Summer Internships

June College Search Guide

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 1 June 2021 on Hey SoCal

Johns Hopkins University | Courtesy Photo

The road to college

June usually marks the end of the school year and the start of summer break. Many teens have been vaccinated and those who are hoping to find summer jobs will not be disappointed. According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas (CGC), the summer of 2021 is shaping up to be a boon for teen job seekers, as it predicts teens will gain two million jobs.        

In its summer job outlook forecast, CGC’s senior vice president Andrew Challenger said, “Retailers, quick-service restaurants, and amusement parks are looking for workers right now and many are having a hard time finding them, despite the 8.4 million Americans who are out of work. This summer, as vaccine numbers increase and regions see transmission rates go down, consumers will be ready to spend at retailers, restaurants, and amusement parks, as well as enroll their children in parks programs and summer camps, creating thousands of opportunities.”

CGC’s report included statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) estimate that roughly 25% of the population is fully vaccinated and almost 40% have received at least one shot of a two-dose vaccine as of April 19. Meanwhile, March retail sales surged 9.8%, nearly double what was predicted, likely due to the impact of the stimulus payments. Employment in leisure and hospitality increased by 280,000 and in eating and drinking places by 176,000, according to the latest employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This will only continue to go up as restrictions ease nationwide.

Moreover, CGC stated that summer jobs created for teens aged 16 to 19 years old soared to 2.2 million during the pandemic-induced recession last year, as the types of jobs created en masse last summer were those that traditionally go to teen workers.

While CGC didn’t have a rosy prediction about 2020 summer jobs, it reported that last summer saw a record-high 2,192,000 jobs gained by teens, a 26% increase from the 1,737,000 jobs gained by teenagers in the summer of 2019. The number of employed teens was down by over one million jobs from peak employment of 6,409,000 in July 2019 to 5,353,000 in July 2020. As of March 2021, 4,890,000 teens are employed, up from 4,811,000 in the same month last year. 

The scheduled lifting of most restrictions on June 15, will also mean that there will be summer internships available. Encourage your children to call some of the local businesses or even go online to find one that speaks to their passion. A few internships in Southern California can be found on this website.   

Additionally, as summer camps reopen, there will be more activities for your children this summer. Camps are a wonderful way for them to meet other kids or reunite with friends they hadn’t seen all year. If you didn’t manage to book a Tom Sawyer camp, check out your local schools’ summer offerings.

Enrichment programs are a fun and educational way for children to spend the summer months. Your local school most likely has an activity that’s appropriate for each age group and grade level; the Pasadena Educational Foundation (PEF) has an excellent program for PUSD students.            

| Courtesy photo

FRESHMAN

Some schools may have eliminated final exams and given pass or fail grades in lieu of the letter grades, which must have been a disappointment for straight-A students. But that shouldn’t deter them from continuing to get excellent grades because the student’s GPA is the single, most important component of their transcript. And with the UC system’s decision to drop the SATs and ACTs from their requirements, students’ GPAs have become ever more significant.       

If your children can find summer enrichment activities, they should definitely pursue these. They also need to do a lot of reading to help them prepare for all the essays they will have to write when they start sending out their college application. Brianna Chu, a tutor at Mundo Academy, wrote a blog about essay writing that your children might find useful.

SOPHOMORE

Your children’s end-of-year marks in 10th grade should have improved over last year’s if they didn’t do well in their freshman year. College admissions officers want to see students who continue to better themselves. 

While the UC system has dropped the standardized test requirement, not all universities have. So your children need to take the ACT or June SAT subject tests.

JUNIOR

The school year that just ended was a pivotal one for your children as it will be the last full year that college admissions officers will see on your kids’ application. It should reflect your children’s efforts at getting the best marks they could muster, and an improvement over the first two years of high school. 

This is going to be their busiest summer with standardized tests like the ACT, SAT, SAT IIs, and APs. If they have not seen the schools they are considering applying to, they might consider taking virtual tours.

Your children should start thinking about their personal statement and should have learned how to write compelling essays. They should be checking in with their school counselor to make sure they have taken all the required courses for graduation and college; and lining up teachers they would like to ask for recommendations.

