By: Jessica Stahl
Some, like Brendan Burke, land summer jobs that provide good connections and career insights. Many, like Samantha Parker, are looking to gain experience and skills that will help them achieve success later in life. Others, like Jonathan Joyce-Aguilar, find jobs that move them toward their dream careers. Either way, more and more students are forgoing traditional summer jobs -- and even financial gain -- in order to enrich their futures.
Burke, a student at South Side High School, is spending this summer as an intern in the natural gas pit of the Mercantile Exchange. Like many young interns, Burke used connections to land the high-level position; his uncle works in the Stock Exchange and his cousin got him hooked up with the company. He had no previous experience, and when he went in for his first day on the job he had no idea what he was in for.
Burke got much more than he bargained for with his summer internship. He describes his experience as "crazy" and "exciting," and he also set out on the path toward his future. Though he has been at work less than a month, Brendan has already figured out that he prefers the lively world of the exchange to a traditional desk job. He says, "I don't want to be sitting behind a desk and I don't want a price cap when I'm 25."
School has never been Burke's strongest suit, but this internship lifts his spirits, and going into the city makes him feel independent. Though many of his fellow employees didn't attend college, Burke intends to get a college education and has pledged to work harder in school, though he admits that "there is a fine line between telling yourself that and actually doing it."
The internship also gives Brendan a guarantee for his future. Once he graduates from college, he can return to the exchange as a clerk. He already talks excitedly about moving up from there and describes himself as "pretty lucky" to have this prestigious and educational summer experience.
Parker, who be a senior year at South Side High, was one of 29 students awarded a fellowship for summer research at Stony Brook University. Samantha is working in a lab, experimenting with a drug that has shown promise in the treatment of cancer. She is attempting to determine the specific genes in a cell that are affected by the drug.
Parker became aware of this summer opportunity because of her involvement in the South Side science research program. The school nominated her for the fellowship, and she was chosen from more than 100 applicants to work in the Stony Brook laboratory. She plans to develop her summer work into a project for the Intel Science Talent Search, which she hopes to enter in the coming year.
This summer job is not just a starting block for science competitions, however; for Parker it is the window to a world of career possibilities. She became interested in cancer and cancer research because her father struggled with the disease. Her goal is to eventually become a doctor, so the experience she is gaining this summer will be invaluable as she continues her studies and moves towards that goal. She is also seeing first-hand the non-medical applications of science and research and is beginning to consider what path she would most like to follow.
Parker works alongside professors and post-doctoral students, learning different techniques and protocols for working with cells and DNA. These are skills she won't learn in her high school science classes. The microbiology she is learning this summer is of graduate school level.
Working in the Stony Brook lab, Parker is amazed every day by how much she is learning and by the high level of work everyone is doing around her. She says, "It's more than a job, it's a whole new experience for me. A whole new world."
Joyce-Aguilar did not need an summer job to help him decide where to go with his life or how to get there; he knows exactly what he wants to do. He is traveling to Saratoga this summer to pursue his lifetime goal of becoming a jockey.
His father works at the Belmont racetrack, so Joyce-Aguilar has been around horses as long as he can remember. At 14 he went to a farm in Virginia to learn to ride racehorses, and he has been hooked ever since. He says he just "likes going fast."
Joyce-Aguilar works six mornings a week during the school year as a horse exerciser for trainer Mike Hushion at Belmont. Every morning before school, he rides horses to get them ready for races. In the summer, when Belmont closes, he is invited to travel to the Saratoga race track with Hushion, where he hones his horse-exercising skills.
This job is the opportunity of a lifetime for Joyce-Aguilar. He graduated from South Side High this year and plans to begin riding full time at Belmont in the fall. Because of the ties he has established with Hushion, the trainer will employ him as a jockey on his horses. Later, Joyce-Aguilar will work with an agent who will talk to trainers and get him jobs, but right now he is looking forward to any chance to race. With a little luck and a lot of determination, he "got a chance and took advantage of it," he says, and his drive is now leading him to the realization of his dreams.
The summer, without the time constraints of school, is a perfect time to pursue goals for the future. More and more young adults are realizing this and exploiting connections or relying on an intense work ethic to land summer jobs that will help them reach those goals. There is plenty to be said for using the summer to relax or simply earning a little cash, but many driven teenagers are seeking, and finding, more fulfilling ways to spend their time.
