www.PNWBOCES.org
CAREER & TECHNICAL EDUCATION
P R O F I L E S I N S U C C E S S : Landscaping Professionals Blake Fahey, an Urban Forestry program and Yorktown High School graduate, also has a Yorktown-based business. Blake Excavation focuses on residential and commercial projects, including new construction, land clearing, retaining walls, and more.
When your passion is working in the great outdoors and creating beautiful spaces, owning your own landscaping company is a dream come true. That is exactly the outcome for several graduates of Putnam|Northern Westchester BOCES Urban Forestry program, all of whom own and operate their own landscaping businesses. They attribute much of their success to graduating from the Career and Technical Education program.
"Enrolling in the program definitely helped me get a head start in opening my own business," Fahey said. And there’s a third company with roots in the Tech Center’s Urban Forestry program. Alpine Tree Service in Hopewell Junction is owned and operated by an Urban Forestry grad Jake DeMasi, (Lakeland High School). After graduating in 2014, Jake obtained a degree from the University of Massachusetts’ Stockbridge School of Agriculture and holds three arborist licenses, including an international license.
"Urban Forestry at CTE played a key role in the success of our businesses," said Eddie Bazinet of Eddie’s Yard, his landscaping company in Yorktown. Along with his brother Joe, the two also co-founded Bold Design Build, which creates intricate indoor and outdoor spaces using stone, wood and tile. Students are graduates of Lakeland High School and of the Urban Forestry program, Eddie in 2006 and Joe in 2012.
DeMasi said the Urban Forestry program taught him arboriculture and how to tree climb and use equipment safely. "So much of my success is due to the Urban Forestry program," said DeMasi. He credits Madden with providing the encouragement and motivation as well as the skills he needed to realize his dream.
Eddie Bazinet credits Urban Forestry teacher John Madden for giving them the hands-on experience that set them up for success. "Mr. Madden and (former teaching assistant) Mark Hilpl are a wealth of knowledge," Bazinet said. "They not only taught the fundamentals of safety and application, they gave us real-life experience, which you truly cannot find anywhere else. They taught us the 'how's' of the industry inside and out."
Blake Fahey
Joe and Eddie Bazinet
11
Jake DeMasi