SENIOR

Schools reopened for in-person learning in the last few months. If your children went back on campus, they were able to properly say goodbye to their teachers and friends. Some high schools held either virtual graduations or had ceremonies divided into small groups. I hope you attended their commencement rite and celebrated with your graduate.       

Your children have accomplished a major milestone – successfully completing high school and getting accepted into a college or university! This period in their life will never again be repeated, so let them revel in what they have achieved. Give yourself a pat on the back while you’re at it; you deserve some credit in helping them get to this point. 

Community Organizer Intern at Pasadena Playhouse

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 27 August 2015 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, and Sierra Madre Weekly

Giselle Boustani-Fontenele had an amazing summer. No, she didn’t do anything daring at some exotic locale like swim with sharks at Ambergris Caye in Belize, or climb the peaks of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Giselle spent ten weeks as The Pasadena Playhouse’s Community Organizer (CO) summer intern.  She did, however, brave the daily commute from her home in Tarzana to Pasadena.

For the first time, the internship program at The Playhouse was financed through a grant from the Los Angeles County Arts Commission (LACAC). Gisele reported to Seema Sueko, Associate Artistic Director, who joined The Playhouse in January 2014 from the Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company in San Diego. Sueko originated  Consensus Organizing for Theatre as a means to build partnerships with the community which, in turn, translates into higher ticket sales.  

During her internship, Giselle learned about Consensus Organizing by asking questions and by watching Sueko, and Victor Vazquez, The Playhouse’s Real Women Have Curves (RWHC) Community Organizer. She attended meetings with potential RWHC, the first show slated for the 2015 season,CO partnerships. According to Sueko, “…our summer intern had an up-close opportunity to experience CO and support these efforts.”

Giselle created the Master Colleges and Universities CO Contact Spreadsheet, a document which consolidates contact information for all the schools The Playhouse has collaborated with in the past or which have shown interest in becoming CO partners.  This document lists institutions, including Stanford, USC, The Claremont Colleges, Azusa Pacific University, Cal State L.A. and Pasadena City College, and others.   

Another interesting job Giselle worked on was preparing the Dramaturgy Starter Kits (DSK) for Real Women Have Curves and Breaking Through. A DSK is an internal document created by the Artistic Department for The Playhouse staff which helps them frame and promote the stage play or musical they are putting on.  This includes information such as the themes of the play and the inspiration for it. Giselle interviewed the artists of two shows – Sueko, who is directing RWHC; Sheldon Epps, Artistic Director of The Playhouse and director of Breaking Through, Kirsten Guenther, playwright  and Katie Kahanovitz, who is working on music and lyrics along with Cliff Downs.  

Additionally, Giselle produced two Learning Community gatherings involving  10-15 trainees who, like her, received their internships from the LACAC. She produced one of these gatherings herself, and the other, she assembled with a fellow-intern in the Pasadena area, Jessie Fontana-Maisel, who apprenticed at California Alliance for Arts Education.  In the first Learning Community, Giselle led a tour of The Playhouse, facilitated the Q&A Session with Epps and Sueko, and handled logistics. 

Giselle also worked on Walk and Learn Notes, an internal document with information for staff members on how they can ensure the safety and security of The Playhouse. This document includes emergency contact information, among other things. She was also involved in managing the reservations list of over 240 guests for the reading of Fabric at The Playhouse;  assisting in preparations for CO receptions during Waterfall and CO rally meetings for RWHC; and assisting with RWHC auditions. She also took on stage managerial duties for the reading of Fabric on the night the Stage Manager could not be present.

A theatre enthusiast herself, Giselle conducted interviews with Director of Finance, Meredith Min, and Producing Associate and Company Manager, Kirsten Hammack, to learn about their positions and their work – invaluable information for someone who might want to start a theatre company in the future. From Min, she learned how to keep track of accounts and ticket sales; the importance of creating balance sheets and P&L (Profit and Loss) statements. With Hammack, she learned about the  requirements and details concerning various unions like the AEA (Actors’ Equity Association), the SDC (Stage Directors and Choreographers Society), and the USA (United Scenic Artists); writing contracts for artists; and maintaining a clear head in times of stress.      

