Summer job/activities for HS Jr?

Parents Forum
1

<p>I realize it's only Sept, but I like to think ahead...</p>

<p>Next summer my S will be entering 11th grade. Any ideas for summer activities he could sink his teeth into? He is very shy and lacks self confidence, but he did a great job this past summer volunteering on an organic farm (the owner was impressed with how hard he worked), and he's bright. I think S enjoyed the farm work, but I know he wouldn't want to do it all day every day (it's labor intensive). Plus it would be nice to get paid.</p>

<p>I'm hesitant to recommend to him a PT job at the local supermarket where "paper or plastic?" would be the extent of his interaction with others. I prefer something enriching. I'm not sure he would be up for going away from home by himself for an extended period, but I don't want him sitting around all summer either (he will glue himself to the TV and the xbox). Maybe a week-long stint somewhere? But then again, that would be only a week. I need a long-term solution.</p>

<p>Thanks for any thoughts.</p>

2

<p>BfloGal, Don’t underestimate the grocery store experience. Both of my S’s did it yr. 'round starting in 10th grade all the way through to graduation. </p>

<p>S1 was at the top of his class in h.s and has now grad. fr. college (where he continued to work for the same chain in his college town all the way through) with honors. He will be the first to say that he learned way more fr. his gro. store job than anything he learned in h.s. </p>

<p>He started as a bagger/cashier. By the time he was a senior, he was working behind the customer service desk and supervising the cashiers on 2nd shift. He learned to deal w/ unhappy customers with aplomb and keep the front end of the store running. He tallied the cash at the end of the night, ran tapes to make sure the tills came out right and deposited it in the store safe for bank dep. the next day. Every Sunday morning, S1 opened the store at 6 a.m. I mean he truly opened it. He had the keys to the store and was the first one there. He learned so much about responsibility ( had to go to work early the day after senior prom, had to work Spring Break while friends were vacationing,etc), being calm under pressure and getting the job done, manuvering store politics,organizational skills,etc.</p>

<p>He is now an Ensign in the U.S. Navy and will tell you that he learned many leadership skills intergral to his job by working for six years at the Harris-Teeter grocery store.</p>

<p>S2 worked at same store. He spent 2.5 years of h.s. working as a bagger/cashier. He was also a kid who didn’t really like talking to people he didn’t know.
The job helped him tremendously in that respect because he had no choice but to speak to the customers. Now he is so glib that I am astounded when I hear him talking to others. He got to know all the other baggers/cashiers, mostly h.s kids and it turned out to be a good experience. He also had somewhat of a short fuse and had to learn quickly that no matter what goofy thing the customer was demanding/complaining about, he had to stay cool.<br>
He was a varsity football player and the store was great about scheduling him around practices/games.
He wouldn’t want to spend his life being a bagger/cashier but it was a great first job and he learned way more than how to pack the perfect grocery bag…although he still takes great pride in it and critiques the work of other baggers who do it poorly:)</p>

3

<p>Does he like children?</p>

<p>Often, there are summer opportunities in local day camps – either as an unpaid counselor in training or as a paid counselor. Often, kids who work as volunteers one summer come back in later summers are paid employees.</p>

<p>In our community, at the CIT/volunteer level, kids can choose to work for only one or two sessions rather than the entire season – so they’re making a two to four week commitment, rather than signing up for a full eight weeks, the way the paid employees do. This would allow time for another activity if necessary. If your son has anything else he needs to get done this summer – such as taking an SAT course, taking driver ed, or getting his wisdom teeth pulled – he might prefer to have only a relatively brief job.</p>

<p>A lot of camps hire their paid employees and recruit their volunteers in the winter for the following summer, so you’re really not thinking much further ahead than necessary if your son is interested in this option.</p>

4

<p>I agree with PackMom. Get him out of his comfort zone now so he can learn the skills necessary for when he leaves the nest and must speak up for himself in college. Don’t underestimate the value of working in a grocery store for a kid. There is more to it than “paper or plastic”. He will learn communication skills, organizational skills, and leadership skills. The extra money and self-confidence is nice too.</p>

5

<p>I agree with others. I would love our quiet one to get a pt job interacting with the public as soon as she’s of age. </p>

<p>Maybe bagging isn’t so interactive, but working at McDs, DQ, the county fair, the local video store or a host of other classic HS student jobs is incredibly developmental. You have to interact with so many different people, deal with odd problems that come up, deal with your boss, show up for shifts, juggle a bunch of new skills, and there is usually also a lot of opportunity to socialize with same age workmates too. </p>

<p>I wish all my students could have real work experience before coming to college. It can really make a difference.</p>

