Girls--and Some Boys--Get Taste of Workplace

Tina Jimenez, 14, felt like an important city employee Thursday as she handed out job announcements and answered questions on job openings at City Hall.

“We offer good pay,” she told those who stopped by.

The San Fernando teen was among 16 girls from 8 to 15 years old who visited the hub of municipal government for Take Our Daughters to Work Day, an annual event created by the Ms. Foundation to help preteen and teenage girls focus for one day on their ambitions rather than on how they look.

Other workplaces, such as the Los Angeles Zoo, broke the mold and welcomed boys.

At San Fernando City Hall, Tina and four other girls stood behind the city’s personnel counter and learned how the city of 23,000 works. Selena Garcia, 13, an eighth-grader at Holmes Middle School in Northridge, said she learned enough to want to become a city treasurer.

“I know it won’t be my money,” Selena said. “But I’ll be working with money, and that’s what I like.”

Tina said she might not be interested in a city career, but she learned what it takes to provide water, light and other services to city residents.

“It’s cool. You learn how everything works,” she said. “I mean, water does not come out by itself. There is work behind it.”

Leticia Lopez, city clerk and event organizer, said she hoped the girls would leave with the hope to return one day as a City Hall employee or police officer.

Of the 34 police officers in San Fernando, only one is a woman, city officials said. It may get another if Rosa Salgado, a 14-year-old Granada Hills High School freshman, reaches her aspirations.

“I want to be a detective and investigate murders,” Rosa said. “I like the mysterious stuff.”

At the zoo, 20 schoolchildren on loan to their parents experienced the zoo business from bottom to top. They helped clean a camel pen and met zoo fund-raisers.

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The zoo strayed from traditional Take Our Daughters to Work observations in two ways: It encouraged parents to bring their sons, and instead of having children shadow their parents, the youths were given tours of each department.

“What other kids can go back to school and say they scooped camel poop?” said Denise Tamura, the zoo director’s secretary.

Whitney Cole, 11, had visited the zoo several times, but while feeding carrots to an elephant Thursday she learned that elephants can grab food with their trunks.

Whitney, who attends Valley View Elementary School in Lancaster, said she is looking forward to white-collar work after raking straw in a dusty pen Thursday.

“I really liked when we went to get slushies,” said Whitney, whose mother, Tanzi, is the zoo’s school coordinator.

“I prefer the office work--with air conditioning.”