About Some Kids I'm Very Proud of---
Interns see summer job as a benefit
Time off is traded for valuable experience toward college degrees or career choices
By Brandon Riedie
The North Little Rock Times
Thursday, August 4, 2005
For one, it’s a stepping stone to the foreign service. Another, insights to managing a career in education.
But for all the participants in the Mayor’s Summer Youth Program, a city internship is about much more than filing and copying and answering phones. It’s a chance to get paid for real-world experience in local government that can be applied to education and future careers.
A lunch with Steve Nawojczyk, the city’s youth services administrator, prompted Braye Cloud, 21, to join the program. The North Little Rock native had recently graduated summa cum laude from Lyon College with degrees in French, religion and philosophy, and history, and Cloud said he jumped at the chance to work in local government, given that he is interested in pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Clinton School of Public Administration.
And he will walk away after his first summer in the program with a much deeper appreciation of city amenities.
“A lot of people take things for granted, like the sidewalks over here or the traffic lights over there, but you never really think about the work it took to get those things in place,” he said. “Even when I’m not working, I’m constantly reminded of the things I helped take part in.”
His work this summer was primarily with Nawojczyk, doing everything from answering phones to helping research whether juvenile and youth curfews are effective at curbing violence, to help Nawojczyk prepare for a November court case in New York where he has been asked to testify.
“It’s first hand experience that a lot of people just don’t get,” he said of the opportunities provided by the internship. “Everyday is a learning experience.”
Mallory Rogers of North Little Rock, 20, hopes to use her city internship as a stepping-off point to a government career – in her case, foreign service with an eye to an ambassadorship some day.
“It’s not just the political side of working as an ambassador that interests me, but you get to see the human side and how each country and its people are interconnected,” said the junior at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, triple-majoring in international relations, European studies and economics.
This was Rogers’ second summer in the internship program, and this year she worked in the mayor’s office doing everything from answering phones to scheduling the mayor’s appointments.
She feels her experience has taught her more than just how her hometown operates.
“Not only has this internship helped me get comfortable with politics and talk to the public on a daily basis, but I also feel like I’m part of a family,” she said.
The program was started in 1991 and this year has more than 20 participants, many of whom have come back year after year. Internships are open to all high school students who are North Little Rock residents, and college students who are city or who attended North Little Rock High School. New interns start at $5.75 an hour and earn raises of 24 cents an hour with each additional summer they work, explained Sharon Tedford, administrative assistant in the mayor’s office who oversees the program.
She says it is good for the city as well as the students.
“During the summers, we’re spread pretty thin in City Hall, so we send out inters wherever they’re needed and they get lots of experience in every department,” she said. “I don’t think you quite understand how local government runs without actually working with it.”
Each intern can put in a maximum of 352 hours over the summer, and the cost to the city is about $32,000 each year.
Over in the police and courts building, sisters Loretta and Jennifer Gober, ages 22 and 21, are continuing a family tradition with their internships: Five of their eight siblings have also participated in the program.
Now in their sixth year as interns, the sisters have worked across the spectrum – in the street, public works and engineering departments, and for the past two summers in the North Little Rock District Court’s criminal division.
Chief Clerk Judy West said the two sisters’ enthusiasm has aided the court’s intern program, now in its second year, in getting off to “a great start.”
“They are not only quick and intelligent but they have initiative and take responsibility on themselves to find something to do,” West said. “I tend to save up little projects for them and that really takes of the pressure off us.”
Both sisters say they plan to apply their experiences to college studies, though neither is pursuing either a law or a criminal justice degree.
In fact Loretta Gober, a junior at the University of Central Arkansas, plans to put what she’s learning to work in a career in early childhood education.
“I can use what I learned to not only organize my classroom but to also organize things like my student’s grades,” she said.
Her sister Jennifer, a senior business management major at UCA, said the summer work has taught her how to deal with different personality types on the job.
“In business you just have to deal with people individually,” she said.
Brain Thomas was a 16-year-old skateboarder back in October 2001 when a white city car – which he thought at first was a cop – pulled up by him in a parking lot on JFK Boulevard.
Inside was Nawojczyk, and he was looking for skateboarders to help design the city’s new skate park. The teen took him up on that offer – and his life would never be the same.
Today, Thomas, now 20, is a junior at UALR and is in his third year with the summer program. He said it’s helped give some focus to his life.
“Before I met Steve, I spent all my time with friends and family, skateboarding whenever I could,” Thomas said. “My life just did a full 180.”
Now Thomas, a criminology and sociology double-major, splits his internship between working as a supervisor over 7 and 8-year-olds at the Rose City Boys and Girls Club Monday through Thursday, and giving tours on the U.S.S. Razorback submarine as chief deckhand on Fridays.
And though he likes both jobs for different reasons, you hear an almost contagious sense of excitement in his voice when he talks about working with the kids.
Thomas says he had never thought of working with kids, as he was originally a business major. But he decided to make child services his career on opening day at the Rose City club when he found a crowd of about 300 kids waiting outside.
“I really didn’t know what I was doing, so I basically started playing football and tried to learn names,” he said. “Coming [to the Boys and Girls Club] made me realize I can actually make a positive influence on these kids’ lives.”
Nawojczyk says the kids have also had a positive influence on Thomas.
“He just fell in love with kids and was brought out of his shell,” Nawojczyk said. “He changed completely.”
