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Staten Island Tech school social worker Jessica Pisano and school counselor Chris Maddaluno stop by the cafe for a snack on Dec. 3, 2025.Staten Island Advance<\/p>\nSTATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 In the basement of Staten Island Technical High School in New Dorp, a former computer science room has been transformed into a small caf\u00e9 that offers a valuable opportunity for students with special needs to develop essential job skills. This supportive environment allows them to gain practical experience while also fostering their independence and confidence in the workplace.<\/p>\n
The caf\u00e9 is called Barks and Beaks, named after the mascots of the two schools: the bark of a husky for P37R, a school for students with special needs such as autism, and the beak of a seagull for Staten Island Technical High School, a specialized academic high school where eight P37R students have been co-located.<\/p>\n
Rob Leavy, a special education teacher at P37R said: \u201cWe are a District 75 Special Education program that places a strong emphasis on developing vocational and life skills for our students as they prepare to transition from our program. This coffee shop is just one of the ways we equip our students for the next step in their journey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Cori Regan, principal at P37R, the David Marquis School of the Arts, said: \u201cWe are always looking for pathways for our students as they transition out of the school, especially for those with skills they have developed over the years. These students are very capable of succeeding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Staten Island Tech school social worker Jessica Pisano and school counselor Chris Maddaluno stop by the cafe for a snack on Dec. 3, 2025.Staten Island Advance<\/p>\n
Tech school social worker Jessica Pisano said: \u201cIn the beginning… they (Tech students) were a little uncomfortable. They didn\u2019t want to say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing, but now the girls have genuine friendships, which is so amazing to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Staten](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/JLIURE32AREIVJZCWSPAF6WNGY.JPG\")
Zoe Zborowski, a senior at Staten Island Tech, visits Matthew Gellerstein, a delivery person for the Barks and Beaks Cafe at Staten Island Technical High School. Staten Island Advance<\/p>\n
In the Barks and Beaks Cafe program, students learn how to prepare and serve food and drinks while improving their communication skills. The program emphasizes the application of academic knowledge in a coffee shop setting, where students practice taking orders, making coffee, and creating various recipes. Ultimately, they develop their ability to work effectively as part of a supportive team.<\/p>\n
The program benefits both groups of students. The high achieving students from Tech learn that there are people outside of their shared academic life that need patience, kindness, camaraderie, and maybe, sometimes, a little help.<\/p>\n
Leavy explained that each zone in the facility is thoughtfully designed to build on the skills students already possess, including life skills, language, communication, literacy and math. For example, the Point of Sale system emphasizes active listening. Students must listen to customers to understand their orders, ask relevant follow-up questions, and gather essential information, such as names. They also need to communicate effectively with cooks and baristas, creating a realistic experience similar to that of a coffee caf\u00e9 in the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been a wonderful endeavor,\u201d said Tech Principal Mark Erlenwein. \u201dSo much unexpected good has come from this co-location operation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 In the basement of Staten Island Technical High School in New Dorp, a former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-63266","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63266","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=63266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}