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Who did the Youth Skills Development Program Serve and How?

Research conducted by Samantha DiRenzo (MA, Art and Design Education, 2022)

Who?

Participants

The Youth Skills Discovery and Development Program (YSD) started in the year of 1973 and ended in the early 2000s.  It was a six-week summer program offered to young people from the surrounding neighborhoods of Pratt Institute. There was no tuition for the program but, there was a screening process in order to be admitted into the program.  Participants needed to be referred to the program by a teacher or faculty member in their own schools, go through an interview process, and show academic records. 

Staff

The staff for the YSD program was carefully selected. Recommendations from Pratt faculty and chairpersons, as well as from community organizations, informed the selection of instructors. Staff included:

  • Local public school assistant principles and teachers.
  • Chairman of a university’s speech and theater department
  • Recommended Pratt students and graduates

The dynamic of the program looked different throughout the years. Some years the program appears to have been more disciplinary-focused and other years the program was designed to be like a summer camp. With these changes also came changes in uniforms and rules. More importantly, with this came changes in staff payment, recruitment, and training.

How?

What kind of programs could the youth choose from?

Fine Arts

Advanced Art, Exploratory Art, Painting, Cartooning, and Sculpture

Student working with clay on a table and looking at another student gesturing
two students painting coffee mugs
Student seated at a table with glue and a paint brush
students working on arts and crafts.
child working on arts and crafts

Visual Arts

Photography and Filmmaking

A student looking down at film negatives on a lightbox
A team of students peering through cameras
a student looking through a camera as a counselor offers assistance
Students surrounded by cameras looking at a television screen

Performing Arts

Dance, Theater, and Voice

a line of feet extended out in ballet position
Student in dancing attire striking a ballet pose

Math and Science

student pulling out parachute from a model rocket
two students holding rockets
student next to rocket

Athletic Clinics

Two students crossing their tennis rackets in front of the net
Two students playing badminton
Three students running on a track
Child in a field holding a baseball in one hand and a bat in the other
Student balancing a basket ball on his index finger

Specialized Remedial Reading for Targeted Students

  • What other benefits/opportunities were given to participants?
    Free breakfast and lunch
  • Some were offered admission to Pratt’s SAS
  • Access to facilities and faculty at Pratt
  • Opportunity to participate in end-of-summer exhibitions, performances, and presentations (Although, our oral history interview from Ayan Gorsline says only the older children participated in these, at least in the later years of the program that she witnessed.)
  • End of Summer Graduation Ceremony at City Hall in downtown Brooklyn
A banner that reads "Awards 1978". In front are a number of sports trophies.
students on stage receiving an award
students seated at a table eating a meal together