YouthWorks is Preparation for the Future

Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford talks to YouthWorks students about the positive experience gained from a summer job.

At the YouthWorks Kick-off last Monday, I looked out at the 64 students participating in the program and I felt confident about the future. Sitting there were potential future CEOs, community leaders, public officials – maybe even a Secretary of the Department of General Services!

Indeed, as our guest speaker, Lieutenant Governor Boyd Rutherford, noted, he never thought he’d be Maryland’s Lieutenant Governor when he got his first summer job as a dishwasher.

The students include 23 interns who have been placed in various divisions within DGS, 24 interns placed at the Maryland State Department of Education’s Baltimore City headquarters, and 17 students placed at the Department of Human Resources. YouthWorks started on June 25 and runs until July 31. The program gives Baltimore City youth between the ages of 14 and 21 opportunities to work with mentors who are helping them develop positive work habits and job readiness skills. And the students are getting training in financial literacy and guidance in developing a personal career portfolio.

The program’s slogan, “Summer Jobs Launch Careers,” speaks to the future, because the YouthWorks experience is also a launching pad to adulthood. The students are instilled with a work ethic that will serve them well throughout their lives, as well as responsibility, accountability and respect for authority.

I’m so excited about DGS’s participation in this program. We’re making it a worthwhile experience that the students can look back on and say it made a positive difference. Maybe five or ten years from now, one of these students will return as a DGS employee.