Families, friends, and members of the Pratt community recently gathered in the Student Union to celebrate this year’s graduating Project SEARCH interns. The six New York City high school students with disabilities have worked at Pratt in a variety of capacities since last fall, gaining hands-on training and workplace skills that will help prepare them for success and land rewarding jobs.
Project SEARCH aims to secure competitive employment for people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities through more than 700 partnerships worldwide. The Pratt program, which first began in November 2021, is sponsored locally by AHRC New York City and the NYC Department of Education (DOE). To date, 27 interns have participated at Pratt, with 10 more arriving next fall.
“This is a culmination of a year-long academic journey for our six graduates, and it doesn’t happen by itself,” said Assistant Vice President of Human Resources Steven Riccobono at the graduation. “Thanks to the team here, the students really learned the skills from Pratt’s various departments that will help them better understand the jobs they would like to do.”
In departments and areas including AVI/Chartwells (cafeteria/dining), Facilities, Finance, Groundskeeping, Instructional Technologies, Receiving, the Registrar’s Office, and the School of Design, interns have worked with dedicated instructors on skills such as scanning, filing, data entry, cleaning, and groundskeeping.
This year’s class of students received awards for completing the rigorous program and each delivered a speech describing what they learned. Pratt’s Project SEARCH graduates have gone on to secure employment at New York City businesses, as well as public agencies such as the NYC Parks Department.
In celebration of the accomplishments of these young members of the Pratt community, here is a look at some of the interns at work on campus over the past year.
