Tools Trade Fall 2009
Opposites Attract: Students Choosing Non-Traditional Careers
If there’s one lesson the shifting economy has taught us, it’s that there are no rules when it comes to career choices. Layoffs and unpredictable job markets have forced both men and A Publication of the Southern Westchester BOCES Center for Career Services women to ignore stereotypes and train for jobs they may never have considered because of their gender. It’s not A Message from the Director unusual now to see male nurses, Dear Friends: teachers and librarians, or female The 2009-2010 school year is in full swing and our electricians, carpenters, welders and students are hard at work towards achieving their educamechanics in the workforce.
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tional and career goals. We at Career Services are here to support them from every direction, starting with an outstanding curriculum and guidance from our highly qualified teachers and counselors.
The doors of opportunity are always open to our students, with events like the annual Career Day, where they can learn about a wide range of careers first-hand from people working in the field, and from campus visits throughout the year from representatives of some of the best post-secondary colleges and technical schools in the country. A few things I’d like students and parents to keep in mind as they plan ahead is that students are in a unique position to not only learn life-long transferable skills, but to earn academic, career, and technical credit, college credit, to participate in internships and job shadowing opportunities, and to prepare for entry into the workforce. This is a place where practical, hands-on skills work in tandem with academic and career pursuits. This issue of “Tools of the Trade” offers stories that may give you some food for thought as you read about several students who are exploring non-traditional career paths and two who have participated in programs that gave them a leg up on their chosen field. We look forward to a great year and to working with each of our students to help them reach their academic goals and make their career dreams come true. If you have any questions about the Center for Career Services, please contact me at 914 -761-3400. Sincerely,
Students who are exploring career options fully understand the concept that “anything goes” in today’s world, says Linda Suarez, director of the Southern Westchester BOCES Career Services Center. “They aren’t hung up on the idea that jobs are gender-specific. It’s just not an issue for them.” BOCES students, in fact, can spend their first week on campus sampling different courses until they find one that fits. If a female student starts out in cosmetology, but discovers that she’d rather train in carpentry after sitting in on a class, she’s free to shift gears. Likewise, a male student who realizes his artistic skills are better suited to creating garments for the fashion industry can opt out of a traditional course like auto mechanics. Parent support key to student success It’s important for parents to support students, especially girls, who are interested in a non-traditional career path, says Ms. Suarez. Many girls get the message from anxious parents that their BOCES training is “something they can fall back on.” That’s a mistake, she says, because if a girl’s choice is trivialized, she may never go the distance in her career. Continued on page 2
CONTENTS Campus Green Committee Formed . . . . . . . . .3 Student Orientation Sessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Air Brush Artist Visits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Student Gets a Taste for Medicine . . . . . . . . . .5 Back to School Night . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Art Student Builds Portfolio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Linda Maria Suarez Director, Southern Westchester BOCES Center for Career Services
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Men, Ms. Suarez notes, tend to be more serious and take their career training to the next level or use their skills to start a business, while women sometimes stop short of their career goals to marry and raise a family. “Women need to take ownership and see themselves as a whole package and a brand, and move forward from there.” Ms. Suarez adds that historically it’s been easier for men to become successful in non-traditional careers. Society has accepted male hairdressers, chefs, and fashion designers (think Paul Mitchell, Gordon Ramsey and Valentino), but women are still considered something of a novelty in non-traditional career settings. People still tend to take a second look if they spot a woman working on a construction crew, for example, or raise eyebrows over a female carpenter on a television design show. Slowly, but surely, non-traditional careers for men and women are becoming, well, normal. Ms. Suarez points to herself as an example of a woman working in a non-traditional career role. Twenty years ago, she says, a man would have held her position as director of the Center for Career Services. “Women leading schools was a rare thing, so we are making progress. The whole idea of traditional jobs is probably going to die with my generation. Everything’s an option now. Everything’s open.” Here’s a look at three SWBOCES students who have chosen to explore a non-traditional career path:
Arielle Young
Arielle Young: Future Auto Designer Looking at Arielle Young, you’d never suspect the Alexander Hamilton High senior was into cars. Standing only
