Shaping the Talent Pipeline Beyond High School — NAF Alumni Intern with NAFTrack partner, Skadden

While graduation marks the official end of high school, NAF continues to be a part of students’ lives for years afterward — providing opportunities through an alumnus’ college years, internship placements, and career. NYC natives, Stanley Butt and Jailene Villarroel, spent the summer of 2016 interning at the Skadden offices in Times Square. A corporate and NAFTrack Certified Hiring partner, Skadden, has enriched the experience of these college sophomores through their summer placements.

Before stepping into the Skadden offices this summer, both students were able to garner the skills they had gained from their academy experience — as well as from work-based learning opportunities such as mock interviews, career fairs, and mentorship programs — to help prepare for this opportunity. Additionally, with each possessing prior internship experience with NAF partners, Moody’s Corporation and KPMG – all while they were still in high school – both Stanley and Jailene were able to quickly thrive in their new corporate setting. Their experience this summer stemmed far beyond their daily tasks, and exposed the students to the various career paths within the legal field, and provided opportunities for them to network with lawyers in the firm, and hear about their career journeys. Both enthusiasts of global travel and inspired by new ideas gathered from their internship environment, Jailene and Stanley have become intrigued by the challenges of law school and are looking forward to considering options within the industry post-graduation.

An alumna of the Susan E. Wagner High School Academy of Finance, Jailene, is majoring in International Management and Global Marketing at Pace University. She spent her summer interning with the planning and analysis department at Skadden and helped to create budgets as well as learn about allocation principles and checking documents for accuracy. Jailene has dreams of possibly working in the fashion industry one day and also has interned with a jewelry company where she managed social media, created content, promoted products, and assisted with inventory and sales.

“It’s been so exciting to learn many new things that help me think about what I can do with my major,” said Jailene. “I’ve learned how to work responsibly when it comes to sensitive information and have improved my time management skills. I am grateful to take away the many valuable lessons that I’ve learned in professionalism and networking as I think about my career choices.”

Stanley graduated from the High School of Economics and Finance in 2015 and has begun his sophomore year at CUNY- Baruch College where he intends to major in accounting. During his time with Skadden, Stanley worked with a team of about eight professionals in the computer programming department. A few memories that stand out for him include meeting the different departments and hearing Susan Butler Plum, founding director of the Skadden Fellowship Foundation, speak about how students can get involved.

“NAF helped me to thrive in an office setting and taught me how to network and build relationships with key leaders in my field,” said Stanley. “This summer, I worked on computer programming and greatly enjoyed talking about tech with my supervisor and team here at Skadden.”

He continued, “My supervisor Terence Scally, is very knowledgeable and travels all over the world – he brings a lot to the table in terms of challenging me to think differently about solving problems as well as considering all opportunities that the tech world has to offer.”

These future leaders are well on their way to college and career success, as a direct result of their continued connection to their NAF academy experience. By providing the tools, resources, and mentors to help students Be Future Ready, the work of NAF and their corporate partners such as Skadden are game changers for our nation’s future workforce. When the business and education sectors work together and continue to invest in the talent pipeline for years to come, we all succeed.