City Year Alumni: Join Us on 3/27 for “City Year Today”

Has it been a while since you broke out into an anthem of “spirit, discipline, purpose and pride?” Forgot how to “foot fire” with 200 of your closest red-jacketed friends? If you answered yes, then we want you to join us for City Year Today, an alumni community re-engagement event. On Wednesday, March 27th at 7:00 PM, join us at the City Year New York office as the City Year Alumni Board hosts a discussion with:

• Itai Dinour, Chief Organizational Advancement & Alumni Officer, City Year Headquarters
• Erica Hamilton, City Year New York Executive Director
• Tony Shaw, Regional Impact Director, City Year Headquarters

Reconnect and network with fellow City Year alumni as you hear about the direction that City Year is heading and ways to get involved as members of the alumni community.

Please RSVP to Matt Patrick of the City Year New York Alumni Board by Monday, March 25th! Don’t forget to invite your teammates!

18 Minute Networking 2013

Last Thursday, February 21, over 400 City Year corps members, staff and alumni filled the auditorium at Credit Suisse for our annual 18 Minute Networking event. This signature alumni event was planned by the City Year New York Alumni Board. The goal of the event was to give our 294 corps members the opportunity to meet and network with City Year alumni and friends, who have found success in fields that current corps members hope to break into following their year of service.

Our emcee for the evening, Sean McDevitt, National Alumni Director for City Year, Inc & Boston ’02 alumni,  welcomed everyone and introduced the flow of the evening to the corps and facilitators. We also had the opportunity to hear from Moira Girard, Vice President, Talent Development at Credit Suisse, who addressed the corps and shared her experience of achieving her position at Credit Suisse through networking.Thank you, Moira, for encouraging our corps to take advantage of this unique opportunity.

Sean McDevitt, National Alumni Director for City Year, Inc.

Moira Girard, Vice President, Talent Development at Credit Suisse

Nearly 70 City Year alumni and professionals facilitated round table discussions to provide corps members with an honest perspective of what to expect when entering the professional and academic fields. With 38 tables in total covering dozens of career fields and educational options in two separate rooms, the corps left feeling inspired.

After 3 rounds of 18 real minutes of networking, Nan Shearer, Alumni and Career Services Manager, City Year Inc. & DC ’08 & ’09 alumna, shared some of the great resources for professional and educational development that can be found on our Alumni Website. Finally, Itai Dinour, Senior Vice President and Chief Organizational Advancement & Alumni Officer at City Year (and former CYNY Executive Director), closed  the ceremony by sharing with the corps the importance of staying connected to the organization after they finish their City Year.

Itai Dinour, Senior Vice President and Chief Organizational Advancement & Alumni Officer at City Year, Inc.

A huge thank to our partners Keiko Akashi and Credit Suisse for opening your space to us once again, the City Year New York Alumni Board, all of the facilitators for holding meaningful conversations and networking with our corps, and to the corps for participating, remaining engaged, and taking the best next steps to become powerful alumni and “Leaders for Life”.

“The Difference that City Year is Making is Extraordinary”

Travis Holloway speaks to the impact that City Year corps members are having on the students of New York City’s public schools.

Last night, we celebrated our 9^th Annual Ripples of Hope Dinner, honoring Maurice R. “Hank” Greenberg and The Starr Foundation. Those in attendance experienced an energetic and inspiring night with more than 450 of New York’s corporate, civic, and philanthropic leaders, our 255 corps members, and for the first time, several of the students that we work with every day.

Itai Dinour, Executive Director of City Year New York challenged the audience to take full advantage of the opportunity to get to know and learn from the many young people in Red Jackets seated around the room, “every one of our corps members has their unique story and you will leave each conversation with them enriched, inspired, and reminded of the important work we have ahead of us.” That important work came to life as our corps speaker Travis Holloway shared his story and some of the the academic successes that the students at Newtown High School have had this year.

“I provide my students with what they need to succeed—a push. They need is to be encouraged and challenged to do their very best. Anna-Maria is in a special education math class with 34 other students. She was one of the lowest performing students. I started spending time with her. She needed to be pushed and that what I did every day and on her last report card she took her 40’s and 50’s and improved to an 85% – the third highest grade in the class. Like me and many other students, in addition to academic support all she needed was a push—a push to be confident and a push to be independent. And she needed someone to believe in her.  I don’t just want my students to be successful in class – I want them to be successful in life and that starts with entering the 10^th grade on track to graduate.” -Travis Holloway, Corps Member from the Microsoft Diplomas Now Team serving at Newtown High School

The relationships between our corps members and our students is at the core of what makes City Year unique and allows us to have an impact on the students we serve. We saw these relationships in action as our students took the stage.

Students from JHS 13 led our corps and the audience in PT and shared what working with City Year has meant to them.

