Spotlight on Business Partners
Businesses Give Back
Published in June 2011 E-Newsletter
Donlin, Recano & Company Hosts Successful Fundraiser for Futures and Options
On May 12th, Donlin, Recano & Company, Inc. (DRC), a division of DF King Worldwide and a leading provider of claims, noticing, balloting, solicitation and technology solutions, generously hosted a wonderful fundraising event at Bowlmor Times Square to benefit Futures and Options.
Scott Stuart, Executive Director of Donlin, Recano & Co. with Tonya Gayle, Senior Program Director at Futures and Options, Aruna Singh, Futures and Options intern and Patty Machir, Executive Director of Futures and Options.
The event was a great success, raising over $10,000 for Futures and Options, which will enable us to serve more New York City youth in the coming year. We are so grateful for our partnership with Donlin, Recano & Company and special thanks to Scott Stuart, Elizabeth Ellison and Edmund Lempenski for all of their hard work putting this fantastic event together.
Read on for more about this terrific fundraiser.
Capital One Gives Back Through "One Week"
On May 17th and 19th, 14 associates from Capital One volunteered with our spring Pre-Internship Program during the bank's "One Week," a company-wide volunteer initiative designed to help meet the needs of local communities where associates live and work.
Pre-Internship Program participants with Capital One volunteers from left to right: Sanjay Mukhi, George Sterling, Jacob Danielski, Marrian Mikail and Donald Damron.
A panel of volunteers spoke at two career development workshops about their positions at the bank and shared stories about their career journeys. We are tremendously grateful to the Capital One volunteers for their generous donation of time and talent to our youth.
Read on for more about these volunteer events with Capital One.
Making a Positive IMPACT – Deloitte Career Day!
A massive thanks to Deloitte for hosting a group of our students and alumni at Deloitte's Impact Day 2011! This was our first year participating in Deloitte's annual, nationwide day of community service. Sixteen Futures and Options students and alumni were treated to a morning of career exploration and interview training at Deloitte's Two World Financial Center offices, courtesy of 12 Deloitte volunteers from various groups within the firm.
Deloitte volunteer Ryan MacDonald mock interviewing Luis Gonzalez, Futures and Options alum.
The day was a big hit with the kids – a fantastic combination of career exploration, networking and skills development. Our most sincere thanks go to Christine Wade, Ryan MacDonald, and our board member Stephen Musante, without whom this event would not have been possible.
Read on for more about Deloitte Career Day.
Goldman Sachs Hosts Career Day
On May 27th, Futures and Options partnered with Goldman Sachs to host a career day for Lower Manhattan high school students. Goldman Sachs professionals from the Investment Management, Equities, Human Resources, Technology, Compliance, and Operations divisions, spent the day teaching students about the various career options in financial services.
Mock interviewing at Goldman Sachs. From Far Left: David Slama, Goldman Sachs, with Jeffrey Luk, Futures and Options Intern, Kevin Jin, student at Stuyvesant High School, Tai Huynh, student at High School of Economics and Finance, and Charles Bagley, student at Stuyvesant High School.
Twenty-two high school juniors and seniors participated in the event, including Futures and Options interns interested in careers in financial services, and students recruited from Stuyvesant High School and the High School of Economics and Finance.
Our thanks to Chanel Dennis and the Goldman Sachs CTW team, as well as our educational partners from Lower Manhattan, for creating this exciting opportunity. We appreciate your support in helping to make this event a great success!
Read on for more about the career day at Goldman Sachs.
HSBC Sponsors Financial Literacy Event
On April 28th, HSBC's Asian & Pacific Islanders Committee (APIC) philanthropy committee led by Amit Chabra and Shangrong Wu, teamed up with Futures and Options to sponsor a financial literacy event for nearly 20 students from George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School, who participate in a spring internship program sponsored by HSBC Bank USA NA.
The event, held at HSBC's New York City corporate headquarters, began with a tour of the trading floor. Then, interns and APIC members viewed portions of Your Life, Your Money, an HSBC-sponsored financial education documentary produced by PBS. The students asked questions of a panel of HSBC employees from diverse areas of the company.
