Business leaders help college students launch their careers

NEW YORK (PIX11) — Ever want to meet and work for the bosses of Google, Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, or Bloomberg?

A non-profit is helping make it happen for thousands of college students in underserved communities.

The NY Jobs CEO Council is on a mission to give real-world work experience to college students.

21-year-old Lauren Mistretta took part in the program. Mistretta is from Howard Beach and is a senior at Queens College majoring in computer science.

She admits it’s a tough job market. Last year, Mistretta took part in a free program hosted by a non-profit called the NY Jobs CEO Council, which paired her with a paid 10-week internship at Tishman Speyer. Now she feels she is unstoppable.

The NY Jobs CEO Council was created four years ago by one of the most famous bankers in the world, Jamie Dimon.

Degan Mercado Leopold is the chief partnerships officer at the jobs council. She’s helped bring together dozens of the biggest CEOs, take them out of the boardroom, and donate their time and resources to help.

The mission is breaking down barriers to careers and opening the door to low-income students.

Rob Magliaro, from Google, knows the impact programs like this can have. A CUNY college alum himself, he now helps run a program called Grow with Google, which partnered with the job council last year.

Magalina says Lauren is just one of thousands, Google has helped to get the critical skills for high-paying jobs.

The goal of the NY Jobs CEO Council is to hire 100,000 low-income New Yorkers by 2030, including 25,000 graduates from CUNY. They are almost halfway there.

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