- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been provided by PSEG Foundation.

Kean University.

Where Cougars climb higher.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

Making a difference.

The New Jersey Education Association.

The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

Atlantic Health System.

Building healthier communities.

Wells Fargo.

Summit Health a provider of primary, specialty, and urgent care.

And by The Fidelco Group.

Promotional support provided by AM970 The Answer.

And by Insider NJ.

- This is One-On-One.

- I'm an equal American just like you are.

- The jobs of tomorrow are not the jobs of yesterday.

- I'’m hopeful that this is the beginning to accountability.

- Life without dance is boring.

- I don't care how good you are or how good you think you are, there is always something to learn.

- I did do the finale, and guess where my trailer was?

A block away from my apartment, it couldn'’t have been better!

- People call me 'cause they feel nobody's paying attention.

-_ It'’s not all about memorizing and getting information, it'’s what you do with that information.

- (slowly) Start talking right now.

- That's a good question, high five.

(upbeat music) Recently, my colleague, Mary Gamba, who is executive producer and co-anchor of our sister series, Lessons in Leadership, sat down with Karisa DeSantis, principal of Newark Vocational High School, talk about leadership, to talk about leadership in urban public high schools.

Yes, it's a Lessons in Leadership program that Mary and I did, but we thought it would be important to share with our audience here on One On One.

Let's check it out.

- We kick off our conversation today with Karisa DeSantis, who is Principal of Newark Vocational High School.

This is part of our Stand and Deliver Powering Equity and Social Justice Series promoting youth leadership, particularly in our urban communities, and also part of our series on urban matters.

Karisa, it's so good to see you.

- Hi, likewise.

Thank you for the invite.

- You got it, Karisa, tell everyone what Newark Vocational High School is, because it has a great reputation.

- So Newark Vocational High School is a very unique school in North New Jersey.

We have the option of three different pathways for our students.

Our students get to choose between a four-year program in culinary arts or hospitality and tourism or graphic design.

Our students have an opportunity to participate in something called FCCLA.

FCCLA is Family Career Community Leaders of America.

It's competitions that occur across the state of New Jersey in hospitality and tourism, graphic design, and culinary arts.

So that's one of the leadership opportunities that our students have.

We actually just participated in the fall conference and our students took home eight separate medals.

So we're very excited about that.

So Karisa, talk to us a little bit about youth advocacy, right?

You were just talking about all the students and the different tracks and just preparing them for the world.

How do we really impart the youth advocacy, letting them know that they are leaders in Newark and in our communities throughout the state?

- So I think for me, the leadership piece means, you know, really becoming aware of of who you are and where you wanna go, right?

Before Newark Vocational, I was an elementary principal who also had eighth graders in the school, and I would meet with the eighth graders in the beginning of the year and talk to them about how this year was really important, not just because you're the leaders in the school, with the expectation of, you know, modeling your behavior, but because you're about to make a really important decision.

In Newark, our students have the ability to choose where they go to high school.

And part of that, to me as a principal, it's my job to make sure that they're exposed to as much as possible.

So we would talk to the students about making sure to do their homework, research which high schools would you like to go to?

Why would you like to go there?

And now, as a high school principal, I talk to potential incoming ninth graders about just the fact that they're taking ownership now of their education as they're considering where to apply.

We have open houses where we present them with the information on our school, but I talk to them about not just freshman year of high school.

I say you have to think four years along the line, right?

Think about freshman year of college.

You don't just wanna think about where you wanna go next year, because you're going to spend four years there.

So in our school, in particular, opportunities here include potential for dual enrollment credits with colleges aligned with our pathways.

We have opportunities for work-based learning, internships, job shadowing.

So we expose them to as much as possible so that they understand what they could possibly getting themselves into.

But we also have students in our school presenting to them as well.

So empowering our student council to be part of the presentation with our open houses, and having the students talk to potential students just about, you know, what's great about the school, why you should come here, the benefits of the school.

So it's nice when we hear potential incoming students hearing from students that are actually in the building with us.

- Karisa, let me follow up on something because it seems to me that teaching promoting leadership, which is again involves communication skills as well, is difficult for any 15-, 16-year-old.

But in an urban community, there are a whole range of challenges that we've talked about before.

That's why Urban Matters focuses so much on youth development.

That's why Stand and Deliver Powering Equity and Social Justice is an important part of our programming.

Here's the question, to what degree do you believe it's harder for a young person, a teenager in a city like Newark, it could be anywhere in New Jersey, or anywhere on the east coast, anywhere in the country, an urban young person, teenager, to develop the leadership skills that that young person needs to be a success?

