To hear Sean Brazenor tell it, he did take the easy road. Presented the opportunity during his last year at Providence’s Central High School to work as an intern at a nearby high-technology company, Brazenor signed on without hesitation.
One of the top students in his class of 287 to graduate this Thursday night (June 17) at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium, Brazenor could certainly have shifted into cruise control and counted the days until summer.
Beyond Cash Donations: How New Forms of Giving Are Transforming Not-for-Profit Accounting
Evolving Funding Landscape for Not-for-Profits Not-for-profit organizations are being asked to do more with less,…
Learn More
Wouldn’t that have been the easier road to travel?
”My electronics teacher, Mr. (Paul) Williams, brought up the idea of the internship,” Brazenor said. “I was interested in the field. I knew that I wanted to be a technician. It’s best to get your foot in the door and get some experience.”
So Brazenor did just that. He began spending afternoons at the Providence-based Unicom, a company that installs computer networking systems and offers computer consulting.
Established as United Camera, Unicom changed its focus and found a niche in the business of providing computer networks for school systems across the country. That niche has since expanded into the business sector. The company has 230 employees, about 180 of whom work out of Rhode Island.
As an intern at Unicom, Brazenor went to work as a trouble shooting technician. It’s a busy job. Business owners don’t like the down time brought on by computers with problems. It can be costly. As a result, Unicom trouble shooters are made available 24 hours a day.
The fact that Brazenor excelled at the work did not come as a total surprise to Unicom officials. They had a hint of what some of these young students could do.
In fact, it was after the company completed a job at Central High School’s James T. Hanley Career and Technical Center, that several Unicom workers commented on the quality of the computer networks that had been installed at the school – by students. That led to conversations between Unicom and school officials, including Williams, who serves as the School-to-Education Coordinator for the Providence School Department.
”Our kids are capable of adding to the quality of a company in a short period of time,” Williams said.
A business-to-education partnership was born, the kind of partnership that business and education leaders would like to see more of in the coming years.
For Unicom, such a partnership represents a win-win situation. For the long-term, the company would help the high school train students, in essence building their own future workforce.
It is an approach that is expected to blossom, as the state later this month – in a joint effort on the part of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation and the Department of Education – will unveil an ambitious program to better train high school students in information technology.
There are also short-term benefits for a company like Unicom. Bring in an intern, and get a little help. Inexpensive help, at that. But in Brazenor, they got even more. Brazenor did something other than quality work to impress Unicom officials. He did something that you do not always expect from an intern.
”We noticed early on that Sean was different,” said Paula Turano, Unicom’s human resource manager. “He was here early. He stayed late. People started to see that this kid had a direction as to where he was going.”
When Brazenor wasn’t in school, he was at Unicom. That dedication paid off – literally.
Unicom has hired him. Brazenor now works about 20 hours a week. He will use the summer to work out a more detailed plan for his future.
He expects though, that his future will include owning his own business, and educating others.
Williams expects that Brazenor will reach those goals. He is a young person with a quality that can’t be taught in school – only capitalized upon.
”He had a good work ethic to begin with,” he said.
