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.
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.
If you are interested in hosting a career exploration field trip at your business, please contact Stefanie Jones or call 212-601-0002.
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The Frederick Douglass Academy Summer Internship Program
Thanks to support from the Charles Hayden Foundation, Futures and Options will welcome 30 juniors and seniors from The Frederick Douglass Academy as participants in our six-week summer internship program. We are delighted to announce that 25 businesses will provide internships for the students, including 10 first-time Futures and Options partners.
This summer’s internship program launched on Thursday, June 17th, when the selected students attended their first Futures and Options orientation. The soon-to-be interns learned about our internship program, their responsibilities and our expectations. They prepared for their upcoming personal interviews with supervisors at the businesses, discussing the questions to expect and how to best present themselves. The second orientation on Wednesday, June 30th will cover the nuts and bolts of timesheets, paychecks, payroll taxes and proper workplace behavior.
On July 6th, the students officially begin working as interns! In addition to the work on the job, students meet weekly with Futures and Options’ program coordinators for career readiness workshops or career exploration field trips. This year volunteers from Thomson Reuters will conduct a special training session in Microsoft Excel for our interns; and, we will visit the New York Stock Exchange and Pfizer to see careers in action. The Youth, I.N.C. Young Professionals Committee volunteers will be mentors for our interns during the six weeks. Mentors and mentees meet each other at a special opening event, correspond weekly by email or phone and gather together in the final week of the mentoring program. The program concludes on August 13th when our interns and supervisors celebrate at our closing breakfast.
Urban Leadership Fellows Program Expands in 2010 to 36 Interns
The Municipal Forum of New York’s Urban Leadership Fellows (ULF) program, which was designed to attract diverse and motivated young people to careers in the municipal finance sector, began in 1991 with three youth from three high schools. Since 1996, Futures and Options has managed this extraordinary six-week summer internship program for the Municipal Forum. To date, 342 young people have been ULF interns.
This year, Youth Education Fund Committee Co-Chairs Ned Flynn and Carol Kostik recruited a record 31 sites to host 36 new interns. We are especially pleased to welcome eight new sites: Battery Park City Authority, First Southwest Co., Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, Loop Capital Markets, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Siebert Brandford Shank & Co. LLC., Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., and Wells Fargo, and to welcome back JPMorgan, the Metropolitan Transit Authority and the New York City Housing Development Corporation.
From left: Jazmin Diaz, intern, Unhee Do, Prager, Sealy & Co., LLC, Brent Chandaria, supervisor at J.P. Morgan, Monique Lopez, supervisor at Wells Fargo Securities, Miulina Ng, supervisor at NYS Housing Finance Agency, Wellington Gonzalez, intern, and Marilyn Frazier, intern, at the ULF Opening Breakfast.
This program officially began on June 29th with the traditional Opening Breakfast at Bayard’s where the interns and supervisors meet for the first time. On June 30th, the interns attend Bond School to learn the fundamentals of public finance and municipal bonds. The first day on the job is July 6th. All interns benefit from the work experience, the networking, the career-readiness training, and mentoring. In addition, $500 book awards are granted at the conclusion of the program to each intern, and the Municipal Forum offers $1,000 scholarships to ULF alumni who maintain a 3.0 GPA in college. The Municipal Forum has given almost $300,000 in scholarships to ULF alumni since 2002.
The Municipal Forum’s ULF program is exemplary – not only does it serve as a model for other business sectors, it speaks volumes about their members’ faith in our City’s young people and their potential to contribute today and in years to come. In 1991, The Municipal Forum decided to act on its convictions, and by doing so, through this program, it makes a remarkable difference in the lives of young people, the municipal finance sector and New York City.
Summer Core Internship Program Gives More Teens the Chance to Work!
Our Core Internship Program will reach a new threshold this summer! 45 interns will be working at 28 nonprofit and private sector businesses in Manhattan and Brooklyn. While some interns transition from part-time internships at their sites during the school year to full-time internships during the summer; others will be interns for six to eight-week summer internships.
This summer, we are delighted to partner with the internship programs at the Colgate-Palmolive Company, Deutsche Bank, and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. These firms each coordinate an annual internship program specifically designed to give high school students the chance to experience work in their industry. We also welcome Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Gap, Inc. to our program.
All interns in our Core Program are required to attend monthly workshops during the summer that enrich their hands-on work experience, hone their interpersonal, communication and networking skills and improve their financial literacy. Career exploration trips to different businesses are also offered to the youth. At the conclusion of the summer, each intern’s performance is evaluated by their supervisor, a valuable exercise for the intern who receives feedback on areas of strength and those that need improvement. We are tremendously grateful to our supervisors for the time they dedicate to making the internship experience a good one for the teens, and to our interns, for their commitment to their work and the business.
For more information on the summer internship programs, please contact Tyran Williams or Digmarie Ruiz or call 212-601-0002.
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Juniors and seniors in all of our programs are invited to our College Guidance Initiative workshops. Juniors will have the opportunity to attend three workshops that jumpstart their college search and preparation process. Seniors are invited to two workshops to help them prepare for freshman year in college.
This summer, we are pleased to offer a fantastic college workshop facilitated for the second year by Dr. Marcia Cantarella, who will speak to seniors heading off to college about successfully navigating challenges they will face as well as how the selection of their major will impact their future career choices.
