Destiny 2022 Q3

 Seven Hills ASPiRE!

Workforce Readiness  2021-22 Basil A. Paterson

Memorial Scholarship Ashley Flores

 YearUp

What A Difference A Year Makes  Molloy University’s

Teaching Green Institutes What did you do this summer?

 Brooklyn Public Library

Interns Visit National Grid’s Sustainability Hub

National Grid Foundation

N AT I O N A L G R I D F O U N D AT I O N — D E S T I N Y X X Q 3 2 0 2 2

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 Editor/Christine Berardi  Contributing Writer/Deborah Drew  Creative Director/Pamela Focá  Contributor/Kelly Rubbins  Executive Director/Edward H. White Jr. Destiny is a quarterly publication created to share and promote the accomplishments of the organizations and programs National Grid Foundation supports.

National Grid Foundation

Workforce Development

ASPiRE!

Workforce Readiness

By Deborah Drew

L

ast year, in its third year of support from the Foundation, the Seven Hills ASPiRE! Workforce Readiness and Employment program provided internships in café management, community gardening, facilities maintenance, landscaping, and hospitality for 47 individuals through its Seven Hill’s communitybased employment site at Stearns Tavern, Worcester, MA. An additional 17 program participants also engaged in internships, exceeding the originally projected enrollment. ASPiRE! provides participants who have intellectual and developmental disabilities and autism a pathway to employment by helping them hone social and job skills, and remain engaged in their efforts to gain employment in their community. Many program participants have, in fact, transitioned to new, competitive employment in the community, including a new groupsupported partner-employer organization at Hutchinson Aerospace and Industry, launched in July 2022. ❧

 Photo left & cover: Liz H. a participant of the paid internship opportunities at Stearns because of the funding received from National Grid Foundation.

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National Grid Foundation

Basil A. Paterson Memorial Scholarship Basil A. Paterson was a remarkable man whose talents benefited many people during his life and even continue today. After graduating from St. John’s University and St. John’s School of Law, he became a groundbreaking labor and employment lawyer, New York State Senator and Secretary of State of New York. He was a board member and chairman of the National Grid Foundation for 16 years.

Basil A. Paterson was a National Grid Foundation board member and chairman for 16 years.

After his death in 2014, the Foundation created the Basil A. Paterson Memorial Scholarship so today’s law students may have opportunities for future success. The $100,000 scholarship provides partial scholarships to St. John’s Law students.

Students must be in good academic standing with grade point average (GPA) higher than 2.5 and have an interest in labor and employment law demonstrated by coursework or participation in symposium or authoring a paper on a current labor law topic. ❧

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National Grid Foundation

Ashley Flores

is the recipient of the 2021-22 Basil A. Paterson Memorial Scholarship

By Christine Berardi

Ashley Flores is going into her third year of law school and is expected to graduate in May 2023. Ashley has seen her hard work pay off especially as she began her law education during the on-going pandemic. At the end of her first year, she was second in her class and accepted a position as staff member on the St. John’s Law Review.

Last summer, she worked for Federal District Court Judge for the Eastern District of New York, Judge Joanna Seybert. During the semester, she worked for The Child Advocacy Clinic on campus. This summer, Ashley worked as a clerk at Jackson Lewis, P.C., a labor and employment firm. She hopes to pursue a career in Employment Relations Law. In a letter to National Grid Foundation, Ashley said, “I cannot emphasize how impactful the financial support has been for me. My parents never fathomed that I would be given the opportunity to pursue a legal career, let alone with a scholarship to fund it. Without a scholarship, I would not be able to pursue my interests in law school with the security that I

currently have. Your contribution to my education has truly been a gift and I am eternally grateful.” ❧

“... Without a scholarship, I would not be able to pursue my interests in law school with the security that I currently have. Your contribution to my education has truly been a gift and I am eternally grateful.”

— Ashley Flores

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National Grid Foundation

What A Difference A Year Makes

By Deborah Drew

This summer the team at Year Up proudly graduated 113 program participants and set them on a path to achieve their educational and career expectations.

Just a year ago, these students began with Year Up full of promise and expectations, eager to embark on a yearlong journey towards economic justice. During that time — operating at its co-located, Roxbury Community College, Boston, and a newly-launched accelerated model,“Be Mass Competitive” — they have learned and strengthened skills.

The Year Up model is simple: Combine career training, educational stipends, professional internships, and college credits, with youth and position them to secure middle-skill roles that pay a living wage, obtain relevant degrees and certifications, and continue their education.

Under its four-year partnership with Year Up, the National Grid Foundation has supported its mission to close the “opportunity divide” by providing

Young adults from underserved neighborhoods who have the motivation to succeed, but lack access to resources that will enable them to do so, and Fortune 1000 companies who lack access to a viable pool of motivated and diverse talent team up under a high support, high expectation model that combines marketable job skills, stipends, internships, and college credits.

Now it’s time for this graduating class to apply their ability to communicate, collaborate, organize, and adapt as they reach their career and educational aspirations. See what two of Year Up’s 2022 gradated have to say. ❧

A m I guaranteed a full-

A m I guaranteed an

 How much money can I

80%

100%

34%

time job after I graduate?

of our graduates are employed within 4-months of graduation.

