The Amusing "Park"spective

We, the students of the Spring 2022 Youth in STEM program in the school of Professional Studies at Columbia University created this digital artifact. We designed three amusement park rides: The Identity Castle; The Hierarchy House of Cards; and Pop a Balloon, Solve a Challenge! These rides communicate our vision for the future.

Here are brief descriptions of what each ride represents and means to us:

The Identity Castle: We are all from different identities and backgrounds and we come together to represent a wealth of collective knowledge. We are better and higher together. The castle is constructed as a tower because we hold each other up. The whole is not possible without the sum of its parts, we all support the environment we create.

The Hierarchy House of Cards: The house of cards represents the social hierarchies that are present in society. The factors that impact our social hierarchy are social, political, financial, gender, and racial issues. The top of the castle, inhabited by "Joker" cards, represent the powerful and influential people in our society, but that influence and power decreases as we move towards the bottom of the castle. The bottom represents the students in Youth in STEM. We are trying to find our way up through all of the social, racial, gender, and other challenges, as we chart paths into our futures.

Pop a Balloon, Solve a Challenge! The balloons have target signs on them, which represent obstacles or challenges. Once you successfully pop a balloon using a dart, a message appears in a ribbon which expresses gratitude and congratulations. It signifies the challenges we face in our everyday lives and fruits we bear when we overcome challenges.

Contributors: Fatumata Barrie, Kadija Diouf, Kaliya Springer, Amy Gahuancela, Erin Jeon, Esther Nyamekye, Sarnale Rahman, Kayla Hidalgo, George Li, Selina Li, Mouslymatou Mbacke, Aria Hossain, Eva Chow, Genesys Vasquez, Vanessa Carrillo, Katie Coryell, Barrie Adleberg, Kate Gray-Johnson, Lance Weiler