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Cooper Union's Immigrant Retraining Program Arkadiy Lyansky, an engineer from the former Soviet Union, moved to New York thirteen years ago in search of a better life. Without American work experience and little understanding of the English language, promising job interviews led to closed doors and, instead of pay stubs Mr. Lyansky signed up for welfare checks-until he took free classes at The Cooper Union's Immigrant Retraining Program. There, he met Ira Pierce, a teacher in the program and a Cooper Union engineering alumnus, who proved to him that the American dream is still alive. Professor Pierce, who teaches "Cost Estimating for NYC Infrastructure: Highways, Bridges, Buildings and Tunnels," was intrigued by Mr. Lyansky because, despite his lack of class participation, all the other students deferred to Mr. Lyansky for help. Curious, Prof. Pierce probed and discovered that Mr. Lyansky could barely speak English. The professor further discovered that "in Belarus, Russia, Mr. Lyansky used to be the former Chief Engineer of the City of Gomel," explained another student in the class and " that he is now having trouble getting a job in New York." Like so many trained immigrant engineers seeking professional employment, the challenging part is not qualifying for jobs but rather learning a different language and a radically different work culture. Since the inception of Cooper Union's Immigrant Retraining Program in 1987 with the B'nai Zion Foundation, more than 50 percent of participants have successfully obtained full-time professional employment-doubling their salaries. In fact, in 2002 the average student pre-program salary was $9,000 and, after completing the training, the average salary increased to $25,000, helping many new immigrant families get situated and create a new life. Today, Mr. Lyansky is one of the top cost estimate engineers at an international construction firm based in New York City. And, not forgetting the program that made it all happen, one night a week he team-teaches with his mentor Ira Pierce because as Mr. Lyansky explained, "I feel responsible to help people the same way Ira helped me." |