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5’2” tall, it’s even more impossible to believe she knows how to operate a multi-ton frame straightening machine used to realign car frames set askew in accidents, or wield a welding gun with deft. But Arielle, dressed in a pair of dusty blue coveralls, knows her way around the BOCES auto body shop, and points out the biggest, noisiest and most dangerous pieces of equipment around. “Once you know what those clunky sounds are and how the machines work, they’re not as scary as they look,” she says. In addition to the crane and welding machines, there’s a metal cutter and a drill press, which uses mega-sized drill bits to make holes in metal, and the paint booth, where autos go in for a makeover. What would inspire a self-confessed girly-girl, who loves having manicures, to want to spend time in what looks like a wonderland for boys? Her father. As a youngster, Arielle and her dad, who designs aircraft radar products, would “drool over” auto magazines together, looking at the expensive sports cars – Porsches and Maseratis were favorites – he couldn’t afford. That didn’t stop them from dreaming. Arielle had a talent for drawing, and for fun invented her own luxury sports car designs on paper. It occurred to her that there had to be a way to combine her love for sports cars and drawing in a career. She found out about the BOCES auto body course from a guidance counselor, but wasn’t interested at first. “Getting down and dirty wasn’t something I was into,” she says with a laugh. She visited the shop anyway and a lightbulb went on. “It struck me that cars are not just beautiful to look at, but that they have a function,” she says. “I realized that I could use my understanding of their technical function and combine it with my love of art to design cars.” One of the most important things she has learned after working with different metals during the first 2
year in the program, is that some of her fantasy cars would never make it to the assembly line simply because the metals wouldn’t work for the design. “I put too much creativity into the designs,” she says, pointing to the fancy grill work on one of the drawings in her portfolio. “You can manipulate a design (on paper), but it may not work in the physical world.” With dreams of designing luxury sports cars for German manufacturers Audi or Porsche because “they’re awesome,” Arielle says she will enroll in a university industrial arts design program. She also hopes to enter the SkillsUSA competition in the spring.
Jen Pineda
Jen Pineda: Electrician in Training Jen Pineda is up on a ladder turning a screw driver. She’s trying to make a switch connect to a light bulb. “It’s a really good feeling when the light goes on,” the 11th grader from Mamaroneck High School says with a pleased smile. She is enrolled in the BOCES Electrical Construction program, where students focus on learning electrical layout, and the installation and maintenance of residential and commercial wiring. Jen, a first-year student and the only girl in the class, works alongside her male counterparts in “rooms” constructed of lumber frames, where the students practice their wiring and cabling skills to the thumping beat of techno music coming from a set of overhead speakers. In this pretend house, students have an opportunity to learn how to do everything from getting a blub to light from a single switch to rigging it so it can be controlled from multiple locations in a Continued on page 3
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house. More difficult jobs, installing cable and reading blueprints, come along as students increase their skills. “I just wanted to do something different. I couldn’t see myself doing cosmetology or anything like that,” Jen says in explanation of her choice to explore the electrical field. Trades run in the family: an uncle is an electrician and her step-father is a mechanic. Both men, and a male family friend, have supported her decision. Jen is practical-minded and says that no matter what she ends up doing for a living, she’ll always have a high-paying skill in a field that is short on women. “I think everyone should have electrical skills. It’s like replacing a tire. Everyone should know how.”
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flowers -- they’re all his favorites. “I like them all because they’re pretty and they smell good. My mom is always happy when I bring flowers home,” he says. At the florist shop, Victor learned how to cut and wrap fresh flowers, make funeral wreaths, and create seasonal and holiday floral arrangements. He was able to transfer his experience to class, where he and his fellow students have been learning to identify different flowers, clean and cut them properly, design and package bouquets and arrangements for birthdays and weddings, and make funeral and hospital floral arrangements. They’ll also gain an understanding of the wholesale and retail aspects of the floral business by the end of the course.
like the autumn wreath he recently designed for class (see photo) – that best showcases Victor’s passion for all things floral. “He’s a great designer. I’d love to see him get into the field,” says his teacher, Cory Magarelli, who notes that Victor has a natural instinct for making use of just the right materials to make an arrangement work. He’ll have plenty of opportunity to experiment further as he and his classmates design items for Career Services’ upcoming annual holiday crafts sale. The students will make fresh and silk holiday wreaths, table and fireplace arrangements, and other pieces to decorate the home. Throughout the course, they also will get to create floral pieces for weddings and other events that customers request.