“I like City Year because they help me stay out of trouble. They teach me how to be a leader and to not be afraid.” -Arianna Dingle, 11 year old student at JHS 13 in East Harlem

“City Year helps the world; they try to change it for the better. City Year got me to an 80% and now I’m on the honor roll!” -Adrian Morfa, 12 years old student at JHS 13 in East Harlem

“Going to Newtown has been challenging. There are so many distractions and negative influences. It is very easy for your grades to get off track. There are too many kids in our class for my teacher to spend one on one time with me when I am falling behind. This is where [City Year] comes in. [City Year] is in my classroom and is able to answer my questions. When I don’t understand the material we meet during lunch so I can catch up. If I didn’t have City Year I think things would have been a lot different for me. They have always helped me in class, explaining the work in a different way, and motivated me to learn.” -Malissa Lewis, 14 years old student at Newtown High School

Honored at this year’s Ripples of Hope was Maurice R. “Hank” Greenberg and The Starr Foundation who was one of our founding partners and over the last nine years has become our largest private sector investor. “The Starr Foundation got behind City Year New York early and has stayed with us,” said Michael Brown, CEO and Co-founder of City Year Inc., when he joined The Starr Foundation for a school visit last month. “It has allowed [City Year New York] to really demonstrate what young adults in service can do in high poverty schools. I would like to thank The Starr Foundation for believing in the concept of National Service and calling on young American’s to act on their idealism and to give everything they have to help student succeed.”

Florence Davis, President of The Starr Foundation on stage with corps members before her remarks.

“The notion of public service, of civic commitment, is a powerful democratic ideal. Put into practice it forms better citizens, individually and demonstrates the value of team work, cooperation, and collaboration which benefits us all collectively. This is why City Year has been one of our long time grantees. We are very pleased to have been able to support City Year. We love seeing the Red Jackets on the streets of New York and in the schools. And we wish you every success!” -Florence Davis, President, The Starr Foundation

Closing out our event was Dr. John King, Commissioner of the New York State Department of Education.

“What we’re doing is not enough.  Imagine what it is to be a freshman in high school and look around and know that half of the students won’t be there at graduation. There are countless young people across the country who if not for their relationship with a City Year Corps Member wouldn’t have graduated from high school, wouldn’t have made it to college, wouldn’t be in a position to contribute. And so the difference that City Year is making is extraordinary.” -Dr. John King, Commissioner of the New York State Department of Education

We would like to thank everyone who attended and supported City Year New York last night. It is nights like this that remind us of how fortunate we are to have a community of champions who are supporting our work helping us get students on track to high school graduation.

Please CLICK HERE to see more photos.

Photos By David Andrako

Check out the #RipplesofHope on Storify

Five Things Friday

1. Colleges and Universities love to brag about what their graduates are up to, especially when they are doing great things like City Year. In the past few months we have had a few of our corps, staff, and alumni featured and we wanted include today in case you missed it:
   1. Itai Dinour, CYNY Executive Director and CYNY Alum Jack Stupinski were featured in the Ezra update with Itai Dinour ’01 leads effort to keep New York students in school,
   2. Ulysses Ifill, corps member at P.S. 149 in East New York was able to tell his story of service on the Torch Scholars Blog at Northeastern University.
   3. Dan Cruz, corps member on the Civic Engagement Team, who recently led a group of Fordham students in painting a mural which later was featured on the cover of their Alumni Magazine, was able to tell his story on the Fordham Career Service blog.
   4. Crosby Newcomer-Falk, corps member on corps member on the PS 345 Citizen’s team, shared a “day in his life” using the @NYUWassEmployer twitter handle. Check out the recap of his day on Storify.
2. Calling all artists to help us create the first ever art edition Founding Stories Book! The winning pieces from the City Year #artofidealism competition will not only be featured in the new Founding Stories book, but the 1st place winner will win a Kindle Fire and the second place winner will win a Kindle Touch. There are tons of other prizes available as well, so check them out here. Help is breathe new life into these inspiring stories with your creative talents!
3. Leadership After City Year (LACY) is something we encourage our corps to take seriously. In order to support their LACY, we partner with our Alumni Board and sponsors to provide them with opportunities to improve their professional and educational development. Check out the most recent LACY events:
   1. 18 Minute Networking was a career development event that was hosted by Credit Suisse and planned by our Alumni Board. With 17 career fields and over 60 facilitators, the event was a huge success!
   2. Comcast Career Day was hosted by NBCUniversal Inc. and Comcast last Friday. Corps members attended work shops that focused on creating a strong personal brand and were given the opportunity to network with NBCUniversal Inc. and Comcast leadership.
4. Today, we’re kicking off part 2 of our Advanced Training Academy at Mircosoft. We’re using this time to come together as a site to share best practices and take a closer look at the impact we’ve made thus far. With a little over 3 months left of service, our corps will work together to plan how to end the year strong. In addition to that, the corps will attend sessions that focus on  their futures and improving the skills they’ve developed as corps members. Some of the sessions include: Youth Development: The Clover Model, Interviewing Skills, Strengths Quest,  Pushing Student Critical Thinking, State Tests 101, What I Wish I Knew Before Grad School, plus much more! A big thank you to Microsoft for hosting once again!
5. Join us at our Associate Board Fundraiser on Thursday, April 26 the the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe. Click below to register!