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Older Adult Center members packed the dining room on the last Friday of the Lunar New Year for a festive presentation by social work student Vincent Cheng. Cheng described Lunar New Year traditions such as doing a deep clean of one’s house, gathering with family, wearing and using the color red, and exchanging gifts. Clinical Manager for Aging Services Gloria Gong pitched in, translating his English into Mandarin.

Everyone who attended the talk got a traditional red gift envelope with a decorative tassel and a red hand-held fan.

Afterward, the celebration continued with Chinese food for all: Chicken with broccoli, veggie lo mein, rice and dumplings. Fresh fruits and vegetables were also available to take home.

Member Betty Lou Shin said she learned a lot about the holiday—and Chinese food. “I’ve never tried a dumpling before,” she said. “I liked it very much.”

Older Adult Center Director Jemma Marens noted that Asians are a growing population in nearby East Harlem: “We always make an effort to celebrate the holidays that our community does, and to learn about each other’s cultures.”

She added that the Lunar New Year gathering was the last event the Older Adult Center held in 2020 before COVID shut down in-person programs. Now that members are once again able to gather, learn and celebrate together, she said, “It feels like we’ve come full circle.”

Interested in our Culinary Arts program? Check your eligibility and get information here.

Chanelly Mena knows how to cook a steak. Her father, who cooked at a popular chain restaurant, used to bring home t-bones to make for the family. 

But the ones she’s cooking today are special, because they’re her final project as a student in our Culinary Arts program. Each student will present two identical plates of food for their classmates and instructors to taste.  

“I wanted to do it in a restaurant way,” she says. “Most people sear it first but I wanted to lock in the flavor, so I put it in the oven with butter and herbs and then seared it.” 

The meat has emerged from the pan looking robust and savory. It is perfectly medium-rare. Mena slices it and carefully spoons a red wine sauce over it. Alongside the meat, she arranges fondant potatoes and bacon-wrapped roasted asparagus. 

Mena is calm, but around her the kitchen is buzzing. At the other end of the long steel chef’s table, a student’s assistant has combined the onions for a veggie stir-fry with the rest of the ingredients—but they need to be separated out and fried first. Another student is carefully rolling up a cream-filled Japanese Roll Cake—a high-stakes endeavor, since the thin slab of cake is prone to tearing or breaking. Program Director Angie Marin and Chef Instructor Kim Pistone flit from station to station offering suggestions and encouragement. 

Tensions are running high, but there’s no running or shouting. Part of becoming a chef is learning to move in a disciplined way in high-pressure situations where dangers abound—from razor-sharp knives to pots of boiling stock. So far these students are passing with flying colors. 

Mena is the first to finish. While she settles down to eat one plate of her food, the other plate is getting rapturous praise from students and instructors alike. 

“The asparagus kept its color,” says Pistone, forking up a bite of meat. “The potatoes and the steak? Perfecto, my friend.” 

The students meet here in a professional kitchen for seven weeks to learn everything from knife techniques to emulsification to food safety. Then they’re placed in paid internships and get support to find full-time, living wage jobs.  

“Each year, we recruit, train, and place 50 students to launch culinary careers,” says Marin. “We’re very proud to see them succeed.” 

Some of the students in this cohort have already been hired. But Mena’s more interested in starting a business. She’s added catering to her list of possible endeavors, along with hair, nails and makeup. Mena is reluctant to be tied down to one thing. But she’s excited about the skills she’s learned, and she does like the intensity of professional cooking: “When you’re in the kitchen you don’t think about anything else—just what you’re doing.” 

It was midday, and the Art Room at the Isaacs Center was buzzing. Older Adult Center members sat on one side of a long table draped in hot pink, and on the other side, college students in hot-pink shirts were giving them manicures. 

The conversations flowed in English and Spanish as the young women gently cleaned, shaped, buffed and painted nails. And while getting a makeover is nice, Rachel Doyle Boyens, the Founder and CEO of GlamourGals Foundation, said the personal connection is just as important.  

“The makeup is a tool for conversation: If you have nothing else to say, what color would you like your nails painted? What color blush would you like?” she explained. “It always starts a little quiet, but then you get this incredible energy in the room.” 

Manicures also involve gentle and safe physical contact—something that’s been harder to come by since the beginning of the pandemic. 

Doyle launched GlamourGals Foundation in 2000 when she was still a junior in high school. She wanted to pay tribute to her late grandmother, and she decided makeovers would be a way to do something fun for older adults in nursing homes and senior centers. 

“I thought, how great would you feel if someone took the time to make you look and feel beautiful and take a picture with you and spend some time to make you feel special? GlamourGals was born out of that idea.” 

It seemed to be working—as our Older Adult Center members admired each other’s nails, praised their color choices, and posed for photos.  

“Our members have fun talking to the volunteers,” said Older Adult Center Director Jemma Marens. “And they definitely enjoy a little pampering!” 

Get an updated flu or COVID shot, check your blood pressure, or take a rapid HIV test at our Community Health Event at the Isaacs Center on Monday, December 19!

The event will go from 1 to 4 PM and is cosponsored by East Ward Baptist Church, Ryan Health and the Isaacs Center.

