Editor’s note: Written by a high school student from the Bronx Youth Journalism Initiative, this article was published inside the July 12-25 print edition of the Norwood News as part of Bronx Youth Heard, a publication of the initiative. The Bronx Youth Journalism Initiative is a program of the Norwood News and Mosholu Preservation Corporation.

Ivette Guirachocha, a 16-year-old at DeWitt Clinton High School, has been working for the past few months at a store selling uniforms for private and Catholic schools. She is the youngest in her family and along with her five siblings, she works to help her mom pay the bills. Despite being a teenager in high school, Ivette likes working because it gives her a chance to be independent.

Many teenagers in high school like Ivette are interested in working during summer vacation or the school year to gain a sense of independence, and to feel more experienced when they go off to college. Others want to get out of the house and make money to buy the things that their parents won’t. But teenagers are finding it challenging to find a good job, and many say they end up doing things that they don’t enjoy just for the money.

“It’s honestly unfair because parents want kids out of the house and trying to take responsibility for what’s theirs, but jobs just don’t even call back,” said high school student John Ferrante.

Like most high school students, John didn’t have many connections. After hopelessly looking for a job, he gave up, and refuses to look for a job until after high school, when he thinks his chances of getting hired will be better since he thinks employers want someone with a high school degree.

For some, enjoying the job is not their main focus, as they see the money and experience as the best part. Jonathan Cohen, a 17-year-old from Riverdale, worked as a lifeguard last summer.

“I made good money, and that’s what counts,” he said.

While many high school students would love the opportunity to work during the school year, after searching for jobs and being shut down so many times, a lot of them simply give up. Although Ivette has a job, she agrees that finding work as a teen is hard.

“It’s only easy to find a job if you know the right people,” she said.

Raumel Santiago, a 14-year-old from John F. Kennedy High School, got a job at his local grocery store.

“It wasn’t really hard to find my job because my mom knew the owner, and she only had to talk to him,” he said.

Although most high school students struggle with finding a job during the school year, Summer Youth Employment — a city-run program that sets kids up with jobs during the summer — can be helpful. That‘s how Glen Franklin, a 17-year-old from DeWitt Clinton, got a job as a teacher’s assistant last summer. He said he loved his job because it helped him be more productive during the summer and taught him how to “communicate with children, care for them and monitor them.”

“The process was easy,” he said. “I had to apply online and that’s it.”

Namizata Kamagate, a student at the Walton High School campus, also got a job through Summer Youth Employment at a daycare.
She is grateful to the program because she wants to be a pediatrician in the future and working with children last summer gave her the much-needed experience that she was looking for.

“It really wasn’t bad pay considering the work was minimal,” she said.

But Summer Youth Employment budget cuts have made it harder for high school students to rely on the program to get jobs. From 2008 to 2012, the program’s funding decreased from $56.5 million to $43.5 million, decreasing the number of students enrolled by 11,176 people.

“It’s a lottery and only a small percent of students get chosen,” said Elizabeth Wilson, who directs the College Now program at Hostos Community College.

Ralphy Sanchez, a student at the High School of American Studies at Lehman College, has applied to the Summer Youth Employment for the past two years but has not been chosen. Because of budget cuts, the program is only able to accept 23.2 percent of applicants.

“It’s frustrating that the applicants are so randomly chosen because no other job wants to hire such a young person, and Summer Youth isn’t helping me either,” Ralphy said.