‘It truly changed their pathway’ | On the East Side, BCAT impacts students of all ages

A quick stroll through the two-story East Side campus leaves no doubt: there’s a lot going on at Buffalo Center for Arts and Technology (BCAT), all of it good.

Floor 2: the youth program. Paintings burst with color in one room. In the next sit hundreds of 3D-printed sculptures, everything from Batman to a blender to a Buffalo Sabres logo. One shelf houses a lineup of VR headsets. Down the hall? A music recording studio with a dozen new iMac desktops.

Floor 3: the adult program. A phlebotomy class is in session; roughly 15 students listen in, and more than 700 fill a waitlist for their chance to do the same. IT security class is next door, and steps away, a professional development advisor welcomes new students for their first day.

BCAT is an educational hub for Buffalo high schoolers exploring new interests and adults pursuing new careers. While using state-of-the art technology and working toward professional certifications, students also enjoy free access to tutoring, mental health services and the support to achieve whatever dream.

“Anyone that faces a barrier to career advancement – if you’re a youth, and you don’t know what that first step is – that’s what this program is for,” said director of advancement Sean Crawford. “For the adult program, it’s mostly 30-plus-year-olds that just need to get back onto a path, or who realize, at some point in their life, ‘I’ve got to take that next step.’”

Thanks to local supporters like the Buffalo Sabres Foundation, which recently donated $100,000 to BCAT, the nonprofit can provide these invaluable resources to those who need them most.

"BCAT is a wonderful organization that is changing lives of youth and adults in our community through their classroom and workforce training programs. These programs have proven to be transformational and ultimately make our community a better place to live and work. We are very proud to support BCAT and their deserving students," said Rich Jureller, the Sabres' vice president of community relations and president of the Buffalo Sabres Foundation.

“So essential,” Gina Burkhardt, BCAT’s president and CEO, said of the contribution. “We don’t charge anything for our program, so our adults and our youth don’t pay one penny to come here. We really rely on the generosity and commitment of the community.”

Sabres.com spoke with a former youth student and a current adult one to learn about their experiences at BCAT.

‘Almost a cheat code’

As a high school sophomore, Maurice Hill felt his music program wasn’t for him. He was ready for something new, and that’s when a friend introduced him to BCAT.

There, it didn’t take long for Hill to discover his passion.

“I was like, ‘OK, let me try out this digital media stuff,’ and I thought it was pretty interesting,” he recalled. “The program director asked me, ‘What are you interested in?’ I was like, ‘I guess I’m kind of interested in cameras, kind of interested in photography.’ I’d never tried anything like that before.”

BCAT’s youth program offers a variety of courses that promote creativity and self expression; for Hill, digital media and 3D printing took place after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. His and his classmates’ art was featured in local galleries, and they even produced a documentary to highlight Black artists in Buffalo.

Projects are always community focused, and as BCAT intended, they had a resounding impact on Hill.

“It was very transformative, just kind of eye opening,” he said. “As a person of color myself, it was like, ‘Oh, this is actually really nice to see other people who look like me.’”

Those experiences led to a scholarship at Canisius University, where he majors in digital media arts and multimedia journalism.

“I think BCAT honestly isn’t recognized enough, because they provide all of these very important skills both in life and in just finding general interests for careers later on,” Hill said.

“… And I think because it’s free, that’s such an easy, almost cheat code for people who are really struggling to find a passion in life early on, or to find help academically that they might not be able to find in school or without paying.”

‘Rising tide lifts all boats’

For Giselle Akal, who works for the IT Helpdesk at Canisius, BCAT has stepped up across the board. First, she needed to earn an IT certification to pursue her new career, and options are few and far between for an adult with a college degree.

The Trinidad native, a former preschool teacher, discovered BCAT but faced another obstacle in the baseline assessment – she aced the English portion but not the math. So, in stepped BCAT’s free tutoring service, which helped Akal dust off her numbers skills and begin taking classes. (BCAT offers this tutoring to everyone who qualifies for the test until they pass).

She needed help finding childcare support for her kids; BCAT pointed her to a daycare assistance program, freeing her to attend nighttime classes. She needed a coat for traversing the Canisius campus; BCAT’s adult floor includes a “blessings closet” where students donate and receive food, clothing, household items, etc.

Above all else, BCAT has supported Akal’s re-learning how to be a student and thriving in a demanding program that she says is “not for the weak.”

“Me and my classmates, we are hyping each other up, we are helping each other out, because we also want everyone to succeed,” Akal said. “A rising tide lifts all boats, and I have not come across a single person during this journey who was not a part of that tide.

“… The (full- and part-time) instructors, the administrators, the facilitators, everyone there feels very much like they want to be there because they want to make the world a better place.”

Akal is currently working toward her fourth and final IT certification. Potential employers recognize those credentials, as well as the work ethic required to earn them; on a typical weekday, she works from 9 to 5, attends BCAT classes from 5:30 to 8:30, then continues studying at home – on top of her other obligations.

“I am a single, working mom, which is a trip,” Akal said. “But it’s good to have the kind of support system that BCAT provides, because it’s allowed me to pursue an ambition that I had shelved a long time ago.”

Then what?

BCAT proudly shared that 100 percent of their youth students graduate high school, and those who’ve pursued college have gotten into one. Many have received scholarships, and some have become the first in their family to attend college. On the adult side, about 85 percent of program graduates receive a certification in IT or healthcare.

And the success stories don’t stop with Hill and Akal. One student arrived at BCAT as a shy kid and is now on stage at Shea’s Performing Arts Center. Others have leveraged their curiosity in 3D printing into architectural engineering careers. Another works for Tesla.

For BCAT’s leadership and teachers, learning where their students end up is the ultimate reward.

“We whoop and yell and scream and cry, and we’re just really happy,” Burkhardt said.

Added senior program director Charisma DuBois: “When you hear from the students, they are really expressive in terms of how BCAT has made an impact on their lives and changed their lives. A lot of the adults will say that it truly changed their pathway and trajectory of where they were going.”