Virginia Beach’s Summer Youth Employment Program: A Tale of Three Interns

By: Hannah Furman

Author: Hannah Furman

The Virginia Beach Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) is about more than getting a paycheck. It is about understanding your potential and jump-starting your journey toward a successful future. I know this because I participated in the program myself. SYEP is an eight-week summer work experience for young people aged 16 to 21. Over the summer, we have gained workplace-readiness and financial literacy training as well as transferable skills for the future.

As a rising college sophomore majoring in marketing, my job this summer was in the Youth Opportunities Office with Virginia Beach Parks & Recreation, where I managed the SYEP social media and communications operations.

Besides gaining valuable work experience, I had opportunities to learn about real-world marketing and communications, and I was given an abundance of creative freedom in the projects I was assigned.  For instance, I was entrusted with pioneering and establishing a podcast that can showcase SYEP and its youth workers. I had the freedom to use my own voice and make it completely my own. 

My supervisor, Andréa Holloman, went above and beyond to reach out to various city organizations as well as private businesses to allow me the opportunity to connect with professionals in the field of marketing and public relations.  I sat in on a planning meeting of the Virginia Beach Parks & Recreation marketing team and shadowed their traffic manager. I also watched the process of shooting a commercial at The Virginia Aquarium.

It is clear that those who work in the Youth Opportunities Office genuinely care about the youth workers’ professional development. The opportunities and experiences from summer 2019 will stay with me as I continue to learn and grow as a marketing professional.

Alana Allbritton: Gaining “Real World” Skills 

Alana Allbritton, now a rising senior in college, found her career path after starting with SYEP five years ago when she was 16. Alana was initially placed in the Youth Opportunities Office, working behind the scenes for the program. After that first summer, she began working year-round with Parks & Recreation Special Events doing a variety of tasks from filing papers to providing customer service for the permitting office. 

Alana decided to return to SYEP in Summer 2019 to request a job placement that pertained to her computer science major.  She had already developed a passion for the department and was able to spend her summer as a data analyst for Business Systems.  Here
she compiled and analyzed data from all of the city’s parks and recreation centers.  

Over the past five years, Alana has gained valuable work experience in professional settings, preparing her well for ”the real world” after she graduates from college in Spring of 2020.  Her ideal career is to work in local or state government, and I have no doubt that she will be incredibly successful.

Jeanette Lam: Jump-starting a career-making documentaries

Jeanette Lam was looking to jump-start her career in film when she worked with SYEP in the summer of 2017 as a media specialist (videographer/editor) when she was 20 years old. At that point in her life, she had just been accepted into her first film festival and purchased her first set of professional camera equipment. That summer provided Jeanette with her first “real” job experience, where she gained the transferable skills she needed for the career she wanted. She also gained a mentor in Nicky Vasquez from the Youth Opportunities Office, who
                                           continues to connect with her often.

“SYEP was my first paid video gig, and in many ways, the catalyst of my career in documentary film,” she said. “Being that I had little professional film experience before then, Ms. Nicky really believed in me while I was still learning to believe in myself. This type of mentorship is crucial for every young artist. Because of the creative autonomy, she granted me, I had the opportunity to work hands-on with my community and learn at a faster pace than I would have in any other video internship.”

Jeanette has since graduated from the University of Richmond with a degree in Leadership Studies, Journalism, and Film Studies. This summer, she was accepted into the Next Doc Fellowship, a
prestigious year-long fellowship for young documentary filmmakers of color. Most recently, she finished her summer employment as a Digital Media Fellow with World Learning, where she created a series of mini-documentaries capturing the study abroad experience of American high school students in South Africa.

If you were not impressed enough, this fall she will be starting a full-time position in Albany, NY, with Youth FX. Youth FX is a film organization specializing in youth education, documentary, and commercial work where she will be directing a film making program inside a juvenile facility, funded by Carnegie Hall.

The success Jeanette has seen in the short amount of time since her participation in SYEP is remarkable, and it has been incredible to see her talents receive the recognition they deserve.