Spring Graduate Joseph Caroselli Is Building a Career on His Own Terms

Technology, education, and determination are all at the core of Joseph Caroselli’s journey at Empire State University. The graduate received his degree in business this spring, though the Middletown native is also immersed in the IT world. Caroselli works as a building technician at an elementary school in the Pine Bush School District and interned with SUNY Empire’s ITS department in his final semester.

The spring graduate shared that he is blind, which “made for some challenges along the way.” He added: “I am happy to say that the professors, Office of Accessibility Resources and Services, and the ITS groups I interned with were all open to collaborating with me to navigate any hurdles.” He is graduating with valuable IT experience under his belt.

Though his degree is in business, Caroselli has always had an affinity for and interest in technology. “I’ve always had an aptitude for taking things apart, putting them back together, and generally approaching things from an analytical standpoint,” the graduate explained. When he was in high school, he ran the soundboard for theater productions and briefly considered making a career out of it before he was hired at the Pine Bush School District.

Once he was employed, Caroselli wanted to take the step into higher education, but hoped to do it without pausing work. “It didn’t make sense to me to stop earning income while I went to earn my degree. What made SUNY Empire appealing was that I could get the work done and have my courses be flexible around my day job,” the graduate shared. He also highlighted the university’s flexibility in accepting transfer credit and giving credit for prior learning.

This spring, Caroselli is completing an internship with ITS, where he rotated across four units: the service desk, technical support services (TSS), cybersecurity, and network operations. “In some areas it reaffirmed practices that I use day-to-day as a technician. In other areas, it taught me new ways of doing things and it gave me new perspectives that I hadn’t previously considered,” he said.

The experience enabled him to draw parallels between the K-12 environment where he works and the ITS setup in higher education. “I’m seeing what’s happening behind the scenes and seeing how what I do day-to-day in the K-12 setting largely translates to how higher ed works,” said Caroselli. Ultimately, the graduate has learned that his skillset is one that translates to a variety of environments.

So, why choose a business degree? Caroselli did this intentionally to have a flexible path that combines the discipline with the technical know-how of IT. “I see them as a unified path. Individually, they offer me the flexibility to go in a variety of different directions if my career requires it,” he explained. For the spring graduate, it was also a strategic choice to progress into managerial positions later in his career. “I’m walking away with the knowledge, at least in theory, of how to manage a team, and the IT exposure to be a valuable technician,” said Caroselli.

The recent graduate has found that the combination of being a student while working and interning helped provide more context for the projects he was completing. “Instead of just knowing about these things in theory on the page, I was able to connect them to real-world practical scenarios that I run into at work—situations where the concepts being learned are actually what I’m dealing with day-to-day,” said Caroselli.

After commencement, the technician plans to remain in education, preferably within Pine Bush School District, where he sees opportunities for professional growth.  Caroselli noted that he appreciates the human connection that comes with working at schools. “I think that there is an impact in being able to support [students] from the sidelines, and the staff and teachers that are directly working with them,” he said.

Caroselli’s success in balancing work, school, and his internship did not come easy—he had to learn how to pace himself to see it through. That is why the recent graduate recommended that new students “take the time to find two things: what drives them and what resets them, because burnout can be very real.”

For Caroselli, a good friend at work was a relevant example that doing school, life, and work simultaneously is possible—and that it’s never too late to pivot in your career. This made him reflect on how to sustainably pursue his business degree. “It was important to occasionally step away from the work and reset. Sometimes that meant just five minutes sitting in front of my piano, but that was enough for me to keep pushing forward,” he shared. Caroselli added that he was motivated by the thought that he was “working hard now to hopefully better myself for my future.”