Griselda Lucero

ENG 21002

Joseph Furlong

May 21, 2019

Ethnography paper

Low income communities have been known to have lack of resources that can benefit their citizens. In particular, a low income community that has had a reputation of being low in resources is the borough of the Bronx in New York. In particular, a subculture I observed was the community of City Squash this Organizations is the result of nonprofit organization created in the Bronx to give young students access to the introduction of sports with academic support. City squash is located in the South part of the Bronx, where many low income communities are residing. By supplying the community with sport facilities it can benefit the students within the low income communities to graduate and have successful futures.  

The image on the right represents the communities that have low and high income communities in NYC. The bright red areas are the communities with low income families and the area that contains the brightest red areas is the Bronx. Since the community is low income they lack many resources such as in their facilities. A primary facility that is essential to the community are schools.  The graduation rate for High school students in the Bronx is 69.90%. Meaning that since schools lack resources the percent of the students graduating is only over half. Many schools in high income communities have many resources and most include sports. This community recognize the benefit of having sport teams for their students because it can benefit the students’ academic performance. In the United States the importance of a child’s physical education or sports participation has been neglected because of the high demand of test score preparation. Students are being neglected the essential introduction to sports within their school and this could be an important element to their success in the future. The neglecting is mainly being pushed in low income communities such as the South Bronx. “Participation in sports teams and physical activity clubs, often organized by the school and run outside of the regular day, can improve grade point average, school attachment, educational aspirations and the likelihood of graduation” (Hellmich, 2011). As seen studies have been made that participating in sports can cause an increase in graduation rates, if communities that are low income can have access to these necessities of recreational sports then it will result in higher graduation rates. Since schools are neglecting the importance of sport introduction to students many of them turn to community resources for support.

One important community organization that provides community sport contribution is City squash. This nonprofit organization after school program based in the Bronx at Fordham University. This program helps students with economically disadvantage household fulfill their academic, athletic and personal potential. In order to get a greater understanding of the organization and its students I decided to conduct an interview with a city squash student. This student is a well-known person to me because we live in the same neighborhood but I have never had the experience of her every day activity with city squash. In order to conduct the interview, I reached out to Xitlali Zuñiga Romero, she is an 18-year-old Mexican-American High school student that lived in the Bronx. I was invited by her to a tournament event for her current high school which was held at Fordham University. Like her and many of her team mates, they were dressed in their squash gear, which consisted of an exercise skirt and an exercise tank top or regular top. They each held a racket in their hand and also wore goggle like glasses, which I later found out was to prevent the ball from hitting your face. Squash is a sport known for high income communities, it is the combination of handball and tennis. Two players are placed in a box like arena which is the size of a room. Each player holds their own racquet to hit a small ball the size of a handball. The players are allowed to hit the ball on all three sides of the wall and are restricted to the fourth wall. Every time a player rejects to hit the ball after letting it bounce the floor once, their opponent gets a point. I was no aware of this sport at all, coming from a low income community, this sport was never introduced to my community. In order to get a better understanding of how she had gotten in this organization I asked very politely to conduct an interview about her experience in City squash.  

1. When did you join?

I joined in 3rd grade. I’ve been a part of the program for 8 years now.

2.  How did you get knowledge of the organization

City Squash partnered with only my elementary school P.S.205 and a middle school M.S. 45. They enrolled 3rd graders and 6th graders. Tim Wayant the founder and director of city squash at the time came into my class one day and gave an intro about the program, the benefits of trying out and the outcomes it can have for us. After that they gave us form to fill out if we were interested. I talked to my mother and applied for tryouts. After four months of tryouts, I was officially in the program!

3.  Did you have to pay to join? How much?

Not at all. City Squash work with inner city kids in low economic status so they are aware of our financial status. They provide mostly everything they can to make our lives easier to stay in the program. They arrange transportation, equipment, and academic support.

4.How did city squash play a role in your academic performance in school?

City Squash has given me a promised future of academic performance. We have weekly book club and homework help to make sure we are doing well in school and challenge our skills with book club. I’ve attended book club and homework help for the six years I was full time in the program. City squash opened doors I would not think about in a million years. I was introduced to the boarding school process and I had to apply and determine extra time to see if I wanted to go to a boarding school. Not every city squash member needs to study but it is an option given. They gave me the opportunity to study at a prestigious all-girls boarding school in Middlebury, Connecticut called Westover school. Studying at Westover eventually lead me to my next step in my life: College. City squash goal is to get all their students to college. I had endless support for study time, tutors for the SAT/ACT, college apps, and common app essays. All the support from my program and Westover led me to being accepted to St. Lawrence University to play squash in the Fall of 2019 and to study on the pre-med track with a major in psychology and minor is Arabic. Their endless support has guided me into my academic successes.

