{"id":74260,"date":"2025-08-17T23:40:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T23:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/74260\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T23:40:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T23:40:07","slug":"baltimore-youthworks-program-makes-teens-top-job-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/74260\/","title":{"rendered":"Baltimore YouthWorks program makes teens top job candidates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Young adults are finding it especially tough to secure employment in today\u2019s job market. This spring has featured the highest unemployment for people ages 16-24 since the pandemic, according to the Economic Policy Institute<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The state of the U.S. job market raises the stakes for regional work force development programs across the country. Such programs connect young people with local employers to build lasting opportunities for both the student and the private organization, nonprofit or municipality they work for. <\/p>\n

The equivalent in Baltimore is YouthWorks, which over the past 50 years has helped organize employment for thousands of local students, ages 14-21, said Mackenzie Garvin, director of the Mayor\u2019s Office of Employment Development. A combination of donations and public funds through this office pays the minimum wage salaries of YouthWorks participants, and helps pay the costs of administering the program. The Baltimore Banner employs interns through YouthWorks.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s program had more than 13,000 applications for a little over 8,500 slots. In the final week of their five-week experience, three Baltimore students reflect on what they\u2019ve gained through a summer in YouthWorks. <\/p>\n

Tech with Code in the Schools <\/p>\n

Elenge Germaine, 17, never liked cybersecurity before he took the Cyber Security course under Code in the Schools\u2019 YouthWorks summer program. Now, interning in the program for a second year, he has declared it\u2019s what he\u2019d like to build his career in. <\/p>\n

Germain has always loved tinkering with technology, whether it was old batteries and spare computer components as a kid growing up in Togo, West Africa, or developing games during the pandemic using a 24-hour coding lesson on YouTube, or exploring computer science classes as a high schooler at Baltimore City College. <\/p>\n

He said the most important thing YouthWorks has given him is connections. Andrew Pham, co-executive director of Code in the Schools, is already a connection on Germain\u2019s LinkedIn profile. Germain\u2019s previous summer in the program, and the projects he completed by participating, helped land him a research internship in spring with the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering, where he worked as part of a team to design a path-finding algorithm for drones. <\/p>\n

Learning about how to tap into the communication between networked computers in the cybersecurity course has inspired Germain to develop a local digital system to store and protect his own data without relying on larger companies, such as Microsoft or Google. <\/p>\n

Code in the Schools<\/a> aims to equip students with the skills and tools they need to succeed in the tech workforce. This year, according to Pham, the program had more employers interested in hosting young people than young people to fill those roles. <\/p>\n

Young people, no matter how capable, experience barriers in securing internships without having access to a network of employers, Pham said. \u201cAs a champion for Baltimore, we must commit to look to our young people first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Squash + School = Perseverance at Baltimore SquashWise<\/p>\n

As a seventh grader, Chaaz Sweetney had no idea what squash was. Now, headed to St. Mary\u2019s College of Maryland after five years with Baltimore SquashWise, he has realized how much practicing the sport at the organization has given him. <\/p>\n

Baltimore SquashWise<\/a> is a nonprofit that brings squash to Baltimore public school youths. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the game, it\u2019s up to you how much you improve. The amount of effort you put into it will be the opportunities that you get out of it,\u201d Sweetney said.<\/p>\n

Abby Markoe, who co-founded SquashWise in 2007, said that part of what inspired her to build the organization was the power of the sport, which has ripple effects throughout life. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs an individual sport, you are accountable to yourself, but you are also part of a team because you win as a team,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

To Sweetney, these lessons reinforced ones he grew up with as a child of deaf parents. Although communicating with his family was a challenge, through learning ASL and reframing barriers as opportunities, Sweetney said he learned at home and school, and in squash, \u201cto never let any of that bring you down and take away from your goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Students<\/p>\n

The nonprofit Baltimore SquashWise brings squash to the city’s public school youths. (Kaitlin Newman\/The Baltimore Banner)<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A participant in the youth development program plays squash at Squashwise. (Kaitlin Newman\/The Baltimore Banner)<\/p>\n

Sweetney, a passionate trombone player in Baltimore City College\u2019s marching band, anticipates leaving squash behind to focus on majoring in music and business management in college.<\/p>\n

But he is looking forward to returning to SquashWise as an alum. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a home, not just for me but for everyone,\u201d Sweetney said. \u201cThe coaches welcome us and push us to be our best selves.\u201d <\/p>\n

Digital Art with a Heart <\/p>\n

The majority of Linzy Flores\u2019 day is spent making art. At a desktop computer in a classroom at Art with a Heart\u2019s Hampden location, she builds designs for tote bags, T-shirts and posters. <\/p>\n

Art with a Heart<\/a> is a Baltimore nonprofit that aims to improve lives and build community through the power of visual arts. <\/p>\n

Flores was connected to their YouthWorks digital designer intern position through her involvement in Adelante Latina<\/a>, a college and academic counseling organization aimed at improving Latina students\u2019 access to college. <\/p>\n

Flores is proud of her original T-shirt design displaying yellow and gold bees at work on a dripping honeycomb. To her, the design symbolizes the importance of saving the bees, and purchasers would be spreading that message. <\/p>\n

Like the T-shirt, all of Flores\u2019s artwork has a different meaning. <\/p>\n

On a poster, Flores drew a brick wall and added a John Rohn quote telling us that the \u201cgood things we build end up building us.\u201d She added the words \u201cyou build your life.\u201d <\/p>\n

Flores drew from the internship\u2019s lessons in typography, or the art of using various fonts and colors to convey different messages, to shape her posters. One of her favorites looks as if it\u2019s from the 1990s, with neon triangles and a flurry of different fonts, with all but one \u2014 the one she designed herself \u2014 crossed out. <\/p>\n

\"Youthworks<\/p>\n

Flores, a rising junior at Western High School, shows off one of her digital art pieces. (Kaitlin Newman\/The Baltimore Banner)<\/p>\n

\"Art<\/p>\n

Art with A Heart in Hampden sells handmade art by Youthworks participants. (Kaitlin Newman\/The Baltimore Banner)<\/p>\n

Flores says the poster encourages her audience to \u201cfind your own style.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cCopying others won\u2019t fit you,\u201d Flores said. It\u2019s a message she says would have been helpful for her to know as a middle schooler growing up in the Parkville area in a family with Honduran roots. <\/p>\n

Flores calls herself a \u201ctraditional artist,\u201d relying on pen and a sketch book to create art. But developing skills in digital design will help her in school and beyond. <\/p>\n

Learning to use the platform Canva as an artistic outlet, Flores said, will enable her to express herself and her message beyond words when speaking in public. <\/p>\n

Flores thinks her time in YouthWorks will contribute to her goal of becoming an engineer by combining her artistic talents with a passion for building. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s one more important skill these students agree they\u2019d honed over five weeks interning under YouthWorks: waking up early. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Young adults are finding it especially tough to secure employment in today\u2019s job market. This spring has featured…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[84,38018,1371,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-74260","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-featured-extrawide","10":"tag-jobs","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}