Yvette

"Everyone knows my name now."

By Students of NYC

December 12^th, 2025

“I started doing morning scanning in 10th grade. I’m the first face a lot of people see every morning. They have to swipe their ID, but if they don’t have it, I type their names manually. At first I did it to help out, and yeah, it looked good for college. But what really kept me doing it was the kids. There are kids who come to school upset, crying, stressed. And if I could be that one face they know they’re going to see every morning, it’s like, okay, they’re not alone today. A lot of times in the morning, people are mad. Nobody wants their stuff taken away. People don’t understand the rules. I don’t mind scanning because it makes me feel safer, and I can help explain why things are happening. The deans don’t always have time to explain, so I’ll tell people, ‘Guys, this is the rule. You’ll get your device back.’ I think I de-escalate a lot of morning feelings without even realizing it. People tell me I’m actually nicer than they thought I was. I guess I have a resting face. People think I’m mean or that I don’t talk, but I love to talk. I think what happens is I don’t want to be annoying, so I stay quiet — but the moment someone asks me for information, I’m going to brain-dump everything I know. I never want someone to feel ignored, because I know what that feels like.

New York kids are expressive. And a lot of people don’t do well with expressive people because we come off really strong, and that scares them — especially if they don’t know what you’re saying. They only hear your tone. But when you actually talk to us, some of us are so passionate about the things we’re interested in. The amount of kids that want to go to nursing school, or become pilots or chefs — outside, you would never know that. But when you’re actually in school with us, you’re like, oh wait, you want to be an ultrasound tech? You want to work in radiology? And they’re so passionate about it. You wouldn’t know unless you sat and really talked with them. Watching them light up over the things they love.

Even the ones not getting sky-high grades — they’re not stupid. I know this one kid, and he annoys me so badly because he’s smarter than he lets himself be. He doesn’t come to school on time, he doesn’t do his work, but he’s not a dumb kid. If he sits down with me and I go over the work, he gets it. And I’m like, ‘So why don’t you just do it?’ And he’s like, ‘I don’t know.’ And that’s the thing — these kids are so smart. They just don’t have the motivation for things they’re not interested in. But when it’s something they are passionate about? They’re go-getters. They’ll put their whole heart into it. And that should be appreciated more. A lot of us have all this passion and nowhere to put it. Walking around with this ball of whatever you're interested in with nowhere to pour it? That consumes you.

Everyone knows my name now. I’ll be in the hallway and I hear, ‘Yvette!’ from somewhere and I’m like, who is looking for me now? Even though I know I’m not in trouble, I’m like, why do you know who I am? But I think people get comfort from me. I just … know a lot of stuff. If there’s an event, a dress-down day, a town hall, they know I usually have the answer. So I guess that makes people comfortable coming to me."