Meet and Greet for Real Women Have Curves fell on the last day of Giselle’s internship. She was there to welcome the artists and the community who came to listen to the table read. 

This month, Giselle will head back to Boston University as a Junior where she is pursuing a joint degree in Anthropology and Religion, and a minor in Theatre. She can’t wait to talk about her transformational ten weeks at The Playhouse with her Acting and Performance professor and mentor, Johnathan Solari. He had encouraged her to intern at a theatre company during the summer.

As a high school student at Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies, Giselle was deeply involved in its theatre department.  She was president of its International Thespian Society and performed in many productions – Shakespeare and contemporary plays, and musicals – under the direction and guidance of John Beckman, Jill Cunningham and Frank Dion.

Giselle hopes to continue learning about and pursuing her interest in theatre while at Boston University. She aspires to take a Stage Directing MFA program in the future. So Giselle didn’t scale the mountains or swim in the deep this past summer, but she certainly got fully immersed in a rare and exciting theatre adventure.     

iD Tech Summer Camps Ignite Passion for STEM Learning

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 23 July 2015 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, and Sierra Madre Weekly

Just what can a 13-year-old kid possibly accomplish in five days? Something pretty awesome, it turns out. 

Rana Lulla, who is 13 years old, produced an RPG (Role Playing Game) during the five days that he attended iD tech Summer Camps using Java coding. A rising 8th grade student at the American School of Bombay in India, Rana is the quintessential brainiac – exceptionally articulate about computer programming and given to well-thought out responses to questions about what he envisions for himself in the future.    

This is Rana’s second time at a tech summer camp; he attended a similar one a couple of years ago in Bombay. He enjoys coding and conversations with him turn high-tech quickly – with him saying he learned GUI (Graphic User Interfaces) and spouting terms like IF functions. He likes playing sandbox games Minecraft and Terraria and is super excited about creating a game he can play with his like-minded friends.  Rana sees himself pursuing a degree and career as a coder –  writing programs for and designing video games.  

Then there’s Amala Russo, an 11-year old rising 6th grader at South Pasadena Middle School. A recent transplant from northern California, she is here to familiarize herself with computers and is taking Introduction to Scratch and Java Script. While she is non-techie, Amala nevertheless feels that it is important to learn computers because technology is all around us and isn’t going away any time soon. This is her fourth day at iD Tech summer camp and she has learned Photoshop-ing, programming, and creating games. She says her teacher taught them how to make games using the cat Sprite.  

Amala admits that sitting in front of computers can be tiring at times, so she is glad for the breaks when all the kids go outside to play some sports. She also confesses that she is a really active person and is more of a performing artist – she likes acting and dancing. The early part of Amala’s summer was spent in Acting Camp at La Canada High School; it culminated with a multi-themed production where she sang in a group rendition of a song from Tarzan. 

Tyson Mak is another 11-year-old who goes to High Point Academy in Pasadena, where he will be in 6th grade come Fall.  He is taking an Introduction to Java Programming and Minecraft. He likes Minecraft Mods and after looking at what others have done, he decided to make one himself. And he did. But he couldn’t get it to work, so his mom sent him to iD Tech camp to learn Java programming. On his fourth day at camp he learned to add custom items like block and texture.

For his final project, Tyson made a Commerce Mod as a more organized way to buy and sell things on Minecraft. He intends to put it on the Minecraft server, where players connect to play together remotely. Lest you think Tyson is all work and no play, he quickly points out that he actually is a sports enthusiast who enjoys playing basketball at school. He spent two weeks in Newport Beach for some fun time with his family and is going to surfing camp in two weeks. It’s his summer vacation after all.

Photo by Annie Spratt for Unsplash

At iD Tech Summer Camp, kids like Rana, Amala and Tyson learn everything from Coding and App Development, Robotics, Game Design, 3D modeling, Digital Photography and Web Design, and Filmmaking. Classes are made up of seven weeklong sessions where students can enroll to develop their skill, or further explore subjects by taking multiple sessions of the same course.

The company’s extraordinary start is in itself worthy of a book. Alexa Ingram-Cauchi, having earned her business degree from the University of Washington, entered a Business Plan Competition. With guidance from a professor at UW, she submitted a pilot program for a tech camp held in a small class setting where kids use products professional utilize in the real world.  Her project won first place and she received several thousand dollars in prize money. 

