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Crotona Park North * Bronx, NY 10460
* Tel: (718) 861-1426 |
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" W i s d o m & M a n "By Jose Caceres, Grade 8 October 2002 Wisdom is
different from factual knowledge Back to Crotona Articles Main Page.
" C h e s s & S a c r i f i c e "By
Ruben Garcia, Grade 6 October 2002 Chess is like the game of life. In both you have to sacrifice in order to obtain the greater good. In
chess you have to sacrifice Back to Crotona Articles Main Page.
" T h e K i n d o f M e n W e W a n t t o B e "Rusber Nunez, Grade 8 & Christopher Pacheco, Grade 6 July 2002 We
came to Crotona at the same time three years ago and have learned
the same thing even though we are different ages. When we grow up we
want to be real men. We have learned from Crotona what a real man
is. There are many things we need to do to become good men. We need
to give good examples to others. To give good example we should grow
in self-control. When other people try to make us mad we To serve others we need self-control even when it is hard to do. Why do you think we want to do something that is hard? Because of love. Because we try to love others by serving them we try to have self-control even when it is hard. This means we try to respect people because they deserve love from us. We also try to serve people who don’t believe in this. We will do it by giving good examples and respecting them. We have learned when a man acts like this he is a leader. The kind of men we want to be are leaders with love of people and God. Back to Crotona Articles Main Page.
" S t u d y a n d P a t i e n c e "Vickram Singh, Grade 6 July 2002 When I get older I want to be a good man. This means I won't tease others and I will try to treat them with respect. But to be a good man I have learned at Crotona that I need to study. Studying schoolwork is not enough. A good man also studies human nature. Human nature is the way people are, what they like and their problems. The more I know about human nature the more I can be a good man to other people. Reading about current events and subjects that affect people will help me to understand human nature better. When I know more about people I can respect them better. This means I can obey my parents and teachers better. Another way to say what studying is is paying attention. I am now trying to pay more attention to my parents, friends and teachers. But sometimes I get frustrated because the thing I am trying to study is hard to understand. So I also need patience to be good at studying. I will try not to give up when something is hard to learn even when it is about a person. When I pay attention I also study. And when I pay attention a long time I have patience. Back to Crotona Articles Main Page.
" A P a t h t o D i s c o v e r i n g V a l u e "Donal Murray July 2002 Over the last few months the boys at Crotona have been working hard at putting together an exhibition of still life and landscape paintings. At first the boys were hesitant to make conventional still life paintings - some of them thought it was too difficult, while others thought it was old fashioned – but, most of the boys were up for the challenge. We set to work on the project in the early spring with about a dozen boys. My first approach was to introduce myself as Donal Murray the artist/art teacher because many of them knew me as the group leader in the Saturday program – C.L.A.S.S. – from Ireland. I showed them some examples of my work from the New York Academy, where I’m doing a Masters in Fine arts, and they became really enthusiastic. A friend of mine from the Academy also spoke to them about his work sparking in them a keen interest in learning the skills of drawing and painting. We started by sketching a simple still life of fruits and other props gathered from around the Crotona Center. Within minutes we could see incredible potential in the group, the way they observed the objects carefully in front of them. Following the drawing session the boys began to put together their own still life’s arrangements so that it would have more personal meaning. One of the boys chose a large seashell because it reminded him of distant shores of places that are less fortunate than us here in America. Another boy put tropical fruits in his composition because they remind him of the fruitfulness of God’s love for each one of us. The next week some of the boys asked us if they could work outdoors in Crotona Park across the street. They wanted to sketch something to do with nature and show the beauty of the park and the surrounding areas. We first made viewfinders, small cardboard windows to look through. This allowed us to focus our attention on specific sections of the park and to gain perspective the way one would through a camera. Many of the boys drew trees and buildings around the park. From the sketches they made in the park, the boys returned to the Center and began paintings of their still life sketches or about their experiences in the park. One fellow wanted to do just one tree with a gray path, splitting off on both sides, and a mother guiding her son along the path. This made him think about the responsibility and task parents have to help their child make the right choices in life. A few weeks later another artist from the New York Academy came to help the boys with their paintings and was pleasantly surprised to see how they were making steady progress. This friend of mine is from Israel and has never before experienced boys at their age that were so respectful and well mannered and very cooperative in everything they were asked to do. He helped the boys to understand how to use color and light to bring their paintings to life. By the first week of May, the boys had completed their masterpieces, all of which surpassed our expectations. More significantly, through painting, the boys gained a greater sense of how work well done holds much more value than its simple material worth, which says a lot about all they have learned over the years from the family spirit of Crotona which inculcates virtues, and emphasized in this case, diligence. I am also happy to say that I will continue giving art classes at Crotona during the summer. Back to Crotona Articles Main Page.
