Boston Asian Youth Essential Service

by Seth Coven

The first thing junior Madeleine Jew noticed when she stepped into a neighborhood near Chinatown was not the smell of deep-fried Chinese food. It was the incessant smell of cigarette smoke that polluted the air.

This summer, Jew interned at Boston Asian Youth Essential Service. According to its website, its mission is to “inspire Asian youth to discover and actualize their greatest potential.”

Jew worked with the organization to reduce smoking in a largely Hispanic community in Boston by raising awareness about its dangers.

Jew said the issue is very personal to her.

“I thought it was really rewarding,” Jew said. “I have some family members that still smoke and I’ve been trying to get them to stop. It’s not that easy.”

According to Jew, she and her co-workers polled housing developments to see if they would want to eliminate smoking from their building and made signs with the slogan Live Smoke Free.

Jew said she typically worked from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. three days a week.

“It definitely taught me the responsibility of work and that certain hours you have to be there and you have to actually work through those hours,” she said.

This was Jew’s first year working with the organization. She said this was just the beginning of a struggle to minimize smoking in various communities.

“The cigarette community is huge,” Jew said. “I think it’s something that needs to stop. We start with one community and then work from there.”