How much more difficult is it?

Or am I just on the wrong track here?

- Honestly, Steve, I think kids are kids and I think the level of support- - You don't believe there's any- - I think that every, and no matter where you go, you're gonna have challenges, right?

And what matters is the supports around you.

And so when you think about social justice and you think about having any child reach their fullest potential, being a teenager is tough.

Being in high school is tough, but the people who are around you, the leaders in the school, the teachers that serve you, the school counselors that you work with, I think it's their job to have a full understanding of the real scope of the community, of course, you know, the scope of just the students on more of a personal level.

This way we can really get to the root of what are the barriers, figure out what are the barriers, and how do we work together to break them down.

Because there are different challenges everywhere.

Challenges- - But you expect nothing less.

I'm sorry for interrupting.

You expect nothing less or nothing different from a 15- or 16-year-old in Newark in terms of what their leadership potential is.

You expect nothing different.

- No, absolutely not.

They all had, they all deserve to and are capable of, reaching the same potential as anyone else.

- Mary.

- Yeah, definitely.

Karisa, can you talk a little bit about servant leadership?

A lot of what we talked about throughout the Stand and Deliver program was be the change- 12 years ago, we let that be the theme of the program.

Talk about what that means for these young adults, you know, that you see as they're growing, they're evolving.

How are you instilling in them that desire and interest to change and be change agents in the world around them while serving others?

- I think before you can change, you have to know your strengths and your shortcomings.

And I think that that's where you have to be really intentional about communicating with the students.

So leadership is also developing leaders, and that is the students as well as the staff.

Regardless of the role, everybody has leadership capacities and leadership responsibilities.

And I do talk to the students about that.

You're a leader the moment you walk out of your house, right?

You might walk into school and someone might be looking at you and be, you know, wow, I don't know that person, but I really like something about them.

So people are always watching is my point, right?

So you don't know that you really are a leader.

People might be emulating things- - That's right.

- that you do because of the way you carry yourself, because of the way that you speak, because of the way that you look.

So you have a responsibility to be on your A game all the time, no matter who's watching, and that's the staff, that's the students, that's myself.

But it really isn't just about the title.

And to me that's very important.

It's about the people, not the title.

- Karisa, I wanna thank you so much for joining us.

To you and all of the leadership within the public schools in Newark and every public school system throughout this state, especially in our urban communities, which is why Urban Matters, which is a series we're committed to, which is why Stand and Deliver, Empowering Equity and Social Justice is a big part of what we're doing.

We thank you for what you're doing every day, unsung heroes and great leaders.

Thanks, Karisa.

- Thank you.

- You got it.

Stay with us.

We'll be right back.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

Recently, on Lessons in Leadership, our sister series, Mary Gamba, our executive producer and co-anchor, and I sat down with Laurie Zaleski, who is the author and the owner and founder of the Funny Farm Rescue and Sanctuary talk about a whole range of issues.

And Mary was especially interested in this topic of animal rescue.

And we wanted to bring it to our broader audience here on One On One.

Let's check out that conversation.

- Welcome back, Steve Adubato, Mary Gamba, and we're honored to be joined by Laurie Zaleski who is the author and owner and founder of Funny Farm Rescue and Sanctuary.

That's Laurie's book, is it?

Do you admit that?

That's your book, Laurie?

- That is my book indeed, yes.

- And who do you have with you?

- This is Puppy and Mary said, is that a koala or a dog?

(Mary laughes) And this is in fact a dog, but he looks like a koala.

- That's great, and Mary, Mary, this was your idea.

- This is my idea, so I'm gonna give a quick story.

So Laurie, I have had a dream of owning a dog rescue my entire life.

So Steve knows I'm on the five year plan of finishing.

Steve and I have worked together for 22 years, and my next phase of my life, I'm gonna be in dog rescue and animal rescue.

So, my sister sent me your book a couple of months ago, and I literally read the entire thing on a plane ride.

I was crying my eyes out.

So you have inspired me and so many, and I would love for you to share for all our viewers who don't know who you are, what you do, where you do it, tell us what the Funny Farm is, the Sanctuary, what is it and where is it?

- So the Funny Farm is one of the largest sanctuaries in the Northeast.

We have over 600 rescue animals.

It is free to get in.

We are open two days a week, Tuesdays and Sundays.

Every single animal is a rescue.

We have pigs, horses, goats, ducks, chickens, geese, alpacas, donkeys, dogs, cats, skunk, so it's, it runs the gamut of what we have, emus.

So every single one needed a home where they were either gonna be euthanized, or they are disabled, unwanted, neglected, abused.

