Honorary New York Principals Build Enduring Relationships


Director Eric Fliegel, GTI End User Computing, with reading champions from a school in Manhattan.

Merrill Lynch employees are taking the company's partnership with the Principal for a Day program far beyond a 24-hour event.

Besides their one-day stints as honorary headmasters in New York City public schools, many employee volunteers are using their personal and professional resources to benefit their partner schools. "They are providing tours of Merrill Lynch offices, teaching Merrill Lynch's Investing Pays Off® curriculum, and donating cash for much-needed supplies," said Eddy Bayardelle, president of the Merrill Lynch Foundation. "Their involvement in the Principal for a Day Program is rewarding to all involved — students, teachers, administrators and volunteers."

When Director Eric Fliegel, GTI End User Computing, visited Public School 28 on West 155th Street in Manhattan as honorary principal last October, he learned that the biggest challenge there was getting students to read. So he and Principal Elsa Nunez devised the "Merrill Lynch/P.S. 28 Reading Campaign" for fourth and fifth graders. The prize? A tour and lunch downtown at Merrill Lynch headquarters for the students who read the most books.

And read they did: 631 books, to be exact. On February 8, Mr. Fliegel, who is in his second year as an honorary principal, kept his promise, hosting the top 25 readers. "As a result of the Principal for a Day program, the kids read hundreds of books," Mr. Fliegel said. "The best thing about this day is that they earned it."

Carolyn Then, 10, topped the competition by reading 78 books in the two-month competition. She said the contest inspired her to keep reading. "I'm a person who likes to read a lot and I like a good competition," she said, adding that her favorite book is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Librarian Evelyn Reyes said the reading contest boosted library visits. "It was incredibly busy in the library," she said. "I was knee-high in books."

Among the highlights of the children's Merrill Lynch tour was exiting the sixth- floor elevator and bumping into Stan O'Neal, chairman and CEO, who congratulated them on their efforts. Ms. Reyes was moved to tears when the group visited the debt trading floor and saw "Welcome P.S. 28" in lights among the ticker symbols and stock prices on the wall board. "These children get so little recognition in their daily lives," she said. "To see that means so much."

Added Mr. Fliegel: "The Principal for a Day program is opening their minds to what is now possible. What a great way to inspire these kids."

AVP Jennifer Sutton, a MLIM relationships manager in Plainsboro, New Jersey, travels to New York to be the "principal" at Intermediate School 232 in Brooklyn. Among other things, she has enlisted her MLIM colleagues to teach Investing Pays Off lessons at the school, spoken at graduation and held a drive for school supplies.

Beyond those important material efforts, Ms. Sutton believes she has become a positive role model for the students. "The children don't have a lot of role models, especially from our industry," she said. "The principal liked the fact that I was a young professional from a diverse background so the kids know that those types of opportunities are there for them to achieve."

AVP Jennifer Sutton, center, and her MLIM colleagues at a school in Brooklyn.

FVP Bob Ollwerther, Hedge Fund Development and Management, has been involved with his partner school, P.S. 226M, Manhattan's oldest school for autistic students, since 2003. Besides attending school musical performances and student art shows, he enlisted his Merrill Lynch colleagues to raise more than $5,000 to outfit a "home career lab" at the school to assist in teaching life skills to older children.

With SVP Michael Cowan, head of Global Corporate Services, GT&S, and VP Matt Judice, Global Corporate Services, he arranged jobs for eight students with food service vendor Sodexho Inc. at a Merrill Lynch cafeteria in the World Financial Center. With their help, he also arranged to host 150 teachers and administrators at Merrill Lynch headquarters for an all-day staff meeting.

"Each time I am at the school, I am struck by the tremendous dedication of the teachers and the wonderful kids," Mr. Ollwerther said. "I only wish I could do more."

MD Steven Ball, who grew up in the New Jersey suburbs, said he has been pleasantly surprised by his Principal for a Day experience at Public School 18 in upper Manhattan. "If people were to spend a day there, they'd be surprise how much is getting done," said Mr. Ball, head of GMI's Mortgage Lending in New York.

Since he became an honorary principal last year, he has taken some of the children on a tour of Merrill Lynch headquarters. "These kids don't have an opportunity to get outside their neighborhood or their block," he said. "To bring them high up on one of our floors to look at New York was great. Just getting on the bus and coming downtown was an experience."

Students from a school in Manhattan work in a cafeteria at Merrill Lynch headquarters.

He added: "I think it's important for these schools to have an identity at a place like Merrill Lynch. It becomes almost a responsibility for the folks here to take on the challenge of doing the right thing for these kids and these schools."

Mr. Ball is now working on an "exchange program" that would allow students of P.S. 18 to switch places for half a day with students in his own children's school in Peapack, New Jersey. "I think both sides would get a lot out of it," he said.

VP Michael Pappadio, Communications & Public Affairs Finance, was an honorary principal at Public School 105 in the Bronx. He keeps in touch with his principal, attends events at the school and has been working on securing a dozen easels for the school.

"I've enjoyed this whole experience and would wholeheartedly recommend that other Merrill Lynchers get involved, get out of their offices and into the cities," he said. "I get a lot of personal satisfaction seeing that our inner-city public schools are not nearly as bad as the media might be reporting. There are opportunities to enhance the education of these students, and you can be a part of making those opportunities a reality."