Santa Ana : 15 Program Students Are Still Seeking Work

Only about 15 of an initial 100 Santa Ana high school students participating in a program for career and college opportunities are still looking for summer jobs.

Lynne Stedman, director of the Career Beginnings program, said the summer jobs are part of the two-year effort designed to introduce disadvantaged high school students to careers or educational opportunities they wish to pursue after graduation.

The program, offered through Rancho Santiago College in Santa Ana, selected 100 high school juniors and connects them with professionals who become the students’ mentors through the program, which ends with graduation.

“A lot of these kids just don’t have the contacts” that produce opportunities, Stedman said. The program’s goal is to have students complete high school and go on into a meaningful career or college, she added, and is also aimed at reducing the Santa Ana high school drop out rate. Rancho Santiago is one of 25 colleges in the nation offering Career Beginnings, a $5.5-million program managed by the Center for Human Resources at Brandeis University in Boston. The $100,000 to fund Rancho Santiago’s program has come from the Gannett Corp.

The students who are still unemployed are seeking jobs in clerical, retail and drafting fields, among others. For employment offers, Stedman can be reached at (714) 667-3430.