Mr. Buro - Cyborg CAD Teacher
Hello everyone and thank you for visiting our SI Tech CAD Showcase website. My name is Joe Buro and I have been teaching CAD at Staten Island Tech since 2014. Previously I taught Math at Tottenville HS for a year and Totten Intermediate school for nine years. Tech has always been a second home to me as I started my time here as a high school student in 1995 and graduated in 1999. It was during that time that I became fascinated with CAD and learned a great deal from my CAD teacher, Frank Mazza, whom retired some years ago.
My team of Career and Technology teachers is very strong, you can find out more about them at the Technology Department Page. I am lucky to usually work with Mrs. Alison Barone teaching CAD. Over the years I have also had the pleasure of working with Mr. Everton Henriques, Mr. Mike Whalen, and Mr. Rudy Miraki teaching CAD as well. Since taking over for Mr. Dan Jost, another SITHS legendary teacher, I have taken on a great initiative to evolve the class into what it is today and I will continue to evolve it in years to come. I am proud of our program because it reaches so many students unexpectedly in a way that it becomes a passion for them and actually becomes a primary focus of study in their career paths. Our program is intended to help produce career ready students right out of our school so they can work in professional positions even while they attend Tech or college.
I live on Staten Island not far from Tech. My wonderful wife Helen and I have two girls, Zoe and Kalista, who will love CAD one day. Of course!
Lastly, I will make a long story very short about how CAD unexpectedly saved my life! I am a true example of how cutting edge biomedical engineering can not only save people, but maintain a quality of life of someone even in extreme cases. In September 2019 I noticed a lump on the left side of my head and that my left eye was protruding slightly. After many scans and tests I was diagnosed with an intraosseous meningioma in the left temple area of my skull. That means I had a tumor (non-cancerous) growing within the bone of my skull, and it was huge. I never had a headache or other neuro symptoms, not even vision change even though it was near my optic nerve. It was slow growing and probably resulted from some cranial radiation I had when I was a student at Tech in 1995, which is when I was successful in overcoming a four-year long battle with Leukemia. Yes... I had cancer as a kid but I was clear in about four years with relatively no side effects other than developing a giant tumor 25 years later.... crap. Since it was very slow growing I was not in immediate danger but it was beginning to press onto my brain's outer layers. The only course of action was to have a large portion of my skull removed and its place I received a 3D printed PEKK prostethetic plate to patch my skull. I also received a titanium mesh implant on the side of my left orbit to fix the diseased bone near my eye. It was a crazy long surgery with three surgeons (Dr. Ronit Gilad, Dr. Ansley Roche, and Dr. Alfred Culliford). Everything went great and I was home in just about 5 days with a lot of meds and post op scans ahead of me. Recovery was expected to take six weeks, but it ended up being more because towards the end of recovery I had some complications that included a hematoma and two-bacterial infections (E-Coli and Entero-bacter) occurring in my head. That required two unexpected craniotomy surgeries on the right side of my head, one to drain the hematoma and then ten days later to wash out the bacterial infection that was discovered the day I went home from the second surgery. That left me with a hole in my skull while I recovered from the infections. I fought away the infections with a large cocktail of medicines and was ready for my fourth head surgery to patch the hole in the right side of my skull. I received another huge 3D printed PEKK skull patch implant.
My team of Career and Technology teachers is very strong, you can find out more about them at the Technology Department Page. I am lucky to usually work with Mrs. Alison Barone teaching CAD. Over the years I have also had the pleasure of working with Mr. Everton Henriques, Mr. Mike Whalen, and Mr. Rudy Miraki teaching CAD as well. Since taking over for Mr. Dan Jost, another SITHS legendary teacher, I have taken on a great initiative to evolve the class into what it is today and I will continue to evolve it in years to come. I am proud of our program because it reaches so many students unexpectedly in a way that it becomes a passion for them and actually becomes a primary focus of study in their career paths. Our program is intended to help produce career ready students right out of our school so they can work in professional positions even while they attend Tech or college.
