Columbia's School of Professional Studies continues to collaborate with the Harlem Children's Zone for inspiring professional panels featuring SPS alumni and faculty.
For the 2017 SPS Professional Workshop Series with Harlem Children’s Zone, SPS has a series Professional of Color career panels for HCZ Elite Scholars. For January's edition, Jesse Scinto, the Associate Director for Curriculum Development for the M.S. in Strategic Communication Programs, led the Elite Scholars Workshop on "The Influential Speaker: Essential Skills for Class and Career."
Students from HCZ stood in front of their peers to give two minute, persuasive presentations on topics of their choosing. Scinto, an alumnus of the M.S. in Strategic Communications program himself, encouraged the students to give critical feedback, and provided strategies to strengthen delivery and reduce speaking anxiety. After the workshop, the students remarked that they were much less intimidated by public speaking, and have a plan for how they will prepare for upcoming presentations.