So some of the really sad stories, but the Funny Farm, we're the Funny Farm, We concentrate on where they're going, and not where they came from.

And we let, we teach a kindness program through the animals that if all these different species can get along, so can you.

So, as I said, it's free to get in.

The only thing you must do is sign a waiver because they are loose.

(Mary and Laurie laugh) - I love it.

Mary, isn't that great how all the animals at Laurie's Funny Farm get along as long as they don't talk, as long as they don't talk politics.

(Laurie laughes) - Exactly, it's amazing how that happens.

And Laurie, I would be remiss not sharing if you can share a little bit about your mom.

She seemed like such an inspiration.

You talked about her in the book.

Please share about your mom because really, I truly believe that you would not be where you are today if it weren't for her.

- Oh, absolutely.

So if it weren't for my mom, I would never have this Farm.

I always said my mom was going to be a nun, and then married the devil, my father, we took off and he was very abusive.

We moved into a little shack in the woods, and then she started working at animal shelter, and started bringing home all these animals.

So as a young girl, I always promised her, I would buy her this, a farm of her own.

And in my late twenties she was diagnosed with cancer.

So my dreams, her dreams sped up because I tried to buy this for her, and then next thing you know, she passed away right before I made settlement.

So I became an instant.

(dog barking) I became an instant.

(dog barking) Alright, here's the Funny Farm at its best.

All right, go outside now.

- Clearly, we're taping live with no editing.

Go ahead, pick it up Laurie.

- I have 11 dogs, 25 cats, a cockatoo, and two chickens in the house presently.

They do all live together.

Outside, there's over 600.

So it is crazy but crazy good, I say.

- Your mom would be proud of you, would she not?

- Yes, so this was, I never even think, I don't even know if she could dream it this big.

It started out 35 and I was my mother's daughter, and couldn't say no and just kept taking in animals.

So it's been, and I have a full-time job.

So this is not my real,- - What?

- I'm a graphic designer and photographer.

I work for the FAA and I'm a private pilot, but this is my passion, the animals.

- So by the way Mary, that makes it clear to you that you can run a dog rescue, and still run two companies that we're involved in.

That, Mary, - As long as you're okay with the barking, and the shenanigans going on in the background when we're in our meetings, oh my God, I love that puppy so much.

- Mary, this is, it's so funny Laurie, this is obviously your passion, it's Mary's.

- Oh my gosh, she is.

- I've never seen your face like this before.

- I am seriously glowing.

My sister texted me, she's like, did you have on Laurie yet?

Did you have on Laurie yet?

And it's just so funny, my cousin and I have talked about for the longest time, we actually just set up a Zoom meeting.

There's a woman in South Africa who runs a dog rescue.

It's a mobile dog rescue unit.

And you know, we reached out and the same thing, we just had somebody on talking about the ask, and we put out the ask to this woman in South Africa, and said, "Would you be willing to talk with us?

We're looking to do a comparable thing here in the States."

And sure enough, she responded.

And next week, we're talking to her.

And, and it's all about making these connections, right?

And, and my kids are now, I had my own Funny Farm with my two kids.

Now they're adults, almost young adults.

So, I do wanna segue into one question though that I really need to know.

You've had all of these animals on your farm, and you've just, you know, come into contact.

Is there one that really stands out to you that really we obviously we're here talking about leadership that really just showed you that animals can be leaders, animals can teach us to be leaders as well?

- So, I have my large German Shepherd, he was the one who was just barking.

He's usually silent, but when mom goes on, he has mega esophagus and he was supposed to live six months and he is four years old, his name is Tucker.

So he backs into a chair, sits up, and has to have the food, liquid food go down into his stomach or he would starve to death.

And this dog is like a human, anywhere I go, he follows me.

He is now a service dog.

He doesn't, he's unleashed trained, meaning you can go anywhere, and he just sits right by my hip.

He has kids climb on him like a horse.

- Oh my gosh.- - He's amazing right with me here, but you probably can't see him cuz he's too low.

When you're a human, you spend that much time with an animal that he has to eat every three hours, blended food like a doggy milkshake.

And then he has to sit up for at least 10 minutes, and you sit with him, you just develop a little bit closer bond than you know, the average animal that you have, so, - Mary, Mary,- - Yeah.

- These pets have personalities, Mary.

- Oh my God, oh totally, yes.

Oh my God, there's Adele (laughes) - Oh, stop.

That's Adele, the Diva Chicken.

- So, this is Adele, the Diva Chicken,- - Go ahead.

- You go too close here, so that is her.

She, she is pretty old.

We don't know how old she exactly is, but she, you can see she just hangs out.