5. How many of the city squash team mates that you know graduated. Middle school. High school?

It varies, As the program continues to grow, our numbers in graduates do as well. In my class, I only have 14 members and we are all graduating from high school! I think 97% of the members of City Squash graduate high school and are enrolled in a college.

6. What opportunities has the organization given you?

City squash has given me experience. I learned to play Squash, have weekly book discussions, improve social skills, and taught me the value of family. Squash is a higher class sport that mainly wealthy people play. For us to be exposed to the sport and be given a chance at something that we would not if it weren’t for City Squash is a blessing. Many of us inner city kids become nationally ranked and successful with Squash. I was exposed to an environment other than my hometown The Bronx and saw different parts of the country with CS. I’ve been to Ohio, Massachusetts, D.C, CT, and Upstate, NY. I learned the importance of grit and how hard work pays off for a future of great determination can give you visiting these dream like places. I have also been able to go to camps that have impacted myself growth and education.

7. Overall, what has been your experience with city squash?

I have been nothing but blessed from this program. They have guided me to my greatest successes that would have been very difficult without their support. You graduate from the program once you graduate High School. Although my time soon comes to an end, I will forever call my teammates of City Squash my second family. They were with my family and I with good and bad times in my early years and I am forever grateful.

8. Can you describe in small details your daily activities within city squash.

City squash programs are very Shimla in all ages. We have homework help and Squash practice twice a week each one hour and forty-five each session. Other times vary on your availability of extra tutor sessions and book club hours; this is all during the school year. Apart from required programing, there is optional squash training during breaks and in the morning before classes. During the summer we also have a different schedule of majority of the summer five times a week we meet three hours combined of academics and practice. There are summer programs and camps outside of city squash they ask you if you want to try. City Squash tries to keep you busy as much as possible in the summer so you can stay active.

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After conducting this interview with Xitlali I was able to determine that she in fact created a bright future for herself by the mere fact of joining city squash. What I believed to be very significant is the fact that although she lived in a low income community, she acknowledged the fact that sport was essential for her academic growth. The organization created opportunities that her local school did not provide. Although the school and the organization were linked, not all the students had the same access to the organization.  Being part of city squash at the early grades of elementary created the success and security of her future and enrollment to college. Not many students are given this opportunity and Xitltlai was a great example on how sports improve academic progress but also guarantee graduation and a successful future. What I was able to get a better understanding was that 100% of city squash high school seniors have graduated high school and 97% of these students have enrolled into college. This subculture/ group guarantees the success of students’ academic growth but also the exposure to new and high income sports to low income students. 

While being at the tournament I took it to my accessibility to interview a volunteer squash coach. I approached a very tall skinny man with long curly hair wearing exercise clothing and pacing around the waiting arena near the squash tournament. I noticed he had approached Xitlali perhaps providing advice. His name is Christopher Baeza, an alumni of John Jay college and currently a law school student at CUNY law. He informed me that he himself is from the Bronx with Mexican decent and was a volunteer coach for city squash. I was very interested in learned why a law school student was so interested in helping students train for this sport. I decided to ask a genuine question and he answered as followed:

What drove you to become a volunteer coach for City Squash?

It was very fun to be able to train young kids in the sport you love. To be able to help with the essentials of squash in a young kid’s early stages is important because that’s something they will always remember. One of the main reasons I volunteered was because growing up we didn’t have these platforms. squash at my young age was not a very common sport here in NY we weren’t able to showcase our talent and aspire to go to the important leagues like in other countries. Now that we do have this accessibility I want to be able to help the young kids who have a love for the sport to be able to dream big n help them reach those dreams. That’s why it was important to me because I want to be able to help the young kids take advantage of the platforms they have today.

            City squash is an organization created for low income students to join a sport but also help their academic performance. In order to join students must go through tryouts and this is done to students in third grade. Once these students are accepted to the program they are required full commitment of attendance practice but also reporting to tutoring services. Not only are city squash coaches present in the student’s daily activity but are also in constant contact with their parents on their performance. After every school day the students were expected to join practice and tutoring. Another things student was provided with are the equipment and also with transportation. Some of the tournaments that city squash participated in were held in areas that were outside of the Bronx. City squash assured the transportation was accessible and free for its students and parents. This organization recruited students as early as 3^rd grade but continued to be part of their academic support as well as squash support up until college and even assist for their future careers.

Citations:

Raby, S. (2017, December 21). Interactive: Mapping New York’s affordability gap. Retrieved from https://ny.curbed.com/2017/12/21/16752942/affordable-housing-new-york-ami-interactive-map

Hellmich, N. (2010, April 14). Study: Physical activity can boost student performance. Retrieved from https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-04-14-letsmoveinschool15_ST_N.htm

Mission and Goals. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://citysquash.org/about-us/mission/

Zug, J. (2003). Squash: A history of the game. New York: Scribner.