey worked with the Rise to 5 summer program for 5th graders at the M. Clifford Miller Middle School, continuing her work with Andrew and 4-H educator, Audrey Trossen.
To promote the mission behind 4-H and Act for Change, Kailey also organized the community art project for the 4-H youth building at the annual Ulster County Fair, where visitors built a large-scale puzzle that highlighted their own original pieces representing and celebrating the joy, power, stories, and desires of each participant and their acts towards change. There, Kailey also handed out seed packets to encourage visitors to “plant seeds of change” in their own communities. It was great to see people, especially kids, be so excited to contribute to a collective art piece with such an important message. In reflection, Kailey created a movement response depicting how organizing and leading this activity felt, and what everyone’s pieces meant to her.
"This was a great opportunity to increase my experience in working and communicating with others, especially younger children. It also allowed me to learn how to adapt and modify certain lessons or explanations quickly if a student was struggling to understand the current method. It also gave me direct experience with children in a similar age group to those I would be adapting the Act for Change curriculum for, giving me a better idea of the types of lessons and activities to plan to be most effective in teaching them about the importance of anti-racism. Overall, this internship experience was very thought provoking, and a great way to connect my passions in dance and performing arts with creating a difference in the community," shares Kailey.
Kailey will be presenting her work for Act for Change alongside her cohort in this summer's CCE internships on Tuesday, September 10th from 4:30pm -7:00pm in the Biotechnology Building, G-10.
