East Haven Business Hosts New Haven Teen Mentorship Program

EAST HAVEN - CT - The first organic coffee roastery in town, One World Roasters, recently held a coffee tasting and business development workshop for Solar Youth, a New-Haven based environmental stewardship and mentoring program.

Solar Youth focuses on serving children and teenagers in high-poverty neighborhoods in New Haven with both summer camps and a work readiness program for high schoolers called Green Jobs.

“Our summer program goal for our Green Jobs interns is to have them become better individuals — learn more about how can I be in the world, how can I be successful, and promote life-long success,” Mike Seller, the program’s coordinator, says.

The intensive five-week internship at consists of a number of nature trips in the area, community service projects, and job skill honing workshops.

“They do get their hands dirty and do a lot of work outside — gardening and cleaning up the neighborhood,” says program manager Christina Fleury. “But they’re also working on some research skills — things that can be for college or for careers beyond like doing some resume writing and trying to build some of those skills that they can take with them,” she adds.

One World Roasters’ founder, Eric Ciolino and his business partner Christine Ucich gave the interns a tour of their facility and explained the process of coffee making, over some cups of cold brewed iced coffee. Ciolino also gave a candid explanation of what it took to start an environmentally-conscious coffee business from the ground up and how the interns might best position themselves for success in starting their own businesses.

“It’s important that these kids realize that there are many paths to pursuing your passion,” Ciolino says. “You don’t have to do it all at once — if you start small and take little steps, you’ll get there. We know this because it’s taken us a long time to get here, and we’re still growing.”

One World Roasters just opened their first cafe location at 967 North High Street in January 2019.

When asked what they wanted to do with their careers, a young man by the name of Jaylon spoke of his dream of traveling the world, learning how to cook the cuisines of every country he visited and opening his own restaurant with the knowledge acquired in his travels.

The young woman sitting across from him, Gabby, said with confidence, “midwife.” Another young man named Tre told of his aspirations of becoming an accomplished filmmaker, having added three new video projects to his resume this summer alone.

“It’s inspiring and humbling to meet such passionate young people who are eager to get out in the world and make a difference doing what they love. If we can be a resource to them from the things we’ve tried and learned from our path, we absolutely want to serve that role,” Ciolino says.

As of now the group already has a second trip to the roastery planned to see Ciolino’s eco-friendly infrared roaster in action, and get a taste of green-roasting first hand.