Teaching and Learning Hosts Alumni Panel on the Job Hunt

TEACH Week is an annual event at NYU to facilitate important conversations on teaching careers in New York City and beyond.

Students sit at round tables in conversation. A screen behind them reads, "TEACH Week 2025"

In February, current students and alumni from NYU Steinhardt’s Department of Teaching and Learning (T&L) convened to discuss the job search and hiring process in New York City Public Schools (NYCPS). The panel was one of many events for NYU Teacher Education TEACH Week, an annual event held during NYCPS Midwinter Recess and open to undergraduate and graduate teacher education students.

“Every year, we welcome alumni to come speak to current students about what it means to look for a job and become a teacher in New York City,” says Natalia Ortiz, clinical assistant professor and director of the Office of School and Community Partnerships (OSCP) in T&L. “Many of the alumni are also mentor teachers at our department’s partner schools, so they are very supportive of the development of young and emerging teachers.”

In selecting panelists, Ortiz and her colleagues try to think about diversity in all facets, as well as the myriad ways the job hunt looks for different people in different tracks, from core content to special education to English as a second language.

Panelists (left to right in photo) included:

Five people sit in a row. On a screen behind them are their headshots and names.

Michael Lin (MA ’17, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), a Mandarin/English as a New Language teacher at the High School for Language and Diplomacy
Carlos Rosales (BS ’23, Childhood Education and Special Education; MA ’26, Learning Technology and Experience Design), a fifth grade special education teacher at The Children’s Workshop School
Diane Castelucci (MA ’17, Educational Leadership, Politics, and Advocacy), principal at Brooklyn New School
Cali Leeds (BS ’19, Early Childhood Education and Special Education), a lead teacher at Lenox Hill Neighborhood House
Felix Wu (MA ’23, Teaching Students with Disabilities and Computer Science), a math and computer science teacher at The Young Women's Leadership School of Astoria

The panel was moderated by Eva Pedriglieri, field administrator for the Steinhardt Arts Education Consortium, and Ying Dong, program administrator for T&L; both are also members of the OSCP.

During the discussion, participants talked about their roles and their hiring journeys and offered tips for graduating students before the floor was opened to questions from attendees. One tip that hit home for many was from Rosales, who highlighted the importance of integrating oneself into the entire school community—from administrators and leaders to security guards and staff—because “learning is more than just the classroom.”

“The panel was diverse in [terms of the] educators’ lifespan and content experience,” says one of the students who attended. “The panel created a representation of the audience[’s] possible shared experience and were able to answer [a variety of] questions.”

“The energy in the room at these alumni panels is always invigorating,” says Ortiz. “This is an excellent professional development opportunity because many of our students are getting ready to graduate in the spring and need to find jobs. They see the panelists and think, ‘If they did it, I can do it.’”