But it’s the artistry that goes into his creations –
Campus Green Committee Formed A “green committee” has been established to look for opportunities where green-oriented projects and programs can be put in place around campus. The group met for the first time on Thursday, Sept. 24, and will reconvene every other week on Thursday. Members of the committee, chaired by Colleen Murray, supervisor, Introduction to Career Trades, include teachers Greg Battochi and Tom Burgess; supervisor Clem Ceccarelli; and teachers Richard DeStefano, Rick Grizzutti, Chris Kincart, Frank Mascetta, Joe Passaretti and Richard Thomas. Staff and faculty members are encouraged to join the committee and to submit ideas to Ms. Murray. Ideas that came out of the Sept. 24 session include: • teaching three green-oriented lessons in every course;
Victor Perez
Victor Perez: A Feel for Flowers It’s not just the girls who are taking the road less traveled. Victor Perez, a senior at Sleepy Hollow High School, enrolled in the Ornamental Horticulture program two years ago after a summer job he held at Tarrytown Florist, a position he applied for through his school’s Project YOU (Youth Opportunities Unlimited).
• building wood boxes for classrooms for garbage, paper and bottle recyclables. The boxes will be built by students in the Building Maintenance program and painted by Integrated Art students; • installing 30-gallon receptacles for plastic oil bottles left over from auto classes; • publishing yearbooks online rather than printing them to save money and reduce paper use; • initiating a program for recycling used cell phones and using money collected to support the SkillsUSA program; • growing an herb garden for use by Culinary Arts classes; and • repairing and reusing the campus green house.
While girls and women are most often associated with being the recipient of flowers, passionate gardeners, and floral industry designers, Victor feels that’s a sexist point of view. “Flowers are for everyone,” he says earnestly. He’s also an equal opportunist when it comes to favorite
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B O C E S Center for Career Services
Student Orientation Sessions Teach Campus Rules of the Road
emphasized three key points students should keep in mind:
Southern Westchester BOCES students attended an Orientation Session held for them on Oct. 7. Throughout the day, school supervisors, teachers, counselors, security staff and an officer from the Greenburgh police department offered tips and guidance for enjoying campus life and having a successful year.
A visiting Greenburgh police officer ran through campus safety measures and explained the difference between situations that require sheltering in place, an evacuation and a lock down. During a sheltering in place scenario, students remain in
students can train at BOCES for job placement or prepare to enter a post-secondary educational program or college; and
college-bound students can earn advanced placement credits and a SUNY transcript.
Career Services Director Linda Suarez welcomed students at each session and assured them that they were in the right place to train for jobs, earn a license and enter the work world, or to prepare for post-secondary education. "This is a place you'll gain a lot from," she said. Eileen Bloom, supervisor of the Alternative Education program, and Colleen Murray, supervisor, Introduction to Career Trades, offered housekeeping tips, noted cafeteria hours and reminded students to review their handbooks with their parents and return required permission slips for driving on campus, emergency hospital visits and photography. Smoking is not permitted on campus, added Ms. Bloom, "so be compliant and try to follow the rules."
BOCES offers academic classes to help meet requirements at their home school;
"So take it all seriously and do what you have to," to be successful, he said.
Career Services Director Linda Suarez welcomes students to an orientation session.
BOCES buildings if it's too dangerous for them to go home on buses, such as during a bad storm. An evacuation to another building, location or to their homes would happen in the case of a bomb threat or fire. During a lock down, students and teachers would lock themselves in classrooms, lock all windows, lower the shades and turn off cell phones. "You don’t want a shooter to know where you are," the officer said. Clement Ceccarelli, supervisor of the Advanced Career and Technical Education program,
Rock Stars, Air Brush Artists Have Much in Common Cars and motorcycles are your thing, but you’re passionate about art, too. What do you do with that? Ten minutes after listening to Tom Banks, the decision seems easy: become a rock star. No, not the kind who performs on stage before sell-out crowds. We’re talking about air brush artists who paint graphics and scenes on pretty much anything with wheels. “Being an air brush artist is a lot like being a rock star,” said Mr. Banks, owner of Big Daddy Customs in Enon Valley, Pa., where he paints vehicles with classic designs, nature scenes, animals, skulls, flames, flags and anything else his customers can imagine. “You’re doing something very few people do, and you can get well-known in certain circles for your work. That’s a neat feeling.”
just four years. He also works as a field representative for Ohio Technical College in Cleveland, traveling to high schools across the country to promote the school’s specialty career training in the automotive industry. Mr. Banks paid a visit to the Southern Westchester BOCES campus on Oct. 2 to talk to students enrolled in auto courses about Ohio Tech’s programs and to demonstrate his work.
