Hartford Public Schools -

On January 28, a group of Weaver High School students who participate in the Finance and Insurance Pathway, supported by community partner ReadyCT, presented powerful business case scenarios about the betterment of Hartford, CT to a panel of community members. The panel included professionals for CT Community College, Travelers, the IAB, and ReadyCT.

Pamela Ennis, the Career Pathway Program Manager for Finance and Insurance at Weaver states, "A heartfelt thank you to all who participated yesterday in Weaver's Business Case Competition, whether as a judge, coach, facilitator, our Capital representatives, or you supported the students by watching presentations, networking, and engaging them with questions.  It was a great morning and we are so pleased to provide the students with this important learning experience where they must navigate evaluating a case in a short time-frame, team dynamics, presenting, and answering questions on the spot.  We are always impressed with how the students handle this exercise and this group did not disappoint - we are SO proud of them."

The names of the students presenters and their project titles were:

Yellow Group - Parkvolution - Milady, Jamal, and Kikonde
Red Group - The Legacy - Transforming Neighborhoods Cheryl, Shantana, and Tajean
Purple Group - Royalty Housing - Kevina, Vanity, Tasheka
Blue Group - Savannah, Javon, Joanna, and Krishmar

The winning groups were:

1st Prize - Red Group
2nd Prize - Yellow Group

The panel members and the company/organization names on the panel included:

Coaches: Enzo Daci and Kishawn Kunvar from Travelers; Brett Ennis and Kiley Sharpe from Pratt & Whitney
Judges: Michelle White, Linda Lopez, and Carl Guerierre - all from Capital Community College
The CT Community College - Capital Representatives: Fernando Figeroua, Randall Ward, and Patrick Dawes, Dean of Faculty

Special guest, Tara N. Spain, Vice President of the Travelers Foundation reflects, "What an incredible event. The students were outstanding and I’m in awe of their passion for transforming the communities around them. They creatively addressed issues in short amount of time with well thought-out solutions. I am also inspired by their willingness to share their stories and advocate for themselves. Kudos to the students, coaches, Rachel Bader, John Thomas, the Capital Team, IAB members and ReadyCT! Special thanks to you and Sam for all that you continue to do to support our students!"

We are also very proud of those who raised their voices to advocate for more support on issues that are important to them within the schools.  We hope to be able to further support their efforts to promote change and appreciate all of the offers of support.

Many thanks to all of our special guests; and to Rachel Bader from Travelers for creating the case materials and John Thomas for coordinating logistics and enabling use of the CT Community College - Capital space.  We look forward to the students continuing to present to local representatives; the students will be presenting their ideas to Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam on March 8.

ReadyCT supports the following Career Pathways in Hartford Public Schools:
Current Career Pathway Operations

Click here to learn more about ReadyCT.