Emily F. Keller: Journalist

Mircosoft Helps Local Girls Get Digital

    Teresa Lin spent part of her summer vacation from Skyline High School making an informational podcast about teen sleep deprivation. The activity taught her about technology as well as teamwork. She was one of nearly 100 high school girls to attend the eighth annual Microsoft DigiGirlz High Technology Camp, which took place from Aug. 11-15 at the company’s Redmond campus.

    Teresa, a 16-year-old Sammamish resident, worked with a team of girls to do Internet research, record sound with headsets and microphones, edit the recording with the computer program Audacity and then convert the finished piece to an MP3 file.

    Published in the Sammamish Review. Read the story.

Queens Public School Celebrates New Playground

    Public School 85 in Astoria, Queens celebrated the opening of a new playground on September 19, 2007. The playground was created from a barren schoolyard with help from the non-profit Trust for Public Land. City and school officials spoke at the event and children played. Video by Emily F. Keller. Produced by Emily F. Keller and Amy Goldstein.

    Click to play the video in Quicktime.

Bedford-Stuyvesant Residents Discuss Violence Prevention

    Middle-aged women condemn it on the B52 bus.  Teenagers worry about it on their way home from school.  Posters at the entrance to a local high school offer rewards for information about it.

    In the school's auditorium, a forum of concerned community leaders has gathered to take another crack at eradicating youth violence - the age-old problem plaguing their community of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

    They walk past a poster bearing the face of Rashawn Brazell, a former student killed in a grisly attack two years ago that left the 19-year-old's dismembered body on the A-train tracks of a subway station seven blocks away.  The New York Police Department has offered $22,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction but no one has come forward.

Special Cheer For Hard-Pressed Kids

    Dozens of children with formerly or currently incarcerated parents celebrated Christmas early at the Church of Gethsemane in Park Slope. A church deacon played Santa Claus, and members of the Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue Presbyterian churches in Manhattan donated about 200 gifts, including one toy and one piece of clothing for each child. Published in Courier-Life Publications. Read the story.

Former Gang Members Issue Sober Warning to Neighborhood Youths

    Two former gang members who describe themselves as former drug kingpins were among the panel members who spoke at a gang awareness forum held at the high school Benjamin Banneker Academy in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. Published in Courier-Life Publications. Read the story.

Plan Ahead For CFE Money, Says District 13 Community Education Council Member

    While city government, education advocates, parents and public school students dream up new and innovative ways to try to coax the state government into providing billions of dollars that the State Supreme Court says it owes to city schools, Benjamin Greene is thinking ahead.

    The issue now, says the member of the Community Education Council for District 13, is how the money will be spent once it is obtained.

    Read the story in Courier-Life Publications.

St. Francis de Sales Hoopsters Show Signs of a Winner

    St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf held its seventh annual basketball tournament to integrate seventh and eight grade students who have hearing impairments with hearing students from other schools. Published in Courier-Life Publications. Read the story.

Another Nail In the Coffin: School Construction Projects Close to Scrapped

    The Panel for Educational Policy voted to amend the city’s five-year, $13.1 billion school construction and renovation plan to account for the state government’s failure to pay $15 billion to city schools for past inequities in funding, as required by a recent State Supreme Court ruling. Published in Courier-Life Publications. Read the story.

New Lines Could Mean Changes For Bensonhurst Kindergarten Kids

    Education leaders in Bensonhurst,  Brooklyn voted to amend the elementary school zoning lines in their local school district to alleviate overcrowding for kindergarten students. Published in Courier-Life Publications. Read the story.