Connecting to people is a huge part of Bloomingdale’s story, and when children and families maintain those connections, it is a wonderful part of our success. Aya Taveras has been a Bloomingdale student, a Bloomingdale parent, served on the Bloomingdale Parent Committee and is now a member of the Bloomingdale Governing Board.
Her story with Bloomingdale began at our 107th street location. Aya grew up in the neighborhood and after Bloomingdale attended PS 145, Booker T. Washington M.S. and then The Beacon School. After high school she went to Middlebury College, and she did her graduate work at Relay Graduate School of Education and Columbia University.
Mila, her daughter, attended Bloomingdale during the Covid years 2021-2023. As a parent, Aya reconnected with one of our staff who was also a parent here, and from this encounter she started a very important project: an oral history of the program through the eyes of 6 of our teachers and staff members. She initially conducted interviews as part of her studies for a master’s degree at Columbia University in Oral History. The project expanded beyond her coursework and is currently in the editing stage. A future blog post will share more about it.
While Mila was benefitting from the Bloomingdale experience, Aya volunteered to be a part of the Bloomingdale Parent Committee. Once Mila graduated from Bloomingdale, Aya joined the Board in the Fall, 2023, and is contributing her energies to an alumni outreach project, building on our annual Alumni Photo Event. The next Alumni Photo Event will be held on June 27-28, 2025. .
Currently Aya is the Director of Community at Cinereach, a media incubator that leverages qualitative research to create original content. She lives uptown with her family, not too far away from Bloomingdale.
We look forward to an ongoing connection with Aya for years to come!
See our slideshow about Aya below:
See more of Aya in the slideshow and blog post on a recent Board Orientation. </span>
<a href=”https://bloomingdalefamilyprogram.org/our-governing-board-orientation-at-our-site/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”><img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-12524″ src=”https://bloomingdalefamilyprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Orientation-Main-Title-English-cropped-1-scaled.webp” alt=”” width=”2560″ height=”1939″></a>