Mr. Banks, trained by air brush guru Richard Markham, has been a practicing custom artist for
Part artist, part motivational speaker, Mr. Banks says his purpose is to spread the word to students 4
Guidance Counselor Martin Sommer noted that BOCES' specialty is that it offers students both academic and technical career options, and has counselors on staff who are ready to assist students in their choices. "We'll work with you and your home school to help you explore post-secondary education and training options," he said. At the end of each session, Integrated Art teacher Christine Ireland spoke to students about the school's SkillsUSA club and urged everyone to join. The SkillsUSA Championships showcase the talents of the best career and technical students in the country. Those involved in the program have a chance to compete against students locally, regionally, and at the national level in the spring. Participants want to be the best at what they do, are natural born leaders, like making new friends and enjoy competing, said Ms. Ireland, "and it looks great on your resume.” that they, too, can become an air brush artist because “it’s simpler than you think. If you can color in a coloring book, you can do this.” Mr. Banks showed the students how to layer a stenciled vinyl graphic (Ohio Tech’s logo) on an old car hood and then to create the illusion that it was made out of marble. But first he led the students through a series of questions to get them thinking about the project: what are the characteristics of marble? Is marble a liquid, a gas or a solid? What does that mean to a painter? What color is marble? Beige, black, white, gray? “I’ve got options, so I need to decide what I’m going with,” he said. After showing the students how to correctly handle the air brush, Mr. Banks dabbed and smeared the wet gray paint with a plastic bag to Continued on page 5
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Leadership Forum Gives Future Pediatrician a Taste for Medicine
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medical topics, visits to hospitals and clinics, and talks with medical professionals, educators and patients. During the Forum, students learned about educational requirements for entering medical school, career options, and the ethical and legal issues facing medical practitioners today. Chantia also participated in a team debate on sex selection for babies, and worked with other students to create a hypothetical public health program they named the Veteran’s Debriefing Psychiatric Evaluation (VDPE) plan. The VDPE would give returning soldiers free psychiatric treatment before resuming civilian life. The students included fund-raising efforts and lobbying for government support in their proposal.
Since she was 8 years old, Chantia Wallace has known exactly what she wants to be when she grows up: a pediatrician. One glimpse of her healing smile would convince anyone that Chantia was born for the job. “As a youngster, I was always good with little kids,” says the senior from New Rochelle High School. “They’ve always taken to me and I’ve always seen myself as a guardian of children.”
Some other outstanding experiences Chantia had include learning suturing techniques on banana peels, which have a similar thickness to human skin, practicing taking blood pressure, and gaining experience with triaging (prioritizing) pretend patients according to their condition. An AIDS patient also spoke to the students about her life and treatment.
To test her commitment to both children and medicine, Chantia, 16, took part last summer in the National Leadership Forum on Medicine, which introduces promising high school students from across the country to the world of medicine over a 10-day period.
On some days, the students toured hospitals and attended rounds with doctors to evaluate patients and decide on treatment plans. On one such occasion, Chantia was able to visit a neo-natal intensive care unit, where she spent time with premature infants and got a taste of her future work as a pediatrician. “Some were the size of a soda can,” she says of the babies.
Chantia was nominated for the program by Hanifah Muhammad, Chantia Wallace who teaches Southern Westchester BOCES’ Emergency Medical Services (EMS) program. Chantia is a second-year EMS student and says she passed on taking chemistry and physics at her home school in lieu of learning valuable hands-on life saving skills and earning a certificate that will allow her to become a first responder.
The highlight of the Forum was watching doctors perform knee replacement surgery on a patient, who spoke to the students about why the operation was necessary. The students watched the surgery via video cameras placed in the operating room, and listened in as the doctors and nurses introduced themselves and talked about the different instruments that would be used to perform the surgery.
Up to 400 students attend a Forum, held in eight different cities in July. Chantia attended the program in Philadelphia, sharing a dorm room with other girls at Villanova University and getting a taste of independence and university life. Their days started with breakfast at 7 a.m., followed by Medical Education Discussions (MED sessions) on a broad range of
The Forum experience, says Chantia, gave her an invaluable insight into the medical profession and reinforced her resolve to become a pediatrician. “There are things you say you want to do, but seeing it all first-hand really helps you make that final decision.”
Rock Stars, Air Brush Artists...
Tom Banks demonstrates air brushing techniques to students in SWBOCES auto programs.
