Academy pilots high school business ed program

Yonkers, N.Y. — Forest City Ratner Cos. has joined Yonkers Partners in Education to create Ridge Hill Academy, a pilot program in which local businesses teach local students about the “behind the scenes” operations of retail management.



Twenty-five students selected from local high schools have just begun the pilot’s third of five 10-week sessions, which take place at Westchester’s Ridge Hill shopping, dining and entertainment center.



Students, of course, have their own experiences of going shopping, eating in a restaurant, or going to the movies, but few know what it takes to bring those experiences to the surface. Ridge Hill Academy provides an up-close, personal look at all of the components of running a business.



Forest City and Yonkers Partners in Education have designed the program as a model that could work in any city across the country through a similar partnership between a developer and a group such as Yonkers Partners, which is a private, not-for-profit organization working with the Yonkers Public Schools to increase the number of students completing post secondary programs.