Scholas Occurentes began its first foray into the New York area on Friday, with about 60 students from eight high schools participating in the week-long Scholas Citizenship event at Archbishop Stepinac High School in Westchester County. Cardinal Timothy Dolan first announced that the multi-faceted youth program would come to the Archdiocese of New York in May. Founded in Argentina in 2013, while Pope Francis was still Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Scholas seeks to engage young people in thinking about and working on social issues facing their peer group. As Scholas kicked off on Friday, after an hour of ice-breaking activities, counselors introduced the students to the program for the rest of the day and the remainder of the week. First, each student was asked to write down a time when they experienced pain, and anonymously submit them. Students were then separated into groups, where they were asked to discuss areas of concern in society, concerns generated by the students, not moderators. The students then prepared presentations that would be given to the full group, in order to choose a topic that the assembled would work on for the rest of the week, including research, meeting with civic leaders, and ultimately, developing an action plan to carry forward after the program ends. Proposed topics included subway safety; social media abuse; division, among both young people and society in general; and indifference. After two rounds of voting, the students chose social media abuse as their action area for the week. After a weekend off, students return on Monday to work through their topics and plans, with a final presentation set for Friday.