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17th Annual WISE Conference

 

WISE Services was proud to sponsor its 17th annual conference, “WISE Connections” hosted by the Scarsdale High School Senior Options program on March 28, 2008  Over 150 WISE students, mentors, coordinators, and community Task Force members participated.

 

Greetings from John Klemme, Principal of Scarsdale High School were followed by David Greene’s introduction of Andrew Ross Sorkin, Scarsdale 1995.  Dave, who has Coordinated Senior Options at Scarsdale for many years and is retiring this year, provided several anecdotes about working with Andrew on his project.  Andrew followed up with a description of his internship at the New York Times that can only be described as both inspiring and hilarious.  Today Andrew, who set out to do the impossible – intern at the New York Times as a high school senior – is the Chief Mergers and Acquisitions Reporter and Assistant Editor of the Business and Finance Section at the paper. He is also a frequent contributor to news programs including NBC's “Today” show, Charlie Rose and the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, and is a frequent guest host of CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” He won a Gerald Loeb Award, the highest honor in business journalism, in 2004 for breaking news, and has also won a Society of American Business Editors and Writers Award for breaking news in 2005 and 2006. In 2007, the World Economic Forum named him a Young Global Leader. Mr. Sorkin is also the founding editor of DealBook (nytimes.com/dealbook), an online daily financial report published by The Times.  As the Times has posted on their website, “Mr. Sorkin began writing for The Times in 1995 under unusual circumstances; at the time he started writing for the paper, he hadn't yet graduated from high school.”  Conference-goers were treated to the story of that accomplishment, and WISE Services was proud of its role in making it happen!

 

Following Andrew was a tough act, but Cheryl Furjanic, Croton-HarmonHigh School, 1994 was up to the task.  Cheryl is an award-winning filmmaker currently teaching documentary video production at New YorkUniversity. Her previous documentary shorts include Take This Hammer, a study of the traditions of American work songs as seen through the eyes of legendary folk singer Pete Seeger, and DiMassimo to the Rescue, a short comic tale about a NYC advertising agency's attempt to save the life of a veal calf. Her short comedy film Bar Talk screened at over 60 film festivals worldwide and was broadcast on the PBS/WNET series "Reel New York" in the summer of 2003. Cheryl is also co-director of the short documentary A Good Uplift (2003), a light-hearted glimpse into a Lower East Side lingerie shop, and she recently began directing interstitials and commercials for television, portable electronic devices, and the internet. 

 

Cheryl described her high school experience, which was the opposite of Andrew’s.  Andrew didn’t like high school and loved the concept of a senior project where he could leave school.  Cheryl enjoyed everything about high school and viewed her senior project as an opportunity to cap off her accomplishments with a project geared to her career interests in medicine.  How she discovered that medicine was not what she wished to pursue and that film was actually her passion made for a fascinating tale.  At the end, she showed the audience the trailer from her latest feature length documentary “Sync or Swim,” the story of the U.S. Women’s  Olympic Synchronized Swim Team. For more information on “Sync or Swim” visit the film’s website at http://www.synchromovie.com.

 

Vic Leviatin, President of WISE Services, welcomed everyone to the conference and noted that this year marks the 35th anniversary of the WISE Program and 15th anniversary of WISE at Scarsdale and Croton-HarmonHigh Schools. He was followed by Linda Greene, Executive Director, who introduced three other Scarsdale graduates who participated on an Alumni Panel and detailed their experiences during the student workshop. They briefly described their Senior Projects and current jobs:  Jessica Edelman, ’02 who now runs the ScarsdaleTeenCenter, Michael Resnick, ’02, who teaches in Yonkers, and Ricardo Garcia, ’97 who is President of the Scarsdale Alumni Association and Executive Vice President of Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association (LISTA) of NY.  Ricardo was named Business Person of the year by the Hispanic Business and Professional Association of Westchester, and previously founded  Etectonics LLC  during his sophomore year at NYU.

 

Following the Opening Session, break-out Workshops included:  Students Workshops with the Alumni Panel, WISE Coordinators Roundtable, WISE Connections through the Internet, and Introduction to WISE for schools considering implementation of the program. 

 

Participants enjoyed the conference, as indicated by these comments:                                                       

Thanks for a wonderful conference last week Can you give me Cheryl's contact info? I have a student doing documentary film making and I'd love for them to touch base. (WISE CONNECTIONS at work!!!)

 

The part of the conference I saw was excellent….loved the two very different speakers and different internship experiences. Good job.

 

Thank you so much for organizing the conference last week.  It proved to be energizing and informative! The conference was very good.  I especially liked meeting the two WISE alums and hearing their stories.  We will try to bring more students next year  Adult participants said among other things, they valued hearing the stories of the speakers, the humor, being with other WISE coordinators and students, getting information on school websites, what the alumni shared and how they learned from their experience, sharing experiences, my conversation with other coordinators, the advice and anecdotes of the WISE alumni.  Finally, one coordinator wrote: “Comraderie! The bumps in the road let us appreciate the suspension.” Student conference-goers valued mingling with fellow WISE students, listening to the stories of the grads, hearing about other situations, helping some juniors learn about WISE and encouraging them to have fun with it, the advice conveyed about taking in all of the things your projects project presents to you, sharing my experiences, the time that this gave us to meet with other kids, and that I had the chance to answer some questions that 11th graders had. One student said she valued hearing that others had hardships and that they never gave up.  Another valued the opinions and advice of other people who have “done this” in the past and who are doing it now.” Other comments included the following: “A very nice program.”  “It was really cool to see how other schools programs worked and what other kids were doing for their projects.” “Great job!”  “The workshops were very informative.” When asked how they will apply what was presented at the conference, coordinators said, “use the internet more,” we will work to create a website and some type of film presentation for students and parents,” “I have tales for my current and future WISE students,” brainstorming with colleagues back at school to try and reinvigorate our program.” Students, when asked the same question responded with the following: “With the knowledge of hardships like my own I can just buckle down and know that I can do anything,” “it will definitely make me work harder,” “make the best of my experience,” “incorporate my new knowledge into my project, “prep for my presentation,” and “I am going to write detailed journals in order to assure myself that I haven’t missed important pieces of my project.” It was a great conference – Thanks to those of you who attended.  As someone noted, we’ll need a larger venue next year since we’re starting to outgrow the school facilities we have been using!