And so in 1999, at a time when the iPhone did not exist, Google was a year old, AOL was the only search engine, and there were few women entrepreneurs or practitioners in the technology field, Alexa, using her competition award as seed money, founded iD Tech Camps in a room above their house’s garage in Los Gatos. It was a small family affair – her brother came on board to run the fledgling company; her dad worked as camp director and trainer; and her mom was human resources director.        

According to Karen Thurm Safran, VP of Marketing and Business Development, iD Tech camps started out with four locations in Santa Clara University, UC Irvine, St. Mary’s College of CA-Moraga, and CSU Monterey Bay. Today there are a total of 123 locations, with 88 iD Tech Camps, nine Alexa Café (all-girls program), eight iD Tech Mini (half-day options for ages 6-9), eleven iD Programming Academies, and seven iD Game Design & Development Academies.  These camps are scattered all over the country and held in the most illustrious campuses like MIT, Harvard, Columbia University, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia, UNC-Chapel Hill, Southern Methodist University, UC Berkeley, Stanford, Cal Poly Pomona, and UCLA.

Each summer camp is made up of seven week-long sessions and classes are broken into clusters of eight students to one instructor, making for a personalized experience. The eight-hour classes are interspersed with breaks for outdoor activities to keep the kids from getting restless with so many hours of sitting in front of computers. All summer programs provide students with custom iD T-shirt, a USB drive and bottled water. Camp attendees take home their portfolio or course activity file after presenting their final project at the end of their session.  They also earn a diploma with their instructor’s insights.

Instructors for the camps are chosen from the most prestigious universities. Prospective candidates go through an extensive selection process, background checks and rigorous training.  Not surprisingly, many of their instructors were themselves former iD Tech campers. 

The technology boom has shown itself in the exponential growth of attendees to iD Tech camps.  From 329 students in 1999, it increased to over 1,600 learners in 2000. By 2005, attendance was at 11,000; in 2011 it had nearly 20,000 enrollees; in 2014 there were over 36,000 students and this summer, they came in with close to 50,000!

Safran says that in addition to preparing its students for the future, iD Tech is preparing the future for them. It has partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation to plant one tree for each student who attends its summer program, with a goal of planting over one million trees. Additionally, this year, Alexa Café collaborated with Code.org to provide 100 girls iD Tech Camps scholarships to help right the current imbalance in the number of girls who are taking  computer science courses (only 14% of computer science undergraduates are female).         

According to its company brochures, there will be one million STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) jobs that are expected to be unfilled by 2020. iD Tech is helping close that gap with programs that teach students the skills they need to thrive in a tech-driven world.   It’s reassuring to know that kids like Rana, Amala, and Tyson are taking the first steps to gain the abilities and competence necessary to fill those jobs.       

Students Spend Summer with Shakespeare at A Noise Within

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

 

Originally published on 18 June 2015 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, and Sierra Madre Weekly

Educational? Check! Enriching? Oh, yes. Peppered with a large dose of fun? Absolutely! At A Noise Within, a classical repertory theatre company founded by Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, summer camp is all of the above. But youngsters also gain a great deal of insight and experience about theatre in the duration of the program.

For five weeks starting June 15, students from ages 6 to 18 learn theatre craft from respected professionals in the field, culminating in a performance on stage on July 16 and 17. Trained actors, choreographers and designers introduce students to acting, improvisation, stage diction, text analysis, kinetic exercises, and stage combat in this intensive, conservatory-style program. 

 “We began Summer with Shakespeare in 1993 as a three-week acting camp,” says Alicia Green, A Noise Within’s Education Director.  “ It has been so successful that we decided to expand it to five weeks this year.  Students are assembled by age (6-9; 10-13; and 14-18). The younger kids can choose to join the entire five-week track or attend any configuration of time that fits their schedule. The oldest ones need to enroll for the entire five weeks because they will be putting on a full production of King Lear.  We have 105 students this summer, up from last year’s 45.”

Summer With Shakespeare covers the gamut of the Bard’s works. During their first week in camp, students learn about Shakespeare’s comedies – Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It. In their second week, they study the tragedies – Macbeth, King Lear.  In their third week, they absorb the histories and romances – Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V.