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produce a textured effect that looked like marble. There is more than one way to create any illusion with paint, he pointed out, and no one way is right or wrong. “As long as what you do makes it look like what you want, who cares how you get there?” Mr. Banks said he always liked art, but had “no natural talent” as an artist. “I figured out that air brushing was a technique you can learn that’s not only fun, but exciting.” Popular television shows like “West Coast Customs,” “Pimp My Ride” and “Monster Garage,” for example, have helped to glamorize the automotive restyling industry, making it especially attractive to young people. But Mr. Banks was quick to tell students that the
custom air brush business can come and go in waves, making pay lucrative, but not necessarily regular. Custom painting often works better as a side business because you never know when your next job is coming, he said. 5
Ohio Tech Admissions Representative Mike Law stepped in to talk about the school’s wide range of programs, including automotive and diesel equipment technology, collision repair and refinishing, classic car restoration, high performance, racing and power sport technology, welding, and eight weeks of air brush training. Degree and nondegree programs are available. For more information on Ohio Tech, visit: www.ohiotechnicalcollege.com. To learn more about Tom Banks, visit: www.bigdaddycustoms.net.
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It’s Back to School for Parents Despite bad weather, parents and students turned out for the Center for Career Services’ annual Back to School Night on Oct. 15. Parents made the rounds to visit classrooms, speak with teachers and check out student work on display. Office Skills student Barbara Derrick sells pies made by Culinary Arts students. Proceeds will help fund SkillsUSA.
SWBOCES Center for Career Services 65 Grasslands Road Valhalla, NY 10595 914-761-3400 Linda Maria Suarez, Director Dr. Clement Ceccarelli, Supervisor, Advanced Career and Technical Education Dr. Colleen Murray, Supervisor, Introduction to Career Trades Eileen Bloom, Supervisor, Alternative Education Suzanne Davis, Newsletter Editor
Visiting parents, from left: Pat Brathwaite, Shirley Smith and Kirkland Smith.
Southern Westchester BOCES 17 Berkley Drive Rye Brook, NY 10573 914-937-3820 www.swboces.org Board of Education President, Georgia Riedel Vice President, Joseph Wooley John DeSantis Nancy Fisher Richard Glickstein Beverly A. Levin James Miller Robert Monson, Ph.D., District Superintendent Sandra A. Simpson, Deputy District Superintendent
Cosmetology students demonstrate hair-washing techniques. From left: Melissa Pizzol, Danielle Turner and Maria Santillan.
Carpentry teacher Richard DiStefano, left, welcomed back Rich Lazzari, a 1975 graduate of the SWBOCES carpentry program whose son is now enrolled.
Assistant Superintendents Raymond Healey, Ph.D., Special Education Nancy A. Jorgensen, Ed.D., Human Resources Stephen J. Tibbetts, Business and Administrative Services The Southern Westchester Board of Cooperative Educational Services, its officers and employees, shall not discriminate against any student, employee or applicant on the basis of race, color, national origin, creed, religion, marital status, gender, age, handicapping condition or sexual orientation. This policy of nondiscrimination includes access by students to educational programs, counseling services for students, course offerings and student activities, recruitment, appointment and promotion of employees, and employment pay and benefits, and it is required by Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended and then promulgated thereunder, not to discriminate in such a manner. SWBOCES IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER Title IX Coordinator Michael Gargiulo, Director of Human Resources Section 504 Coordinator Thomas DiBuono, Director of Facilities and Operations “The Mission of Southern Westchester BOCES is to collaborate with school districts and communities to meet their educational challenges by providing regional leadership and cost-effective, high-quality services.”
Art Student Builds Portfolio in Summer Course Integrated Art student Jake Saporito is one step closer to entering the career world, thanks to a Portfolio Prep course he took over the summer through Westchester Community College. Students participating in the class, held at Westchester County Center, were SWBOCES student Jake Saporito is preparing to given five unique assignments to help them launch an art career. build a well-rounded portfolio while developing and stretching their skills. The projects taught Jake new techniques for shading and adding value to a drawing using charcoal pencil, and gave him experience in drawing from life rather than solely from the imagination. Jake, a senior at Mamaroneck High School, says he was initially interested in a career in forensics, but was encouraged by his mom to pursue art because he was always good at drawing as a child. “I could make up designs in my head and draw them,” he says. In Integrated Art, Jake and his classmates are learning how to use various media (pen and ink, charcoal) to draw, and will move into digital photography and using Adobe software applications, including Photoshop and Illustrator, as the course progresses, in preparation for jobs in art, graphic design and photography. 6