For Michael Guida, the path to becoming an assistant principal at Southern Westchester BOCES’ Rye Lake Lower Campus wound first through kitchens then classrooms.
After nearly 20 years in the food service industry, helping restaurants solve operational challenges and improve their businesses, Mr. Guida began to feel that something was missing.
“I got close to my 20th year in restaurants, and I wasn’t being fulfilled by it anymore,” he said. “The business had changed quite a bit.”
In his work he would invite BOCES students into his restaurants. He saw firsthand how much they enjoyed the experience. However, he couldn’t provide them with the extensive training they needed. His wife, herself a teacher, encouraged him to consider a career in education.
That began with the New York City Teaching Fellows program and a degree in special education. A Queens native, Mr. Guida began teaching in the South Bronx. He soon brought his restaurant experience to bear, transforming a special education classroom into a culinary café. The program emphasized life and employment skills. Students planned menus, shopped, prepared 50 to 60 meals a day and delivered them throughout a campus that housed six high schools.
The experience gave him a new perspective on his own potential.
“I knew I could make a classroom work,” he said. “My question was, can I make a campus work? Can I make a school work?”
Such questions led him to pursue certification as a school leader. He joined SWBOCES in July, jumping at the chance to get an early introduction by joining the Extended School Year program.
Where he helped students learn employment skills before, the focus here is on helping them develop life skills to increase their independence and expand their possibilities after they leave school.
“I want them to leave here with as many choices as possible,” he said.
Mr. Guida and his wife have two daughters, one of whom is in college, and the family lives in Westchester County. They’ve noticed how he enjoys talking about his workday at the dinner table.
“I really like what I’m doing now,” he said. “I love the ability to be able to pay forward the tremendous amount of opportunities I’ve been given in life.”