HELLO FROM ELLEN PALAZZO 9/9/15

Hello All and WELCOME to LI VE! We are so excited to kick-off the 2015-16 SY with over 40 firms in this dynamic, growing LI network. Your confidence and your students’ enthusiasm in the VEI program outcomes for VEI grads is contagious!

The calendar for the LI Region of VE for 2015-16 is attached. This will help you in planning, budgeting and scheduling.

Nick Chapman, VEI National Program Director, will be sending his bimonthly brief next week. Following this I will reach out again with key info about the plan for the year along with the processes and tools for tracking participation and collecting required data related to attendance and pre-post test assessments. These tools will be helpful to you in quantifying the successes of your program.

As the Long Island Program Director I will continue to work with you and your administrators to develop strong VEI programs as well as CTE Pathway Programs of Study. Irv Wortman will be providing technical support and help with day-to-day operation. He will answer your questions, help to troubleshoot, and will provide you with a log-in, the email address for your firm, support in using the portal and setting up your class set-ups, pre/post testing, banking and much more.

We will also share the database of LI VE firms for ’15-16.

Another new project, initiated by LI VE Alumni Micheal Russo, is underway as a pilot with the new LI firms. Please share with your former VEI students who may be interested—This is a copy of the info sent to new facilitators:

I would like to share with you a plan spearheaded by a LI VE alumni, Micheal Russo, in collaboration with me and several college partners. For the past two years we have had some VE alumni mentoring high school firms—for example, Micheal worked with two start-up firms at Kennedy High School and another at his former high school firm at East Islip. This worked well for the teachers and the students so we are organizing and expanding the outreach this year to include all new Long Island firms and those with new facilitators. We plan to selectively recruit VE alumni who attend colleges that are partnering with LI VE including LIU/Post, Molloy, Mercy, Farmingdale and Hofstra or who are in the workplace. Many are majoring in business and all will bring skills they have developed through their VEI experience.

The goal is to pair two alumni with each firm—it will be up to you with your students and mentors to determine what will be helpful and how to network. Micheal will email you with additional info. This list of new firms and teachers (facilitators) may be useful to you too.

2015-16 (15 new firms or firms with new advisors)

Bridgehampton School District—Kameron Kaiser

Freeport High School—Nela Hawthorne

Hempstead High School—Patti Ortmann

Islip High School—-Renee Clock <>

Lindenhurst High School—Joanne Williams <

Lindenhurst High School —Nicholas Lombardo

Massepequa High School—Ed Aromando

Roosevelt High School—Melanie Stroh <

Sachem North HS-Tom Sullivan <

Sachem East HS—Keith McCaffrey < (2 firms)

Sayville High School—— Chad Cross <

Sayville High School—- Bryan Coon <

Schreiber High School— Stephanie Saraceni <

Southhold HS—Kathy <

My best wishes for a challenging, productive and successful VEI experience for you and your students!

Ellen

Ellen Palazzo

Director, Long Island Region of VE

Field Team Associate, LI

CTE Technical Assistance Center of NY

Successful Practices Network

516-313-4894 cell

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