6

<p>I wonder where you live. You might want to Google “youth development jobs” in your community or look into government jobs at your State House. I bet if you start asking people in your area and calling local agencies, you might find out about a lot of opportunities. It’s smart to think ahead when it comes to summer jobs. Good luck!</p>

7

<p>Wow, thanks everyone. I had no idea a job at the local grocery store could be so enriching! Really, I didn’t. But it sounds like he would have to be there over the realtively long haul to reap the benefits described by Packmom (thanks). He will be 16 in Dec, so he will be of working age, but I’m not sure he could hold a job during school. I’d prefer it if he started next summer. Not sure if they would let him work summers only.</p>

<p>As for summer camps, there is one that he could probably work at as a counselor, but I don’t think he would be too interested, at least not yet. That may be something for his summers in between college years.</p>

<p>Thanks everyone. I appreciate your thoughts.</p>

8

<p>D likes working with children - so she volunteered at a summer camp for children with disabilities this summer. Was there the entire summer - is hoping to get hired there next summer. I was a bit skeptical that she would have the patience to stick it out for the entire summer, but she loved it!</p>

9

<p>If he liked the organic farm, is there a home and garden center near you? They might want him part-time in the spring as the weather warms up, but he would almost be guaranteed to be laid off by the end of the summer as the seasonal sales slow down.</p>

10

<p>Here’s another vote for the grocery store. S is also shy and working with the public for the last three years has been a tremendously enriching experience for him, too. He’s met many interesting people while taking groceries out to cars. I don’t know of any other job that provides the opportunity/requirement to carry on sustained real conversations with customers. His company does 3 then 6 month reviews regularly and reaching “role model” status was bigger for him than all the raises combined. Another huge benefit was the physical therapy bagging provided. S was born premature and has mild cerebral palsy. He’s always avoided using his left hand whenever possible, but bagging required him to use both. His dexterity improved significantly. Working during the school year also required him to develop time management skills.</p>

<p>Someone told me once that smart kids will have the kinds of jobs that can sometimes insulate them from the general public. Adolescent jobs might be their only chance to do basic work and learn about and from regular folks, hopefully broadening their appreciation for the contributions of others. An interesting thought.</p>

11

<p>Woah - working in a grocery store is far more enriching than you make it seem. First of all, he will learn all about what it’s like to work in customer service - something far too many people don’t understand (and coming from a cashier, I know). I have interesting conversations with people every day, and there’s something about responsibility. I mean, I think getting a job for a few hours a week - ESPECIALLY in customer service - is incredibly beneficial. But I’m not a parent.</p>

12

<p>Sorry, I think I hit a button on my new laptop that sent my post before I was finished with it!</p>

<p>Anway, I was starting to say that sending your son to a “pre-college” camp in something he’s already interested in, like video game engineering, could be a great educational experience for him as well as giving him and you and idea of what it will be look when he’s in college. This could help motivate him in lots of other ways in school, as well as give him a wider circle of college bound friends who share his interests.</p>

<p>My S who just started college in engineering this Fall, attended WPI’s 2 week summer program for engineering which I had to “pressure” him into attending and be fully prepared to see the $2,000 fee be wasted if he didn’t like it (although an investment in education is never wasted in my book). He did areospace engineering, but they had a section on video gaming engineering which those kids seemed to really enjoy. Video Game engineering can be a very rewarding career field. </p>

<p>While he decided WPI wasn’t one of the colleges to which he’d apply, he had a blast with his experience there and next time I heard of an engineering camp at a school he was considering, he was happy to sign up, enjoyed that as well and I think the experience of attending and getting to know some people there, enabled him to get early acceptance to that school, even though he eventually decided to attend another college. WPI also had an amazing music component to this camp (kids had to pick a “non-academic” activity as welland I will never forget seeing him perform on his instrument along with 60 or so other kids he hadn’t even met 2 weeks before in an absolutely delightful concert that still gives me the chills just thinking about it)</p>

<p>For employment during HS, S worked at a local sporting goods store where he learned all sorts of great things about customer service, work ethic, time and money management, priorities, working well with different types of people and professionalism. I wouldn’t let him work more than 12 hours a week in high school so he would have time to study, get good grades and play sports. He didn’t have as much $ or as much down time as some of hifriends, but he still did have good times in HS and he was accepted into all 6 colleges where he sent his application.</p>

<p>Your son sounds like he had a great experience w/the organic farming and learned a lot; why not give him a very different type of experience now that will use something he already enjoys in a very different way that could help him immensely in his college application process and in “discovering his passion”. BTW, the camp fee was a huge sacrifice for our family, but a great investment of resources in the long run.</p>

<p>Hope this was helpful!</p>