Being a student at Staten Island Tech is both a privilege and an honor.
In addition to top of the line academics and extracurricular activities, I’d like to share two ongoing Staten Island Tech programs that I hope you will become a part of over the next four years.
The VISIT (Visit Inside Staten Island Tech) Program
It is highly likely that either in the 5th or 7th grade, you and some lucky classmates were handpicked to come and VISIT for a few hours. It’s even possible that your VISIT helped you to make the important decision to study for the SHSAT and try for Tech.
Going into its 8th year, VISIT has become a regular feature in Tech’s bag of goodies.. VISIT was created to inform Staten Island based students that there is a Specialized High School right in their borough. The large number of Brooklyn students that choose to attend Tech even though their own borough has two Specialized High Schools of its own is a testament to how great we are.
As part of a typical VISIT, students are treated to samples of our technical courses such as Computer Assisted Design (CAD), Pre-engineering/robotics, Television Production, the MakerSpace as well as academic areas like a sample Russian lesson and a SHSAT prep talk. During their VISIT, we try to find Tech students from your very own middle or elementary school to act as VISIT Ambassadors for the day.
Most VISITors are heard professing their desire to attend Tech even as they are leaving our building.
We have even created a VISIT Program for the summer called STEAM Camp where younger students can undertake project-based learning in the classrooms that they VISITed in the past. There are also SHSAT prep classes available as well!
While the VISIT Program is designed to help students to make informed choices about their immediate future, Backpacks to Briefcases is another program designed to help Tech students make informed choices for their college and career futures.
Backpacks to Briefcases
Do you ever wonder about what college you might want to attend? How about what you want to be when you “grow up” All young people do. Some of us older people do too.
Backpacks to Briefcases (B2B) is a Tech program where we invite people from many careers to come and talk to our students about their professions and the paths they took to get there. In the past, medicine, law, engineering, actuarial sciences, finance, social work, education, politicians, law enforcement, all branches of the military and dozens of others have graced our classrooms. We even had a real live astronaut share his story with our students. Once again, we are always trying to help our students to make informed choices as they move forward with their lives. Many of the B2B guests have been Staten Island Tech graduates themselves who are very eager to give a little something back to those who follow in their Tech footsteps.
So once again I’d like to welcome you to probably one of the best life decisions you’ve made so far!! I wish you the best and look forward to seeing you as a VISIT Ambassador and at many B2B sessions,
Barry Levine
VISIT and B2B Program Coordinator