We have a dedicated team that is committed to helping you get a job after graduation.

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disadvantaged young adults with the skills, experience, and support that will empower them to reach their potential through professional careers and higher education.

internship?

of students that meet expectations during the learning and development phase are placed in internships. We set very clear expectations and coach you every step of the way to ensure you always know where you stand.

make after Year Up?

Salaries vary, but a recent study found that our participants earn more, on average, than their peers who don’t join Year Up. We have a dedicated team that is committed to helping you with job placement after graduation.

National Grid Foundation

Workforce Development

Meet the Summer 2022 Graduation Speakers

Gia Guzman

Marhama Ghari

Year Up Intern at Wayfair Graduate Host

Year Up Intern at Harvard University Graduate Keynote

I

joined Year Up to find the right path for my professional career. Year Up helped me succeed in many ways like my professional growth, networking and learning more about important life skills. Year Up core values guided me to reach my best potential, I have grown so much during my time at Year Up. I feel more confident about my work and taking the responsibilities like a leader at work. During my Year Up journey, I had the opportunity to engage with people from different backgrounds and different countries and it amazes me how diverse our Year Up community is and how others appreciate your own identity. ❧

I

joined Year Up to keep learning and developing my skills when finishing college in the pandemic felt like an impossible endeavor. Since being here, my confidence in my abilities to pick up new skills, adapt, network, and contribute positively to a team effort has grown immensely.

I’m confident not only that I can (and will) complete my bachelor’s degree, but that I can (and will) work as a full-time professional to support myself while I do it. ❧

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National Grid Foundation

Molloy University’s Teaching Green Institutes Bring Education Full Circle

By Christine Berardi

What did you do this summer?

Nearly 40 Long Island middle and high school teachers traded fun in the sun to participate in Molloy University’s Teaching Green Institutes.

At the Fire Island Ranger Station, Eric Powers, biologist, teacher and outdoors-man, leads the Teaching Green Institute for High School Teachers and educates the group on shells, fish bones vs mammal bones vs bird bones, horseshoe crabs, and how to use scientific equipment.

While learning about horseshoe crabs, high school teachers unfortunately found a few dead horseshoe crabs at the shoreline. Although a sad event, it was turned into an impromptu lesson about the amazing design of the horseshoe crab which has existed for 500 million years. The long tail is an emergency flip over device to protect them when knocked over by waves.

Teachers also learned the correct way to pick one up -- with both hands on its sides not by its tail.

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In July, educators became the students learning about the environment and STEM-related subjects. Participants conducted environmental science lab activities while focusing on sustainability and exploring and evaluating environmental problems to formulate possible preventative measures/solutions.

They learned about wind and solar power using kites and solar-powered cars, the local flora, fauna, and marine life examining horseshoe crabs and other marine life, bird nests and beach grass, and observing Piping Plover nests and frogs among other things.

The teachers will bring the information from the summer workshops to their classrooms and share with their students this fall. It’s an educational win-win! ❧

National Grid Foundation

 This year as part of the curriculum taught by Paul Zaratin, a Long Island middle school science teacher, participants traveled to the Jones Beach Energy and Nature Center. Located on the West End of Jones Beach State Park, the state-ofthe-art facility explores energy consumption and how it shapes the natural environment.

 High school teachers gather outside the Otis Pike Fire Island High Dune Wilderness and Visitor Center. They learned about local whales and how they feed using baleen, a filter feeding system inside the whale’s mouth.

The group then viewed the Humpback Whale skull, which was large enough to fit almost half the group.  Walking on the beach, participants conducted a biodiversity study. Teachers also saw 15 Piping Plover chicks running along the beach. Piping Plovers are an endangered species. Volunteers were out monitoring the safety of the birds.

Photos: Molloy University

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National Grid Foundation

Brooklyn Public Library students visit National Grid’s Sustainability Hub.

Students learn the history of National Grid.

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National Grid Foundation

Brooklyn Public Library Interns Visit National Grid’s Sustainability Hub National Grid’s Sustainability Hub is a great place for learning as 15 interns from the Brooklyn Public Library found out this summer.

In July, the teens who participate in the Library’s Today’s Teens, Tomorrow’s Techies program visited the Sustainability Hub located at National Grid’s Brooklyn offices. The teens volunteer at the Library and receive hands-on experience with technology, customer service and librarian-ship. The students also learn interviewing skills and web development.

Opening in 2019 and operated by a National Grid manager and four interns, the Sustainability Hub includes multiple different appliances that increase energy efficiency, as well as informational technologies that promote and teach the use of clean energy. The Library students learned about National Grid’s history, career opportunities and sustainability efforts.

Connecting the Library interns and National Grid is National Grid Foundation which is a long-time supporter of Brooklyn Public Library’s Summer Reading Program. ❧

Synergy Point Syn·er·gy: the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects.

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National Grid Foundation “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

— Winston Churchill, former UK Prime Minister

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Photo: Christine Berardi