NYC
Kate Cooney
Kate Cooney is a second-year student at the University of Virginia, where she is pursuing studies in Leadership and Public Policy. Her academic interests center on Latin, Greek, classical culture, and mythology—subjects she has been deeply engaged with since the seventh grade. Kate is particularly interested in the representation of women in classical literature and culture, and how these portrayals continue to shape contemporary literature and societal norms. She is passionate about exploring the enduring legacy of the ancient world through both scholarly and policy-oriented lenses.
Soleil Palazzolo
I am Soleil, a NYC based high school student interested in the intersectionality between the criminal justice system and youth mental health. After completing a course in psychology at Colby College in 2023, I realized that there is a need for more awareness and access to mental health treatment, especially for teens. Many symptoms of common mental health conditions can be misinterpreted as disruptive behavior, acting out, teen angst, and reckless decision-making. Without a true understanding of mental health, authorities can end up making the situation worse, and young people are thrown into a downward spiral that’s very hard to pull out of. Through Pathways NYC, I want to make NYC a safer, healthier, more trauma-informed place to grow up.
I’m the Underclassman Leader of the Mental Health Club and Junior Leader of the South Asian Affinity Group (Club) at my school. I’m also on the track team. In my spare time, I love watching classic movies that have made an impact on our collective consciousness and culture, and thinking about how we connect with each other through stories. I’m currently enrolled in the film production course at my school and am enjoying learning more about the behind-the-scenes of movie-making.
Izzy Lee
My name is Izzy and I am a junior at the Brearley School in New York City. I first fell in love with poetry after I discovered a collection of children’s poems when I was 7 years old. For me, poetry presented a creative outlet to streamline my feelings about the rest of the world in an understandable manner. As I got older, I also developed an interest in politics and world affairs, a topic that often produced many strong and complex emotions with me. It was also at this time that I discovered the art of political poetry, or poetry about the current state of the world. Poems on social and political subjects, such as work by Claudia Rankine in Citizen and poems about identity by Ocean Vuong, really resonated with me and helped me sort out some of the confusing emotions that I had felt about the state of the world. The intersection of poems and politics is one that can be both informative and soothing; however, it is also one that is rarely talked about or brought light to. This project was created for the purpose of bringing more attention to the art form of poetry and its role in the political sphere, and how it can help young people navigate this world both emotionally and educationally.