Job Jam : Employment: 500 mostly minority applicants find there’s only summer positions for 200.

It won’t be easy for 17-year-old Maggie Hernandez of Sylmar and her friend, Rosie Sanchez, 18, of Pacoima to get to their summer jobs as file clerks in the Chicano studies department at Cal State Northridge.

For the sake of $5.47 per hour, the two young women, friends since early childhood, will be spending long stints on RTD buses every day--the ride from Sylmar to CSUN takes more than an hour, and from Pacoima more than 30 minutes one way.

Nevertheless, they consider themselves lucky to be among the 200 Valley teen-agers and young adults to land federally funded, six-week Summer Youth Employment and Training Program jobs this year at 124 sites of government and nonprofit agencies in the Valley.

“The kids who don’t have jobs are missing out on a real experience,” Maggie said. She and Rosie agreed that their new jobs will enable them, in the long haul, to “improve ourselves.”

Indeed, they were lucky to capture their jobs--500 applicants jammed the cramped, makeshift Valley office on Vanowen Street in Van Nuys on Monday and Tuesday vying for the available positions. The crush of job seekers forced many to be interviewed in the rear courtyard outside and many to fill out applications while kneeling at tables because there were not enough chairs.

“For us, it’s not a matter of finding enough kids--it’s finding enough jobs,” said Georgina Rodriguez, 28, herself an alumna of the summer jobs program and who now manages the program’s Van Nuys office.

But those who missed out shouldn’t immediately give up hope, Rodriguez said. An unspecified number of additional jobs soon will be allocated to Valley employers, thanks to a $16-million increase for urban-youth job programs in a bill signed by President Bush last week.

“And there’s always a chance that some jobs filled today will be open later,” she said, “because some people may quit, or we may find out that they’re not right for the job or they don’t qualify.”

Wednesday was the first day on the job for the young people who landed one of the five-hour-per-day positions.

The best part of the venture for Jacqueline Vivar, 17, of Sun Valley?

“We don’t have homework!” she declared.

Her co-workers--including three other teen-agers--dissolved into laughter at Jacqueline’s flight of whimsy during their first day of work at the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service’s Broadcast Center in Sun Valley.

On a more serious note, Jacqueline acknowledged the working world’s lessons in personal responsibility.

“You appreciate the money you make and you’re more careful about how you spend it,” she said during a break from computer typing, copying and filing. “If your mother gives you everything, you have no idea how hard she works to earn that money. Now, I know how hard I work to earn what I’ll be paid.”

Her sentiments drew nods from Tony Garcia, 15, also of Sun Valley, who works as a warehouse clerk in the AFRTS Broadcast Center and hopes to learn videotape editing. “I tell my friends that this is a good deal,” he said. “Today, some will go out and make trouble. They get bored because they have no job.”

Indeed, in this recession-battered, riot-scarred year, when hordes of adults stand in long lines at unemployment offices and countless employers start to rebuild from the ashes and rubble, many youngsters appreciate a summer job helping Alzheimer’s patients, washing police cars, performing clerical chores for the Internal Revenue Service or supervising small children at day-care camps.

The program is restricted to teen-agers and young adults from low-income families (maximum allowable income for a family of four is $17,500; for a family of 10, $38,240). In the Valley, 80% of applicants are Latino and 10% are black.

During the first day of deploying the young people, Rodriguez exuded the authority of a traffic cop, frantically working the phones, directing her mostly bilingual staff of 23 and trouble-shooting problems such as verifying income and citizenship with sophisticated calm and a fresh, ready smile. “The kids are moving through here faster than the paperwork!” she told a visitor.

A teen-age girl stood in Rodriguez’s office, about to embark on her first day at work, clad in a Magic Johnson-Michael Jordan T-shirt and baggy, black shorts.

“You’re wearing shorts to work?” Rodriguez inquired.

The girl nodded.

“I think you better consider wearing something more appropriate,” Rodriguez said.

And when a co-worker reported a first-day glitch--eight youngsters sent to a job site that called for only four--Rodriguez flipped through a thick, loose-leaf notebook and quickly resolved the problem. “Have them send back Nancy, Juanita, Chris and Delphina,” she said, “and tell them that Christopher, Alex, Carma and Carmella should stay where they are.”

Inquiries about summer jobs should be made to the San Fernando Valley Field Office of the city’s Summer Youth Employment and Training Program, 14411 Vanowen St., No. 107, Van Nuys. 818-908-2601