Her nails are painted (laughes).

She can't (inaudible).

- That is amazing.

- And she sits, she can sit on top of the dog.

She sits with them when they're in bed.

She doesn't lay eggs anymore because she's elderly, so she was surrendered, a lot of them become soup.

So all of the chickens here, a lot of them do not lay eggs.

They're just kind of pets.

But she lives in my house, she wears a diaper.

- Oh my gosh.

- Yeah, she doesn't have it on 'cause we were just changing it out for, for now, but she didn't, - Hey, for television purposes, she wants to be in her natural state.

Oh, there's Adele's Book.

- She has her own book too.

This is a children's book, we're self-published.

The social media guy, and I wrote this book for Adele, the Diva Chicken.

It's all children stories, real photographs, but it teaches, she thinks she is a human or a dog or a cat.

She does not think she is a chicken.

And we say why label ourselves?

Let's just be the best you that you can be.

And it's all about anti-bullying, and being kind to one another.

- Wow.

Mary, I've been doing this for more than a few years as you well know, Laurie is about the most interesting person we've had In a really long time.

Laurie, I want to thank you so much for joining us, really well done.

Wish you and all of your family at the Funny Farm the best.

- Thank you Steve, and I'm still looking forward for you both to come.

- Oh, I'll definitely be there.

And if I can get Steve down, I don't know (laughes).

- Okay, you let me know any day.

- I'll be there.

- I don't know about that.

Mary and I will be back after this promise.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

Recently, on an addition of our sister series, Lessons in Leadership with my colleague Mary Gamba, our executive producer and co-anchor, we sat down with our colleague Jacqui Tricarico, to not just talk about leadership.

Jacqui is the executive producer of Think Tank and Remember Them, and on camera as a co-anchor of Remember Them.

We talked to Jacqui about leadership and balancing family life with being a top level journalist in public broadcasting.

Here's that conversation with Jacqui.

- We are honored to welcome our colleague, longtime friend Jacqui Tricarico, who is the Executive Producer of a terrific series called "Think Tank with Steve Adubato" and also Executive Producer and Co-host of Remember Them that Jacqui co-anchors with me.

Jacqui, how you doing today?

- I'm good, Steve.

Happy to be on "Lessons in Leadership" with you and Mary.

- By way of background, Jacqui, we met when you were a student at Montclair State University, correct?

- Yeah, MSU I went there as a broadcast major.

I think first I went in thinking as a broadcast major, okay, I'll be able to do some behind the cameras things and produce, maybe dabble in a few other things.

And in the back of my mind I always thought, hey, maybe one day I could do something on camera, was always kind of a pipe dream I thought because it's hard to break in and be able to be in front of the camera and you've given me the opportunity to do that.

So I'm really grateful for that and it's been really fun to learn along the way, learn from you, from Mary, and just really try to take this as a big learning opportunity and use it as a skill builder.

And it's been really fun.

- Mary, isn't it amazing that Jacqui and I were in class together?

- I always, when you brought that up, I forgot about the history and I forgot about how and where we found Jacqui and I'm just so grateful that we did find Jacqui.

- Well, no, we were not- - It was me and Jackie Heyer, too.

The two of us were together at MSU in your class.

And I think what happened, I'm pretty sure but I have bad long-term memory but I think I reached out to you and your organization and just was like, "Hey, you guys hiring?"

- And I recall now, that you're saying that Steve said, "Oh, there's this talented young woman in my class."

And I'm like, "Oh, here we go."

And you know, 'cause Steve will run into people and he'll say, oh, you know, "I gave this guy at ShopRite your business card so he's gonna call you."

And, but I am so grateful that you came to us.

- So I wanna be clear, I was teaching a course in journalism and media at Montclair State at the time, and Jacqui Tricarico, who was not Jacqui Tricarico at the time, and Jackie Heyer, not Jackie Heyer at the time, two really talented young students who you see potential in, Jackie Heyer is still with us as the Executive Producer of State of Affairs and also has a larger role in terms of programming overall.

But Jacqui, this is a second run with us.

And the reason I say this is because you took some time away and during that time you did a lot of important things.

So as we talk about leadership, one of the things is this, you have two young daughters.

Your daughters are how old?

- Seven, one just turned seven and the other one is about to turn five.

- So let's talk about this.

You cannot talk about leadership without talking about the incredible challenges of work-life balance.

Now we're pretty flexible at our organization.

We, family first is not just an expression for us.

Hopefully our team members believe that we believe it.

How the heck do you lead and manage it all?

And also Rich, your husband's a big part of it as well.

Go ahead.

- Yeah, yeah.

