Next stop…
The Statement of Purpose I submitted in my application to the Master of Science in Urban Policy and Leadership program at Hunter College, where I will be transferring into from the Master or Urban and Regional Planning and Master of Arts in Mass Communication programs at the University of Florida in Fall of 2024…
Give me your biggest, ugliest problems. Please.
I am applying to the MSUPL program at Hunter College to equip myself with the foundational knowledge and skills, and gain access to the tools, network, and resources to solve our most complex problems…the problems too big and complex for experts of any one field or discipline to understand or resolve alone, that require a dedicated generalist to see how things connect, and to map out the connections.
City and campus master plans feature designs for collaborative physical spaces and structures, but rarely include any recommendations for building relationships, networks, and knowledge-sharing systems that engage diverse ideas around shared, common problems. Working solutions are not built “by bricks alone”.
My interests and their impact will stem outward from 2 complimentary concepts: what Jane Jacobs calls “hop-and-skip” relationships, expedient links between distant relationships within communities; and what Mark Granovetter calls “The Strength of Weak Ties”, that these relationships, when recognized and engaged, have the greatest potential for support, collaboration, and innovation; and that these concepts apply to relationships between ideas, as much as people.
The CUNY network and elective freedom of the MSUPL program will allow me to establish hop-and-skip relationships within the CUNY system (I plan to take courses at Newmark J-School, City College, and Baruch College, beyond MSUPL degree requirements) and throughout New York; to cinch together weak ties into a powerful network of tangent and overlapping knowledge, information, and potential; to lower walls and create neighborhoods within and between departments, disciplines, and schools; to facilitate movement between campus, community and city; and to introduce new ideas and vocabulary to stubborn, siloed challenges.
Areas of interest/potential projects I think about:
Collaboration within academia, and symbiotic campus-community-city relationships.
Public transportation community education/engagement programs.
Mitigation of urban heat islands, via: rooftop urban/municipal farming; rooftop paint.
Last-mile shade.
Housing scholarships for high-performing students in community colleges and tech/trade schools, as an affordable housing intervention.
Career-change scholarships.
Public/private partnerships and brands/branding in community development.
Suburban isolation.
Mainstreaming planning journalism.
Recognizing disciplines, fields, and professions as unique cultures, and intercultural translation/mediation between them as necessary.
Areas for improvement:
As an independent graphic designer, I’ve worked with executives and coordinators to communicate with audiences in diverse industries. I provide important creative perspective, always as an outsider. I’ve never held an internal leadership role. I’m not native to any discipline. I’m comfortable and can fit in almost anywhere, but rarely feel belonging.
I can spread myself thin pursuing varied interests, seeing and seeking connections I can’t always explain. I row faster than the boat. I focus intensely on questions that excite me, that require creativity, lateral thinking, immersion, and uncertainty, to the neglect of more routine tasks. I can’t put a project down at 5:00pm to wait until 9:00am or Monday morning to pick it up again.
While in school to transition away from graphic design, I often lean on design as my quickest solution, instead of reaching for new tools and resources. I don’t want to live in GIS, and won’t last in Excel.
Strengths:
I am curious and adaptable.
