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Work—Study—Live:
The Resident Youth Centers of the NYA

I Join the National Youth Administration

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Spring Plowing at the Hartwick Seminary NYA Resident Work Center

During the Summer of 1940 when I was at loose ends after a period of graduate study at Columbia University, I read of this new NYA program in an article in the New York Times. It so impressed me that I decided to look into the possibility of working for it. This led me to the New York State office of the NYA in Albany, N.Y., which was close to our Vermont home. I was interviewed by A. A. Medved, who was responsible for the resident work experience centers in New York State. The Director of the full state program was a Carl Hesley. Both of these men were exceptionally imaginative and effective in their jobs. To my surprise and pleasure, I was offered a position as a potential center director. Its location and the name of the institution it would replace were still unknown, as the Government was in the process of securing it.

New directors were required to spend an orientation period in one of the existing centers. Consequently, I was assigned to the Hartwick Farm Center in Hartwick, N.Y., some forty miles west of Albany. The NYA had taken over for this Center the buildings and land of the former Hartwick Seminary, a former church-related secondary school.

Eleanor Roosevelt

This center offered work experience in dairying, poultry, canning and general farming. I was to remain there until notified of the location of the center assigned to me. In the meantime, Helen and I, plus our three children, rented a large, comfortable, furnished house in the nearby town of Milford, N.Y.

A memorable incident while at the Hartwick Center was a visit by Eleanor Roosevelt. She drove from Hyde Park, N.Y., the traditional Roosevelt homestead, which was relatively nearby. I was asked to meet her car outside of the tiny town of Hartwick and escort her to the Center. It gave me a chance to see the extent of her interest in and enthusiasm for the NYA program. This was her favorite of all the New Deal projects. She eagerly observed every activity of the Center and asked innumerable questions. We knew she would share all she had seen with her husband, as was her practice on field trips. I was greatly impressed with her informality and friendliness.

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