Platform / Youth Opinion : What Does a Summer Job Accomplish? : The Employees

CHRIS GRISANTI

18, senior, Capistrano Valley High School, Mission Viejo

There’s a lot of eligible students looking for jobs in Mission Viejo. I sent in several applications, about 10 in all, and finally, just out of luck, I found a department store that had a sign up saying, “Now hiring.” I walked in and got an interview.

I’m a showroom and floor associate. I deal with customers, help them find items, ring up their bills and order things from the warehouse.

This job helps me to get a better knowledge of what people are looking for in a product, and it hopefully will help me as I go on to the business after college.

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KARIMA CHARLES

18, senior, John F. Kennedy High School, Granada Hills

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I like to interact with people. Last year, I was a secretary at a psychology office. I’m currently working as a receptionist/office worker at a Jewish Community Center.

Sometimes it can be a bit tedious--what job isn’t? But the best part for me is when it starts to get a bit boring I just think of how many people don’t have jobs [or] how many people don’t make an honest living. And when I attend UCLA in the fall I hope to have a little bit of pocket change and a sense of independence.

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DENNIS ALVARADO

19, 1994 graduate of Centennial High School

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This summer job [at Cities in Schools in Compton] is my first real job. I got it from the Yellow Pages. I was looking for computer classes and called here. This was even better--I not only get computer training but a job. I’m putting papers in files and I’ll be working on the computers too. It’s difficult to find a summer job these days because everywhere you go they ask you how many words you type per minute and if you’ve ever [worked] on a computer before. After this, I want to go to more education, trade school, and learn more about computers.

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TERRANCE J. EVANS

18, senior class president, Inglewood High School

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This year I’ll be going to summer school at the college I’ll be attending--Cornell University in New York--but last year I was looking for a summer job. One of the problems I ran into was that most of the government programs for summer jobs are not available to middle-class students.

I did make several applications to various businesses in the community and one of my teachers made me aware of a program at the school where my parents’ income [wouldn’t be a factor]. I was able to get a job as a summer tutor at Inglewood High School.

I was able to use the money for supplies and back-to-school clothes and contact lenses.

The Employers

HAROLD H. MARTINEZ

Founder and chief executive, Able Industrial Products, South El Monte

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I am a byproduct of a summer job back in 1952. I saw the values that I received as an after-school and summer job employee. It taught me discipline in terms of the schedule an employer sets for an employee. It also teaches respect for one another and for what the product does for the industry and for the economy.

A summer job also gives the young lady or the young man an outlook of what to expect as an employee without education. The educated individual with a degree dictates to the job market and without a degree the job market dictates to them.

The two things I look for in a summer job applicant are their appearance--they don’t have to have the latest fashion as long as it’s clean and neat--and their promptness.

Right now we have two [summer employees]. I only have 30 employees but I recommend quite a few [summer applicants] to friends of mine--and that’s another area, that we need to network. Those of us that can [provide summer jobs], even if we help one or two, that’s one or two more that won’t be roaming our streets, wondering what to do with their time.

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ARTRICIA WOODS

Director of educational services, Cities in Schools of Compton, Inc.

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Cities in Schools is one of the largest dropout prevention programs in the nation. We’re the Compton-based office. We work with at-risk youth to keep them involved in activities and training.

We have the Summer Youth Employment Training Program, funded through Los Angeles County, where we provide at least 200 jobs to teen-agers in the city. The idea is to take a youth, ask them what they want to do when they graduate and try to put them in that type of situation so they can see what it is and decide whether that’s still what they want to do.

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BARBARA DUNCAN

Director of employment and Disney University, Disneyland

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We look for students who have wonderful human relations skills, great communication skills, a natural enjoyment of dealing with thousands of people and who have a service orientation since much of their work is serving our guests, answering questions. We look for flexibility to work weekends and holidays.

Many of our cast members come back to us years later and say that Disney on their resumes really helped open doors. Training in hospitality and guest service is the primary skill that we feel they’ll walk away with after a summer with us.