At Joseph F. Quinn Intermediate School 77 (IS 77) in Ridgewood, Queens, two sixth-grade classes led by teachers Sandra Cardillo and Nell Worden have spent the school year engaged in a powerful and deeply personal community-based civics project through Generation Citizen.
Their journey began with tragedy. In October, the school community was shaken by the death of a student who lost their life subway surfing. In the wake of this loss, students came to a quick consensus: this issue had to be addressed. Together, they’ve developed creative strategies to end subway surfing in their neighborhood and beyond.
From advocating for new safety features on subway trains to designing social media campaigns aimed at reaching vulnerable youth, the students have tackled this challenge with both urgency and compassion. They also discovered a connection between the lack of afterschool programming and increased risk of engaging in dangerous activities. After learning that their Extended Learning Time (ELT) funding was cut—eliminating clubs and safe spaces—they created a petition on Change.org to raise awareness and rally support. While some funding was restored, their advocacy continues.
Students have also been reaching out to elected officials, calling for stakeholder presentations and broader awareness efforts. Their work includes researching the influence of social media on behavior, surveying peers, and creating public service posters to spread their message.
As their teachers reflected:
“It has been a privilege to step back and let our students lead. As facilitators, we empower them to take charge of the conversation. After all, this is an issue that directly affects them in ways that adults may not fully understand. This project is about more than civic engagement—it’s about honoring the life of a student and friend lost to subway surfing through meaningful advocacy.”
Below are some reflections directly from the students involved in the project:
Has this project changed how you see yourself as a leader, team member, or someone who can make change?
“This project shows me we can make change in our school community. I show leadership through the project by making sure we do the best we can.”
“I’ve been feeling good about the project because I get to tell people at my school not to subway surf. It’s important to tell people not to subway surf because you can’t risk losing your life.”
“I see myself changing to be a leader. A leader means you get to help people and lead people to success and being a better person. They can be a better person by helping us take down subway surfing.”
“I feel that I could be a leader, choosing how people could do better in life instead of doing dangerous activities. I could be a leader by telling them not to do that. Working with the other kids in the last is very interesting. Some kids know things you don’t know. It’s really fun because you get work with everyone in your class.”
“This project inspired me to want to become a police officer so I can go to the train stations and stop kids from going on top of the trains. I want to protect them from being harmed- subway surfing can be fatal.”
What accomplishments have you had this year with your project or what have you learned?
“I learned about the website Change.org that helps us make petitions to get things done. I learned how to reach a goal using several ways such as making posters, making petitions, making a bulletin board, and working together with our classmates to get work done. We haven’t heard back from the elected officials, but we did get 41 signatures on our petition so far.”
“The project is almost finished. It was fun to decorate the posters.”
“I have learned that subway surfing can kill people and families cannot even see their children. They only have pictures on their phones left of them. We can protect people our age from doing that. If we put security codes on train doors maybe it will be harder to kids to get up on top of the train.”
“We have succeeded at telling people our message. We made slides to show to the whole sixth grade.”
“What I learned is that a lot of people die from subway surfing. Kids it for fun after seeing trends of it. We can stop the trends by talking to social media companies to shut down any videos they find of subway surfing.”
Students at IS 77 are showing what civic education looks like: relevant, responsive, and led by those directly impacted. Their advocacy in the wake of tragedy is an inspiring reminder of the power of youth voice and the importance of creating safe spaces for civic learning and leadership.
Click here to read and support their Change.org petition.