http://theneuroticparent.com/2011/02/summer-conundrum.html Angst-ridden look at the college admissions process Wed, 20 Apr 2016 03:30:39 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.41 http://theneuroticparent.com/2011/02/summer-conundrum.html#comment-1911 Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:18:43 +0000 http://theneuroticparent.com/?p=163#comment-1911 It’s great to hear from you and see what you’ve been up to. In your blog I feel your enthusiasm for life. thank you.

]]> http://theneuroticparent.com/2011/02/summer-conundrum.html#comment-1910 Tue, 15 Mar 2011 08:03:20 +0000 http://theneuroticparent.com/?p=163#comment-1910 Except a store like Jamba Juice would not take an unpaid intern due to insurance issues. They need to get hired so they are covered under workers comp, I bet!
And here in CT it is hard for teens to get hired especially just for the summer. Those jobs like at the fast food places, mall food court stores, and Dunkin Donuts go to Equadorians who are very hard workers and show up early and are loyal even though they struggle to communicate in English. I am not making this up.
There is a huge problem with American teens working at easy entry level jobs as they often quit, are lazy, don’t do the job, are late to work, call out sick or just don’t show up as scheduled.
Those places want year round workers they don’t suddenly have job openings in the summer months to fill with school kids too busy to work during the year.
Vacation spots with seasonal jobs like on Cape Cod bussing tables or serving burgers and ice cream cones at drive in shops and dishwashers at nice restaurants go to legal migrant workers from Jamaica or other locations. A relative owns a restaurant and has a terrible time finding local American born workers, adult or teenaged. If they didn’t have a migrant worker program they would go out of business. They also provide housing for the workers as it’s hard to rent a $3000 a week house to work a minimum wage job. I’m told in the 1970s and 1980s college kids from out of state would rent an old cottage wiht a big group of kids, for next to nothing and spend the day on the beach and the night working. Can’t do that now that it’s so expensive to rent in season!
MASS also has a large Russian migrant worker base for entry level service jobs, grocery store cashiers etc. I don’t know why CT is full of people from Equador and Mass seems to have more Russians and Czechs but it’s what I see.

]]> http://theneuroticparent.com/2011/02/summer-conundrum.html#comment-1909 Sun, 13 Feb 2011 13:11:37 +0000 http://theneuroticparent.com/?p=163#comment-1909 As tempting as that sounds, how about a less-pricey, excellent summer program for kids interested in engineering: Johns Hopkins Engineering Innovation. It’s taught at several locations, including three in SoCal. My son (Cal sophomore) took it at PCC between his sophomore & junior year – VERY hard, challenging, a lot of work but very rewarding. He actually wrote about it in one of his college essays. Here’s the website: http://engineering-innovation.jhu.edu/

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