Networking Night: Business Leaders and School Teachers Get Together to Discuss Future Partnerships

SARATOGA SPRINGS — On Tuesday, November 15, the Saratoga Springs City School District hosted their first official Networking Night to bring educators and business leaders together to discuss future partnerships. During this event, several teachers and students gave mini presentations on what they are currently working on in their classrooms and how they envision partnering with local businesses to help enhance the “real-world” relevance of their course material. Teachers are always looking for opportunities to collaborate with professionals in our community, just like local businesses are always looking to bridge the communication and skills gap that exists between education and industry. However, it is challenging for both sides to connect with each other. An event such as Saratoga’s Networking Night gets the right people in the room together in order to focus on solving these issues. Getting the right people in the room is arguably the most important step in this whole process. I personally met with each invited business leader and teacher to make sure that they had similar beliefs about the advantages of collaboration, and saw the long-term benefits that a partnership could have on the quality of instruction for students. When I graduated from college, I went directly into education as a high school science teacher. While I was proficient in preparing students for the end-of-year assessments, I had very little “real-world” experience to help make the course content relevant for my students. If I would have had the opportunity to participate in a networking event like this, I’m sure it would have greatly improved my knowledge of STEM careers and how to improve student engagement in the classroom. Over twenty local business leaders attended the event, held at Saratoga High School’s new Project Based Learning facility. Representatives from companies such as GE, Siemens, Sematech, 1st Playable Productions, Garnet River, and Mosaic Associates, joined the Saratoga Economic Development Corporation and Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner in taking the first steps towards a collaborative partnership with the school district. Now that the business cards and innovative ideas have been exchanged, the next steps are for the teachers and business leaders to continue the conversations to find out what type of partnership works best for both sides. While some business were initially only looking to make a classroom visit, others were prepared to offer potential internships to some of our senior-class students. Regardless of level of the partnership, the underlying theme is the same – the educational experience is about improving the connection between course-content and the real world for the students. If you would like more information on how you can participate in an upcoming networking night or would like to know more about STEM education at Saratoga Springs, please contact me, Dr. Joseph Greco, K-12 Director of Math, Science and Technology Integration at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..