Elissa

From The Peopling of New York City

Elissa Gelnick is a student at City College and plans to graduate in 2011 with a Bachelor’s of Architecture. She attended the Yeshiva University High School for Girls, bringing honor to the school by winning the top prizes in the Jerusalem Science Contest two years in a row. She left the school with another legacy- in her sophomore year, she founded a chess team that now competes in the inter-yeshiva chess league.

Since her school did not specialize in architecture, Elissa pursued her architectural interests on her own, working on both individual and group projects. She spent a summer at MoMA designing a mini-museum and then joined the ACE Mentor program, helping to design an amusement park and stadium in Queens. Currently, she spends much of her time on her studio projects, enjoying the challenges of creating good design. Elissa also makes time to give back to her own community; on Fridays, she visits a nursing home to conduct Sabbath services with Jewish residents who otherwise would have no connection to a community. This summer, she hopes to obtain an environmental internship so that she will be able to integrate green design into her future projects.

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