South San Francisco, CA August 13, 2021 Press Release
Fifteen South San Francisco High School Students Participated in City’s
Inaugural Internship Program
Fifteen South San Francisco high school students graduated last week from the first annual South San Francisco Youth Summer Internship program. Modeled after successful youth-skills programs in Memphis and New York, the six-week program provided students with mentoring, life and job training, and meaningful paid work to prepare them for success.
“I am incredibly impressed with the caliber of high school students working with us this summer in the pilot program, putting us on pace for a much larger summer youth program next year,” said South San Francisco City Manager Mike Futrell.
The Youth Summer Internship program was designed to provide a comprehensive youth education, training, and work experience for high school students in South San Francisco. The program kicked off with one week of personal and professional development training, followed by ongoing one-on-one coaching and weekly group workshops, as participants completed a six-week paid internship in one of 13 different City departments and divisions. Projects ranged from working with the City’s Naturalist on the Sign Hill Restoration Project to conducting research for City Council on various community initiatives to assisting City engineers with traffic studies.
“Life skills and adult work mentoring are essential to young people successfully navigating the work world,” said Human Resource Director Leah Lockhart, “and our vision is to grow this program to help hundreds of students each summer.”
The program was open to all South San Francisco High School students, and after receiving more than 100 applications, and completing pre-screening interviews, five students from each high school were selected by lottery. The students selected were:
- Avikash Datt – Water Quality Control Plant Intern, El Camino High School
- Diego Gil Sanchez – Fire Department Intern, Baden High School
- Cristina Guitierrez – Human Resources & Finance Intern, Baden High School
- Viviana Hernandez – Parks & Recreation Intern, Baden High School
- Danielle Leong – Parks & Recreation Intern, El Camino High School
- Cindy Liu – Library Intern, South San Francisco High School
- Marianne Lopez – City Manager’s Office Intern, South San Francisco High School
- Nadine Macapagal – Library Intern, El Camino High School
- Andre Mosteiro – Information Technology Department Intern, Baden High School
- Katrina Oller – Public Works Intern, El Camino High School
- Eduardo Romero – Engineering intern, Baden High School
- Serena Sunga – City Clerk/Economic & Community Development Intern, South San Francisco High School
- Marie Tapia – Public Works Intern, El Camino High School
- Noelle Toy – City Council Intern, South San Francisco High School
- Marcus Ziegler – Police Department Intern, South San Francisco High School
“This program was awesome,” said Noelle Toy, a South San Francisco 2021 graduate who starts at U.C. Davis next month, “it really gave me a much better understanding of what it means to have a job and how I as an individual can succeed in a non-school setting.”
The City plans to build on the success of the Youth Summer Internship Program and expand internship placements next year to include local businesses and community-based organizations