CYAP Success Story: Tearah Chesnut

It’s always great to hear from CEWD graduates with updates about their educational, employment and personal lives. This week’s letter comes from someone who graduated from the CUNY Young Adult Program in 2010:

 

Good Morning,

Tearah Chesnut via LinkedIn

Tearah Chesnut via LinkedIn

My name is Tearah Chesnut and I attended the CYAP back in 2010. When I first came across this program I didn’t know what I was getting into. I am happy to say that I did complete it and went on to starting classes as a full time student at Kingsborough just a few months later. I continued on with Culinary Arts up until I got pregnant in 2012. I was just about a few credits shy, but never continued. Since then I’ve worked in a few kitchens, but never really knew if that’s where I wanted to be. I was laid off recently from a charter school working as a cafeteria supervisor. From there I really didn’t want to go back into a kitchen, let alone find another job.

1462999315A few weeks after the layoff I decided to start my own business making soap! When people ask me what made me want to start making soap I could never really find an answer. When I think about it now, looking back, while I was in the kitchen, I always wondered how ingredients can be used in other ways (other than eating them). That’s when I started researching the benefits of fruits on your skin and other various foods in the kitchen.

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CUNY & Capital One Community College Innovation Challenge

On Thursday, May 26th from 9:30am through 2:45pm, Kingsborough will host a day of activities around entrepreneurship at the CUNY & Capital One Community College Innovation Challenge.  The day includes an engaging keynote from entrepreneur Rahfeal Gordon and a workshop on Design Thinking (see description below).  There will be students pitching their innovative ideas from several of CUNY’s Community Colleges, including Kingsborough. All are welcome!

The event will be held at:
Kingsborough Community College
2001 Oriental Boulevard
the Lighthouse (formerly the MAC Rotunda)
Brooklyn, New York 11235

Event registration can be found at:  http://cuny-capitalone.eventbrite.com/

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KCC’s Brooklyn Science Innovation Initiative

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Are you a high school student who’s interested in science and/or business? In our second year, the Brooklyn Science Innovation Initiative at Kingsborough will host a group high school students to participate in an on-campus summer intensive. BSII pairs a college-level, earth science course with an entrepreneurial experience to inspire interest in science through a real-life experience.

  • Dates/times: 
    July 2016 – August 2016
    Mondays – Thursdays; 9:30am – 3:30pm
  • Where:
    Kingsborough Community College
    2001 Oriental Boulevard
    Brooklyn, NY 11235
  • Cost: 
    Free!
  • Added perks:
    free textbook
    free month-long Metrocard
    free lunch
    4 college credits for those who successfully complete the program

You can read more about last year’s program here: http://www.kingscountypolitics.com/adams-kcc-visit-highlights-special-high-school-class/

If you would like to register, please print and submit a BSII registration form.

For more information, please contact Erika Delacruz at erika.delacruz@kbcc.cuny.edu/718.368.5170

The Brooklyn Science Innovation Initiative is generously supported by the AT&T Foundation and CUNY College Now.

Free workshops with KCC Urban Farm!

KCC Urban Farm and the Farm FIG are offering a number of workshops next month. These workshops are open to all KCC faculty, staff, and students. Please RSVP!

  • Planting Seeds for your Vegetable Garden @ KCC Urban Farm
    • Part 1: Tuesday, 5/3, 5pm-6:30pm
    • Part 2: Tuesday, 5/17, 5pm-6:30pm
    • Join us to plant summer crops! Learn about the ins and outs of germination from seed. Participants will plant seeds both on the farm and in trays to take home. Please plan to attend both sessions. Space is limited: RSVP required.
  • 5/11, 11:30am, room M-391: Farm FIG shared curriculum Dropbox
    • Join us for our second Farm FIG meeting of the semester, where we’ll walk through a shared Dropbox of curriculum resources for teaching about food & agriculture. Have something to contribute? Let us know!
  • 5/25, 10:20am, room M-391: Training of Trainers: Learn how to lead our “Intro to Food Systems” workshop with your students
    • Our third Farm FIG meeting of the semester will include a mini training-of-trainers for leading a participatory workshop on defining “food system.” This workshop is highly adaptable – we’ve used variations of it in farm tours, classes, and events.

