Synergy Graduation: 48 Scholars Complete Leadership Development & Paid Internship Program

This year’s Synergy graduation took place at Upstate Medical University’s CNY Biotech Accelerator building on Friday, August 5th. The room was filled with friends, family, worksite partners and the nervous excitement of students as they completed the final steps towards completing their 10-week leadership development and paid internship program: a group presentation on their community projects. 

Before the presentations took place, Synergy student Chris Cedano took to the stage to provide a recap of this year’s program. Cedano’s remarks provided a snapshot of the type of leadership development these students were able to experience.

Cedano’s speech has been transcribed in full below.

Great morning! My name is Christoper Cedano. I am a Business Administration Major at Onondaga Community College.  This summer I was fortunate to intern at Brackens Financial Solutions where I learned so much and was able to serve the vision and mission of the organization. I would like to thank you for joining us today to celebrate the achievements of this summer’s cohort of young professionals.  

During the past 10 weeks we delve into topics on: Leadership; shifting our perspective to serving others rather than being served.  

We delved into the 4 Quadrants of Relational Nutrients with MESH Teams: Being Present; Conveying the Good; Providing Reality; and Call to Action.

We journeyed with Brackens Financial Solutions discussing topics like debt management, wealth building, investing, insurance and home ownership.  Michael Jennings handled all our questions without a flinch during our Q&A sessions! 

We went through rigorous training on Service Growth and we are thankful to Barb Knight, Christina Papaleo, Marie Fagan, and Tiffany Rush of REACH International for the hours of training leading to our Community Outreach. Today you’ll hear more about the Community Service projects from the teams.

We spent quality time with Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens addressing issues and opportunities within Syracuse and how we can take the lead in effecting change in our community.  

We are grateful to C&S Companies for their professional development workshop during the Synergy Orientation week which helped bolster our preparedness to enter our respective worksites.

We are thankful to Syracuse University for taking our Gallup StrengthFinder 2.0 experience to a whole new level by arming us with in-depth understanding of our 5 super powers!

And what a time well spent with Dr. Shanelle & Todd Reid who infused us with a vision of what could be with hard work, an understanding of our core values and developing a vision for our future that extends beyond us!  Touring Access Dental Lab and meeting the team was such a bonus to our time with them.

I could keep going, but there are other fellow students that will speak to the collective effort of all of the amazing people and organizations that made Synergy 2022 the huge success that it was!

We congratulate all of our students who completed 32 hours of simulations; 60 hours of professional development training; and 32+ hours of community services project hours. We would also like to sincerely thank our Synergy Worksite Partners and Donors for making this impactful program possible for our future leaders.