Meet Your Summer Mentor: Eric

Topic: Urban Photojournalism   

Explore the streets of your city with a camera in hand. Think about what makes New York great (and terrible) and how to sustain and build upon its achievements. Drawing on classical urban texts from a diverse group of historians, architects, social theorists, urban planners, geographers, anthropologists, you’ll investigate how cities work and what function they serve. We will go out into the city to experience and document it. You’ll culminate the summer with a written and photographic exposé capturing your observations. 

Sign up for a Mentor

Headshot_cropped

Eric Goldwyn, PhD candidate in Urban Planning - Columbia University 

Eric is a doctoral candidate in the Urban Planning program at Columbia University.  Growing up in New York and commuting to high school and Mets games on the subway shaped his research interest in transportation networks and urban form. Prior to enrolling at Columbia, he earned a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from NYU and a Bachelor’s degree in history from Bowdoin College.

While at NYU and Columbia, Eric has taught course sections on statistics and worked with over a hundred students on writing research papers.  At Cambridge Coaching, Eric is a standardized test prep tutor and he specializes in homework help across a range of subjects, history, statistics, and writing, for middle and high school students.  He works with students to prepare for Advanced Placement exams in English, US History and Human Geography, as well as the related SAT subject tests. He also enjoys working with students on their college applications.

Eric enjoys unplanned walks in any city and grousing about the Mets and local politics to anyone who will listen.

Explore other topics

Interview with Eric

1) Why are you excited to teach a mentorship on urban photojournalism? 

Cities play a critical role shaping culture, the economy, and the environment. Understanding how they do this is the difference between being thoughtful and careless.

2) What inspired you to pursue urban planning? 

Growing up in New York helped. Travel also played a big role. Ultimately, I really like reading, writing, and thinking about cities.

3) What will I get out of this mentorship? 

Many of the ideas we discuss will blow your mind and give you a strong theoretical foundation for understanding the world. Also walking around the city is the best possible way to spend time.