“Ever since I was little, I wanted to work as a marine veterinarian,” she said, adding she’s already had a chance to care for the school’s snapping turtles, including Mauricio, Franklin, Billy, Pops and Leo. 

But before she could get close to the school’s resident reptiles, she and her fellow students had to commit to an unusual and sometimes lengthy commute: Many take long subway rides — transit troubles can stretch the trip from 45 minutes to an hour and a half — from across New York City before embarking on a brisk ferry ride to Governors Island. 

Despite this sometimes cumbersome requirement, school administrators say lateness is on par with other high schools and that students have more than a 90% attendance rate, even during harsh winter months.

The student body includes many children from low-income backgrounds, who are often . Despite this, the Harbor School boasted a 91% graduation rate in 2022. New York City’s four-year graduation rate was and the national average, last calculated for the 2019-20 school year, . 

Principal Chetirko said the Harbor School’s hands-on learning environment keeps students coming back: It partners with some 250 organizations, allowing students to conduct safety drills with the U.S. Coast Guard, speak at the United Nations and at City Hall, and conduct scientific research at sea aboard a tall ship with the Sea Education Association, among other opportunities.

“Students know the unique place and the unique program that we run here, and they get excited by the fact that they’re not sitting in a classroom for eight periods a day, that they get to be outside, be outdoors as much as they possibly can,” Chetirko said.

Some appreciated the experience enough to work there: Davere Hanson graduated from the Harbor School in 2020 and enrolled at Massachusetts Maritime Academy that same year before transferring to Manhattan’s John Jay College. 

He now serves as a teacher apprentice in the , which trains young people to become career and technical education teachers. Hanson is currently assigned to Harbor School as a vessel operations instructor. Once the school year is over, he said, he’ll be dispatched to a commercial worksite at the Billion Oyster Project, which aims to restore oyster reefs in New York Harbor.

“The best thing that I’ve learned from Harbor School is that networking is crucially important to a professional career,” he said. “A good source of contacts goes a long way.”

Those networking options are also about to grow. The ​“,” a planned cli­mate research, edu­ca­tion, and jobs hub already has a commitment for a , 400,000-square-foot cam­pus on Governors Island ded­i­cat­ed to research­ing and devel­op­ing . It’s expect­ed to serve 600 post­sec­ondary stu­dents, 4,500 K‑12 stu­dents, 6,000 work­force trainees, and 250 fac­ul­ty and researchers every year, city officials say. Con­struc­tion is slated to begin in 2025 with phase one completed in 2028.

The Harbor School will have a close connection to the new site, Chetirko said: Instructors at the Exchange will be invited to campus to share their knowledge and Harbor School students will take college-level classes and participate in paid and unpaid internships at the location, in addition to other advantages.

While most NYC students come to the program with an interest in marine biology research, many eventually migrate to other career and technical education paths, such as ocean engineering, professional diving and vessel operations. 

Ethan Martinez, 17 and from the Bronx, chose to pursue the professional diving pathway at the Harbor School. He plans to one-day work in STEM but said professional divers can have many career options: Some work on movie sets for those films shot at sea. 

“Where there’s water, there’s work,” said the high school junior, adding he plans to earn his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, just as his mother did. 

Aidan Daretany, 15 and in the tenth grade, doesn’t plan on a four-year-degree. He’s already discovered a talent for welding and hopes to work as a structural ironworker who sculpts in his spare time. 

He credits the Harbor School for helping him discover his passion. 

“I wouldn’t have been able to find that anywhere else,” he said.

Mike Cohen, who manages the partnership between the school and the , which was founded at the Governors Island campus in 2014, said he’s noticed a transformation in terms of students’ confidence, poise and professionalism as they work with industry and academic partners. He is elated to watch them succeed in related fields. 

“Seeing a recent graduate working as captain aboard the NYC commuter ferries, hearing from a student who is excelling in scientific research at SUNY Stony Brook, watching current students lead a presentation at U.N. Water 2023 at the United Nations,” he said, “it never fails to inspire.”

]]> /article/rosen-to-build-a-pipeline-of-workers-for-the-economy-of-the-future-high-school-students-need-cte-training-in-green-jobs-federal-funding-can-help/ Wed, 23 Feb 2022 17:20:58 +0000 /?post_type=article&p=585376 The movement to green the American economy is gaining momentum. At the , as well as in places like , and , lawmakers have passed legislation designed to reduce carbon emissions while creating green jobs in diverse industries such as transportation, construction, environmental management and agriculture. These have all  in recent years and are predicted to . 

This green revolution will require an army of well-trained workers — yet federal investments in job training have focused mostly on adults. To build a healthy pipeline of skilled labor, policymakers should apply lessons from a robust body of evidence about successful career and technical education programs for high school students to create pathways for careers in the green economy. 

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More than high school students are enrolled in CTE; high-quality CTE programs have been shown to high school graduation, college enrollment and earnings. With curricula organized around specific career themes, they offer internships and other work-based learning experiences, and provide opportunities to earn industry-recognized credentials and college credits while still in high school. CTE programs also appear to work particularly well for students who have lagged in educational attainment, including and . 

CTE programs have been successful across fields of study, suggesting that similar models focused on green jobs and careers may have similar effects. In fact, promising green CTE programs are cropping up all over the country. In Malta, New York, the , a model school, offers learning experiences in clean energy, business and solar installation, opportunities to earn certificates in photovoltaics and a pathway to associate’s degrees in electrical construction and maintenance. The on Governors Island in New York City provides programs in fields related to marine health, including aquaculture and marine systems technology, and offers instruction in professional diving and vessel operation, as well as paid internships. 

In Kansas, at Olathe West High School is a four-year program with pathways in both renewable energy and sustainable agriculture. in Mississippi trains students in aquaculture through a program that allows them to continue their studies at a local community college, and the Bright Solar Futures program at in Philadelphia provides training and industry-recognized certificates in solar energy installation and energy conservation, preparing students for entry-level solar jobs. 

As innovative as these programs are, however, they tend to be one-off efforts. To prepare students for the future green economy, a more coordinated effort will be necessary to align labor market needs with CTE programs nationwide. 

The Aspen Institute’s recent recommends developing new CTE opportunities that prepare students for jobs in the clean energy economy and creating curricula that supports knowledge of environmental sustainability across all career pathways. This could be done in a coordinated way by leveraging funds through the federal , which provides states with more than $1 billion annually to support CTE education. For example, electricians and HVAC technicians now need to understand new technology used for renewably powered homes and buildings. Other fields that are staples of current CTE programming are being transformed by efforts to address climate change, including buildings and architecture, transportation and logistics, and agriculture and natural resources. 

Perkins already requires school districts to conduct needs assessments of local labor markets. States could use that funding to support schools to make explicit connections with green employers to learn what skills students need and create opportunities for internships, apprenticeships and work-based learning experiences. 

Other funding streams should be developed to support green CTE, such as money to purchase training equipment like solar panels, wind turbine parts and greenhouses. Funding for research to understand how schools and districts can best align their educational offerings with rapidly accelerating changes in the labor market should also be a policy priority.

Developing a talent pipeline of students ready to enter the workforce as the clean energy transition accelerates would ensure a robust, skilled pool of workers prepared to meet the challenge of reducing carbon emissions at the scale and speed that science demands. Doing so would be a win for students, employers and the environment.  

Rachel Rosen is a senior associate and co-director of MDRC’s . 

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