Big congrats to Zumana, Annalise, Brett, Bethany, Omar, Corrin, Riley, and Anna on your excellent and provocative presentation today!   For those who missed it, this group was part of a session with presentations on various aspects of what is known as the city’s welfare system.  The other 2 groups talked about ways to better help homeless youth and ways to improve on De Blasio’s plan to incorporate college education into the workfare program.  All the presentations were critical, informative, clear, and compelling.  And no doubt I’m biased but I thought the group from our class was the best!  (I think the respondents did too, given their comments and questions).  What stood out (to me anyways) about this group was the degree to which its proposal addressed the root causes of the issue, so rather than suggesting minor reforms, the group suggested a set of radical- and do-able!- responses (and, importantly, preventative measures); additionally- the group’s analysis and proposals were deeply informed by those most affected by the issue.  These are rare accomplishments!  So rare in fact that one of the respondents and a writer on these issues for the NY Times, Joe Berger, impressed as he was, wrongly assumed that the proposal was for a new kind of homeless shelter- probably because that’s all that anyone ever proposes!   Improvements to, rather than major changes in, the system; the team handled the questions and comments brilliantly- all of which goes to show how important it is, in preparing for any presentation, to anticipate your audience’s assumptions, reactions, and criticisms.  Nice work!!!