Macaulay Connections

“Macaulay prepares its students for leadership positions in the greatest city in the world by giving a strong institutional knowledge of New York—and makes them responsible for its future by giving them the tools to navigate the many different sectors of industry and culture.” That’s Dan Allen’s view of the value of the Macaulay Honors Education—and how it serves him today in his professional role.

Now the Community Engagement Coordinator for Friends of Thirteen, Inc.  at THIRTEEN, New York’s public television station, Dan connects community groups and institutions to opportunities for collaboration with public media. “While at Macaulay, I chose a more professionally oriented approach to my education, and now I have a network of contacts in the non-profit, arts and culture, and media world. Just knowing the resources available to me has made me a valuable team member—not to mention the in-depth analytical experience I had examining the people, places and institutions across all five boroughs.”

When WNET.ORG President Neal Shapiro asked Dan and Friends of Thirteen to help recruit college students to help produce a local program related to Ken Burns’s epic “The National Parks: Americas Best Idea,” the answer was a resounding "yes!" Dan first turned to Daniel Cowen, a Macaulay Honors Scholar and film student at Hunter College (also profiled in the January 2010 edition of Macaulay Perspectives). Daniel brought along Andres F. Otero from Hunter College, an accomplished documentarian who has freelanced for the NY Daily News and NY Post, and Davi Santos, another Macaulay Scholar who hosts a TV program at Lehman College in the Bronx. Together, they helped produce National Parks: New Yorkers’ Memories, filming many of the interviews in Macaulay 67’s black-box theatre. You can view the film at http://www.thirteen.org/localparks/. Dan’s blog on the project can be found here.

Dan began taking media production courses as early as high school, where he was active in drama and musical productions. He went to Somers High School in Westchester County. He notes, “Unlike many of my colleagues, my family has firmly planted roots in the United States over several generations.” But the interesting diversity in his family background mirrors that of his Macaulay classmates: “My grandmother was the child of Russian Jews and my grandfather was a Georgia native who grew up on a farm with 12 siblings: he met my grandmother during the war and was able to speak more Yiddish than most Jews by the end of his life!”

“Spending so much time around ridiculous overachievers forces you to stay on the top of your game,” he notes. And he certainly did so during is time at Macaulay. He used his Opportunities Fund for study abroad in Chengdu, China (he was a Mandarin minor), and did five different internships during his undergraduate career: at WNET, K-Rock Radio, the Asia Society, WNYC, and Parnassus Productions.

On a closing note, Dan reflected on how his Macaulay experience prepared him for today’s challenges: “Macaulay students were not born into a life of privilege. They’ve worked for everything they’ve got and that fire, that passion, permeates everything that they do. These students are the real McCoy, or the real Gupta, or the real Goldstein, or the real Yang. They have their fingers on the pulse of what’s affecting their communities right now. They speak every language on earth and, mark my words, they will be edging out Ivy League competition in tomorrow’s professional and academic worlds for many years to come."

Contact Dan at AllenD@thirteen.org.