‘I’ll be ready’: Camp HERricane preps girls for careers, emergencies and disasters<\/a><\/p>\nKayla Harmon, a political science major at the University of Alabama who interns in Commissioner Lumon May\u2019s office, has improved her skillsets as well.<\/p>\n
Adaptability, effective communication, organization and problem-solving are among the skills that Harmon, another second-year intern, said she has honed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never know what may come up when working in the community, so I think being able to adapt is important. I\u2019ve learned how to think quickly on my feet,\u201d said Harmon, who plans to become an attorney and said she would consider working for Escambia County.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis experience has really opened my eyes to the importance of local government.\u201d<\/p>\n
May, who advocated for the program, said during the first year \u2013 2017 \u2013 only 17 interns were hired by the county. This year, over 1,700 applications were received.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look at this program as an opportunity to let children see how they can get a job in their county. They don\u2019t necessarily need a master\u2019s degree or a Ph.D.,\u201d said May, who worked in a summer job program as a teen. \u201cWe have jobs in maintenance. We have jobs in engineering. We have jobs in human services. They can stay here. So often, we lose so many of our bright and talented children to other communities because they go away because of a lack of opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n
May also saw the program as a way to help children from low-income and underserved communities earn money while learning job skills. He noted it also provides the county with a pool of diverse applicants.<\/p>\n
This summer, one intern has already been hired for a full-time position in the county\u2019s animal shelter and another by a community partner. Since the program began, May estimates about 30 or so interns have joined the county\u2019s workforce.<\/p>\n
He also stressed the importance of paid internships.<\/p>\n
\u201cA poor child needs a paid internship. It\u2019s great to get an internship to learn, but it\u2019s even better to learn while you get paid. So that\u2019s why we did the summer intern program, that\u2019s why we did the Block-by-Block Program \u2013 teaching them HVAC, masonry and construction skills. To go after that target population that may not ever get an opportunity unless they are trained or unless they are mentored,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The seven-week employment program started in early June and will end on July 18. Interns earn $13 to $15 per hour and work up to 30 hours per week. However to be hired, applicants must first get through a rigorous employment screening and interview process.<\/p>\n
Myesha Mitchell, the county\u2019s Safe Neighborhoods program manager who also oversees the employment program, said applicants are interviewed by a committee with six county staff members.<\/p>\n
\u201cSelected applicants are then matched with departments based on their skillsets, interests, goals and the needs of each county department,\u201d Mitchell said, noting the interns also have a voice in the decision.<\/p>\n
And during orientation, Mitchell said she always brings in a financial literacy specialist to help the young people with money management skills.<\/p>\n
Amari Young, a Pensacola State College student, said the program has changed her career outlook.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had never considered a career with Escambia County before my internship, but I\u2019ve been able to meet and network with so many different people and really see the opportunities available here, which is a rare for someone my age,\u201d said Young, 21, who works in the county\u2019s human resources department.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On most weekday mornings, James Simpson III can be found running a group of 5- to 13-year-old summer…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":40538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[32223,64,3059,32222,32225,246,32224,420,425,728,50,450,1457,1451,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-40537","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-bcc","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-county","11":"tag-escambia","12":"tag-escambia-county-bcc","13":"tag-family","14":"tag-internships","15":"tag-jobs","16":"tag-local","17":"tag-local-news","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-overall","20":"tag-overall-positive","21":"tag-positive","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114800185996092024","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}