STC's Fall Semester Highlights

Fall 2025 was a semester of growth, exciting events, and great, hands-on work with students for Schools That Can. As 2025 comes to a close, we're reflecting on some highlights from each of our regions. We'll see you in 2026 for even more great work ahead!

STC NYC Highlights

The first-ever STC Symposium: Exploring AI

On November 18th, Schools That Can was joined by over 70 students from 7 schools across New York City for the first-ever Students That Connect Symposium: Exploring AI hosted at SUNY Global Center. Students heard from Neha Shukla, who joined the event as a keynote speaker, engaged in a debate where they used their communication, research, and collaboration skills, and built solutions-focused apps with Playlab AI. Read the event recap here, and more takeaways on the student experience here. 

The launch of the Students That Can newsletter

STC NYC launched its first-ever student-focused newsletter, the Students That Can Opportunities Blast. This resource features internships, professional development opportunities, advisory boards, and much more for students to apply for, curated by STC NYC’s Director of Work-Based Learning Opportunities, Jennifer Cortez. It’s a powerful way for students to build their own education to employment pathways, and further their skills, passions, and interests—all right in their inboxes.

The start of STC NYC’s middle school initiative 

8th grade students at VOICE Charter School have been learning a special edition of our Defining Your Path curriculum to help determine which high schools they can apply to in NYC based on their interests, skills, passions, and current career plans. This pilot, led by STC NYC Executive Director Greisy Genao, has been exciting: Students are making intentional, informed choices about their futures, and we look forward to seeing how their paths unfold!

STC Newark Highlights

This fall, Schools That Can Newark delivered Unit 5 across three high schools—Technology High School, Newark Vocational High School, and Weequahic High School—serving students in biomedical, allied health, graphic design, culinary, and hospitality academies.

A highlight of the unit was our virtual mock interviews, where industry volunteers partnered with us to give students a realistic experience of what an initial screening interview looks like in today’s labor market. For many students, this was their first exposure to professional interview expectations, feedback, and pacing, which made the experience especially impactful.

We’re excited by the engagement we saw from both students and volunteers and are looking forward to expanding this work with additional high schools over the winter.

STC Pittsburgh Highlights

Presenting at the Global Impact Forum, hosted by Penn StateSTC Pittsburgh Executive Director Daniel Dzodin presented at the Global Impact Forum. Daniel spoke about ways that emerging technologies like AI provide us opportunities to teach students about both metacognition and moral courage. We were honored to have STC Pittsburgh’s work amplified in this space!

Being part of the Richard King Mellon Foundation’s Adolescence Resilience learning cohort

STC Pittsburgh is among the proud recipients of a grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation focused on developing programming that intentionally builds resiliency within our standard programming. As part of this work, we’ve been included in an indispensable learning cohort, where we’re grateful to learn, collaborate, share ideas, and develop best practices to better meet the social and emotional needs of youth, as well as preparing them for the professional challenges they will face in their early working lives.

Participating in Mock Interviews at South Fayette High School

Two members of the STC Pittsburgh team participated in mock interviews held by the staff at South Fayette High School. We love hosting our own mock interviews, so it’s a joy to be able to participate as a guest, and to meet so many interesting young people from just outside of the city! We love getting to meet students from all over Western PA, and our annual visit to South Fayette is no exception. 

Presenting at the Woodland Hills High School Board Meeting

STC Pittsburgh is grateful for the opportunity to present at the November Woodland Hills High School board meeting. Executive Director Daniel Dzodin and Lead Consultant Dr. Carol Wooten discussed the implementation of adolescent resilience programming, as well as an opportunity to discuss a deeper collaboration next year through facilitation of STC’s Financial Literacy curriculum to meet the upcoming Future Ready PA standards. 

Students, schools, and volunteers coming together

STC Pittsburgh serves students across 31 zip codes in the area, which wouldn’t be possible without our school and community partners. Alongside Executive Director Daniel, STC Pittsburgh’s brilliant program facilitators, Corinne Shetter and Nsai Temko, work directly with young people as they identify a sense of purpose through soft skills like communication, and have space to think about what they care about and what the world needs. A success story is always helping students identify their own sense of self.