Baltimore Community FellowshipsGuidelines | Fellows | Fellows Profiles
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Baltimore, Maryland
2007
A teacher for 11 years, Kristina Berdan, 37, shows her students how to apply the skills of their classes to the real world. In March 2001, nine students in her Community Action course at Stadium School decided to create a youth-run youth center in the community of Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello and Waverly. Motivated by a young friend's presence at a shooting, these students felt that if he had had a stimulating place to go after school that he wouldn't have been in harm's way to witness such violence. The Youth Dreamers were born, and today, even though they have graduated from high school, the dream continues.
With Berdan's guidance, the students bought a yellow house for $12,500 after negotiating its price. Then, at a zoning hearing, they learned that neighbors were distressed about a youth center. "We were crushed by the residents who worried that a youth center would bring drugs and violence," says Berdan. Since then, the students have made it their mission to engage the neighbors—doing everything from creating mosaic house numbers for them to hosting block parties to Christmas caroling. They even collected residents' oral histories to get to know them better and solicited their vote on exterior paint colors. "We reached a turning point, and people who were opposed to us said, ‘I see you are trying to benefit other people,'" says Berdan.
Under Berdan's direction, the students have worked with a pro bono general contractor and an architect on renovation plans. The first floor will be a community floor with a lounge, a meeting room and a cybercafé for residents to use computers. The second floor will be a homework/tutoring space. The third floor will be for student employees and a gallery for student art. Most impressive, the students have raised $203,000 of the $324,000 needed for the renovations—through many bake sales, fundraisers, grantwriting and awards. Through her fellowship, Berdan plans to help the Youth Dreamers finally open their center in August 2008.
