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Published: June 1, 2007
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EmailThis summer, many of Tyler Blankenship’s classmates will report to work at a restaurant. But they’re likely to be serving up burgers and fries — not creating salmon and vegetarian dishes for diners at the upscale Williamsburg Inn.
Blankenship, a 17-year-old Poquoson resident and aspiring chef, already has held paid full- and part-time jobs with the Inn’s kitchen. He started off peeling potatoes and worked his way up in the food chain until just last month, he helped make poached eggs and toast for the Queen of England during her visit to Jamestown.
“I have learned a lot,” Blankenship said. “I’ve seen that having a successful kitchen is more about teamwork than anything else. And the stamina you need is unbelievable. You wouldn’t think it is an adrenaline rush, but it really is when you’re trying to put out 20 plates at a time.”
The majority of teenagers who work in Hampton Roads still turn to typical first-time employers such as fast food restaurants, mall shops, community pools and Busch Gardens. But some — especially those who don’t need to earn a paycheck — look for internship or volunteer positions that can offer insights and training for future careers.
As the college application process and job market get more competitive, the numbers of those teens may be rising. The federal Department of Labor has reported a drop in teenagers in paying jobs in recent years, likely because a chunk of them have moved into unpaid internships.
At the Virginia Living Museum in Newport News, 43 percent of volunteers are younger than 18, said Shandran Thornburgh, director of volunteer services. “Everybody has their own purpose for coming here — whether it’s class credit or work experience — but often they enjoy it and want to stay,” Thornburgh said.
Depending on the type of training teenagers get, they can land lucrative jobs to help pay for college, said David Creamer, a principal with the New Horizons Regional Education Center on the Peninsula. New Horizons matches high school students with positions at car dealerships, dental offices, beauty shops and other small businesses. About half of the center’s students begin working right out of high school; the rest go on to college.
“We have students earning $20 an hour doing heating and air conditioning work,” Creamer said. “Even if it’s not the field they’re looking to end up in, they’re also learning basic employability skills like having a positive attitude and being on time every day. They tend to be the kind of employee a company is going to want to hire and train.”
Of course, waitressing and lifeguarding jobs require many of the same skills. According to one study from Northeastern University in Boston, in fact, any kind of early work experience can raise a person’s lifetime earnings by 10 to 12 percent (compared to a 1 percent gain for going to an elite college).
For teenagers who want more than a steady paycheck, finding a mentorship-type program usually takes extra initiative, said Eric Hairston, a former guidance counselor at Denbigh High School in Newport News who now helps low income students prepare for college. Programs often are competitive: New Horizons, for example, has had more than 300 students apply for 75 slots in its cosmetology program.
“You can talk to your guidance counselor and look into programs through schools,” Hairston said, “but you also should work any family connections or go down to a business yourself and ask if they have work you can do. If you want to go into medicine, show up at a hospital and say you’re willing to volunteer to get your foot in the door. Sometimes you’ve got to be aggressive.”
Luckily, many local employers have started programs for young workers over the summer or between classes during the school year. Libraries, volunteer fire departments and childcare centers can be options, as are museums such as the Virginia Air & Space Center in Hampton and Nauticus, the marine-themed science center in Norfolk. Books such as The Internship Bible published by Princeton Review have listings nationwide.
Although many of the positions are unpaid, the responsibilities often go beyond grunt work. At the Virginia Living Museum and Nauticus, a few volunteers get to help maintain the aquariums — a big draw for students serious about marine biology — and give educational presentations on animals or exhibits. “A lot of it is very hands-on stuff,” said Melissa Swanson, the volunteer coordinator at Nauticus.
Brittany Garman, a 17-year-old Suffolk resident, worked four to five days a week at Nauticus last summer, where one task was to help greet visitors. The museum’s focus didn’t exactly match her interest in aerospace engineering, but she said the public interaction — not part of her previous job filing papers at a medical office — helped her mature.
“At first I was scared about messing up, but pretty soon I realized that I like being a people person and putting myself up to a challenge,” Garman said. “It also solidified my interest in math and science.”
For Jenny Evans of Newport News, interning at a veterinarian’s office last summer cemented her desire for a career with animals. Evans, 16, took care of boarding cats and dogs, filed paperwork and shadowed staff members as they read lab tests. “I found out that I didn’t mind the messy parts of the job,” she said. “I was up for all of it.”
Tyler Blankenship knows he’s up for the life of a chef. After working at the Williamsburg Inn again this summer, he plans to study culinary arts at the Johnson & Wales University in North Carolina and eventually hopes to open his own restaurant.
“You can watch cooking shows on television all you want,” Blankenship said, “but you don’t know what it’s really like until you’re in there doing it yourself.”
