Hi, everybody. Welcome to The Librarian is in the New York Public Library's podcast about books, culture, and what's for you next? I'm Gwen. I'm Frank. And we are super excited to be joined today by two people from the Bridge Up program. I'm going to let you introduce yourselves. Hi, I'm Rudy Garcia. And I'm Frank. And we are super excited to be joined today by two people from the Bridge Up program.

I'm going to let you introduce yourselves. Hi, I'm Rudy Garcia. And I'm Davianus Cruz.

And we thank you so much for coming. We're so glad that you're here. Yeah, thanks for having us.

Do you want to just start out by telling us and telling the listeners a little bit about what Bridge Up is and what you do?

Sure. So Bridge Up is a comprehensive, holistic, personalized, out-of-school time program

here at the New York Public Library. We've been around since late 2013 when the library received

a generous grant from the Helen Gurley Brown Trust to start this program. And we launched it in 2014, and

the gist of it is we provide a lot of academic support and post-secondary readiness to make

sure that our students who are joining us from early high school until they graduate, have a post-secondary

plan. So, Rudy, so your, what's your title? Oh, yeah. I'm the associate manager of the bridge up program. Okay, and then so Davy, you're a scholar. A scholar. Yes. Going into 12th grade. Yes. Wow. Okay, so how did you, Davy, how did you hear about this program and what made you interested in being a part of it? So basically Rudy and Destery, a fellow at the time, came to my middle school, MS-45, and they came around different classrooms and spoke about what the program was and what it had to offer. And I was really interested in it, but I was too young to start the program because I was in seventh grade. So then they came back the next year and I heard about it again.

And then I thought that I wanted to apply. So I did apply and then I did the interview and then

I became a scholar. So all right. So to me it sounds like you're just wanting to go to school

war. What was the what was what was the attracting? I feel like for me I meant more learning and I really like to learn.

So I felt like a good thing for me.

All right, you schooled me.

That's actually the great way to put it.

Good, good, good.

The hearts of all the librarians and teachers around.

I know.

I would have just warmed like 20 degrees.

More school. But yeah, Davy's like, yeah, it's called a passion for learning. Dumbo. So what is the program sort of structure like? What does it look like on a day-to-day basis? Yeah. So Davy, you want to share a little bit? Okay, so you go after school, starting around like 3 o'clock, and we begin with homework help on a typical day.

And then after about an hour and hour and a half of homework help, we go into like some

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