Time off is traded for valuable experience toward college degrees or career choices
By Brandon Riedie
The North Little Rock Times
Thursday, August 4, 2005
For one, it’s a stepping stone to the foreign service. Another, insights to managing a career in education.
But for all the participants in the Mayor’s Summer Youth Program, a city internship is about much more than filing and copying and answering phones. It’s a chance to get paid for real-world experience in local government that can be applied to education and future careers.
A lunch with Steve Nawojczyk, the city’s youth services administrator, prompted Braye Cloud, 21, to join the program. The North Little Rock native had recently graduated summa cum laude from Lyon College with degrees in French, religion and philosophy, and history, and Cloud said he jumped at the chance to work in local government, given that he is interested in pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Clinton School of Public Administration.
And he will walk away after his first summer in the program with a much deeper appreciation of city amenities.
“A lot of people take things for granted, like the sidewalks over here or the traffic lights over there, but you never really think about the work it took to get those things in place,” he said. “Even when I’m not working, I’m constantly reminded of the things I helped take part in.”
His work this summer was primarily with Nawojczyk, doing everything from answering phones to helping research whether juvenile and youth curfews are effective at curbing violence, to help Nawojczyk prepare for a November court case in New York where he has been asked to testify.
“It’s first hand experience that a lot of people just don’t get,” he said of the opportunities provided by the internship. “Everyday is a learning experience.”
Mallory Rogers of North Little Rock, 20, hopes to use her city internship as a stepping-off point to a government career – in her case, foreign service with an eye to an ambassadorship some day.
“It’s not just the political side of working as an ambassador that interests me, but you get to see the human side and how each country and its people are interconnected,” said the junior at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, triple-majoring in international relations, European studies and economics.
This was Rogers’ second summer in the internship program, and this year she worked in the mayor’s office doing everything from answering phones to scheduling the mayor’s appointments.
She feels her experience has taught her more than just how her hometown operates.
“Not only has this internship helped me get comfortable with politics and talk to the public on a daily basis, but I also feel like I’m part of a family,” she said.
The program was started in 1991 and this year has more than 20 participants, many of whom have come back year after year. Internships are open to all high school students who are North Little Rock residents, and college students who are city or who attended North Little Rock High School. New interns start at $5.75 an hour and earn raises of 24 cents an hour with each additional summer they work, explained Sharon Tedford, administrative assistant in the mayor’s office who oversees the program.
She says it is good for the city as well as the students.
“During the summers, we’re spread pretty thin in City Hall, so we send out inters wherever they’re needed and they get lots of experience in every department,” she said. “I don’t think you quite understand how local government runs without actually working with it.”
Each intern can put in a maximum of 352 hours over the summer, and the cost to the city is about $32,000 each year.
Over in the police and courts building, sisters Loretta and Jennifer Gober, ages 22 and 21, are continuing a family tradition with their internships: Five of their eight siblings have also participated in the program.
Now in their sixth year as interns, the sisters have worked across the spectrum – in the street, public works and engineering departments, and for the past two summers in the North Little Rock District Court’s criminal division.
Chief Clerk Judy West said the two sisters’ enthusiasm has aided the court’s intern program, now in its second year, in getting off to “a great start.”
“They are not only quick and intelligent but they have initiative and take responsibility on themselves to find something to do,” West said. “I tend to save up little projects for them and that really takes of the pressure off us.”
Both sisters say they plan to apply their experiences to college studies, though neither is pursuing either a law or a criminal justice degree.
In fact Loretta Gober, a junior at the University of Central Arkansas, plans to put what she’s learning to work in a career in early childhood education.
“I can use what I learned to not only organize my classroom but to also organize things like my student’s grades,” she said.
Her sister Jennifer, a senior business management major at UCA, said the summer work has taught her how to deal with different personality types on the job.
“In business you just have to deal with people individually,” she said.
Brain Thomas was a 16-year-old skateboarder back in October 2001 when a white city car – which he thought at first was a cop – pulled up by him in a parking lot on JFK Boulevard.
Inside was Nawojczyk, and he was looking for skateboarders to help design the city’s new skate park. The teen took him up on that offer – and his life would never be the same.
Today, Thomas, now 20, is a junior at UALR and is in his third year with the summer program. He said it’s helped give some focus to his life.
“Before I met Steve, I spent all my time with friends and family, skateboarding whenever I could,” Thomas said. “My life just did a full 180.”
Now Thomas, a criminology and sociology double-major, splits his internship between working as a supervisor over 7 and 8-year-olds at the Rose City Boys and Girls Club Monday through Thursday, and giving tours on the U.S.S. Razorback submarine as chief deckhand on Fridays.
And though he likes both jobs for different reasons, you hear an almost contagious sense of excitement in his voice when he talks about working with the kids.
Thomas says he had never thought of working with kids, as he was originally a business major. But he decided to make child services his career on opening day at the Rose City club when he found a crowd of about 300 kids waiting outside.
“I really didn’t know what I was doing, so I basically started playing football and tried to learn names,” he said. “Coming [to the Boys and Girls Club] made me realize I can actually make a positive influence on these kids’ lives.”
Nawojczyk says the kids have also had a positive influence on Thomas.
“He just fell in love with kids and was brought out of his shell,” Nawojczyk said. “He changed completely.”
posted by Steve Nawojczyk at
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