School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc. Welcomes Clausen Agency President Chris Clausen as Board Member

School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc. (SBPLI) is pleased to welcome Chris D. Clausen, President of The Clausen Agency, Inc. in Rocky Point, New York, as one of the organization’s newest Board Members. Mr. Clausen, who founded his insurance agency in 1979, has keen business development and management insight, which will prove vital to growing SBPLI’s FIRST^® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) robotics programs, among other student-focused events.

A resident of Setauket, New York, Mr. Clausen joined SBPLI as a way of giving back to the Long Island communities that made him the successful business person he is today. “Bertram [Dittmar, SBPLI Executive Director] has long raved about the benefits that the organization brings to students and businesses across Long Island,” says Mr. Clausen, a close friend and business associate of Mr. Dittmar. “I am excited to get to work helping SBPLI become a powerhouse STEM organization and look forward to developing relationships with other local businesses that might be interested in supporting our programs. We encourage everyone to attend any of our wonderful events planned for 2018 to get a first-hand look at what SBPLI and FIRST Long Island can accomplish.”

Mr. Clausen attended both Suffolk Community College and Stony Brook University and earned the designation of “Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter.” From 1999 to 2009, Mr. Clausen served as a continuing education instructor for IIABNY (Independent Agents and Brokers of New York State). He is also a 30-year member of the Rocky Point Rotary Club, for which he has served as President in three separate years, and is the Current President of Tides Office Building Condo Association in Rocky Point, New York and of Villas at Reunion Square Condo Association in Reunion, Florida.

“I am delighted to be able to personally welcome my friend Chris to the SBPLI Board of Directors,” says Mr. Dittmar. “I am confident that his business acumen will further help SBPLI in its mission to find career opportunities for Long Island high school and college students and to foster relationships with local businesses. I look forward to the opportunity working with him in growing the organization and its associated programs.”

For more information on SBPLI or the FIRST Long Island programs, please visit www.sbpli-lifirst.org.

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About School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc.
School-Business Partnerships of Long Island, Inc. (SBPLI) is a fully volunteer-run 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1984 by Fred Breithut with the goal of developing partnerships between local high schools and businesses. His goal was to provide students with practical experience and curriculum development, while helping the business community develop its future workforce, which resulted in the formation of over 100 partnerships. In 1999, SBPLI brought the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) to Long Island, which featured just eight FIRST Robotics Competition high school teams. Since then, the Long Island Regional FIRST Robotics Competition has grown to over 50 teams competing each year. SBPLI also hosts Long Island’s annual FIRST LEGO League Qualifying and Championship Tournaments and the FIRST LEGO League Junior Expos, in which over 2,000 elementary and middle school students from Nassau and Suffolk Counties take part each year. In 2016, SBPLI added the FIRST Tech Challenge to its roster of programs. For more information about the programs, or to learn how to become a sponsor, visit www.sbpli-lifirst.org.