Monthly Archives: May 2010

City Year New York Board Welcomes Newest Member: Kevin Sheekey

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Yesterday morning, the City Year New York Board unanimously voted to add Kevin Sheekey to their ranks. Kevin, first became engaged with City Year New York as a graduation speaker and later learned more about the organization as Mayor Bloomberg began his own service push, including Cities of Service. Kevin’s passion for City Year grew as he worked to support City Year Co-Founder Alan Khazei with his campaign for US Senate.

We are excited to welcome Kevin to the board!

Kevin Sheekey
Kevin rejoined Bloomberg L.P. in April 2010, as chairman of BGOV, a division that will offer comprehensive information about government and business. In addition, he oversees government relations and communications, based part-time out of the company’s London office, with a focus on expanding Bloomberg’s presence globally.

Before joining Bloomberg LP, Kevin was the Deputy Mayor for Government Affairs. Sheekey oversaw Local, State and Federal government relations. Prior to his appointment, Kevin was Campaign Manager for Bloomberg for Mayor 2005. From 2003 to 2004, Kevin was President of the New York City Host Committee for the 2004 Republican National Convention. Kevin joined City Hall as Senior Advisor to the Mayor after running the Mayor’s 2001 campaign. Previously, he was the chief lobbyist for Bloomberg LP in Washington, DC. Prior to joining Bloomberg, Sheekey was Chief of Staff to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

Kevin and his wife, Robin, and their twins, Dillon and Samantha, live on the Upper West Side.

City Year featured on Cover of USA Today

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Today’s front page of USA Today features a cover story on the Diplomas Now school turnaround collaborative uniting City Year, with Johns Hopkins Talent Development and Communities In Schools. This story is a part of USA Today’s ongoing series called “Seeking Solutions” highlighting efforts to solve long-standing societal problems.

Click here to read article.

We are excited that USA Today recognized the Diplomas Now partnership as an innovative model to address the high school dropout crisis and ensure all students graduate prepared for success.

City Year New York has been working with public middle and elementary schools for the last 7 years tackling the dropout problem here, too. We have a great story to share, much like in Philadelphia, our volunteers are making a difference in the lives of students in NYC helping improve their attendance, behavior, and course performance everyday – proactively keeping students from dropping out of high school.

One of our volunteers, Carlos Mendoza recently had this to say about his experience, “Over the past two years, I truly do believe that my teammates and I have made a difference in the lives of the students that we work with. This year, at IS 126, attendance rates have gone up by almost 3% and the number of students who are chronically absent has decreased by more than 50%. Lateness has also decreased by a significant amount due to the daily calls that my teammates make to the homes of those students who are late. The beautiful thing about Long Island City and the school that I serve at is that a large percentage of the population, like myself, are immigrants and English is not their first language. When I look into the eyes of the students that I work with, I see myself. IS 126 reminds me of the middle schools that I went to – in an urban environment, serving a low income community, and low performing. IS 126 needs all the help it can. All the schools that we serve in need motivated individuals to change the learning environment and culture of the school. That is exactly what City Year does.”

Our work in Long Island City was recently highlighted here.