Career Ideas Visited
Through Worker Institute, Winter InterSession Program goes behind scenes
Atticus DeProspo '15 is having a very good year at Cornell.
First, he helped the Cornell Varsity Men's Soccer Team win the Ivy League title and go on to compete in the NCAA tournament.
This winter, through the Worker Institute at Cornell and ILR's Winter InterSession Program, he moved closer to his professional dream.
DeProspo went behind the scenes of some of Manhattan's most prestigious stages in January to see how arts and entertainment workplaces function for actors and other theater professionals.
His experiences, led by Worker Institute Associate Ken Margolies, are part of ILR's Winter InterSession Program, known as WISP. One-hundred ILR students participated this year in the program, which offers a range of opportunities in profit and nonprofit sectors.
"My passions are the law and theater, and it was a major reason for me choosing the ILR School because I could combine those interests," DeProspo said during an interview. "I hope to one day work as a labor lawyer representing the theater unions in New York City or a theater productions company."
DeProspo is hoping his broadened understanding of arts and entertainment workplaces will help him land a summer internship in the industry.
As part of a Lincoln Center tour in January, students were hosted at the Metropolitan Opera House by John Diaz, a graduate of the NYS AFL-CIO/Cornell Union Leadership Institute. Diaz is a member of Local 1 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, a union known as IATSE.
Worker Institute Associate Linda Donahue facilitated Winter InterSession Program meetings and tours at Rochester businesses including General Motors Components Holdings, LLC; Xerox; and Hickey Freeman, a clothing manufacturer.
Afterward, Abby J. Maldonado '14 said, "I learned a great deal about the differing workplace environments and the kind of leadership it takes to run these businesses. It was especially educational since it complemented my course work in my collective bargaining and human resources classes."