two students and a teacher sort fabric at a table

RA Students worked with staff from the Residence Inn in East Greenbush to make scarves to donate to those in need

Students from Victoria Duncan-Strain’s class at Rensselaer Academy worked with staff at the Residence Inn in East Greenbush to make scarves for the homeless Friday morning. The hotel is one of several work-based learning sites our students travel to regularly to get job experience and develop their skills.

The scarves, once completed, will be donated to Joseph’s House and Shelter in Troy for distribution to those in need.

Hotel Manager Mahendradat Mangroo says he and his staff do at least two community service projects each quarter, and since our students were at the hotel already, he thought it would be easy to get them involved.

Group photo of students and adults in front of a christmas tree and fireplace

The students and hotel staff posed for a group photo after they completed the scarves

Work-based learning takes students out of the school and into the community to get real experience with basic job tasks, communicating and interacting with others, helping to prepare them to enter the workforce. Mangroo says he’s pleased to be able to host our students.

“It’s been great. They usually come in right after breakfast so half the student usually help clean up from breakfast and the other half work with out housekeeping staff in the guest rooms. It’s been very well received by our staff”

The hotel staff also provided snacks and hot cocoa for the students after they finished working on the scarves.

Altogether, more than 60 scarves were made and packaged and will be delivered next week.

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