{"id":329180,"date":"2026-08-25T12:40:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T12:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/329180\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T12:40:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T12:40:19","slug":"izetta-johnson-internship-program-graduates-its-class-of-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/329180\/","title":{"rendered":"Izetta Johnson Internship Program graduates its class of 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIzetta Johnson was committed to equity and the opportunity for everyone to have a chance to succeed,\u201d Dowling said. \u201cShe had a passion for students. I knew her personally, and to know Ms. Johnson was to love Ms. Johnson. She was a phenomenal woman, as beautiful on the outside as she was on the inside. She was tough and demanded only the best of her interns. We were fortunate to have her.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hon. Genine Edwards, one of the speakers at the ceremony, said the interns should take advantage of what they\u2019ve learned. \u201cWhether what you learned was good or bad, they are lessons learned, and they should be able to move you forward in whatever capacity you need to,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cI just want to remind you to keep in touch with your judges, your interns, your clerks \u2014 everyone you made a connection with. Let them know where you are in your life and what happens next. Enjoy the journey.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chief Clerk Charles Small said he hopes many of the class of 2026 will come back and work for the Unified Court System. \u201cWe have good careers here. You can become attorneys, court reporters, whatever. But you must set goals, and you must work hard. I wish you all nothing but luck and success in the future,\u201d Small said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"From<\/a>From left: Jennifer Joly, Nicole B. Smith, Hon. Deborah Dowling and Lauryn Matin. Photo: Mario Belluomo\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

Intern Shani Jacobs called the program an experience she will never forget.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore becoming a part of this, I didn\u2019t know much about the court system,\u201d Jacobs said. \u201cI have never actually been brought to a court of law before, so if you ask me to name five types of jobs that were in the court system, I would probably be stuck after a judge and a lawyer. However, working here, I\u2019ve learned so much and gotten such an immense appreciation for all the other workers that are essential to the court system.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jacobs, who wants to become an attorney, said every day as an intern was different and there was always something new to learn. \u201cMy time here will forever be a prominent part of my journey,\u201d Jacobs said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Intern Matthew Garcia was assigned to the IT department, an area he\u2019s been interested in since he was young. \u201cOver the past six weeks, I learned a lot, including a lot of back-end programs that are used to control audio and other people\u2019s computers and devices,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the biggest things I took away from this experience was the importance of patience. Whether you\u2019re in the courtroom, an office, or elsewhere in the building, no matter what, you\u2019ll eventually get the job done,\u201d Garcia said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Izetta Johnson, who created the Summer Youth Employment Program in 1989, was an employee of the New York State Unified Court System for more than 30 years. She was also a trainer and manager of the Court\u2019s Equal Employment Opportunity Office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Johnson chaired and co-chaired numerous events at the Supreme Court, including Career Day and Unity Day, along with committees such as the Gender Fairness Committee and the Supreme Court BHM Committee. Johnson died in 2016 at age 59.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIzetta Johnson was committed to equity and the opportunity for everyone to have a chance to succeed,\u201d Dowling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,3308,123757,66128,110659,38262,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-329180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-daily-bulletin","tag-deborah-dowling","tag-internships","tag-izetta-johnson","tag-kings-county-supreme-court-criminal-term","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}