Isles

Congratulations to today's graduates of the Isles Youth Institute .
Tuesday, before the caps and gowns, before the walk across the stage, they sat around a table with glitter, letters, stickers and glue and made something that was entirely theirs. Every cap tells a story. One reads "We did it because you, Mummy, never gave up," ringed with photos of the babies who watched their mother earn this. Another, in pink glitter, declares "This was not like Monster High," a reminder that the real thing was harder, and that they finished anyway.

That is what IYI has always been about. Our students come to us for a different path to a high school diploma, but they leave with more than a credential. They leave with job skills, with confidence, and with proof that showing up for yourself, day after day, adds up to something you can wear on your head and hold for the rest of your life.

To every graduate: You earned this. We could not be prouder. The whole Isles family is celebrating you today.

Graduation photos to come.

Last week was one of the hottest weeks of the year, and we put a new kind of cooling to the test right here in Trenton.

Together with Clearly Cool, we installed a first-of-its-kind radiant cooling pavilion at our Tucker Street garden. Instead of cooling the air, it cools people directly, pulling heat away from the body the way shade never quite can. Sitting under it on a 95-degree day feels like sitting under a regular awning at 85. No fans, no drafts, just physics.

Extreme heat is the deadliest weather hazard in the country, and it hits dense cities like Trenton hardest. This technology, built on more than a decade of peer-reviewed research, protects people right where they are. In a garden. At a bus stop. Out in the open, using a fraction of the energy of air conditioning.

Clearly Cool is a partnership between AIL Research Inc. and Princeton University's CHAOS Lab. Huge thanks to the team that made it possible: Dr. Eric Teitelbaum, Founder & CTO, and Dr. Andy Lowenstein, Founder & CEO of AIL Research Inc., and Prof. Forrest Meggers, Founder & Chief Scientist of the Princeton CHAOS Lab.

This is just the start. With support from the NJ Board of Public Utilities, we're bringing radiant cooling benches to three sites across the city, and asking residents where they should go next.

Come check it out during open garden hours through the end of July.

A big thank you to the volunteers from Santander Bank US who came out last month to roll up their sleeves with our Urban Agriculture team.

At the garden behind the Battle Monument, the group cleared brush and pulled weeds to give the space a fresh start. Over at the Tucker Street garden, they laid down cardboard and wood chips, a simple but effective way to keep weeds from taking over.

We are grateful for hands like these in our community. Thank you, Santander, for helping our gardens and green spaces grow and thrive.

Do you have a group interested in volunteering? Contact [email protected] for more information.