They snuggled them. They tossed them in the air. They even wore them on their heads. The children in our Beacon After School at PS 198 found many creative ways to express their excitement about the long-eared stuffed bunny toys they received as a gift from Singapore Airlines. 

They had made thank-you cards for the visiting airline representatives, but a third-grader named Emma took things a step further. She went to the front of the auditorium to thank them in person. She had already named her bunny. 

“Bun Bun likes to eat carrots,” she explained. “Bun Bun also like to hop around, and Bun Bun likes to annoy Noah”—she threw a sassy glance at a nearby friend. 

It was all pretty normal kid behavior—and Beacon Director Maribel Mejia was glad to see it. After all the disruptions imposed by the COVID pandemic, she said, young people have been struggling to get the hang of group interactions again. 

“When we returned, a lot of staff saw that it was a lot harder for kids to share with each other and do activities together.  Communication skills had fallen off,” she said. The staff has been focusing on social-emotional learning activities to help bolster those abilities: “We give them the chance to share how they feel and share their ideas.”  

At our second Beacon, located at MS 224, Director Tamar Joseph said his staff noticed the same rustiness around socialization at first. “They’re getting back into the groove of things. Now they’re understanding the teamwork—it’s not just ‘my way or the highway,’” he laughs. 

Beacons are a uniquely New York City phenomenon. Launched by Mayor David Dinkins in 1991, they turn unused school space into miniature community centers during afternoons, evenings and weekends. There are now 91 Beacons throughout the five boroughs.  

All Beacons offer an After School program. These serve as a foundational support system for families, giving children a safe and enriching place to spend the afternoons while enabling their parents to work. Our Beacon 2 After School at MS 224 serves elementary, middle and high schoolers, while Beacon 1 hosts first-through fifth-graders.  

When After School is over, the Beacons go on to serve adults with fitness and other activities. In the evenings and on weekends, both Isaacs Center Beacons offer basketball, soccer, yoga and dance (at Beacon 1 it’s specifically African Dance). In addition, Beacon 1 has Karate while Beacon 2 offers Boxercise. These programs are open to the community. Click here to see schedules for both Beacons. 

It was a perfect chilly fall morning when the Taft Older Adult Center Walking Group began assembling outside the entrance to Central Park at 110th and 5^th Avenue. They chatted in Spanish as Aging Services Caseworker Maritza Martinez worked her cellphone. 

“I call them every time to remind them. Sometimes they say it’s too cold and I tell them ‘Put a sweater on and let’s go!’” she said with a grin. 

When seven walkers had arrived, they headed into the park. Everyone went at their own pace. Eventually they emerged back onto 5th Avenue and kept going south, strung out in twos and threes with as much as a city block in between. This was no mere walk in the park. Today they were headed to 90th Street and back—more than two miles. The group meets twice a week, on Mondays and Wednesdays, and sometimes they stay out walking for an hour and a half.  

The members say they get a lot out of the group: access to the outdoors, a chance to socizialize, and a workout.  

“To me, it’s the most complete exercise—it works all the muscles,” said Sonia Aguasvivas, a retired teacher. “I try not to book any other appointments at this time so I can go.” 

The walking group is a fixture of our Older Adult Center at the Taft Houses in East Harlem, part of the NYCHA public housing system. Taft is the newest member of the Isaacs Center family—and it didn’t get off to an easy start.  

The Isaacs Center took over managing the space after the previous management opted to shut it down. “We started in January of 2020,” recalled Aaron Rooney, who oversees all programs for older adults at Isaacs and our partner, Goddard Riverside. “We opened up and were serving meals and had programs in place by March. And then COVID hit.” 

The programs, including case management and nursing, all went online so members could continue participating safely. Other than monthly food pantries, not much was happening in the Center’s physical space. When it came time to reopen, it needed significant cleaning and repairs.  

“There have been a lot of challenges, but I have a great team and I’m thankful for that,” said center director Winnie Chan. 

Now the center is poised to expand its services. It’s planning to increase case management for older adults—that is, help accessing government benefits, plus support and coaching to deal with a wide variety of issues. It’s also working on adding a telehealth program that will enable members to meet with their healthcare providers remotely. 

“It may be a model that could be replicated. It’s all about breaking down the technological barriers and giving people the ability to see their doctor—not only teaching them but giving them the space at the Center to do it,” explained Rooney.  

“It could be a very exciting year for Taft.” 

Jennifer Ochiagha is a little busy these days. Besides being a full-time grad student in mental health and counseling at NYU, she holds a full-time job at the Isaacs Center as a recruitment and admissions coordinator, plus she’s interning at a private practice called BeMore.  

“I do like to keep busy,” she laughs—then adds, more seriously: “There’s benefits at the end of the rainbow. So that’s what I look towards.” 

Ochiagha is one of this year’s 31 scholarship winners at the Isaacs Center and Goddard Riverside. Our two organizations gave out a total of just under $60,000 to help students pay for higher education. 

Ochiagha is footing the bill for grad school on her own. She says her award will go straight to tuition: “I’m, like, taking loans out to the point where it’s actually making me very nervous. So I just feel like this scholarship can help eradicate some of that fear. I can have a little bit more breathing room.” 

