Career Development Program (CDP)
New School Participation Information
Since 1999, over 400 students from New York City public high schools have launched successful career paths through The Center for Arts Education’s Career Development Program (CDP). This highly competitive internship program matches high school students showing exceptional talent and interest in the arts with arts-related businesses and nonprofits in and around the City.
Purpose: CDP was created to provide career preparation for City youth, many of whom make their homes in underserved communities, through school-to-career training and exposure to opportunities in New York City’s $21.2 billion arts industry.
A World of Career Choices: CDP shows students and educators that careers in the arts include a vast range of professions, including not only singer or actor, but those “beyond the stage,” including architect, fashion designer, literary agent, graphic designer, art dealer, critic and publicist.
Our Curriculum: All CDP interns receive our published curriculum booklets. These booklets are designed to help students explore jobs in arts-related fields, identify their professional goals, create a career plan, polish their interview and presentation skills, write an effective resume and flourish in the workplace.
Our Partners: Since its creation, CDP has partnered with more than 90 worksites in order to serve hundreds of students from 26 high schools within the New York City public school system.
Post-Internship Employment: Every year, many CDP alumni are invited to continue their relationship with participating businesses beyond their internships in the form of part-time, paid employment.
College Preparation: The CDP experience helps open doors to higher education opportunities. CDP offers The Edward R. Wiener Arts Scholarship, which awards up to $4,000 to outstanding participants of the CDP who enroll in college and are interested in studying and pursuing a career in the arts.
Eligibility: The Spring 2011 Career Development Program is open to all New York City public high schools throughout the five boroughs, including those schools currently or formerly funded by a CAE grant outside of CDP.
Selection:
- Round One: Prospective schools must complete have completed an application (Check back for Spring 2012 application, available Fall 2011) and designate a School-Based Team (SBT) to be responsible for maintaining the program within the school. An interview will be scheduled for the school based team to meet CDP staff at the school. Current schools do not have to reapply.
- Round Two: After the School-Based Team interview, SBT members are invited to recruit at least fifteen (15) students to be considered for CDP’s intern selection process. Student candidates will participate in a group interview at the school. Finalists from this round will move on to the panel interviews, which take place at The Center for Arts Education’s offices.
- Round Three: During the final phase of the school and student selection process, candidates are asked to come to CAE for a second interview. Candidates must bring with them:
- 1) CDP student application and a recommendation form completed by a teacher or school administrator
- 2) academic records
- 3) attendance records
- This interview is a one-on-one dialogue between the candidate and a panel of industry professionals. Panel interviews take place during the school day at CAE’s offices. Notification of school selection will be sent out after the conclusion of the final round of student interviews.1
Boot Camp: Students selected for the internship participate in an intensive two-week course, which prepares them to explore careers in the arts, set personal goals, write professional resumes and cover letters, interview for jobs, and learn important workplace skills. Students meet with industry professionals and learn about different opportunities in the arts world. Boot Camp will take place at The Center for Arts Education (225 W. 34th Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues, Manhattan). CAE will pay for student transportation to Boot Camp. The Spring 2011 Boot Camp took place on:
- February 14-18, 2011 (Monday-Friday) 2:00-6:00pm
- February 19, 2011 (Saturday) 10:00am-5:00pm
- February 22-25, 2011 (Tuesday-Friday) 10:00am-5:00pm
The Internship: After students complete their training in Boot Camp, CDP staff place them in thirteen-week school-credited internships with participating NYC businesses and nonprofits. Interns work twelve hours a week at worksites, where they are assigned a supervisor who mentors them throughout the experience. All students must submit weekly timesheets and are paid a $600 stipend, which is parceled out over the course of the semester, by The Center for Arts Education.
School-Based Teams: Teachers, school counselors and administrators work as a team to inform students about CDP, identify prospective candidates and facilitate the program within the school.
Educator Interns: Educator Interns are nominated by members of the School-Based Team to serve as the primary point of contact between CAE, the school and the students. Educator Interns may participate free of charge in any CDP-related professional development offering and are eligible to receive school-based coaching and technical assistance to implement CDP’s career development curriculum in their classrooms.
Commencement: In June students take part in a formal culminating ceremony, where they receive a CDP certificate of completion and celebrate their achievements with family, friends, SBTs and worksite mentors.
What Participating Worksites Have to Say About CDP
“By the end of the term, the kids are doing work comparable to that of the junior-level paid employees.”
Nina Stern, Human Resources, Rockwell Group
“The opportunity that CDP offers students is immeasurable. CDP helps students realize that many people fulfill their dreams of working in the arts every single day and that, with hard work and dedication, they could do the same.”
Jeremy Adams, Gallery Director, CUE Art Foundation
Alexander Santiago-Jirau, Associate Director, Career Development Program
212-971-3300 x310 alex@caenyc.org
Rachel Flax, Program Assistant, Career Development Program
212-971-3300 x306 rachel@caenyc.org
1CDP offers resources and professional development to all selected schools; however, schools are not guaranteed student placements. The focus will be on the quality and readiness of each student to participate in the Career Development Program’s internships. If a school does not receive student placements one semester, CDP will work with the School-Based Team members to identify ways in which to strengthen student recruitment and preparedness.
