On June 18, students from across New York City gathered at Brooklyn Borough Hall to be honored for reaching a milestone in their journeys toward new careers. Held at Brooklyn Borough Hall’s former Brooklyn Supreme Courtroom, the ceremony recognized students from District 79, the city’s Alternative School District, who had completed a wide variety of work-based learning experiences, including earning certifications that will prepare them for careers in solar energy, construction, and healthcare.
Reflecting on the choice of Brooklyn Borough Hall’s ornate mid-19th-century courtroom as the venue, TaNitra Watson, the District’s Work-Based Learning Coordinator, said, “We wanted students to feel a sense of pride and to know that the bar was high—that what they were doing mattered.” For Mahnur, a trilingual student originally from Bangladesh, the day was an opportunity to reflect on an internship she had just completed in which she leveraged her language skills to engage the Bangla-, Hindi-, and English-speaking members of her Queens community. For Jonathan, the celebration brought him one step closer to achieving his goal of gaining a full-time position as a radiologic technologist. For Nadefa, the afternoon event was her second ceremony of the day; that morning, she had been awarded her high school equivalency diploma.
For the district at large, it was evidence of progress; each of the students in attendance was on track to earn a diploma and transition onward to a college or career pathway. What’s more, it was the first such event in six years. Not since before the pandemic had Superintendent Glenda Esperance, Tanitra Watson, and their team gathered in this way to celebrate their career-bound students. JobsFirstNYC was thrilled to join the celebration and reflect on a collaboration that began one year earlier.
In the summer of 2024, Superintendent Esperance and then NYCPS Chief of Student Pathways Jade Grieve approached JobsFirstNYC. They explained that there was a strong foundation of career connected learning across District 79, and wanted to provide their students with additional opportunities. They wanted to strengthen the capacity of their staff and form additional partnerships with workforce training providers. Was there something JobsFirstNYC could do? Thus began Pathways Beyond Graduation, the next iteration of the organization’s Transfer to Career Collaborative.
After several months of planning, following the JobsFirstNYC’s collaborative 5-step partnership development process, the initiative launched in January with a series of professional learning sessions that reached over 150 educators across the District. Since then, teachers have started to integrate career learning into classes, 30 staff members from across the District have formed three cross-borough working groups, and school-based teams have designed pilots that launch this fall.
The work JobsFirstNYC is advancing in District 79 reflects a growing awareness that young adults need more than academic knowledge and skills to succeed in college and the workplace. Students need career preparation and real-world workplace experience infused into their daily curriculum—internships, jobs, and service-learning opportunities—supported by guidance from trusted adults to help them imagine themselves in different futures. As sentiments shift, so too does policy.
Reflecting this shift, states are updating policies to expand work-based learning. In Alabama, for example, new diploma options acknowledge and elevate career experiences, while in Kentucky, efforts are underway to provide career and technical education for all students.
New York City is following this national trend by taking bold steps to integrate career readiness into its schools. NYC Public Schools is expanding its signature FutureReady initiative and opening new career-preparedness high schools, such as the Northwell School of Health Sciences and the Bronx STEAM Center—both of which just opened their doors in September.
It has been four months since the June celebration in Brooklyn Borough Hall. In that time, Mahnur, Nadefa, and Jonathan earned their high school equivalency diploma and began the next stage of their lives, which for each of them has meant college and a part-time job. And JobsFirstNYC and District 79 have moved onto the next stage of our work together. Having completed the first two phases of our 5-step partnership development process this summer, this fall marks the beginning of our third ‘Incubate’ phase, where we will launch improvement projects in District 79 sites across all five boroughs. Stay tuned