Futures and Options is tremendously thankful to HSBC Bank USA for its sponsorship of our George Westinghouse High School Internship Program and for the volunteers who generously gave their time to enrich the lives of the students in the program.
Read on for more about the financial literacy event at HSBC.
For more information on partnering with us for career exploration events, please contact Keleigh Karl or call 212-601-0002.
Colgate-Palmolive's Investment in Interns Yields Dividends
Published in September 2010 E-Newsletter
"Companies should consider involvement in high school education/career programs as good business and an investment in the future."
-Eugene Kelly,
Worldwide Director, Global Diversity & Inclusion
Futures and Options is grateful to Colgate-Palmolive Company for all the opportunities they have provided for our youth. From career exploration for our Pre-Internship youth to the summer internships for high school students, Futures and Options greatly appreciates the importance Colgate-Palmolive places on building the workforce of tomorrow.
Colgate-Palmolive intern Donovan Fuentes, alum Mahfug Hossain, intern Zabier Rodriguez, Eugene Kelly, Worldwide Director, Global Diversity & Inclusion, Colgate-Palmolive, intern Fola Arowolo, intern Shahib Choudhury, and Zarius Durant, Customer Development Professional at Colgate-Palmolive.
A Brief History of Colgate-Palmolive's High School Internship Model
Since 2008, Futures and Options and the Colgate-Palmolive Company have been working together to provide valuable career exploration workshops and paid, mentored internships to New York City's underserved youth.
In 1987, Colgate-Palmolive helped to fund improvements to Wadleigh Secondary School in Harlem, and Colgate-Palmolive employees became mentors for Wadleigh students. Soon the program expanded beyond Wadleigh to include youth from other programs, and Colgate-Palmolive developed a summer internship component to introduce these students to corporate culture.
Colgate-Palmolive was one of the companies that helped launch the career exploration portion of our Pre-Internship Program in 2008. Eugene Kelly, Worldwide Director, Global Diversity & Inclusion, designed career exploration trips to Colgate-Palmolive for Futures and Options' Pre-Internship Program students. The excursions offered a chance for youth to practice interviewing, networking, and to learn about the career and education trajectories of the professionals at Colgate-Palmolive.
Zarius Durant, Customer Development Professional at Colgate-Palmolive, coordinates Colgate's summer internship program—Futures and Options first placed an intern with them last summer. The program is highly competitive and open to only 16 students from selected high schools and nonprofit organizations. The managers at Colgate who have had Futures and Options' interns on their team recognized tremendous benefits from a leadership and customer-research perspective.
This summer, four Futures and Options teens were interns in the program, and a Futures and Options alumnus, Mahfug Hossain, has become a regular Colgate employee after his successful internship during the summer of 2009.
Mr. Kelly emphasizes that "Colgate-Palmolive's experience with Futures & Options has been extremely positive. The program has exposed our company to students who are ambitious and well-prepared for Corporate/ Professional work environments. Our Futures and Options interns have, in all cases, performed at a very high level while enthusiastically seeking to learn and develop lasting relationships - simply put, they have served as a breath of fresh air….I have a particular affinity for Futures and Options' fine work."
A Smart Business Decision
Hosting an intern from Futures and Options not only exposes New York City's underserved youth to the business world, it also offers a chance for companies to find and train potential employees. Mr. Durant observes "Aside from the exposure to career paths, high school internships create an opportunity to recruit those who performed exceptionally well into the ranks after graduation. Along with the social responsibility element, it does drive overall business results. A positive experience typically leads to loyalty." Businesses have the chance to meet smart, driven youth and expose them to their companies—building strong employees of tomorrow.
Providing interns and pre-interns with a taste of life in the workforce can benefit the partner company as much as the teen: fulfilling a social responsibility to expose young people to corporate life, and also to increase diversity in offices around New York City. Mr. Kelly lends his opinion: "Support of organizations such as Futures and Options affords companies the opportunity to be socially responsible through community involvement while helping to develop more diverse work-force talent pipelines. As responsible business leaders, we should strive to actively engage students to encourage and better educate them about the variety of professional career opportunities to which they may aspire." By getting involved in their community, Colgate-Palmolive gains the support of their immediate surroundings—they truly have their thoughts directed toward the future of their company.
