Rockland BOCES Provides Job Opportunities for 12 Local Students

Local students benefit more than just economically from their summer employment for Rockland BOCES. Students feel that the jobs are also valuable preparation for their future careers, as they acquire both vocational and life skills. 

One student, Matthew Begley, a Clarkstown North High School senior from New City, is renovating the classrooms of BOCES educational resource center on the West Nyack campus for the summer.

“It’s helped me to develop a strong work ethic,” he says. “The workday starts at 7 a.m., so I’ve got to be up early to get to work on time. I have to balance fun and work.”

Begley is one of five employees painting and restoring the classrooms. Other students work on voice-over-IP installation at the Lower Hudson Regional Information Center (LHRIC). Rockland BOCES recently upgraded its technology, so it has access to new programs that are, in turn, available to its employees. 

“I plan to go into network management as a career, so it’s been cool to see how things are done and get hands-on experience” says 2011 Nanuet High School graduate and LHRIC employee Tom Gargiula of Nanuet.  

“Our work program over the years has really proven to be invaluable,” says District Superintendent of Rockland BOCES Dr. Mary Jean Marsico. 

The superintendent recently witnessed one group of employed teens landscaping across from where a group of children with disabilities were working.

“They were laughing together and engaging so well,” says Dr. Marsico. 

These students are not only learning the ins and outs of landscaping, including how to operate the equipment. They are also being exposed to “diversity”, as Superintendent Marsico says, acquiring a new understanding of and sensitivity towards people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  

The Rockland BOCES staff is thrilled to see how eager summer employees are to return year after year. Three Clarkstown South alumni, who were initially employed to read to children in one of BOCES’s former summer programs, later became teaching assistants at BOCES. Now all three are still in education, one as a teacher at the Jesse Kaplan School, another as a second grade teacher in the Bronx, and another as a fourth grade teacher in Baltimore, MD.     

AmeriCorps volunteers from the Environmental Corps Program have been some of the most enthusiastic participants in BOCES summer projects. Some volunteers were known to walk to work everyday.

“They get a stipend, but they come back because they really love it,” says Dr. Marsico.  

The AmeriCorps volunteers have been assisting BOCES for more than five years. Most of their time is spent revitalizing the Walkin’ Pond Fitness Trail along side students from River View High School, a BOCES school in Nyack, ridding the area of invasive species and poison ivy. The object is to make the area “more beautiful” and “safer” for BOCES students says AmeriCorps Project Coordinator Kathy A. Galione. 

The pond is surrounded by a quarter-mile fitness trail and is wheelchair-accessible. The pond has been certified by the National Wildlife Federation due to the re-population of wild turtles and frogs made possible by employees and volunteers. The efforts made by these students prevent the pond from transforming back into the swamp it once was.

“I loved working with the elementary school kids here,” says Grant Jardine, an AmeriCorps volunteer from Nanuet, about his work at the Jesse J. Kaplan School a couple summers ago. “It feels good to work towards a goal that will benefit them.”

BOCES is no longer looking for more employees, though they would always consider new applications. BOCES thanks their current hires and volunteers: Begley, Gargiula, Jardine, Dan Davenport, Patrick Dunbar, Thomas Marcellari, Chris Scheutz, Keith Stampfel, Nick Termini, and Erica Whitten, for a great first month. 

Rockland BOCES (Boards of Cooperative Educational Services) provides:

• Student Services, which assists students with developmental disabilities, and emotional and/or learning challenges
• Career and Technical Education, which trains students for specific careers
• Educational Services, which educates teachers on ways to meet NYS requirements and also provides students with enrichment programs 
• Adult Education and Business Services, which helps adults earn their General Education Diploma (GED)

 Rockland BOCES joins with the local school districts to provide them with programs and services that are shared by all schools. Because resources are shared, schools can maintain programs that would otherwise be too expensive. Rockland BOCES is one of thirty-seven BOCES in New York.