Maya C., 21
Maya is a student. She lives in the East Village of New York City, the heart of Manhattan.

My life today...basically I live in New York City. I go to NYU, and my life primarily consists of doing school work. I consider my job to be a student, which is why I put my school work first, but I really do need a 'job job'. I really do need one. The money situation in New York, for anyone really, is pretty tight and its hard to keep up with everything, from toilet-paper to going out with friends.
I volunteer; its something that takes up a lot of my time and energy and concentration. I volunteer at Stop Child Trafficking Now. Its an organization that tries to stop the child trafficking demand; its the only one of its kind. Its run in a church basement. They really don't have any funding; its just these two women, so they need a lot of help. They're doing extremely well, actually raised about half a million dollars so far this year.
I basically help out wherever they need me. They did a walk this year for the first time, they had 46 walks all around the nation. So I helped with the walk in Manhattan, just got everyone organized and excited.
I study Child Studies and Anthropology. It is an Honors major, so I'll be doing research in my field. My interest is trauma in children, and violence also. I'm interested in the anthropological perspectives that contribute to child trauma. Acedamia, as of now, is considering poverty a form of violence. And so thats what I'm looking at right now. I go to Brooklyn once a week for the day and talk with kids in the projects. I met two girls last week and they really seemed to connect with me. In Brooklyn, I'm looking at how poverty affects children, how they deal with it in the community, and how it affects the community.
How does it affect the community?
I mean, I'm slow to get there. It's hard to come up with one statement. It's basically not a good playground, or playing field, for children. The children are unhappy; they feel out of control; they're suffering. They did not chose to be there, their parents did. It's hard to get out.