Hear from honoree Darlene Marcano, Head of School, Dearborn STEM Academy. Dearborn STEM Academy has been and will continue to be an important and valued partner of Apprentice Learning. Darlene sat down with us to talk about what the partnership with Apprentice Learning means to them.
Apprentice Learning is celebrating 10 years of providing real-world work experiences for eighth graders. At such a critical period in a young person’s life, these are the opportunities that ignite growth and change and spark passions and interests. We work alongside community members, schools and business partners who support us in exposing young people to as many careers as possible in the hope of sparking an interest in careers that have the potential to shape their own future workforce.
As we celebrate our 10th anniversary, we are highlighting the incredible partners and champions we’ve had. Dearborn STEM Academy has been a longstanding partner of Apprentice Learning and under Darlene Marcano’s leadership, the partnership has thrived. Darlene shares her perspective on the partnership.
Tell me how you came to be connected with Apprentice Learning.
I’ve been at the Dearborn for four years. Initially I was co-principal, and, when I first started, I sat down to talk to our middle school guidance counselor about all the different partnerships that we had at the school. She highlighted Apprentice Learning as something that was really positive for our students. As a new person coming in, part of what I wanted to do was to figure out what was best for our students – what’s working, what’s not working. I met Letta Neely, head of programs at Apprentice Learning at the time, but now the incoming executive director. Letta initiated the process. She literally laid out the program from start to finish for me. I asked some questions and I wondered a lot about structure and organization like where are our kids going? You take our eighth graders out? Have you met those eighth graders? You’re taking them out of the building? She assured us that they had done this for years. And I said, okay, I have to see it happen.
That first year for me was during the 2019/2020 school year and I saw her take a set of students out of the building, and how proud those kids were. They learned a lot in the classroom. They worked on resumes, interviewing, and other skills that are called “soft skills” that are just as important as any academic skills that they could get. I saw them flourish and it was incredible. I couldn’t wait for the next iteration of kids to go through that exact same process. Unfortunately, the pandemic hit. And, as you know, the pandemic forced everyone to make some really difficult decisions fairly quickly. But Letta and the team came up with strategies of working with kids online. They did that for at least another year, but they were still able to provide kids with access, information, opportunities that weren’t necessarily things that we were doing in school. I know for me, it’s really important that kids work on those soft skills and have the opportunity to go out into their own community. A lot of kids hadn’t seen Boston before. I remember there was one student that asked, okay how do I leave Roxbury? They never had that experience before. I was moved by Letta’s passion and the results for our kids.
Do you have any stories or anecdotes to share about your partnership with Apprentice Learning?
There was a student who I would say had a challenging time in the classroom environment. They had an apprenticeship at either a garden or community farm, and I saw pictures of this student holding flowers and just smiling. The child brought the flowers into the school and gave them to the teachers. I thought to myself, this is the same kid that runs around the school? I just remember thinking that if they hadn’t had that opportunity, then we wouldn’t have been able to see that there is this other side to them because all we saw were the things that were happening in the halls and the difficulty that they were having through no fault of their own. They were just having a difficult time being in this environment for such a long time. I was astounded by it. I think Letta and the team do a great job of pulling out that information from our kids and really getting at some of their strengths and some of their areas of development. They do a great job of matching them up with businesses to really support them. Every time the students go out for their internships, we sit in the main office and we watch them walk out the door and they’ve got on their Apprentice Learning sweatshirts or t-shirts, and they’re so proud.
Do you have any recommendations for schools or school leaders who may want to partner with Apprentice Learning?
Honestly, I think the best thing to do is to always talk to other schools, and talk to students. The teachers are a major component in this because they’re very clear about the role that Apprentice Learning plays both at the school and for our kids. Talk to the families because our families are involved, too. We’ve done family nights in the past and it really does generate a lot of excitement. I think testimonials are the best. Reach out to me because I’d be happy to talk about it. I’ll say this. I don’t like wasting my time, and I don’t like wasting other people’s time. My job is to really assess whether or not a partnership is effective because I have to be the gatekeeper for the school. The fact that this partnership has been flourishing for so long shows that it is worthy of our students’ time and the community really has embraced it.
Any final thoughts?
I’ve seen so much growth in our kids, and I have always attributed that to the work that’s being done at home and to what we do at school as a community. But, I can never, ever dismiss the love and the care that Helen and all of the employees over at Apprentice Learning, especially Letta, put into our kids. Like I said, I came in not knowing what to expect. On a personal level, coming here from another school and transitioning in was difficult. It’s difficult for our kids transitioning from one grade level to the next or one school to the next. And for me, it was also difficult. Letta was a person who immediately said, “okay, let’s get you going. This is something you can be a part of. Here’s what we’re doing for the kids. Be a part of it.” I felt that she truly embraced me as well as the kids in the program.
Join us for our 10th anniversary celebration
Thursday, May 4th from 6:00-9:00 PM
Loring Greenough House, 12 South St, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
Interested in becoming a worksite partner? Click here to learn more.
