Rocking the Boat Profile: Meliza Pena

In Fall 2000, Meliza Pena learned about Rocking the Boat through a presentation at her school. She was a 16-year-old 11th grader at William Howard Taft High School, one of the most troubled schools in New York City . She immediately expressed interest in the boatbuilding program and came into the shop that very afternoon. She was a dynamic part of the Fall program, but had a hard time getting to class due to nearly 30 hours of extra work she was putting in at a supermarket to earn extra money for her family. At the start of the next semester, she came in to tell me that she had to take night school and couldn't join us again. I made a deal with her: If I could get her out of having to take night school, she would join RTB. We went to her guidance counselor, and found out other ways for her to make up the credits. She joined us again, and in a month, when our current apprentice quit, she took over his position and got paid for her work in the shop. Since then she has risen in rank at Rocking the Boat to become a “senior apprentice” (leading the other four apprentices) and is currently the shop assistant, acting as the second in command in teaching all boatbuilding activities. She is certainly the only teenage girl in New York City who not only knows how to build traditional wooden boats, but teaches it! She has also spent summers running our outdoor education programming, teaching rowing and environmental science, and has led environmental education campaigns fighting General Electric and Nuclear Power in the Hudson Valley . Now 18 years old, Meliza is a full-time college student at Bronx Community College, has joined the local New York Public Interest Research Group chapter based out of her college and is helping to organize a number of different campaigns to benefit New Yorkers. She continues to work for Rocking the Boat part-time, as our Senior boatbuilding apprentice. She plans on transferring to a four-year college in the Fall.

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