Her goal is to help disadvantaged youth with their mental health needs and eventually open her own private practice—and maybe launch a talk show, “kind of like Steve Harvey or Dr. Phil but more feminine, a little less controversial and a little bit more socially and culturally competent.” 

Born and raised in the Bronx, Ochiagha got to know the Isaacs Center when a friend asked her to come give a talk to young participants about her YouTube channel (her videos, a mix of advice, storytelling and person-in-the-street interviews, get thousands of views). She liked the atmosphere at the center so when a job opportunity came up, she took it—and she’s glad she did. 

“I really, really appreciate what the Isaacs Center has done for me,” she enthused. “I’ve been nothing but appreciated and valued. And the fact that in my job, they were able to also give me a scholarship for school, that’s just not something I would’ve ever expected.” 

Shawn Riley has always been drawn to hospitals; one of his earliest memories involves a visit to one. “I don’t know why we were there, but I remember I was like—I just love this energy so much. I want to be here.” Because of that desire, and the desire to help people, he’s dreamed about becoming a doctor all his life. Now, with some help from Goddard Riverside’s Options Center, he’s set to begin pursuing that dream at SUNY Albany this fall.  

Riley found the Options Center through Harlem Lacrosse, a school-based nonprofit that provides academic support, mentoring and counseling in addition to athletics. He worked with an Options Center counselor to apply to college and figure out how to pay for it. “Options is definitely one of my favorite things I’ve ever been a part of, because there’s so many good things that come out of it,” he said. 

For a long time he assumed he’d have to major in biology, but after talking to a doctor about his educational path he realized he could branch out a little more as an undergraduate. So he’s taking journalism this fall and sociology in the spring: “I can just like feel those options out and see what I like more, which I’m super excited about.” 

Riley has won enough scholarships to cover his first year’s tuition, which is a great head start on keeping his school costs down. He says his Options scholarship money will go straight to necessary expenses. “It’ll probably be my meal plan. Because of Options, I’m eating, so I love that.” 

What does he want people to know about him? “I think you should know that I am a queer black teen man about to change the world,” he said. 
 
“When I was growing up,” he explained, “I never saw anyone that not only looked like me, but also understood me, understood the queer experience, understood the black experience. One of the main reasons I want to be a doctor now is so other people can know that this is possible. There is a community of people out there that share the same traits as you, that share the way you think. You are not alone.” 

To support scholarships at the Isaacs Center, make a donation and choose Youth Scholarships in the drop-down menu for Gift Designation.

Jessica Leon was strolling back from a doctor’s appointment on the Upper East Side with her daughter when she saw a flyer for a job readiness program. It was 2005; Jessica was 17 and her daughter was two. She had no interest in the program, but it came with something she did want: a subway pass. 

“You attend the class, you get a MetroCard,” she recalled recently in an expansive room overlooking midtown Manhattan. “I had not a dollar to my name, so I took it for the MetroCard.” 

Leon’s life had been pretty short on lucky breaks. Abandoned by her biological mother at age two, she was placed in the foster care system and then had a troubled upbringing with her adoptive mother. At fifteen Leon was pregnant. She didn’t receive a lot of guidance from the adults in her life.  

“No one in my family ever graduated high school. No one ever had a job. No one really told me, ‘Jessica, go to college. Jessica, build a career. Jessica, do good for yourself and your daughter,’” she explained. 

The job readiness program was held at the Isaacs Center. “At Stanley M. Isaacs Center, I was taught to type and prepare for the work environment. Once I learned to type I liked it. I recall the instructor saying to me, next class, we’re going to teach you how to build a resume. And I’m like what the heck is a resume?” 

Leon had never had a job, but they put her brand-new typing skills on her resume. Then she learned how to dress for an interview and how to operate in an office environment. A while later, the Isaacs Center called to offer her a job working the front desk at their Senior Center. She knew her adoptive mother wouldn’t approve, because her benefits would be cut if Jessica earned an income. 

“I was happy but also nervous because I didn’t want to get in trouble by my mother for working,” she recalled. “But I wanted to advance my career and look into building a better future for myself and my daughter. So, I accepted.” 

From that modest toehold, she began to climb.  

Leon got her college degree—the first in her family—a couple of years after she started working at the Isaacs Center. She worked in the IT department of a big Wall Street company for several years. Then she got an offer in real estate. Now she helps keep things running like clockwork at a sleek office tower of over 860,000 square feet, with a view of the Empire State Building. Her daughter is in college. Both of their futures look bright. 

“I’ve been through a lot. I appreciate everything at this point,” she said. “What I needed from my mother or any guardian, Stanley Isaacs did it. To be told from the time you’re four years old through your teen years that you’re nothing—you start thinking you’re nothing. But the Isaacs Center believed in me. 

“And to think, it all started with a flyer for a MetroCard!” she laughs. 

The Isaacs Center’s Education and Workforce program offers free training in Culinary Arts, Community Healthcare, Information Technology, and Youth Development and Human Services. Click here for more information or email Shayla Simpson, Director of Education and Workforce, at ssimpson@isaacscenter.org.