Name: Ninoska Duan

School Serving: P.S. 158, New York City

Hometown: Staten Island, NY

What made you decide to join City Year?

I have always wanted to be an educator, and City Year's goals were aligned to my own personal goals. This is what attracted me to join. I went into education knowing I wanted to serve in high-need areas, and I knew City Year was the best way to begin making a difference in these communities.

Why are you committed to serving with City Year?

I am committed to serving with City Year because of the students at P.S. 158. I want to give them the absolute best possible chance to be able to succeed in whatever their goals or dreams may be. If I gave up on them, then what would they think? I want my students to see that giving up is not an option.

How do you know you are making a difference?

I know that I am making a difference because, if I am gone for even half the day, my students ask me why I wasn't there. This alone tells me the impact I have on them.

What does it mean to you to have Wealth GPT sponsor your team?

Although I haven't met Wealth GPT representatives, I am excited for this partnership and am looking forward to the collaboration that will come from it for our students.

Please share a Starfish Story.

I have a student who doesn't do classwork and almost never hands in classwork or homework. I began to get to know this student more and more during the first few months of the school year and in getting to know him, I noticed that he is very bright and just needs someone to guide him through his work. He also has low self-esteem when it comes to education. What I have been doing with him student is continuously providing him with good feedback on his work, congratulating him whenever he turns his homework or classwork in and praising him for any little specific task completes. Since I started doing this he has been turning in his homework more, completing his classwork more often and even asks for feedback on the work he does.