The Mayor Marion S. Barry Summer Youth Employment Program is celebrating its 40th year of helping expand horizons and opportunities for young adults and kids in D.C. with a new federal partner.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced its High School Scholars Internship Program at an event on Wednesday that included city officials and 85 young participants.
“I’m ready to learn new things like dealing with accounting and finance, and how to invest my money, and things like that,” Aliyah Clark, 17, said. “I’m really excited about the program.”
The veteran of two previous years with D.C.’s summer jobs program has high expectations for what she’ll get out of the 2019 six-week internship that she will attend Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. till 4:30 p.m., where she will get paid $20 an hour.
“A whole new different view of everything. I feel like my perspective will be different about the world,” Clark said.
Some 11,000 teens and young adults will participate in the employment program this summer, including 700 employers at 1,7000 sites across all wards of the city.
Touting the benefits of internships or any summer job experience, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said it’s important for kids to learn what jobs mean.
“What do you do each and every day, what should they be studying in college, what does it mean for their earnings potential, what does it mean for their other opportunities,” Bowser said, noting that some kids might learn that they want to do something else.
“But, all of those experiences are important,” Bowser said.
Wrapping up the event, the director of minority outreach for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Glenda Cross, offered the first round of internship participants encouragement with a quote by Norman Vincent Peale: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”
