FIT (New York, NY 10001-5992)
Kyunghee Pyun (Project Director: July 2020 to present)
Rebecca Hope Bauman (Co Project Director: December 2020 to present)
Vincent G. Quan (Co Project Director: December 2020 to May 2024) Shop Girls to Show Girls: Teaching Resources on New York's Working Class for Community College Students

“Shop Girls to Show Girls” an interdisciplinary project intended to improve student understanding of the historical contexts for the professional fields they are pursuing. The initiative is being developed to address needs initially identified by faculty during a pilot project at FIT. The pilot revealed that the inclusion of robust labor history in pre-professional course curricula can have broad value for a diversity of disciplines at community colleges. "Shop Girls to Show Girls" is grounded on the premise that the humanities bring essential context and a deeper subject understanding to pre-profession studies. By learning about the historical influences that have shaped the professions they will enter, community college students will be better-prepared for the demands of the 21st-century workplace. This knowledge will enhance their own careers and potentially empower them to improve the industries in which they are working.