News & Events
Empire State Development Chairman Charles A. Gargano Paints Promising Jobs Picture at City Tech's 2004 Job Expo
Empire State Development Chairman Charles A. Gargano, left, with Dr. Jerome H. Blue, City Tech’s interim vice president for research, governmental and corporate relations, at taping of Gargano’s 2004 Job Expo keynote address.
City Tech’s 2004 Job Expo attracted twice the number of New York City recruiters and student and alumni job seekers over last year’s event.
Eight hundred students, faculty, alumni and community leaders fill Klitgord Center Auditorium to near capacity for keynote address by Empire State Development Chairman Charles A. Gargano.
Ambassador Charles A. Gargano, chairman of Empire State Development and vice chairman of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, brought encouraging economic news to more than 700 graduating students and alumni as well as some 100 community leaders at City Tech on March 25. A 1955 graduate of the College’s civil engineering technology program, Gargano delivered the keynote address opening its daylong 2004 Job Expo.
“A new and improved infrastructure downtown will bring greater economic opportunities to the city,” Gargano said in reference to the devastating ripple effect that the attack of September 11 had on the city’s economy and the now underway redevelopment of Ground Zero, creation of a World Trade Center memorial, and construction of a new world-class transit hub. “This will make Lower Manhattan a dynamic community and a magnet for visitors, tourists and, most importantly, new businesses.”
The ambassador added that “approximately 66 different companies have already returned to Lower Manhattan and seven companies have committed to relocate there. The result will be the creation of approximately 6,027 new jobs over the next five years.”
Gargano noted that Empire State Development already has helped retain and create more than 224,000 jobs in the area among corporations, both large and small. Moreover, a recent news broadcast suggested that construction at Ground Zero will provide long-term employment for upwards of 10,000 men and women in all areas of the building trades industry.
“But economic growth is not limited to just Lower Manhattan,” Gargano continued. “It’s occurring around the city and state. For example, the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle is an auspicious symbol of job growth and has the potential to become the new commercial and cultural nucleus of the city.”
The ambassador also pointed out that “through its five Centers of Excellence Programs, Empire State Development is collaborating with universities, the private sector and partners in government to make New York the axis of new, cutting-edge technologies statewide. These programs, located in Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, Syracuse and Long Island, specialize in nanoelectronics, bioinfomatics, photonics, environmental systems, wireless applications and information technology. For example, Tokyo Electronic is building a $300 million research and development facility that will create more than 300 new high tech jobs in Albany, and the world’s most advanced semiconductor facility -- a $2.5 billion IBM plant located in the Hudson Valley -- will create an additional 1,000 jobs.
Also in New York State, industries like health care and education continue to expand, and job opportunities for software engineers, management consultants, artists and designers are likewise expected to multiply both locally and nationwide over the next decade.”
Scheduled to appear in person, Ambassador Gargano spoke instead via video in a presentation recorded the previous afternoon. The day before, New York State’s chief economic czar had been asked by Governor George Pataki to participate in a major event on March 25 unveiling plans to build a new 75,000-seat stadium on Manhattan’s West Side and to nearly double the size of Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. This will spur an enormous increase in additional job opportunities for all New Yorkers, especially in the construction, hospitality, travel and tourism, sports and entertainment industries.
In introducing the video presentation, City Tech President Fred W. Beaufait announced that Ambassador Gargano had been named recipient of the President’s Award in recognition of his longtime support for his alma mater. In addition, Gargano -- along with Ground Zero master planner Daniel Libeskind, New York City Central Labor Council President Brian M. McLaughlin and Habitat for Humanity/New York City -- will be honored at the City Tech Foundation’s 2004 Best of New York Award Dinner at the Hilton New York on May 24. Steven R. Butler ’75, an associate with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP and a graduate of the college’s architectural technology program, will receive the Distinguished Alumni Award.
Following Ambassador Gargano’s remarks, alumni and graduating students moved to Klitgord Center Gymnasium for information sessions and preliminary interviews with 45 major New York City employers.
“More students and alumni showed up than we anticipated,” said Adrian Griffith, City Tech’s director of placement. “What’s more, twice the number of job recruiters participated over last year. One health care company told me that this was by far the best-organized job fair the firm had ever attended, and many companies said that they were very impressed with the overall quality and preparedness of the college’s job candidates. City Tech faculty and staff can be very proud of the job they are doing in preparing students to successfully compete in an increasingly demanding marketplace.”
Dr. Jerome H. Blue, the college’s interim vice president for research, governmental and corporate relations, likewise praised the college’s faculty, staff and Student Government Association, which co-sponsored the event, for all they had done to encourage maximum student participation in this year’s Job Expo. “Their efforts resulted in a great turnout and many employers told me that they were very pleased with the résumés they received and plan to work more closely with the college starting today on job opportunities, student internships and scholarships. This is excellent news for our students and alumni.”
Blue also reported that the New York Software Industry Association, the area’s leading 600-member trade association for software, information technology and web development companies and a participating recruiter in the Job Expo, is exploring with the college holding its annual summer internship open house at City Tech. The event attracts computer systems and computer science students from all City University of New York colleges for placement in the association’s member companies.
Among the City Tech alumni on hand for the 2004 Job Expo, two were especially pleased with the day’s activities. Marsha Thompson ’03, an electrical engineering technology graduate currently pursuing her bachelor’s degree in telecommunications technology, assisted the Job Expo as a volunteer employer liaison and so impressed recruiters from Time Warner Cable with the services she provided that they took her aside for an in-depth interview. The following day, she was formally interviewed at the company’s headquarters.
During his videotaped address, Ambassador Gargano introduced Darshanand Sitaram ‘03, a telecommunications technology graduate. While still a student, Sitaram attended an on-campus Port Authority of New York & New Jersey recruitment event. After six months of preliminary screenings and follow-up interviews, he got the good news that he had been selected to fill a telecommunications engineering slot in the Authority’s Power Signal & Communication Department.
“Competition for these jobs is fierce,” said Victor Madubuko, the architect of the Port Authority/City Tech on-campus recruitment program. “The Authority gets applications from colleges and universities all over the nation, and City Tech students are holding their own.”
Adrian Griffith says that next year’s Job Expo is going to be bigger and better than ever. “Moreover, we’re developing new job placement services for students and alumni, who already can post their résumés online, access hundreds of regularly updated job listings through the Placement Office website, attend résumé preparation workshops and avail themselves of one-on-one interview practice sessions. The website also enables them to directly link to other job listing resources nationwide, and enables participating employers to automatically post job listings and access student and alumni résumés. Soon we plan to make it possible for students participating in a special educational initiative to post portfolios containing examples of their coursework and for potential employers to review these portfolios.”
For Dr. Jerome H. Blue, the college’s responsibility to students doesn’t end on graduation day. “Alumni are the lifeblood of a college and its only permanent constituency. We will continue to do everything possible to connect both current students and those who have graduated with top employers nation-wide.”
04/23/04
Photos by Ken Brown, George Lowe and Alberto Vargas
