By Leanne Costantino
Campus News
On November 13th, 2018, Amazon announced the selections of New York City and Northern Virginia for its HQ2 sites. There are many mixed emotions in New York City as people prepare for the arrival of new residents and business development, especially amongst college students who are studying in fields that directly correlate with job titles that Amazon will need filled at its new location.
LaGuardia Community College is Long Island City’s largest educational institute, with technology programs that rival those of four-year universities. Seema B. Shah, Director of Planning for Technology and Innovation Initiatives at LaGuardia, answered some pertinent questions about Amazon’s impending presence in Long Island City with the announcement of HQ2.
CAMPUS NEWS: As one of NYC’s largest tech education providers, how is LaGuardia helping or planning to help students in preparation for Amazon to open up HQ2 in NYC?
SHAH: As Long Island City’s only college and largest educational institution, LaGuardia Community College is ready to support Amazon in Queens. We’ll continue providing high-quality education, through both our associate’s degree-seeking students, and our Learning and Innovation Center—where students can earn professional certificates in areas that help advance their careers. Each year, more than 3,500 students study at LaGuardia Community College in our tech programs—making us one of the largest tech training programs in NYC.
Our tech programs include recently redesigned Associate in Applied Science (AAS) degrees in Network Administration and Security, Programming and
Systems, and Computer Technology. [We also have] a recently launched noncredit training program in cybersecurity.
Our grads work in tech jobs at banks, retail, real estate, and at major tech companies including Facebook, Google, and IBM—reflecting how well-prepared they are for tech jobs, or to pursue a bachelor’s in a tech field.
At LaGuardia, we put a major emphasis on finding experiential learning and applied learning opportunities for both our faculty and students. So our students gain valuable professional experience and establish a network of contacts, and so our faculty are able to continually update curricula to reflect industry needs. So far we’ve partnered with Google, Facebook, Workbench, and other tech companies, as well as tech startups, for these opportunities.
For students, experiential learning and applied learning opportunities include internships. We hope to partner with Amazon to create internship opportunities for students, through First Big Break, LaGuardia Community College’s Honors Internship Program. First Big Break helps LaGuardia students gain professional experience, mentoring, and income, while providing employers with a unique talent pool of carefully selected, diverse students, who are eager to take advantage of these opportunities. Dedicated staff work closely with both the students and employers—providing high-touch oversight.
Finally, in an effort to meet industry needs and demand, we would love Amazon’s support in identifying new faculty and creating a directory of resources or materials that would benefit our faculty as well as our students.
CAMPUS NEWS: Are students in your program optimistic about Amazon’s incoming presence in NYC?
SHAH: Like other New Yorkers, our students are both optimistic and concerned about Amazon coming to NYC, and particularly, our neighborhood of Long Island City. It’s important to note that our student population is largely low-income (70% come from families with annual incomes of <$30,000), recent immigrant, or otherwise disadvantaged. Many are hopeful that they’ll be hired to work there, enabling them to demonstrate their talents while establishing economic stability for themselves and their families.
Our students worry that Amazon may not consider hiring them, but instead fill its LIC office with graduates of elite colleges.
Amazon’s announcement has been a big topic in our classrooms [since the announcement] – in our social sciences classes, our business administration classes, etc. Many of our professors are using the Amazon news as a case study – examining the potential effects on LIC/NYC.
CAMPUS NEWS: The news of HQ2 has sparked fears among locals, who are worried about rents increasing, mass transit overcrowding, and infrastructure deteriorating as a result of Amazon’s residency. What are your thoughts on this?
SHAH: Like many big opportunities in life, having Amazon in LIC is complicated. There are many potential benefits and potential risks.
Potential benefits include job creation, access to internships for our students, and boosts to LIC businesses that will support Amazon employees, e.g., taxi and ride-hailing drivers, restaurants, grocery stores, daycares, pharmacies, construction companies, and doctor’s offices. The long-overdue improvements to sewage lines, parks, transportation, schools and other infrastructure components in LIC will benefit residents and businesses alike.
Unfortunately, it seems likely that Amazon’s move to LIC will raise housing prices, forcing some to move to further away neighborhoods. Hopefully, the job creation and economic benefits of Amazon will help off-set this somewhat. Queens is among the most diverse areas of the world. Here at LaGuardia, our students come from 150 countries and speak nearly 100 native languages. Our diversity is a key part of LaGuardia—has helped shape our college in so many ways. Our students regularly tell us how much they appreciate the welcoming, friendly vibe at LaGuardia—where people from different backgrounds (socioeconomic, experiential, racial/ethnic) come to try to make better lives for themselves and their family members. We don’t want to lose this diversity, and will do what we can to preserve it.
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