Career Coaches Honored by PENCIL

Check out the PENCIL video featuring SI Career Coach, Valarie Contrino and HS Principal, Sharon Henry

SI CAREER COACH and McKEE TECH SHOWCASED AT PENCIL GALA

The Staten Island Career Coaches and McKee Tech HS receive high recognition.

Staten Island, New York – After 3 years coaching the students of McKee Career Technical Educational High School, the Staten Island Career Coaches (SICC) have been rewarded with great wins.  The program has helped students in preparing for prestigious internship programs and receiving job offers.  Most recently, the SICC was featured in a film by PENCIL, a New York-based non-profit organization that honors business experts and school leaders who have demonstrated their commitment to public schools through PENCIL Partnerships.

On Thursday, May 10, PENCIL hosted its annual gala, Imagine What We Can Do, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Over 700 event attendees viewed a film that introduced to SICC member Valarie Contrino and McKee Tech principal, Sharon Henry and the work they are doing to prepare students for their first jobs.  McKee was one of 3 schools featured in the film presentation.

“Being featured in this film was a big honor for Mckee and Career Coaches,” said Contrino. “but what was an even bigger honor that night was when Principal Sharon Henry and I learned that two of the McKee students who were part of the SICC program were accepted into the Fellows Program.  It brought us both to tears.”

The SICC relationship with PENCIL has helped the programs overall success with the McKee Students, creating connections with large corporations that provide additional networking connections for ambitious students. 

“Thanks to PENCIL, up to 60 McKee HS students will be invited to partake in workshops at Deloitte that focus on preparing them for a future. I am so proud of these great accomplishments both for SICC and the Mckee students and its administration,” says Contrino.   

The SICC work with McKee upper classmen on resume building, and developing job interview skills.  During the 3-week program, the coaches mentor McKee’s juniors and seniors in identifying strengths and developing strategies to best communicate their assets potential employers.

Over 16 SICC program participants received job placement through Workforce1, a service provided by the NYC Department of Small Business Services. One student received a Graphic Design internship with Coach Carol DiMarco, owner of Blue Label Design.  Twenty  students are currently participating in the Pencil Fellows internship program.   In addition, the school’s cosmetology students are now volunteering at New Vanderbilt Rehab, visiting residents bi-weekly through a connection made by one of the career coaches.

Any professional interested in volunteering with the Career Coaches or providing internship, job shadowing or job opportunities for students should contact Valarie Contrino at 

valarie@contrinotravel.com.

About SI Career Coaches
The SICC was founded in 2009. Its mission is to help students as they prepare for entry into the workforce. Full biographies of its members are available at the Career Coaches Website www.sicareercoaches.blogspot.com

Career Coaches in the Staten Island Advance.

The Staten Island Career Coaches finished their 3rd successful season at McKee.  Read about their work in the Staten Island Advance!

Career coaching and job shadowing paying dividends at McKee High School

Career Coaches Ask Students to take Our Survey

We want to thank all students who participated in our program for 2012. We ask that you please complete our survey so we know how to make our program better next year.

Click here to take our survey.

We value your opinion (positive or negative).

We also want students to know that they are welcome to contact us any time for help with their resumes, or advice for an interview, and PLEASE let us know how you are doing with your job search!

Thank you.
The Career Coaches.

Week 3 - Interview Day

Tomorrow is the big interview day with Juniors and Seniors.   The entire school will be "Dressed for Success." 

Students have been scheduled for 20 minute sessions with one of the career coaches to conduct a pratice interview.   This session will also be another chance for the coach to provide feedback on the student's resume.

At the end of the session, we will ask students to take our Survey  so we can get their feedback on this year's program.  This feedback is incredibly helpful and will help us improve our program for next year.

Finally, the students will be given a handout that has our contact information on it, so they can contact us with their resume if they need additional help.


Class materials and agendas are available on the Session Materials page. We've also created a page of helpful links to help with building resumes and preparing for interviews.

Week 2 - Resume Preparation

This week we worked with Juniors and Seniors on on resume preparation.  We used the "Strengths and Weaknesses" exercise from the previous week to help identify strengths they expand upon to make their resume more robust.

Next week students will participate in mock interviews with the career coaches.


