South Brooklyn Profiles: Stephanie Jordan

Stephanie Jordan
"People see me as Joe's granddaughter," claims 17-year-old Stephanie Jordan as she pets her skinny white dog, Zoe, on her stoop. By "people" Stephanie Jordan means neighbors familiar with her grandfather, Joe Biasci, a real force in her part of the neighborhood. Stephanie, who wants to be a veterinarian, holds down two animal jobs: in Bay Ridge she works as a veterinary technician and in Fort Hamilton at the Kensington stables where she helps care for the horses equestrian-minded New Yorkers can ride through Prospect Park. She hopes to have her own horse one day, though she has no plans to leave New York. She's horrified by the idea, in fact.
Stephanie goes to City as School, a high school in Manhattan where she gets high school credit for her jobs. She takes math and language classes at the school, but the rest of the time she learns from internships outside of the classroom. That made the most sense for Stephanie when she chose City as School: She's been a member of the Air Force Auxiliary** since she was 13--her sister is in the Air Force. "We assist in 80% of air force rescue missions, " she explains, tugging at the Batman choker around her neck. She's gentle with Zoe assuring her in a high voice with a light New York accent that yes, they would head over to the park soon. The kids there know her because of Zoe; nobody ever gives her trouble. "This is a big dog neighborhood," she says; Zoe, in fact, is as much Stephanie's entree to the neighborhood as her grandfather.
She doesn't know a lot of the kids in the area, doesn't see herself as particularly connected to the people her age who spend most of their summer nights hanging out on stoops and in cars.
"When you're a teenager you're trying to find yourself," she says by way of explaining the ambling kids who hang out in front of a newsstand on Smith Street. "Hopefully you'll grow out of it, right Zoe?"

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This project is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Development Fund of BAC/Brooklyn Arts Council, Inc., which is made possible with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.