Summer employment offers interns life lessons, job skills across Polk County
Across Polk County, college-aged students are gaining summer job experience while doing good for their community.
Before attending college at Stetson University in the fall, nursing student Alexia Witherspoon will gain experience as a teacher’s aide while making money thanks to a program offered by CareerSource Polk.
The Lake Wales 18-year-old works with elementary school kids who have fallen behind on academics and need to catch up on reading and math skills lost during the pandemic. She works Monday through Thursday at the B Street Community Service Center for the Green and Gold Foundation, Inc.
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Witherspoon is learning about life too.
As her fourth and fifth graders reviewed nouns and verbs on Wednesday, she learned how different it is to help other people’s kids compared to dealing with her younger cousins at home.
“Some of them open my eyes a little bit and I learned to have more patience than I normally have with kids,” she said of her students who have rewarded her patience with their respect for her.
Nationwide, internships for high school and college students help graduates land their first job, according to Zippia.com. In fact, many businesses require internships.
Zippia research estimates there are 300,000 people who intern annually in the United States with 70% of them landing a position at the company that hosted the internship. Some internships can be paid at 60.8% or unpaid at 39.2% of internships.
They are also 15% less likely to be unemployed and 6% earn more than non-interns, Zippia said. On average across the U.S., interns are paid $20.76 per hour.
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Fellow intern Shelby Reeves, 20, of Lake Wales attended Frostproof Middle-Senior High School and said she has gained communication skills working with the students.
“With the kids I have to go up to the board and talk to them and tell them ABCs and stuff like that,” she said. Overall, the program is about “Having fun with the kids and helping them learn.”
Their supervisor and program director, Kayreen Neely at Green and Gold, is pleased with the interns who help the teachers in the summer program add an academic component to the art and recreational activities this summer, she said.
“They are helping and assisting in the classroom,” Neely said. “Teachers target reading and math so those that struggle, they work with them one-on-one.”
The nine-week summer internship through CareerSource Polk runs until Aug. 5 and offers students $15 per hour for up to 30 hours a week. Learning modules can also be completed as an incentive to earn up to an extra $1,600. Courses include topics on personal financial, resume building and mental health.
Beyond education, there are more than 200 positions through the CareerSource Polk programs, such as internships in hospitality, retail, information technology, government and warehousing.
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CareerSource Polk offers other paid work experience programs for young adults ages 16 to 24 who are high school or college students.
The program does have eligibility criteria which includes household income, according to Candace Franklin, director of outreach and communications.
“CareerSource Polk’s Young Leaders program is committed to helping Polk County young adults overcome barriers to education and employment,” she said. “These barriers include young adults that may be basic skills deficient, homeless, in foster care, an English language learner as well as a young adult who is pregnant or currently parenting.”
Paul Nutcher covers business and industry for The Ledger. He can be reached at pnutcher@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Summer employment growing across Polk County
