June 2024 Student Spotlight

MPA student and Senior Director, Pathways Strategy in the NYC Department of Education, Eliza Loehr, talks about her role at the Office of Student Pathways, her Marxe MPA experience, and more.

You work as Senior Director, Pathways Strategy in the NYC Department of Education. Tell us about your role. 
My role sits within the Office of Student Pathways – a collection of initiatives including Career Connected Learning, College and Career Planning, and Computer Science for All. My work as Senior Director of Strategy centers around uniting these various initiatives all in pursuit of our long-term goal of making sure every single NYC public school student graduates prepared and on a path to long-term economic security that’s aligned to their passion and purpose and provides them with a choice filled life.

This last part I think about daily – what it means to have a choice filled life. This means that students are in a place financially where they’re deciding where they want to live based on the commute to work, the schools nearby, or the design of the apartment, not because it’s the only option. It means they’re able to decide the career path they want to pursue and are able to take advantage of the education and training opportunities that will help them grow their careers, not just needing to take the first job opportunity that comes their way to pay their rent.

It’s not easy to get from where we are today – with only about 10-15% of NYC public schools students earning a living wage (defined here as $48K/year) within one year of launch into their careers – to the choice filled life we aim for. My work involves working with our leadership, our teams, and with organizations and agencies across the city to set realistic but ambitious goals and outline the steps we need to take to get us there.

Your department has been rolling out career-connected learning initiatives in NYC public schools – can you talk about those initiatives?
Building on the successes and lessons learned from the Career and Technical Education programs our team has led for many years, we’ve recently launched two new major mayoral initiatives – FutureReadyNYC and Career Readiness and Modern Youth Apprenticeship. Through these initiatives, we’re expanding access to career connected learning across the city all focused around high-wage, high-growth, high-demand career pathways of tech, business, education, and healthcare. Through these initiatives we’re also braiding together multiple strands of programming that we know work such as making sure students have access to early college credits, paid work-based learning, and advising, and doing this all in partnership with CUNY, DYCD, employers, and many others.

Our goal is that by 2030, every student leaves our schools with foundational “future ready” skills, ensuring they’re financially and digitally literate, with a strong plan for their future created with individualized supports, and have access to early college credits and credentials.
 
What has your MPA experience been like at the Marxe School thus far?
I’ve loved my experience in my MPA so far! I’m going slowly as I started the program while pregnant and now have a 1.5 year old plus a full time job, and appreciate the flexibility CUNY has provided. I love that my classmates are largely already working in related fields, and being their diverse personal and professional perspective to the conversation. I love that we’re in NYC, and speak often in classes about the direct impact of what we’re learning on the city we all live in.