 |
Lencho
Age: 17
Job: Camp counselor, café staff, etc.
 Lencho’s
first jobs included mowing lawns and babysitting. He says
his first serious work experience though was at Camp Waskowitz
a few summers ago.
The camp, owned by the Highline School District, partners
with the King County Stay-in-School program to give high-school
students paid work experience tied to science, math and environmental
studies. Youth study water quality, survey groves of trees
and build camp structures for hourly pay.
The camp also invites teens to be camp counselors for sixth
graders—an opportunity Lencho accepted a total of four
times. Now, Lencho also balances a heavy school and sports
calendar with a regular job at a café at Seatac
Airport.
“Before the program, I didn’t have any real
work experience,” he says. “It showed me responsibility—to
be on time, take it seriously.”
Now a junior, Lencho is keeping his grades on track and
planning for life after graduation. His many options include
college and a career as a firefighter.
|
Nidah
Age: 17
Job: book shelver, Barnes and Noble
 Start Nidah talking about books, and watch her enthusiasm
quickly overtake her shyness. Despite being bright, Nidah
had difficulty with communication due to learning disabilities
and a speech impediment, so her confidence was low.
She started slow—working in the school library—and
built up to a summer job at the Bellevue Public Library.
She shelved and straightened books and got used to talking
with people she didn’t know—a big step for her.
Then she got an internship at Barnes and Noble doing much
the same work—but in the “real world” of
a for-profit retail store.
"At the library I mostly worked by myself,” Nidah
says. “At Barnes and Noble I work with someone and
talk more to co-workers. I feel like I have made friends
with some of my co-workers. That is also making it easier
to talk to people on the job. I feel like I can get a letter
of recommendation."
|
Sam
Age: 20
Job: Barista, Tully’s
 Sam
already knew enough about the “real world” when
he stumbled on YouthCare’s Barista Training and Education
Program. He was homeless and had just lost his job washing
dishes and serving food. With no job skills to speak of—and
haunted by an old arrest—his prospects were dim.
But three months after joining the program, Sam was trained
as a barista, ready to go to work and optimistic about the
future. He got a job at Tully’s. He now has his own
apartment and is planning to go to community college.
“You don’t have the ways and means to live if
you don’t have work,” he says. “You need
some kind of foundation.”
Sam’s boss at Tully’s,
Margaret:
“I love working with youth. They have energy! The unknown
is something to be curious about instead of that thing you
avoid—and they have this optimism that it just might
be great.”
|
Christina
Age: 19
Job: Cosmetology apprentice, Studio 904 salon
 For Christina, becoming an apprentice “was
the best thing that ever happened to me.”
At Studio 904, under the kind and watchful eye of owner
Kay Hirai, Christina is learning to style hair, do color
treatments, provide manicures and pedicures. Equally important,
she is learning “to pace myself and appreciate myself
on the inside.”
Christina, who dropped out of high school and experienced
substance abuse as well as other difficulties, had worked
in entry-level retail jobs. But with no education and no
trade, she seemed likely to be stuck in such jobs forever.
After going through Studio 904’s customer service
training—which Hirai provided to 25 at-risk youth from
the King County program—Christina applied to become
an apprentice there. The salon has a state grant designed
to encourage apprenticeships in non-traditional fields such
as cosmetology. By being an apprentice, Christina will save
several years and many thousands of dollars over attending
cosmetology school.
Supported by the WDC program and Hirai, Christina is making
her way through the salon’s step-by-step training curriculum.
She has also passed all five tests to receive her GED and
plans to become a licensed cosmetologist and esthetician
when the two-year apprenticeship is over.
Her new career path is showing her a better future for herself
and her two-year-old son, Casey.
“I never had a plan or goal,” she says. “Now
I have one and am sticking to it. I know I have to work hard,
be committed, perform and put myself into it.”
|
Rael Daruszka
Age: 20
Job: IT help desk
 When Rael Daruszka turned 18, he moved to Seattle alone,
looking for a new start.
He had no high-school diploma. Although he soon got a minimum-wage
job to stay afloat, he knew it wouldn’t get him very
far. Rael wanted to do more, learn more, but he didn’t
have the resources to access more training.
Then he heard about the Digital Bridge Academy. A WDC-funded
program, Digital Bridge offers computer training for disadvantaged
youth through the Learning Center at WorkSource North Seattle.
Once he got his A+ CISCO certification, Rael got an internship.
He worked on the 23rd floor of law firm Davis Wright Tremaine
in downtown Seattle, staffing the help desk and taking tech-support
calls from DWT offices all over the country.
Rael also realized getting his GED would improve his prospects
for further schooling and work. He enrolled in a GED class
and completed it.
Now 20, Rael says his short-term goal is to finish his AAS
degree in Computer Information Systems. His long-term goal
is to become a server administrator and/or start his own
business building custom computers.
“If people tell me what they want their
computers to do, I can put all the pieces together to make
it happen,” he
says.
|
Sokhoeun
Age: 20
Job: Certified Nursing Assistant, Bessie Burton Sullivan Skilled Nursing Residence
 Sokhoeun’s
experience caring for her grandmother, and her grief at losing her, left
a strong impression on this young adult.
She says it’s the reason she developed
an interest in nursing and caring for elders. When she finished
high school, Sokheoun entered Project Start Out – a
collaboration between the WDC, City of Seattle Youth
Employment Program and South Seattle Community College.
She learned not just CPR and caring for patients, but
life planning, resume writing and job searching.
When an internship came up, Sokheoun jumped
at the chance. She became an intern with Bessie Burton Sullivan
Skilled Nursing Residence.
“I was surprised at how well I was prepared
to work,” she says. “By the end of my internship
eight residents were my responsibility. I developed meaningful
relationships with them and found that they often cheered
me up when I was having a bad day.”
Even before the internship was completed,
Sokheoun let her supervisor at Bessie Burton know she was
interested in working full time as an employee. On July 1,
2004, Sokheoun was hired.
"From the beginning, Sokhoeun understood
what work was all about,” says her supervisor. “She
wasn't afraid to start at the bottom, learn the job from
the ground up, and then move up from there.
"Age isn't necessarily the determining
factor in what makes a good employee—it's how mature
someone is."
|