" T h e T i e s t h at B i n d "
April 2002 The
Beta Chapter of Delta Sigma Phi fraternity at Columbia
University has found a formidable ally in the Crotona Leadership
& Culture Club. Our
motto “Challenging each man to a greater good” has never rung so
true. The current
president, Dany Berghoff (Columbia College ’03) affirms this,
“Never has an experience outside of traditional Delta Sigma Phi
events had such a profound effect upon our leadership.”
The alignment of the parallel goals of both organizations has
led to an inspiring relationship of exchange and enrichment, fueling
the drive of every member involved.
Both programs
work hard to encourage young men by helping them analyze the world
around them and pushing them to their full potential.
Using the ideals of culture, unity, and inter-peer
motivation, both organizations create environments where young men
are expected and willing to do great things.
The experience of such a diverse group membership allows a
broad and distinct picture of the world in which our young men, our
leaders of tomorrow, must exist. Our
fraternity leaders experienced part of the rigorous training by
taking part in the Crotona Center leadership seminar headed by the
program’s founder, Dave Holzweiss, only to emerge ever more aware
of the influential roles they hold.
The use of several techniques presented to our leaders by the
Crotona Program has been implemented into our Pledge process in
order to create a stronger leadership body for the future.
Role-playing and intensive values discussions have pushed our
new members to understand where their peers are coming from and why
they each chose to become involved with our organization in a much
more acute fashion than ever before. As for those members that participated directly in the Crotona Center seminar, their experience with the Urban Development Project allowed our brothers to expand their cooperative efforts in real world situations, while becoming aware of the difficulties of stress and compromise. The Team Calisthenics Drill made evident the importance of regulating the physical along with the mental conditioning in order to maintain focus of purpose. Finally, the Movie Analysis helped question things presented at face value, and how to further grasp the more important, broader picture. Omar Ahmed (Columbia SEAS ’03) had this to say about the program, “It was really worthwhile. [The Crotona Program] did an awesome job of breaking everything down to the basics, getting us really in touch with our goals as an organization…it was a true leadership retreat in the most basic sense of the word.”
By bridging the
two programs, we have expanded the foundational support to prepare
for all of our futures. The
mere presence in each other’s lives creates a crucial social
network of like-minded individuals and many levels of life
experience. Scott
Andrews (Columbia College ’04) expressed, “I
believe that the ideals that [the Crotona Program] stresses do not
only have a huge, positive impact on any elementary or high school
student lucky enough to be involved in the Program, but on anyone
who opens their ears and mind to what they have to say.”
For this reason, the interaction the fraternity has had thus
far, mentoring and tutoring the younger members in the Crotona
Program has had a deep impact upon the overall growth of the
brotherhood. The Beta
chapter of Delta Sigma Phi hopes to maintain a long-standing
relationship with an organization so attuned with our goals to
extend a positive impact through the greatest Challenge: a brighter
future. Thank
You, The Brothers of Delta Sigma Phi (Beta Chapter) Back to Crotona Articles Main Page.
" M y m o s t m e m o r a b l e e x p e r i e n c e a t C r o t o n a "
April 2002 Ruben Garcia: My most memorable experience with Crotona has been when we went to the Bronx Veteran’s Administration. Everyone
at the nursing home had been in a war. At first I was very happy to When I started to know them, I didn’t want to leave. It was like they were my brothers, which we all are in the eyes of God. Those men have done something very nice for our country. I especially liked one person. His name was Larry. He looked in my eyes and said strongly, “You can do anything you want if you put your mind to it. Those words really touched my heart. I looked in his eyes and I couldn’t move or talk for some time. When I left I prayed for everyone that was there and for God to take care of them. Once, again, this is my most memorable experience with Crotona. (Ruben is a 5th grader at St. John Chrysostom and currently enrolled in three Crotona programs.) |
Crotona Center
won’t let them because we like helping and serving other people.
Getting mad at someone isn’t helping them. By serving others we
mean giving the things others are in need of. To be a leader you
don’t necessarily need to give material things. You can have a
life full of virtues and be willing to teach others how t
o have them too and be considered a leader. You can have all
the virtues in existence, but if you have no love you have nothing.
go
over there because I was thinking of questions I could ask the
people. When men were talking about their time in war I felt very
sad. I could understand their anxiety.