Live-Work-Learn Program Leads to Jobs for Some Graduates – News

Atlantic City, N.J. — As the Stockton Atlantic City Summer Experience: Live-Work-Learn program enters its fourth year, not only are students getting to live for free, work in local
industry and learn about career readiness — they also are getting full-time jobs after
graduation.

“Having the opportunity to gain an internship and then have it evolve into a full-time
job, especially with how things are right now for most people postgraduation, I feel
very fortunate,” said Emma Martin, a 2025 Political Science graduate. She’s now the Office and Operations Manager for the Chelsea Economic Development
Corporation in Atlantic City after working with the group last summer. “And it’s a
job that I really enjoy doing.”

The Summer Experience — dubbed “Live-Work-Learn” — has offered hundreds of Stockton
University students paid jobs with Atlantic City businesses, campus housing covered
by the employers, and a series of career readiness training modules focused on teamwork,
leadership, critical thinking and character development.

“I don’t think I would have had anywhere near the same job experience that I have
now, and I don’t think I would have had as high of a career trajectory as I do now
without this program,” said Michael Mora, a 2025 Business Administration graduate who works as an assistant manager at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa.

Up to 600 students applied for this summer’s program with 200 working for 12 employers
in Atlantic City and Galloway Township, said Brian K. Jackson, Stockton’s vice president
for Community Engagement.

“One of the original goals of the Live-Work-Learn program was to serve as an experience
that would help keep talented students in the area after graduation and to expose
them to career opportunities they may not have expected or knew existed,” Jackson
said.

Martin didn’t even know that the Chelsea EDC’s office was inside Stockton’s Kesselman
Hall before landing a job there in the program the summer before her senior year.
The Chelsea EDC boosts economic development in the section of Atlantic City where
Stockton’s campus resides. The nonprofit holds community events, provides money to
improve business facades, helps to address public safety and code violations, facilitates
beautification projects and offers renters home-buying grants.

Martin continued to work part time at the Chelsea EDC during her senior year at Stockton,
and then she accepted a full-time job after graduation. In her new role, Martin manages
the nonprofit’s finances, helps out at events and trains and oversees this summer’s
Live-Work-Learn intern.

“The mission of our organization really spoke to me because my mom was originally
from Atlantic City and she loved it here so much,” said the Brigantine resident who
grew up in Hammonton. “I really wanted to be a part of the great changes that the
EDC is making in Atlantic City.”

Mora landed his first job at Borgata the summer before his sophomore year through
Live-Work-Learn, and he’s worked there full time ever since.

“I get student loan reimbursement from Borgata. I have benefits and health insurance.
I have job security throughout the year, all thanks to Live-Work-Learn,” said the
Mount Olive native, who oversees in-room dining, the Sunroom Lounge and the Outdoor
Pool. “I have year-round income I can rely on, which has definitely allowed me to
pursue things.”

One of those things was to enroll in Stockton’s Master of Business Administration program starting this summer. And thanks to the Atlantic City Summer Experience’s
expansion to include graduate students this year, he was able to continue to live
on campus this summer.

Mora hopes to finish his master’s by December, and in the meantime, he has spent a
lot of the summer training undergraduates in the Live-Work-Learn program.

“I would say that about 60% of my workforce right now are Stockton students. It’s
very interesting to have people that are going through the same journey that I did,”
he said. “They are starting out, and it’s kind of nice to be able to tell them the
experiences I’ve learned over the years and how to better themselves and what to do
and not to do.”

In addition to expanding to graduate students, opportunities for transfer students
were added this year, Jackson said. Students in the Transfer Pathways program between
Stockton and participating New Jersey community colleges can apply to the program
if they’ve received their associates degree before enrolling in classes for the fall
semester.

Jessica Gross is a transfer from Atlantic Cape Community College and is using Live-Work-Learn
to get acclimated to campus life. Before enrolling as a Criminal Justice major in the fall, she’s working as a security guard at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.
She patrols the casino floor, checks IDs of potentially underage gamblers, works on
crowd control and has learned card and dice destruction procedures.

“They aren’t treating us like seasonal employees,” the Egg Harbor Township resident
said. “It’s not like, ‘Well, you’re only here for three months, you don’t need to
learn that.’ They’re saying, ‘No, you need to learn it all.’”

Gross has especially loved dorm life with her three roommates at Parkview Hall.

“Everybody’s so friendly. We get along really well,” she said. “It’s nice because
I’ve spent only a little bit of time on campus, but by doing (Live-Work-Learn) in
the summer I’m more adapted to what dorm life will be like.”

Jackson sees the addition of transfer and graduate students as natural extensions
of growing the program, possibly to include additional employers outside of Atlantic
City.

“We would like to get accounting, finance, utility and law firms on board. And with
such a strong interest from our students in health care fields, we would like to offer
additional opportunities similar to AtlantiCare, one of our employers in the program,”
Jackson said. “Live-Work-Learn serves as a perfect training ground for our students
to develop their professional skills and for the employers to shape our students into
future, prepared employees.”

— Story by Mark Melhorn, photos by Susan Allen