By Dana Williams
"They helped me to get a fashion internship at Soundgirl in New York City, and it really was the best experience for me," she said. "My teachers also prepared me so well for my internship interview, and helped me with my college applications, and I just love them all for helping me so much."
As a result, Sepulveda plans to study fashion merchandising this fall at the University of Delaware.
Sepulveda is one of the many students who say they have benefited from internships and other opportunities at Baldwin High that have helped them to choose a career. Classes such as E-Commerce, Career Planning and Senior Internship, among others, all aim to introduce students to the business world and motivate them to take strides toward choosing a career path for themselves. The classes, Sepulveda and others said, are also giving students an edge when they start college.
"We teach our students in these classes the important skills that they need to know in order to succeed in these careers, and we give them assignments that they would get in the real world," said Gregg Kelley, a business teacher at Baldwin High. "In my Sports Marketing class, we created a promotional brochure for Madison Square Garden because we work with the organization, so our students are working on real-world projects."
The school's business program, as a result, has gained national recognition and garnered a slew of awards. Baldwin High's business department was recently honored for the second time this school year, when it was named one of New York State's Business Departments of the Year in the Long Island Region by the State Education Department on June 19, tying with Farmingdale High School.
"We applied for the award last year, and we didn't win," explained Pat Banhazl, Baldwin's School-to-Career program coordinator. "We felt that we deserved this award, so that's why we applied again this year. And we're very happy that we won."
Baldwin High School was also the only school from New York State to be awarded with $10,000 earlier this year by The Council for Corporate and School Partnerships for its work with Mercy Medical Center.
"The business teachers at our school deserve these awards because they work so hard to help students, and they treat us like we're their own kids," Sepulveda said.
By taking a Senior Internship class, Baldwin High seniors are able to receive course credit while interning at places such as Bloomingdales, Hofstra University and The Nassau County Police Department.
"Many of our students tell us that they are happy that they took classes like our Senior Internship class because it allows them to use the skills they learned in the classroom in the workplace," said Eric Gomez, also a business teacher at Baldwin High. "The internships give our students an advantage over many college freshmen because they have already started to build their professional work experience."
The business staff at the school also established other initiatives that allow students to gain real-world experience. Baldwin High's School-to-Career program and Shadow Days, where students work with employees from organizations such as State Farm Insurance, Northrop Grumman and Citibank for a day, has played a tremendous role in sparking interest in a particular profession, teachers said.
"The experiences that students get through participating in the program helps them to build confidence, and at the same time, build contacts for future employment opportunities," Banhazl said. "Our students get summer jobs, and they are offered a chance to come back to these jobs during their summer breaks in college. Our students really do get amazing opportunities from our programs - and they start to decide what they want to do in life."
"Our department is always open to help our students, and we help each of them individually with anything they need," Gomez added. "We're pretty busy, but it's to our students' benefit because we're helping them build the skills they need to become successful."
