Public Service Innovators -- What's Next and the City: Heather O'Neill, Cristina Rueda, and Erica Wax (MPP '97)

If you're a fan of a certain popular cable TV show, you may think you know what young career women in New York City talk about when they get together. But in the case of three Kennedy School alumnae, think again.

When Heather O'Neill, Cristina Rueda, and Erica Wax (all MPP '97) ended up in the Big Apple after graduating from the Kennedy School, talk turned to what they might give back to the City. A mentoring program for high school girls at risk, the Girls Career Workshop, grew from their creative brainstorming.

Wax, who works for an investment bank, says, "We wanted to apply a lot of the things we learned in practical, real-world ways, like developing a viable non-profit organization and working on issues with a group of people at risk."

Wax and Rueda, a business developer, took on the challenge of designing their own workshop format at Satellite Academy, an alternative public high school with sites in Queens and mid-town Manhattan. O'Neill, a director of public affairs for a pharmaceutical company, and Rachel Levine, an alumna of Harvard Divinity School, soon added their talents to the collaboration.

Now in its third year, Girls Career Workshop (GCW) strikes a balance between breadth and depth. One-on-one mentoring provides limited exposure to career options, while panel presentations lack personal interaction, says Wax. GCW is structured so that students get both broad exposure and a personal connection through small group meetings with presenters.

GCW participants receive course credit and learn practical skills - like how to dress for a job interview - while meeting women who are information technologists, FBI agents, and footwear designers. "The girls' enthusiasm is what keeps us motivated," says O'Neill. "They're getting excited about moving forward, going to college, and choosing careers."

GCW is also "aspirational and practical" says Wax. "We're working with at-risk students: 80% of them qualify for the free lunch program. While about 60% of these girls will go on to tech programs and college, we recognize not everyone will." So the program features diverse careers within a field or industry. The health services workshop, for example, includes a nutritionist, an emergency medical technician, and a childbirth assistant.

"I applied to colleges and I'm going to LaGuardia for the medical field, the EMT courses," one student wrote in a letter after participating in the program. "I got my sister and four of my friends to go to the Girls Career Workshop because it is a great experience."

In 2003, GCW was recognized as an "outstanding private public partnership" by the New York City School-to-Work Alliance. The founders of this successful private-public collaboration hope the program can serve as a prototype for other cities.

"At the beginning we ask the girls what jobs they're interested in," says Rueda. "Six months later we ask them again, and generally we see a very different take not only on what they want to do, but what they feel they can do."

Photo: courtesy of the Girls Career Workshop
L-R: Heather O'Neill, Erica Wax, and Cristina Rueda