STUDENTS SELECTED FOR PILOT PROJECT WILL WORK WITH LOCAL BUSINESSES AND WITH SILICON VALLEY BUSINESS EXECUTIVES
This past summer Greenburgh Town Clerk Judith Beville, Town Attorney Tim Lewis, Commissioner of Planning Garrett Duquesne and I sponsored an exciting internship program for students. Among the speaker: Randi Zuckerberg, sister of Mark Zuckerberg. Between 2005 and 2011 Randi created and ran the social marketing programs for Facebook.
(see highlights of interview Randi and her father had with the student interns by clicking onto link below):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYWaeyW3UQU
During the interview with the student interns Randi invited the town to partner with the Zuckerberg Institute. Greenburgh will pair high school students with businesses who are facing closure because of the pandemic. This is a direct investment in the future of small businesses, future leaders. THE POST PANDEMIC TASK FORCE GREENBURGH, NY will begin in MARCH 2021 with up to 14 students during a three month initial period.
This program is an innovative approach to the development of sustainable practices and capacity building through entrepreneurship. The project will take a three-pronged approach: designating a target youth group in Greenburgh that are inspired to drive innovation within their own community. Secondly, building capacity amongst local businesses, and lastly developing a sustainable program that connects youth with local businesses to solve problems faced by the current COVID crisis.
Zuckerberg Institute will work with students to develop a plan that can help businesses survive in this difficult economy. The students will interact with successful business leaders within ZI's network in Silicon Valley, obtain their advice and suggestions and work with the Zuckerberg Institute - coming up with plans which could include assisting businesses with social media, and helping them come up with creative ideas. Mission: Introduce and expose high school students to entrepreneurial skills by addressing real world problems faced by businesses during the COVID-19 crisis – all with an emphasis on building skills in communications, leadership, problem solving and teamwork. Vision: A nationally recognized program in which students are actively engaged in projects, small businesses receive much needed support, all designed to increase innovation within communities and address real-world challenges.
Goal: Students take ownership in specific projects as they identify and /or address a need in the community, collaborate to generate solutions, develop the solutions, interact with community leaders and prepare presentations on the outcomes of their projects. The town of Greenburgh has been hit hard with COVID-19 problems: multiple retail closures in addition to many businesses suffering significant financial, job losses and permanent lost customers due to the acceleration of online retailing. Many of our non essential businesses lost significant revenue and customers due to lengthy shut downs due to COVID-19 earlier this year.
The first pilot project will take place in March. Students interested in applying should e mail pfeiner@greenburghny.com explaining why they would be interested in participating in the program. We hope to choose the students in January, 2021 but students should apply now. We hope that Greenburgh students from different school districts and economic backgrounds will successfully work together.
PAUL FEINER
Greenburgh Town Supervisor
RANDI ZUCKERBERG (Chairwoman, CEO of Zuckerberg Media) began her career at Ogilvy & Mather before joining a once tiny Internet startup named “The Facebook” where she created and ran the social media pioneer's marketing programs from 2005-2011. As one of the company’s earliest hires, Randi helped grow Facebook into the global powerhouse that it is today, helping to invent social marketing in the process, and pioneering “Facebook Live with Randi Zuckerberg,” the first of its kind social-focused talk show that has evolved into the live streaming feature now living on a billion screens around the world. ZUCKERBERG MEDIA is changing the face of innovation, one new technology, startup, and production at a time. Founded by bestselling author, Emmy Award-winning producer, and serial entrepreneur Randi Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg Media works with Fortune 500 companies and startups alike to bring cutting-edge experiences in media and technology to kids and families across the globe. Zuckerberg’s debut children's picture book Dot., which features a tech-savvy eight year old girl, became a hit animated series with 52 episodes on Universal Kids, Kids CBC, and Hulu. Having earned top ratings from audiences and critics alike and having won the Kidscreen Award for Best New Preschool Series of 2016, Dot. is now enjoyed in more than thirty markets around the world. After experiencing demand for live, interactive entertainment, Zuckerberg Media incubated Sue’s Tech Kitchen, a tech-infused dining experience for modern kids and families. A taste of Sue’s Tech Kitchen is currently enjoying its national tour while STK execs plan the franchise’s first permanent locations.