WESTMINSTER : Teens Learn Work Ethic on the Farm

Working on a farm was hardly Tom Nguyen’s idea of summer fun.

“I’m really a lazy person,” said Nguyen, 17. “I’d rather be where there are no flies or bad odor.”

But for the last three weeks, Nguyen has fed cows and chickens, herded sheep, cleaned pigpens and helped prepare the soil for a pumpkin crop at a six-acre farm behind Westminster High School on Golden West Street.

His hands have become a bit calloused from fixing broken fences and felling dying trees, but the lanky teen-ager, who will be a senior at Our Lady Queen of Angels High School in Mission Hills when classes resume in September, has learned to like the job.

“I’m learning self-discipline,” he said recently as he made his rounds clad in shorts, a T-shirt and a baseball cap to shield him from the noonday sun.

Nguyen is one of 120 youngsters, ages 14 to 21, who are participating in a federally funded summer youth employment program run by the city’s Community Services Department.

Debbie Driscol, who has coordinated the program the last two years, said that participants gain work experience, learn about taking responsibility and stay out of trouble during the summer.

Participants are paid $4.25 an hour, and some make as much as $1,300 by the end of the 10-week program.

“This is not just a job, this is a maturing process,” said Driscol. “I want them to come out of this with better self-esteem, better work habits, and more aware of what’s there in the real world.”

Participants are generally selected on a first-come, first-served basis, but most come from poor families. Many are dropouts or have trouble in school. Some are pregnant, some are young parents and some have limited English skills, which makes it hard for them to find regular jobs, Driscol said.

In addition to job training, participants receive instructions in cultural diversity, the dangers of gang involvement, and such skills as doing a budget and balancing a checkbook.

Nguyen, who has five brothers and three sisters, said he has problems adjusting at home, and the program keeps him out of trouble.

“I’m not here for the money,” he said, adding that his family earns enough money from a sewing business so he can attend a private school. “I want to stay busy.”

Nghia Nguyen, (no relation to Tom Nguyen), said he accepted the farm job because of the money.

“I want to send some of it to my parents in Vietnam,” said Nghia Nguyen, who left his country by boat when he was 14 and now lives with an aunt in Westminster. He has two younger sisters still in Vietnam, he said.

Nghia Nguyen wants to join the Marines or, if he is not accepted, take an automotive course at Cerritos College in the fall. He will use the money from his summer job to pay for his tuition, he said.

“At first, I was bothered by the smell and the dust,” said Nghia Nguyen. “Now, I’m used to it. Besides, I need the money.”

The farm is owned by the Huntington Beach Union High School District, according to Jerry Gragson, 43, who runs the farm. It has 15 head of cattle, 25 pigs, about 100 chickens and nine Barbados sheep.