An increasing body of evidence supports the need to connect academic work in high school to career development experiences. Contextualized education provides relevance for students, keeping them engaged and on track to graduate. At the same time, these opportunities help students build skills for future workplace success and spark curiosity for advanced study toward specific careers in college. Rigorous evaluation has found that participation in NYC’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) has been linked to a variety of academic and other benefits. In this report, Community Service Society (CSS) recommends that New York City commit to expanding and improving SYEP through a baselined, universal initiative aimed at enhancing the education and career development of all high school students in New York City. This document proposes a new NYC Paid Summer Internship Program.
HERE to HERE looks to long-standing organizations like CSS and others in the field to better inform our work of championing all young people and redefining the systems that unfairly burden Black and Brown students as they pursue their career ambitions. Development of this report was supported by Lazar Treschan, Director of Policy and Impact at HERE to HERE.
Download Summer-jobs-web-3.pdf