Erica Amato, left, who received this year's Award for Excellence in Service to the FA, poses with colleague Jared Dowd who has worked with Erica on the TALAT program. (photo by Cynthia Eaton)

Erica Amato is nothing if not resilient.

On November 17, 2023, Erica was at the front of the Montauk Point Room, addressing a full room of hundreds of local high school students and their teachers. Erica began explaining NYSUT’s Take a Look at Teaching (TALAT) program, for which the FA had received a $15,000 grant. A grow-your-own initiative that aims to address the dire teacher shortage on LI, TALAT encourages students from underrepresented demographic groups to pursue teaching as a profession.

This will not only diversify the profession but also enable students from, say, Central Islip, Brentwood, Riverhead, William Floyd, Longwood, etc., to earn their degree then go back to teach in those same schools. It’s a national model that has been quite successful in other areas.

Standing at the back of the room, however, my attention on Erica was interrupted by some frantic looking teachers who exclaimed, “Excuse me, do you know why nobody is translating this? This all needs to be translated into Spanish! Probably a third of these kids aren’t going to get much out of this presentation otherwise.” We quickly identified a student peer mentor who was happy to help out.

Erica immediately understood. She did not miss a single beat. Erica gave a big smile, said to the audience, “sorry for the delay but I see my translator has arrived!” and simply continued explaining to those high school students why they might like to come to SCCC and consider a major in education—with all the necessary and appropriate pauses for translations to ensure all students were included.

Resilient. Unflappable. This incident would have caused a lesser person to stumble. But Erica has overcome challenges enough times to know how to manage them head on and keep moving forward.

Erica has been leading our TALAT program for the past three years—with the smart, capable Jared Dowd right by her side—and this is truly valuable service not only to the FA but also to the college and community. Erica is literally working overtime to bring hundreds of students to our campus and encourage them to enroll. She’ll tell you that she’s just doing her job, but this is very much above and beyond.

There’s a video of Erica on the FA website that offers a quick profile of who she is as a person. Watch that video, and you’ll be impressed that Erica is doing all of this above-and-beyond while also doing her job, running this grant program and being a terrific mom of two young children. She is inspirational!

We have gotten to know Erica well over the past three years. We are grateful for her unflappable personality as well as for her ever-present smile, persuasive skills and focus on doing all she can to help students, her union and the college. Congratulations to Erica on a well deserved recognition!