Want more? KCC Urban Farm’s popular Intro to Organic Vegetable Gardening class starts May 4, 5:30-8:30pm, and runs weekly for 8 weeks. More info and registration here.

Please let us know if you plan to attend any of these. See you on the farm!

Best Practices in Marketing – CEWD, Kingsborough and NRC


Screenshot 2016-03-28 15.38.42Best Practices in Marketing Webinar
presented by Kingsborough Community College
Friday, April 15th, 11am-12pm

Winners of two Department of Labor TAACCCT Grant Awards and several other large-scale grant funded awards, the Center for Economic and Workforce Development (CEWD) at Kingsborough Community College (KBCC) utilizes innovative marketing methods, including data research and strategic outreach, to successfully target candidates for their training programs and initiatives. These best practices have since been applied to the most recent TAACCCT grant, the Northeast Resiliency Consortium, as well as all other grant funded training programs awarded to the department. By developing innovative, customized campaigns, CEWD has been able to connect with multiple different constituent and participant groups through various communication platforms, including traditional print, web outreach, social media, and direct marketing.

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2016 NYAETP Youth Conference

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On Tuesday, March 22, Dina LiMandri and Genesis Reyes will present at the 2016 NYAETP Youth Conference about CEWD’s successful approach to youth programming.

A strong relationship between the program counselor and participant cannot be overstated. A report by MDRC, Reconnecting Disconnected Young Adults: the Early Experiences of Project Rise, which featured KCC’s Project Rise, notes that the caring relationships between participants, case managers, instructors and staff promoted persistence and success. Participants interviewed for the report describe the staff as “invested, relentless, kind and passionate”. At CEWD, these relationships extend throughout the entire program team.

Through our presentation (click the image above for the full presentation) attendees will learn about our successful approaches that serve to empower young adult participants. We’ll review the benefits of our teamwork approach and its impact on retention. Attendees will discuss practical steps to facilitate implementation which will ultimately improve programming, participant retention results, and the development of best practices applicable to all youth programs.

Upcoming food & green career panels & job fairs

Some upcoming opportunities to network and learn about jobs in the green world and beyond…
  • Urban Agriculture and Green Careers Symposium – Friday, 3/25, 1pm-4pm – RSVP HERE – The Brooklyn College Student Center at 1 Campus Rd, Brooklyn, NY 11210 in the Alumni Lounge (4th Floor)
    • When you picture careers in sustainable agriculture in the 21st Century, we want you to think beyond Old McDonald and his farm. At the Urban Agriculture and Green Careers Symposium, get inspired by a panel of  industry professionals who are thinking differently about the ways we produce food, the spaces where we farm, and the communities that are involved in agriculture. We’ll be speaking with New York City industry leaders about their personal path to these non-traditional careers, the
      opportunities for education and job pathways in this sector, and their vision for the future of agriculture in our cities. Remember to bring a photo I.D. with you in order to access this event.

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A Community Chef for Bringing it Home

Bringing it Home (BiH) has begun! Well, not quite yet. Our Community Chef, Maya Stansberry, has just come on board to organize and lead BiH. It’s a big task, but we have no doubt of her ability to make BiH a huge success! Check out her background:

10615500_786735728015111_2491788180558449339_nPrior to taking on the responsibilities of BiH’s Community Chef, Maya was a student of Kingsborough’s Culinary Art’s program and also worked as a student aide at KCC Urban Farm. After graduating in 2015, she went on to study sustainable agricultural practices at the University of California Santa Cruz. In the midst of getting her hands dirty, Maya deepened her awareness of the inequalities throughout the current food system, further fueling her desire to be a resource to others and develop ways to make cooking a part of their unique lives. In addition to her work with BiH, Maya is attending Hunter College’s Food Science and Nutrition program.

Please join us in welcoming her!

Read more about Bringing it Home at the program’s homepage.

CUNY Fatherhood Academy on ABC’s Here and Now

Do you want to hear more about KCC’s CUNY Fatherhood Academy from our Director, Case Manager and a current participant? If yes, watch a segment from ABC’s Here and Now that was aired this past weekend where we talk about our commitment to engaging with fathers who are eager to enroll in college and develop a focused career path so they can better support themselves and their families. If you like what you see, register for an orientation session today!

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