News

Record-High 94 Percent of NCHS Seniors To Enter Internship Program

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This spring, 289 New Canaan High School seniors will participate in an increasingly popular internship program that sends the students to work for the last month of the academic year at local and area businesses and organizations. The figure represents about 94 percent of the Class of 2018—marking a high point in the history of a program that launched with just a dozen NCHS seniors in 2011. Heather Bianco, coordinator of the Senior Internship Program, attributed the rise in popularity of ‘SIP’ its many benefits for students. “It just gives them experience out of school in a work environment that they don’t get in school and a lot of them have not had a job before, so it just gives a professional environment where they can get a real-life work experience,” Bianco, who is in her second full year of overseeing the program, told NewCanaanite.com. Here’s a look at its growth (article continues below):

 

Bianco took the reins from Sue Carroll, who as coordinator of the College and Career Center at NCHS had overseen the development and first several years of SIP with help from a volunteer steering committee.

Around Town

Local Nonprofits Receive Grant Allocations from Kiwanis Club of New Canaan

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Thanks to the Kiwanis Club of New Canaan, 24 local organizations on Friday received a boost to their funding. The international nonprofit, whose mission is “Serving the children of the world,” handed out checks to local organizations that address youth during its annual allocations breakfast. This year, the Kiwanis Club allocated a total of $9,620 which comes almost entirely from fundraising events—mainly the Zerbini Family Circus, which also benefits the New Canaan YMCA and will be held Saturday, June 18. Beth Jones, head of the Kiwanis Allocations Committee, said nonprofits seeking support undergo a multi-step process. “We start by looking at how much money we have to give away,” Jones said during the breakfast, held at the Y. “Once we get all the applications in, we sit down, they usually come to my house for lunch, and we go through all of the applications and eliminate the ones that do not fit our mission of helping children of the world.”

Once the Allocations Committee prioritizes which groups they want to allocate funds to, Jones and the rest of the committee, “presents it to the entire Kiwanis Club, we vote on it, and then we give the final list to the treasurer.”

“It is usually very amicable process,” Jones said.

News

‘Be Careful About What Is Out There About You’: Employers Talk Digital Presence, Workplace Etiquette with NCHS Interns-To-Be

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A director of executive recruiting at a Fortune 500 investment and insurance company told a room full of New Canaan High School seniors on Tuesday morning that she’s required to Google-search prospective employees prior to hiring them. The Hartford does formal background checks on everyone it hires, Stephanie Scoon said during a workshop for this year’s participants in the NCHS Senior Internship Program, “but believe me we do go on social media as recruiters.”

“We are required to do so, to see what that person’s online presence looks like, and it has prevented us from moving forward,” Scoon said during the workshop, held in the Wagner Room at the high school. “So please, just remember: Be very careful about what is out there about you.”

She addressed about 165 NCHS seniors participating in “SIP,” as the Senior Internship Program is known—an opt-in program overseen by Sue Carroll of the NCHS College & Career Center that sees students apply for and, in nearly all cases, find placement for the final month of their academic career here in an area business, working as an intern in lieu of attending class. David Dayya, a participant in the program this year, said he applied for SIP in order to expand in-class, “theoretical learning” on campus to “the real world.”

“Sort of apply a practical application to what we are learning in school and start finding out more about what it’s going to be like to have a job,” Dayya said during a break in the workshop. He’ll spend the final month of his NCHS career with Filling In The Blanks, a nonprofit organization launched in 2014 by two local women that helps ensure area students whose weekday meals are obtained through vouchers at a school cafeteria also have enough to eat when school’s out (weekends and summers).

Business

Pine Street Renaissance Expands Downtown New Canaan Footprint

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With a growing array of commercial storefronts expanding New Canaan’s downtown footprint, the Pine Street of 2015 is a far cry that of years’ past. Once known primarily for the location of the Post Office and a Grand Union supermarket, Pine Street has undergone a rebirth in recent years, evolving into a destination for established and new businesses alike. “I love our location, I don’t think it could be better,” Eugene Chun, owner of CT Sandwich Co., told NewCanaanite.com. “We’re close enough to Elm Street and all the action but we’re not caught in congestion—it makes things a lot easier.”

Retail businesses are not the only ones attracted to Pine Street. For BJ Flagg, principal at Nurenu Brand Marketing, a need for additional space was one of the reasons in her move from an office on Elm to one on Pine last month.

Around Town

VIDEO: Irish Singing, Dancing at Kiwanis Club of New Canaan’s Annual St. Patrick’s Day Dinner

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Kiwanis Club St Patricks Dinner and Social 2015
More than 100 residents enjoyed traditional Irish fare, dancing and music at a celebrated New Canaan tradition Sunday evening. The Kiwanis Club of New Canaan’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Dinner and Social featured dinner plates of corned beef and cabbage, potatoes and carrots, kids meals for the children, ice cream and a special sweet green concoction to mark the holiday at St. Aloysuis School. “The best part about it is the dancers,” said club President B.J. Flagg, who described her working role as “front of kitchen.”

Dancers (and a terrific singer) from Anam Kara Irish Dance School and Pender Keady Academy of Irish Dance entertained the crowd, which ranged from very small children to grandmas and grandpas.