NYIT students in the Society of Human Resource Professionals (SHRM) Chapter and faculty within the Human Resource department participated in the HempsteadWorks/NYIT Workshop Project. The SHRM Chapter developed and delivered these workshops between November and January of this year.

The NYIT SHRM Chapter worked on a project with two agencies that provide vocational services to at-risk low-income young adults living in Nassau County, NY: 1) Nassau BOCES and 2) Hempstead EAC. The overall focus of the project was to provide work-readiness training to assist individuals who face a variety of serious barriers to employment (including homelessness, disabilities, and involvement with the justice system). The specific training goals were to develop participants’ skills on networking, building resumes, and interviewing effectively, and to increase their knowledge of basic employee relations issues. The expected outcomes for the project were to increase the confidence of the participants, and to increase their ability to obtain desired employment and remain employed.

Six workshops were led by members of the Chapter—three workshops for each agency (networking and interviewing were covered in separate workshops, and resume building/employee relations were combined in a third workshop). The workshops included interactive discussions, one-on-one counseling, small group worksheets, and activities as well as lectures. Materials and workshop curricula were designed collaboratively by a team of NYIT SHRM chapter members who volunteered for the project. The seven students who worked on this project are Melissa Shaver (the President of the NYIT SHRM Chapter, who initiated and coordinated the project), Anne Alvarado, Dhwani Amin, Kristen Shaefer, Savannah Clarke, Karen Paul, and Mitali Baxi. All of the students are currently enrolled in the M.S. in Human Resource Management and Labor Relations program within the School of Management. Throughout the entire project, Dr. Richard Dibble, Dr. Maya Kroumova, Professor William Ninehan, and Dr. Rakesh Mittal provided advice and guidance to the students.

Overall, the workshops benefitted both the participants and the chapter. Participants gained knowledge of what HR professionals consider when searching for a candidate, honed their interview skills, and gained confidence in their ability to find and keep a job. The NYIT students further developed their professional competencies in leadership, consultation, critical evaluation, relationship management and communications, which are essential to human resource managers.

Recently, Ana-Maria Hurtado, the Commissioner/ Workforce Development Board Director for the Town of Hempstead, wrote a letter to Dr. Richard Dibble thanking him and the students for their participation in this project. In the letter, she states, “Not only did the students develop meaningful and helpful curricula, they delivered them with outstanding success, based upon the evaluation of our youth program service provider, EAC Network and Nassau BOCES, and also, based upon the feedback of our participants. In total six workshops… The youth benefited from the experience of interacting with current and future human resource professionals. Moreover, our entire workforce developments system benefited because we achieved our goal, not only of maintaining a high standard of service, but indeed, improving it.”

The NYIT SHRM Student chapter is an affiliate of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Currently, our Chapter has 24 student members and is led by officers who are elected by their fellow students. The Chapter manages a number of activities and events each year, including for 2016-2017: monthly meetings for all HR students, coordinating professional enrichment events, a two hour HR Career Forum with NYC-SHRM. Additionally, SHRM allows members to attend external professional development events, publishes a newsletter for HR students, makes offsite bi-lingual presentations to high school students about the HR profession, and runs fundraising/social events (bowling fundraiser, holiday parties, and a Spring Dessert Party). It also projects to benefit the community through events, such as the DKMS bone marrow drive, the HempsteadWorks Project, and participation in the Annual SHRM Case Competition. The Chapter promotes various SHRM programs of interest to students including SHRM Certification. The Chapter was founded in 2000 by Dr Richard Dibble, and since then has won 11 Superior Chapter Merit Awards and two Outstanding Merit Awards. Professor Ninehan is the Chapter’s Advisor.