Upstate Institute News and Announcements

I have been creating guides on “how to use chatGPT for social media captions” or “how to send a link in an email.” Weekly, I have been getting together with Tara to discuss online tools such as Google Drive, Facebook, and Instagram. Though it might seem like small work, I believe that I am making a visible difference that I describe as “Media Literacy.” It is rather common that many online services specifically designed to be accessible and intuitive can seem inapproachable to people that don’t understand or have the time or resources.

The eventual goal of the work I am doing this summer is to assist Chenango Health Network in updating their logic models.

Neuroscience and English major Tate Fonda ’25, from Batavia, N.Y., describes her Summer Field School Fellowship, working with the village of Hamilton.

In my research for Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake, I assessed visitors to determine their motivation for visiting the exhibit, their personal experience in the visit, and their ideas for future improvements to the museum that will enhance the experience for them and encourage future visits. I did this by timing and tracking visits as well as surveying visitors.

The Fiver Children’s Foundation is a one-of-a-kind place that seeks to cultivate the lives of youth with its ten-year commitment with children from underserved communities from Central New York and New York City. Fiver starts mentoring a child when they are 8 years old and stays with them until they are 18– a significant transition age for youth.

MUCC does the important work of providing a long-lasting support system for this community by running an inclusive, multicultural, and refugee-friendly community center. They run various after-school programs, film-making, and college readiness workshops, as well as English-as-a-second-language and citizenship classes.

The Hamilton Healthy Food Connections voucher program provides pathways for financially-struggling households in the county to meet their basic needs by engaging in the social safety net of Hamilton County. During my time at BMC, I have assisted in the process of shipping 125 booklets, each containing $100 worth of vouchers, to the program’s community partners which are then distributed to individuals and families who struggle to afford fresh, healthy food so they can redeem the vouchers at their nearest farmers market and get the food they need.

Over the past few weeks, I have had the privilege of working with the nonprofit organization AdkAction through the Upstate Institute Field School.

I was placed with a refugee resettlement organization called The Center, a Utica-based nonprofit, and have had the opportunity to engage in work experience that has been invaluable to both me and the community.

This year, students in Colgate’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program returned $1.47 million to residents living in Madison and Chenango counties. The program began in 2004 and has been led by Nicole Simpson, W. Bradford Wiley Professor of international economics. It is funded by the University’s Upstate Institute and NBT Bank.