 Class materials and agendas are available on the Session Materials page. We've also created a page of helpful links to help with building resumes and preparing for interviews.

Week 1 - Career Coaches Meet 2012 Program Participants

Today was the intro session with the students at McKee.  We quickly introduced ourselves to the students and got straight to work!  We watched the video below and then had an open discussion with the students about  interviewing.   We also reviewed the Strengths and Weaknesses exercise, which will help with resume preparation.


Next week we will be reviewing student resumes.

Class materials and agendas are available on the Session Materials page. We've also created a page of helpful links to for building resumes and preparing for interviews.

Welcome To Career Coaches 2012

We created this site as a resource for the students we work with for information and materials that we discuss during our sessions.

Our goal is to help you determine your goals for the future after high school, prepare for your interviews and help you on your way to success, whatever you decide your future career will be. To find out more about us, visit the About Career Coaches page.


We offer you our life lessons and experience in various industries, such as Travel, Finance, Real Estate, Printing and Internet Services. And for those who are interested, we will offer you the chance to shadow us and possible other professionals, so you get to experience "a day in the life"... which we hope will help you as you make your career choices.

Our sessions will go for 3 weeks beginning on on March 6, 2012. Class materials and agendas are available on the Session Materials page. We've also created a page of helpful links to help guide you along the way.

We hope you enjoy this program and feel comfortable sharing your feedback with us so we can improve in the future.

Career Coaches featured in Today's SI Advance!

The Career Coaches finished their Second Season at McKee Vocational High School.  We are so proud of our work there and are excited to have our second article published in the SI Advance.
Volunteers with Staten Island Career Coaches help McKee students fine-tune interview skills, resume preparation


McKee High School juniors Konrad Orzylowski and Mir Ali get help
from Career Coach Valarie Contrino. (Photo Courtesy of Joelle Grunblatt)



SI Career Coaches - Finishes a Second Year at McKee Tech

The Staten Island Career Coaches celebrate a successful second season mentoring local students preparing for entry to the workforce.

Finding a first job is an important milestone in a young adult's life. Thanks to the SI Career Coaches, students at McKee Career Technical High School (CTHS) have a leg up on the competition.

 For the second year in a row, SICC returned to McKee CTHS to mentor students on all aspects of the job search from building resumes to preparing for interviews.

In the 3-week series, upperclassmen at McKee CTHS worked with their coaches on the skills required to undergo a job interview. The sessions included hands-on resume writing and discussions on how students can conduct themselves professionally while on an interview.

This interactive program had the students working on MAC computers in their newly updated Graphics Lab, as well as attending mock one-on-one interviews with the business professionals and of course, Q&A sessions with each of the Coaches.

Senior Tyreek Penn Jr., a senior describes the SICC program as being “like boot camp, but not too intense. We start with the basics: how to talk to people, then we continue with how to communicate with potential employers and how to present ourselves.”

“I like hearing the (Coaches) stories, their experience and learning from them to apply to my own future,” says Penn. “Every interview I went on, I was offered the job. I also got accepted to four colleges and to a printing job, thanks to the skills the Coaches taught me! And, I enrolled in this year’s program to refresh all those skills.”

Senior David Cottle, who attended the program last year, shared his success with other students during one of the sessions, “(The program) helped me write my resume and helped to get my first job as a cashier at a local grocery store."

This year Cottle returned to the SICC for help with his interview skills. “The one-on-one interview part was the most enlightening, with focus on attention to details, such as sitting straight, wearing proper attire, giving an appropriate handshake, and of course having a positive attitude makes all the difference.”

Juniors Konrad Orzylowski and Mir Ali, were first-time attendees of the SICC program, and were positive that it would benefit them in their job-hunt. “It is great preparation for our future, helping us to write and to improve our resumes,” stated Orzylowski. “Also knowing what to do and how to conduct oneself during a job interview is crucial”.

“We all realized how valuable this experience was for both us and the students,” said Career Coach, Joelle Grunblatt. “We hope other business professionals will help us expand our reach so we can help more students become successful as they launch their careers.”
Any professional interested in volunteering with the Career Coaches should contact Valarie Contrino at valarie@contrinotravel.com.