Bio
Nosheen Hossain is a junior at Gallatin. Her concentration revolves around the fields of public policy and urban studies. Through her concentration, she’s most interested in looking at K-12 public education as infrastructure, and wants to explore how it can be used to build resilient networks and mobilize communities within the urban environment. Throughout the past two years, she’s worked in a third grade classroom at Ella Baker Elementary School through the NYU America Reads program. This experience sparked her interest in education and its relationship to the urban environment. During her sophomore year she continued her involvement in education by volunteering at a local primary school during a semester at NYU Prague. Currently, she is working as a student trainee at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. She is excited to be working with the Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation this summer. She hopes to gain a better grasp of how housing and education programs interact with the urban environment of the south Bronx.
Project Summary
Nosheen worked with WHEDco’s small business outreach. She assisted small businesses in the Bronx – especially those struggling due the pandemic – with applying for grants and loans. She created a set of resources for Bronx residents looking to start their own businesses. She created a “Small Business Start-Up Guide” brochure which WHEDco has made available to the community. She also created a website with additional resources for business owners. She also created promotional materials and resources to assist WHEDco in their efforts to increase voter turnout in the south Bronx.
Mission Statement
This summer, I will be working as an NYU Gallatin Global Fellow in Urban Practice with the Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDco). WHEDco facilitates a holistic model of urban development in the South Bronx. Specifically, they are committed to early education, cultural programming, and economic opportunity in the three South Bronx neighborhoods in which they run affordable housing units.
This summer, I hope to be attentive to the unique organizational space of WHEDco in order to deepen my understanding of the research and practice of urban planning at the neighborhood level. I wish to explore how WHEDco fits into the broader political and cultural history of the South Bronx: As a non-profit that has worked hard to build trust with residents of the South Bronx, WHEDco positions itself to bridge the gap between residents and the City government, public officials, and stakeholders that wield power over them. I hope to understand how WHEDco exercises this trust in order to flow resources into these communities. However, as someone who has not grown up in the South Bronx nor lived there, I hope to be particularly cognizant of my position in the community and the preconceived notions I come in with. Ultimately, my goal is to creating meaningful connections within the community and contributing to a flow of resources to the South Bronx, without reinforcing the long history of outsiders coming into the neighborhoods to help and alienating them further.
The Gallatin Global Fellowship in Urban Practice provides funding of up to $5,000 and support for 6-10 advanced BA and MA students to pursue extended, community-engaged, practice-based research projects in partnership with urban social justice organizations.
