GRAFENWÖHR, Germany — Vilseck High School sophomores Megan Moore and LeQuantus Wilson won’t be wasting their summer days playing XBox, watching TV or trying to beat boredom.
The two 15-year-olds plan to spend the summer acquiring job skills and working as apprentices on the base as part of a new Installation Management Command program called HIRED!
The program is part of IMCOM’s new Venture Point initiative, which also includes after-school activities and a program that lets parents exercise, bowl and participate in other Morale, Welfare and Recreation activities while someone keeps an eye on their children.
“This is exciting because this is not just kids raking leaves or teens just Xeroxing or mopping the floor,” said Ingrid Osewalt, director of the Center of Expertise for Youth Programs Family and MWR Command-Child Youth and School Services.
HIRED! has put Megan in an apprenticeship at the Grafenwöhr Performing Arts Center, where she will help with marketing and learn about other aspects of the theater business. She has done some work on sets for center productions and has been in plays as well.
“I think it will look good on my resume for college if I get involved in theater,” Megan said. “I think I will actually be working [in the program].”
Megan described the interviewing process to get the apprenticeship as “nerve-racking.” Although she said she believes it will be demanding work, she does not mind because she is interested in theater and she views it as a possible profession.
LeQuantus will help with field trips and other duties while working with the garrison’s Child, Youth and School Services.
“I do like working with kids,” LeQuantus said.
He added that he is considering a career that would allow him to work with children and he thought the apprenticeship would be a good way to get some insight on such a job.
HIRED! is a year-round program with each term lasting 12 weeks, and teens ages 15 to 18 can participate in two terms each year, said Nena Stetson, the program’s coordinator at Grafenwöhr.
“It is competitive. Our goal is to place everyone,” Stetson said.
The only requirements for students is that they maintain a 2.0 grade point average and they complete the program’s preparation work, which includes learning phone, computer, resume-writing and other job skills, Osewalt said.
Osewalt said the goal is to get as many teens as possible involved and to get them coming back. Their feedback, input from the teens’ mentors and the number of students who get involved will determine whether it is successful, Osewalt said.
“The longer you stay with it, the more experience you get,” she said.
The more terms the teens complete, the more money they get as well.
Kansas State University is providing students with certificates of completion and $500 after they complete their first and second term, $625 for doing a third and fourth term and $750 for finishing a fifth and sixth term, Osewalt said.
“We certainly are interested in attracting as many teens as we can,” she said.