Through meeting new young people, Colgate-Palmolive exposes themselves to a fresh, energetic side of business. Mr. Durant explains: "My own philosophy has been to identify those who are interested in the corporate setting, understand their interests, and place them in departments where they really learn and shine." Mr. Durant does his own company a favor by helping each intern learn what he or she is most interested in and expand on those interests within the company. Suddenly Colgate-Palmolive has a fleet of dynamic young workers who love what they are doing.
Personal Testimony
Both Eugene Kelly and Zarius Durant came from programs where they received mentoring and support from organizations like Futures and Options.
Mr. Kelly reveals: "At a young age, I found it very difficult to identify viable career options that matched my interests and academic strengths." It is important that established professionals help young people learn their interests and talents. With this guidance, youth can get on track to become productive citizens of their communities.
Mr. Kelly adds, "During my first internship, I was mentored by a number of executives who took interest in offering me exactly the type of guidance and support provided on a larger scale by Futures and Options but at much younger ages. The time to discuss my interests, ask questions and simply learn from established professionals helped shape me into the leader that I am today." Mr. Kelly stresses the importance of these professionals as role models in his young life. The time they took with him influenced him to become a successful business person, and inspired him to become a leader for New York City's youth today. Mr. Kelly is a graduate of Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial and Labor Relations. He serves on the U.S. North Operating Board for the National Hispanic Corporate Achievers, and is an Operating Committee member for the Corporate Achievers Awards for Individuals with Disabilities. Eugene is also a member of The Asia Society Corporate Diversity Council.
Mr. Durant recalls: "I participated in the Inroads program during senior year of high school and landed a job with McKesson Corporation. It was intimidating at first, but turned out to be extremely invaluable." Mr. Durant flourished in a program similar to Futures and Options—Inroads is a non-profit program that sets up paid internships for undergraduate youth. He understands firsthand the positive effect that programs like ours can have on young people, especially those young people who would not otherwise have access to corporate opportunities. "The excitement of being around well dressed, articulate people really amazed me and it was something I wanted to emulate." Once he learned the kinds of jobs that were available to him, Mr. Durant could focus on his path to Colgate. He has helped manage Colgate's internship program since 2001.
If you are interested in partnering with Futures and Options by hosting interns, please contact Keleigh Karl, Corporate Partnership Manager or call 212-601-0002.
Career Exploration at Morgan Stanley
Published in June 2010 E-Newsletter
On Thursday, June 3rd, 14 interns in our Core Internship Program traveled to Morgan Stanley for a terrific corporate volunteer event with 27 volunteers from the Compliance Department. Stuart Breslow, Global Head of Compliance welcomed the interns and presented an overview of the work of the department.
Arthur Ziehi Baton, Jr. and Morgan Stanley Compliance Department volunteers from front: Megan McGrath and Shauna Hughes.
Communication was the main focus of the event! Thanks to creative thinking and teamwork, Irena Spiegel, Vice President, Legal and Compliance, and our program coordinators designed a fast-paced, engaging and fun activity that gave interns a chance to hone their verbal communication and listening skills – clearly important skills for successful interviewing and networking. Each intern was matched with a volunteer and had seven minutes to go through a mini interview. When the seven-minute alarm went off, the students rotated to the next volunteer. Interns had an opportunity to visit with many of the volunteers one-on-one and were able to practice their communication and interpersonal skills. The interns also directed questions to the volunteers to learn more about their positions within the firm.
This event received high marks from our interns and program team. The interns had a chance to visit one of the world's largest diversified financial services companies, learn about compliance work, meet professionals working in this field and have some fun! Many thanks to the Morgan Stanley Compliance Department volunteers for their enthusiasm and special thanks to Irena Spiegel for her tremendous recruiting efforts.