Well it's funny that we both work from home.

I'm in this room and he's right in that room over there.

We both work from home.

I feel like we're husband and wife, but we're also coworkers, we're friends.

I don't know, it's all very blurred lines here when you've gotten into this new routine of, you know, this post pandemic world, right?

We're all in this virtual world still, which is really bizarre and it definitely has its benefits like you said, family first.

I'm so lucky that at this point in my career and my life, I can still do drop offs and pickups at school.

I can still be with my kids if they want me to volunteer like I did last week at the book fair that my daughter Lily was so excited for me to do things like that, that are just, you know, irreplaceable time spent with you.

Like, you know, Steve and Mary, your kids grow so fast.

So being there, yeah.

- Yeah, too fast.

- Being there and available and accessible and as much as I can be during this time in their lives is so important to me.

But also there's a lot of challenges working from home as well.

Being a mom to young kids, they know I'm here.

They're very well aware that I'm here.

After school I'm lucky that I have a babysitter a couple days a week that helps out.

But if somebody gets hurt, if somebody's really upset about something, they're gonna run to me no matter what.

We have boundaries set.

They know if I'm working they can't bother me but they know too if I'm like working and I'm just like doing emails or if I'm working like on a tape day and I'm on camera, like right now, they know they really can't bother me.

But they've learned that they can come barging in the room hysterically crying if something goes wrong.

So during those times it is challenging because my brain has to shift, right?

I have my brain's constantly shifting gears, okay, now I gotta be mom right now and help out.

But then I gotta jump back to what I was just doing.

- And the thing Jacqui left out is in the middle of all this, she runs I think a half marathon.

Where was the half marathon?

- Yeah, talk about that.

- Jacqui, where was that?

- Why?

- I did.

- Which half marathon?

- It was in Princeton.

It was a very, very hilly course, I'll have to say.

And why, because two years ago when the pandemic hit, and I like you said, I wasn't really work, I was freelancing- - Three years Jacqui, go ahead.

- Three years ago.

Yeah, well, two years ago was when I did well, yeah, it was so the pandemic hit and I was like, okay, well I'm stuck home with my two young kids.

I have no outlet, I've always worked out but I've never considered myself a runner.

And I started running and part of the reason was to run away from my kids and my husband just for a little bit.

I just needed, needed space, needed some time to clear my head.

And I got that time to just think about putting one foot in front of the other.

And that's all I had to think about during that moment.

During that 20 minutes or a half hour or two hours.

And then I saw that Princeton was doing their half marathon but virtually at that time and I said, "You know what?

I need a goal.

I'm signing up, I'm gonna do it."

So I signed up and I did the half marathon by myself virtually on my own course that I created with family and friends at the finish line for me.

Created my own finish line.

And it just gave me so much pride.

I was so proud of myself and I, you know, I was like, okay, this, I'm gonna keep running.

So I kept running the past couple years but then this year I said, you know what, I'm gonna sign up for that half marathon again, torture myself, why not?

And I wanted to do it in person because there's such a difference between running by yourself or running with thousands of people that all have the same goal in mind.

So I signed up again, this training period was definitely a lot harder because of the time commitment and how much more time I need to be giving now to work and family and my kids and their schedules too.

So it was definitely a lot harder this time around.

And the course was insanely difficult, but I finished on November 13th, then I crossed the finish line in two hours and five minutes, which was a better time than I thought I was gonna get.

And again, it brought me so much pride but also my kids were there and they saw me and that meant so much more to me for them to see that they can do anything that they wanna put their minds to.

And you know, most of the things that I do, I do it for them, so.

what does that have to do with being a better leader?

- You know, I just find that you have to find things that you do just specifically for yourself to lessen your mental load.

For me, you know, waking up at 4:45 in the morning to get to a bootcamp class at 5:30 is not the easiest thing.

But once I get there and I get it done, I just feel so much better for the rest of my day.

I feel like I can take on the world.

- And your head's clear.

- Yeah, I feel like I can just take on the world and that sets me up for a successful day.

When I don't do it, I definitely feel more sluggish.

I feel like I'm not at my best.

So it is, it's an important aspect of my daily life.

- That's Jacqui Tricarico.

She's a superstar, great leader.

Mary is gonna run the marathon next year and I just wanna, see?

- I'll support you Mary.

- Thank you.

- I'm Steve Adubato, See you next time.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by PSEG Foundation.

Kean University.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

The New Jersey Education Association.

The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

Atlantic Health System.

Wells Fargo.

Summit Health And by The Fidelco Group.

Promotional support provided by AM970 The Answer.

And by Insider NJ.

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