1% Absentee Rate
NYC Schools are Excited about C-Tech
C-Tech’s CTF presence in all five boroughs of New York City illustrates C-Tech’s growing role in urban education. Educators are increasingly supportive of C-Tech programs that enhance students’ employability and turn them on to the many opportunities available to them in the world of networking and telecommunications.
At Chelsea High School in Manhattan, the work of C-Tech Instructors Ray Ruiz and Jim Ford is having a positive impact in student popularity and parental support. Encouraged by Principal Tim Timberlake, the instructors recently invited C-Tech representatives to demonstrate the employment possibilities for Network Cabling Specialists.
Brenda Naliboff, Chelsea’s Assistant Principal for Career and Technical Education (CTE), writes us: “The demonstration and discussion of career opportunities in the cabling and communications fields motivated our students. … More importantly, as my teachers told you, the students’ enthusiasm for the C-Tech curriculum has been consistently high. An attendance/absence rate of 99% for C-Tech compared to an overall rate of 86% for other 10th grade students reflects this enthusiasm.”
Thomas A. Edison High School in Jamaica (Queens) utilizes all three tiers of C-TECH PREP as a stand-alone program and has used C-Tech equipment and curriculum as an enhancement to their existing program. In addition, Edison students have participated in a hands-on demonstration of ISVM equipment, and C-Tech Instructor Safraz Zainule is certified for both PREP and ISVM. “Saf” teaches both PREP and Cisco, and Edison’s John Rullan is a certified instructor for C-Tech as well.
“We want to use C-Tech as much as possible,” affirms Jack Flaherty, Assistant Principal for Building Trades and Information Technology. Plans are now under consideration by Flaherty and Principal Ilona Posner for Edison’s two-year Information Technology sequence to include PREP & ISVM along with other components.
Greg Sirico introduces students at Thomas Edison High School to C-Tech's latest program, Integrated Systems: Voice & Messaging.
Van Arsdale High School in Brooklyn is creating a new Career Center, and students who have completed the C-Tech program are assisting with the wiring and cabling, using this hands-on opportunity to enhance their resumes after they graduate. The students have retrofitted the entire school network system and they also maintain the emergency phone system. Under Instructors Axel Natal and Angel Texidor, C-Tech’s copper and fiber programs are integrated into multiple programs including Information Technology and Building Trades.
The Van Arsdale programs are focused on the full range of networking installation, testing and troubleshooting, and the hands-on opportunities enable students to “work independently and use valued skills,” according to Jeff Tilden, Assistant Principal for Building Trades and Information Technology. “C-Tech students show attendance and perseverance well beyond the school average.” For example, graduates Jose Betances and Mike Espinal are now immersed in the IT Program at SUNY Delphi.
Van Arsdale has played a leading role in getting New York State Department of Education approval of the C-Tech curriculum for CTE diploma endorsement. In addition to Axel Natal’s initial impetus in this direction, the efforts of Dr. Bruce Billig, Principal, Gail Birnbaum, Assistant Principal for CTE, and those of Esta Abrons, District Coordinator for CTE, and Regional Superintendent Reyes Irizarry were vital in making this valuable credential happen for Van Arsdale High School graduates who seek meaningful employment and quality paychecks.
All three of these schools are now considering the implementation of C-Tech’s Integrated Systems: Voice & Messaging (ISVM) program.
Queens Vocational and Technical High School, just getting started after its December inception, is the most recent NYC Certified Training Facility. Other New York City high schools are in varying stages of coming on board to adopt C-Tech programs as word spreads of the benefits of training for C-Tech Certification and employment as Network Cabling Specialists and Voice Communications Professionals.
