WILLIAMSBURG HIGH SCHOOL FOR ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN

To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Giovanni D'Amato, and I am an Assistant Principal at Williamsburg High School of Architecture and Design, in Brooklyn, New York. An important part of our school's culture is summer internships. I got to know Chris Pellettieri in the summer of 2015 when his nonprofit, Pellettieri Stone Carvers' Academy ran a six week training program that hosted four of our students.

My colleagues and I visit all of the internship sites to make sure that the students' experiences are positive and enriching, and when we visited Pellettieri Stone Carvers' Academy, it was immediately apparent that the experience these students were getting went beyond even our most optimistic expectations. Chris quickly established a rapport with the participants. He was engaged with them every minute. He was presenting them with very high-level challenges in the craft of stone carving, and they were responding by applying themselves passionately to a degree that we rarely see. They were accomplishing impressive work, and when I questioned them about what they were learning, their pride was evident. I was so impressed by what these students were achieving at Pellettieri Stone Carvers' Academy that I contacted the Greenpoint Gazette, our local newspaper and got them to come and do an article on it. I also began trying to find a way to enable our students to keep working with Chris during the school year, in an after school activity in the school building, which we ultimately succeeded in setting up.

Here are a few of the many positive impacts that I observed in kids who participated in PSCA programs aside from the stone carving skills they obviously picked up: improved attendance, increased resiliency in the face of life's heavy blows (one participant in the Summer program's father was dying but she only missed one day of stone carving), dramatically improved confidence (two of the summer program participants made the move into union construction careers after graduation because they felt that if they could handle stone carving, this should be a piece of cake, and lastly I attribute higher academic performance to participation in Chris' programs in some instances. Since they left the program two of the students have received apprenticeships with the carpentry municipal union.

I am writing this letter to encourage anyone who is considering supporting PSCA to do so. I have seen first-hand that Chris is a dedicated and gifted teacher and that the activity of stone carving has a powerful potential for unlocking personal growth.

Please feel free to contact me if you would like to know more.

Giovanni D'Amato
Assistant Principal
The Williamsburg High School for Architecture and Design
257 North 6th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11211
718-388-1260 Ext. 2043
damato@whsad.org