At 10 a.m. on a hot and muggy Tuesday in June, kids make their way into A Noise Within’s home on Foothill Blvd. They carefully set their lunch bags on steel carts, marked with three age groupings, parked against the wall in the large main entrance hall. They then proceed to their respective class, to start the day’s exciting lesson.

Jeff Block and Ryan Luevano, of Maestro & Magic Productions, are conducting charades with the 10- to 13-year-olds on the main hall.  The group is divided into two teams facing off this morning – Keepers of the Blood Pact, or the Red Team, and Totally Awesome Unicorns, or the Blue Team. Using every magician’s accoutrement (white handkerchief, top hat and wand) a volunteer from one division mimes a magic he or she learned from class and someone from the competing group will guess what trick was performed. A correct guess earns the answering team a point.  It’s a very tight race; the two opponents are head-to-head. The game ends in a tie and everyone is happily satisfied with that outcome.

Sitting in a far corner of the main hall is Audrey Halaas-Voorhees, their class assistant, who will be there all day to make sure the children are well-behaved and are following instructions from their teacher. Audrey is also the person who will be walking them from class to class.

Vega, a first time participant in the Summer With Shakespeare camp, got interested in the program because his older brother attended it for three years. When his brother decided not to go to the camp this year, Vega took the spot. His favorite lesson is movement – something vital to one of his interests, which is dance. He is able to apply what he’s learned during his two weeks here with the steps he has mastered from the Pasadena Dance Theatre. Vega likes ballet, contemporary and ballroom dancing.  

Upstairs, Alison Elliott, is leading a very lively class with the six to nine-year-olds. She has them fully engaged in an imaginary situation at a sports stadium. She calls on some students to   come to the front of the class and act out her instructions:  “Watch only with your hands … with your eyes …with your neck …with your knees.” The little kids perform the actions animatedly and vigorously using only the body parts Alison calls for. And then she asks the ‘audience’ what sport the kids are watching and everyone shouts out ‘SOCCER!’

Meanwhile, their teacher’s assistant, Tomas Dakan, watches quietly and intently from his chair a few feet away. A student at Occidental College, Dakan himself is no stranger to the craft. He enjoys performing and has been involved with the Taproot Theatre Company, a professional, non-profit theatre company in Seattle, Washington.

Olivia is a standout in the six to nine-year-old class even when this is her first time here. She is passionate about the performing arts – she sings and dances, and does gymnastics at her school.  She is thrilled at the chance to learn acting and hopes to one day star in a musical. Olivia is also an avid reader and counts The Tail of Emily Windsnap and The Hunger Games as favorites. 

In the theatre, instructor Carolyn Marie Wright is on the stage with the 14- to 18-year-olds reading lines to King Lear, while teacher’s assistant Kenyon Meleney follows the lesson and gives cues to the students. This group has already finished creating the backdrop for the play and they are now in rehearsal. Their work and talent will be on display at the end of the five-week camp when they stage a full production of King Lear for an audience of family and friends.  

Kayla, who has been selected to play the lead role, is on her second year at Summer With Shakespeare. She says attending this camp has greatly improved her acting. She now knows what looks good on stage, and has learned how to reach her audience conceptually and emotionally.   Highly ambitious and industrious, Kayla has been music training for a year and sings in the school choir. She already has plans for college and a post-graduate degree in musicology.

Watching from high up in the bleachers is Megan Farber, another assistant teacher, who helps out with make-up and special effects. Farber, who is 26 years old, interned at A Noise Within in 2012. This is her first time TA-ing, as she gains some experience in the educational aspect of theatre. She hopes to one day teach in this field.

A Noise Within bustles! It is a-brim with energy and sparkle – from the teachers and professionals sharing their knowledge with the acting campers; the students exuberantly participating in class; the staff of the theatre company going about their daily business. There’s something happening everywhere.

For Green, every day is filled with momentous occasions to educate about and celebrate the wondrous world of theatre with children of all ages. Surely this is what the Bard has intended for his works to endure and be enjoyed, by theatre professional, emerging actor, and for-the-fun-of-it camper alike.