• By Mabel Pais

“I believe it is important for all young people to have time, resources and opportunities to think about the life they want to make for themselves and not just how they will make a living,” Ed Hajim

What is the Ed Hajim Professional Readiness Program?

This fall, The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) will launch a new initiative for its arts education students, the Ed Hajim Professional Readiness Program, which will offer rising teen artists, 14 and up, a series of free classes and opportunities that will propel them towards a successful career in the performing arts. The program will equip student performers with skills and strategies necessary to succeed professionally in the performing arts.

Inspired by Hajim’s book, ‘Island of the Four Ps: A Modern Fable About Preparing for Your Future,’ a guide to success in life and business told in the form of a fable, the program is designed to let young artists harness the elements of success that propelled Hajim himself from foster care to Wall Street board rooms.

Hajim, a leading business executive who held senior management positions with the Capital Group, E.F. Hutton, and Lehman Brothers before becoming chairman and CEO of Furman Selz, is supporting the program with a significant gift to the Arts Center. He will also meet with participants to share with them how he made his way from an orphanage to Harvard Business School and the C-suite of multiple financial firms.

Watch 2015 Horatio Alger Award Winner Edmund Hajim speak of the troubles of his youth during the Depression, including time spent in foster care while his father was at sea during World War II, and how he discovered his passion for financial management while at Harvard Business School

– youtu.be/i-9q2bKSCwM

While career preparedness has always been an element of NJPAC’s extensive arts education programs  – which offer thousands of young people skills instruction in vocal and instrumental jazz music, acting, musical theater and hip-hop arts every year – the PREP initiative will formalize and significantly expand those offerings. 

“Ed Hajim’s life story is a remarkable one, and the lessons he’s gleaned from his extraordinary career have inspired us to create a series of workshops and programs for our students to ensure they’re fully prepared for their professional lives. Success in the performing arts requires talent, of course, but also practical and interpersonal skills that Ed has uniquely identified,” says John Schreiber, President and CEO of NJPAC. “The career-readiness aspect of our arts education programming will be turbocharged by this gift and by Ed’s personal engagement with our students.”

“These initiatives will help our students marry their raw talent with the skills they need to become thriving businesspeople as well as great performers. They’ll be able to explore their passions, and develop the skills that will allow them to make informed plans for their futures, all here at the Arts Center,” says Rosa Hyde, Senior Director Arts Ed Performances and Special Events at NJPAC.

PROGRAM

The  program – which is FREE to current NJPAC students who desire to pursue a profession in the arts, and to alumni of the Arts Center’s arts training programs – will guide students through a series of steps that will advance their career readiness. Starting at age 14, and continuing through their university-level education and the early years of their professional work, students will receive both instruction in key skills and access to a ready-made professional network. The programs that will be available to NJPAC students beginning in Fall 2024 include:

• Business of the Arts Workshops: For students ages 14 to 18

A year-long series of two-hour Saturday seminars (offered immediately following NJPAC’s Saturday arts training classes)  on the practical skills young artists will need to advance their careers, including resume-writing, social media management, contract and financial literacy and audition etiquette, taught both by working artists and professionals in other fields.

• The Production Education Assistants program: For students and alumni ages 18-30

Students and alumni will be offered the opportunity to take a month-long series of bi-weekly classes in technical theater skills, from light and sound design to stage management. Once classes are completed, they will have the opportunity to learn from and shadow professional stagehands. Participants will have the opportunity to sit for the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) BACKstage Exam (Basic and Comprehensive Knowledge Exam for High School Technical Theatre Students), a prerequisite for consideration for union membership.

• NJPAC Alumni Network: For graduates of the Arts Centers arts training programs New alumni will now be able to join and learn from a community of NJPAC-trained artists. Through this network, not only will alumni be able to share insights and information with fellow artists, but the Arts Center will be able to call upon its graduates to provide mentorship to younger artists, perform at events, advise on programming and share their success stories. Through a new online platform, alumni will be able to network with peers who can provide advice, share job leads, and collaborate creatively. These additions to the Arts Center’s arts education curriculum will also include expansions of career-focused initiatives that have been piloted at NJPAC in recent years including:

• Creative Coaching: For student artists ages 14 through 18. The Creative Coaching program pairs arts training students with teaching artists who serve as their mentors for two years. Working together, student and mentor identify a career-focused goal for the year – from producing a student’s first EP to preparing a repertoire of songs and monologues for auditions – and work together on the steps toward achieving that goal. Mentors and students meet twice a week throughout the school year.

• The Creator’s Room: For students ages 16 to 18 A quarterly series of conversations at which students can meet with working professional artists to both network and pick up tips and insight on how to handle auditions, how to find representation, where best to seek our job opportunities in today’s market, even how to dress for auditions and rehearsals. These meetings are designed to offer students the nitty-gritty details of pursuing a career in the arts, from artists who are currently working in the field.

Finally, with this training supporting them, students engaged in the  program will be able to take on paid performance jobs through the Arts Center’s unique placement service for the students it trains:

• Brick City Booking: For current students aged 14 and up, and NJPAC alumni

Student artists and recent alumni can access paid performance opportunities, and work with staff and mentors to negotiate contract terms, prepare repertoire, and nurture ongoing relationships with clients, through this service, NJPAC’s student and alumni “booking agency.”

Watch the video of Arts Ed Students – player.vimeo.com/external/351250473.hd.mp4?s=0659a112ecadb56e1fbe83d3c38de29ca4c3b345&profile_id=175

For more information about NJPAC’s arts education and career readiness programs, visit njpac.org/arts-education.

Ed Hajim

Ed Hajim is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir, ‘On The Road Less Traveled: An Unlikely Journey from the Orphanage to the Boardroom’ and ‘The Island of the Four Ps: A Modern Fable About Preparing for Your Future’.

The son of a Syrian immigrant, he is a seasoned Wall Street executive with more than 50 years of investment experience. He has held senior management positions with the Capital Group, E.F. Hutton, and Lehman Brothers before becoming chairman and CEO of Furman Selz. Hajim has been the co-chairman of ING Barings, Americas Region; chairman and CEO of ING Aeltus Group and ING Furman Selz Asset Management. He is now non-executive chairman of High Vista, a Boston-based money management company.

In 2008, after 20 years as a trustee of the University of Rochester, Hajim began an eight-year tenure as chairman of the university’s board. Upon assuming that office he gave the school $30 million—the largest single donation in its history—to support scholarships and endow the Edmund A. Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Through the Hajim Family Foundation, he has made generous donations to organizations that promote education, health care, arts, culture, and conservation.

In 2015, he received the Horatio Alger Award, given to Americans who exemplify the values of initiative, leadership, and commitment to excellence and who have succeeded despite personal adversities. Married for 59 years, Ed and his wife Barbara have three children and eight grandchildren. Learn more at edhajim.com.