Dr. Cantarella comes from a long family legacy of educators and change agents as the daughter of the late Civil Rights leader Whitney M. Young Jr. Dr. Cantarella has been an Associate Dean at Hunter College, a Dean at Princeton University and part of the Dean’s staff at New York University’s College of Arts and Science. Her responsibilities included academic advisement, career development, preparation for postgraduate fellowships, development of diversity programs, and strategies to generally enhance students’ academic experience and outcomes.
For more information on our College Guidance Initiative, please contact Tyran Williams or call 212-601-0002.
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It is our priority to keep in touch with our alumni and offer support in any way we can. If you are an alum of our program, please take a minute to update your contact information on our website, so that we can keep in touch with you and keep you informed about upcoming alumni events. Thank you for your help!
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Our online auction through Charity Folks follows on the success of our silent auction at Cocktails in the Sky on June 9th.
View the auction here and bid on amazing vacation packages and celebrity autographed items! Auction ends July 7th.
For more information please contact Serena Handley or call 212-601-0002.
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This summer, Futures and Options will pilot the Bridge to Work Program for teens who have successfully completed our Pre-Internship Program. This extension of the Pre-Internship Program was developed in response to input from our younger teens who asked for a concrete way to put the skills they learned through the program, such as teamwork, communication, and leadership, into action!
Thanks to a partnership with New York Cares’ Youth Service Summer Program, Futures and Options offered 15 teens the opportunity to continue to prepare for work and explore careers while they give back to New York City as volunteers. The New York Cares’ Youth Service Summer Program provides teens with meaningful community service opportunities, along with service learning activities and reflection. Founded in 1987, New York Cares enables 43,000 New Yorkers each year to serve in hands-on volunteer projects benefiting schools, social service agencies, homeless shelters, and other deserving organizations. Their service learning and reflection enables students to look beyond the physical work being done to explore the issues behind their service projects. Students explore why they are serving, why the need exists, and what role they can play in their communities to respond to these needs. Each project concludes with time for teens to reflect on their experience.
The seven week program, which officially kicks off on July 1st, is a logical next step for our teens. It will offer a combination of work readiness training, career exploration and volunteerism. The teens will get valuable hands-on experience by participating in four different community service projects in various New York City communities. The projects, which are coordinated by New York Cares staff, will range from working in a community garden at a local park and doing science experiments with young children to preparing meals for and interacting with senior citizens, and creating care packages for families with new babies. Research has shown that young volunteers have higher self-esteem, build leadership skills and learn to solve community problems. Additionally, volunteerism is highly valued by colleges and businesses.
If you would like further information about the Bridge to Work Program, please contact Stefanie Jones, Pre-Internship Program Coordinator.
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On June 9th, Futures and Options hosted the third annual Cocktails in the Sky at Mansueto Ventures, 7 World Trade. Over 170 people attended this event, including business executives and young professionals, alumni and current interns, business partners, as well as supporters and Board members.
The Chairman of the Board of Futures and Options, Stephen E. Hessler, welcomed the guests and spoke about the work of our organization. Guests were also enjoyed hearing from Eugene Kelly, Worldwide Director, Global Workplace Initiatives at Colgate-Palmolive Company who spoke about the experience of hosting a Futures and Options' interns at his company, and Latik Cook, an intern at Gruzen Samton LLP who spoke about his internship experience. 
Stephen E. Hessler, Chairman of the Board, with Tonnelle Windley and her son Latik Cook, intern. Photo credit: Lily Kesselman.
Guests were treated to magnificent New York City views, cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, as well as a silent auction and raffle. Futures and Options was grateful to have the help of eight alumni volunteers at the event.
Interns Shantevia Kelly, Ozemary Feliz, and Joel Tavarez. Photo credit: Lily Kesselman.
Eugene Kelly, Worldwide Director, Global Workplace Initiatives at Colgate-Palmolive Company, spoke about the experience of hosting a Futures and Options' intern. Photo credit: Lily Kesselman.
Intern Zabier Rodriquez, Patty Machir, Executive Director, and intern Steven Oladunjoye. Photo credit: Lily Kesselman.
To view more photos from Cocktails in the Sky, please visit our website here.
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College Guidance
What: Researching Colleges
Who: High School Juniors
Where: Alliance for Downtown New York
When: July 13th, 5 PM to 6:30 PM.
For more information on our College Guidance Initiative, please contact Tyran Williams or call 212-601-0002.
New York Stock Exchange
Field Trip
What: Closing bell and tour of the trading floor
Who: The Frederick Douglass Academy summer interns.
Where: New York Stock Exchange
When: July 14th, 2:30 PM to 4:30 PM.
For more information on The Frederick Douglass Academy Summer Internship Program, please contact Tyran Williams or call 212-601-0002.
Urban Leadership Fellows (ULF) Program Presentation Workshop I
What: Workshop on presentation and public speaking by Virgil Scudder & Associates.
Who: ULF Program Participants
Where: SIFMA
When: July 23rd, 9 AM to 5 PM.
For more information about our ULF Program please email Digmarie Ruiz or call 212-601-0002.
Pfizer Field Trip
What: Career Exploration Field Trip
Who: The Frederick Douglass Academy summer interns.
Where: Pfizer
When: July 28th, 9:30 AM to 12 PM.
For more information on The Frederick Douglass Academy Summer Internship Program, please contact Tyran Williams or call 212-601-0002.
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