I live on Staten Island not far from Tech. My wonderful wife Helen and I have two girls, Zoe and Kalista, who will love CAD one day. Of course!
Lastly, I will make a long story very short about how CAD unexpectedly saved my life! I am a true example of how cutting edge biomedical engineering can not only save people, but maintain a quality of life of someone even in extreme cases. In September 2019 I noticed a lump on the left side of my head and that my left eye was protruding slightly. After many scans and tests I was diagnosed with an intraosseous meningioma in the left temple area of my skull. That means I had a tumor (non-cancerous) growing within the bone of my skull, and it was huge. I never had a headache or other neuro symptoms, not even vision change even though it was near my optic nerve. It was slow growing and probably resulted from some cranial radiation I had when I was a student at Tech in 1995, which is when I was successful in overcoming a four-year long battle with Leukemia. Yes... I had cancer as a kid but I was clear in about four years with relatively no side effects other than developing a giant tumor 25 years later.... crap. Since it was very slow growing I was not in immediate danger but it was beginning to press onto my brain's outer layers. The only course of action was to have a large portion of my skull removed and its place I received a 3D printed PEKK prostethetic plate to patch my skull. I also received a titanium mesh implant on the side of my left orbit to fix the diseased bone near my eye. It was a crazy long surgery with three surgeons (Dr. Ronit Gilad, Dr. Ansley Roche, and Dr. Alfred Culliford). Everything went great and I was home in just about 5 days with a lot of meds and post op scans ahead of me. Recovery was expected to take six weeks, but it ended up being more because towards the end of recovery I had some complications that included a hematoma and two-bacterial infections (E-Coli and Entero-bacter) occurring in my head. That required two unexpected craniotomy surgeries on the right side of my head, one to drain the hematoma and then ten days later to wash out the bacterial infection that was discovered the day I went home from the second surgery. That left me with a hole in my skull while I recovered from the infections. I fought away the infections with a large cocktail of medicines and was ready for my fourth head surgery to patch the hole in the right side of my skull. I received another huge 3D printed PEKK skull patch implant.
As of this writing, months later, I am back to living a normal life with no lasting side effects other than some insanely strange body scans and two cool scars on my Cyborg head. I am lucky man, and amongst the countless people that helped me I will point out my neurosurgeon Dr. Gilad whom spearheaded my case and operated on my head collectively around 24 hours over four surgeries, and my lovely wife Helen who took care of me every second and actually saved my life twice by bringing me to the ER when I was suffering from the hematoma and infections, resistant to the idea of going both times (not very smart of me). There is much more to this saga... ask me about it some time.
Teacher Certifications
- NYS Professional Teacher - Mathematics
- NYS CTE Professional Teacher - Computer Aided Design
- NYS CTE Professional Teacher - Computer Technology
- NYS CTE Professional Teacher - Drafting
- Working on CTE Computer Science Cert when it is available.
Education:
- BS Computer Science - CUNY College of Staten Island
- MS Seconday Edu in Mathematics - CUNY CSI
- Staten Island Technical High School Class of 1999
Other Achievements
- Math for America Master Teacher 2016 - 2019
- MfA Master Teacher II+ (2nd Fellowship) 2020 - 2024+
- UFT Outstanding Career and Technology Teacher 2017
- NYS Professional Teacher - Mathematics
- NYS CTE Professional Teacher - Computer Aided Design
- NYS CTE Professional Teacher - Computer Technology
- NYS CTE Professional Teacher - Drafting
- Working on CTE Computer Science Cert when it is available.
Education:
- BS Computer Science - CUNY College of Staten Island
- MS Seconday Edu in Mathematics - CUNY CSI
- Staten Island Technical High School Class of 1999
Other Achievements
- Math for America Master Teacher 2016 - 2019
- MfA Master Teacher II+ (2nd Fellowship) 2020 - 2024+
- UFT Outstanding Career and Technology Teacher 2017