{"id":52720,"date":"2025-08-01T14:41:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T14:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/52720\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T14:41:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T14:41:10","slug":"live-work-learn-program-leads-to-jobs-for-some-graduates-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/52720\/","title":{"rendered":"Live-Work-Learn Program Leads to Jobs for Some Graduates – News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atlantic City, N.J. \u2014 As the Stockton Atlantic City Summer Experience<\/a>: Live-Work-Learn program<\/a> enters its fourth year, not only are students getting to live for free, work in local
\n industry and learn about career readiness \u2014 they also are getting full-time jobs after
\n graduation.<\/p>\n

\"emma<\/p>\n

Emma Martin first started working for the Chelsea Economic Development Corporation
\n as part of participating in the Atlantic City Summer Experience in 2024. After graduating
\n from Stockton in 2025, she accepted a full-time job with the nonprofit.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving the opportunity to gain an internship and then have it evolve into a full-time
\n job, especially with how things are right now for most people postgraduation, I feel
\n very fortunate,\u201d said Emma Martin, a 2025 Political Science<\/a> graduate. She\u2019s now the Office and Operations Manager for the Chelsea Economic Development
\n Corporation in Atlantic City after working with the group last summer. \u201cAnd it\u2019s a
\n job that I really enjoy doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Summer Experience \u2014 dubbed \u201cLive-Work-Learn\u201d \u2014 has offered hundreds of Stockton
\n University students paid jobs with Atlantic City businesses, campus housing covered
\n by the employers, and a series of career readiness training modules focused on teamwork,
\n leadership, critical thinking and character development.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I would have had anywhere near the same job experience that I have
\n now, and I don\u2019t think I would have had as high of a career trajectory as I do now
\n without this program,\u201d said Michael Mora, a 2025 Business Administration<\/a> graduate who works as an assistant manager at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa.<\/p>\n

Up to 600 students applied for this summer\u2019s program with 200 working for 12 employers
\n in Atlantic City and Galloway Township, said Brian K. Jackson, Stockton\u2019s vice president
\n for Community Engagement.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the original goals of the Live-Work-Learn program was to serve as an experience
\n that would help keep talented students in the area after graduation and to expose
\n them to career opportunities they may not have expected or knew existed,\u201d Jackson
\n said.<\/p>\n

Martin didn\u2019t even know that the Chelsea EDC\u2019s office was inside Stockton\u2019s Kesselman
\n Hall before landing a job there in the program the summer before her senior year.
\n The Chelsea EDC boosts economic development in the section of Atlantic City where
\n Stockton\u2019s campus resides. The nonprofit holds community events, provides money to
\n improve business facades, helps to address public safety and code violations, facilitates
\n beautification projects and offers renters home-buying grants.<\/p>\n

Martin continued to work part time at the Chelsea EDC during her senior year at Stockton,
\n and then she accepted a full-time job after graduation. In her new role, Martin manages
\n the nonprofit\u2019s finances, helps out at events and trains and oversees this summer\u2019s
\n Live-Work-Learn intern.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mission of our organization really spoke to me because my mom was originally
\n from Atlantic City and she loved it here so much,\u201d said the Brigantine resident who
\n grew up in Hammonton. \u201cI really wanted to be a part of the great changes that the
\n EDC is making in Atlantic City.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

\n \tI don\u2019t think I would have had anywhere near the same job experience that I have
\n now, and I don\u2019t think I would have had as high of a career trajectory as I do now
\n without this program.”\n \t<\/p>\n

\n \tMichael Mora, 2025 Stockton grad and currently enrolled in Stockton’s Master of Business
\n Administration program\n \t<\/p>\n

Mora landed his first job at Borgata the summer before his sophomore year through
\n Live-Work-Learn, and he\u2019s worked there full time ever since.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get student loan reimbursement from Borgata. I have benefits and health insurance.
\n I have job security throughout the year, all thanks to Live-Work-Learn,\u201d said the
\n Mount Olive native, who oversees in-room dining, the Sunroom Lounge and the Outdoor
\n Pool. \u201cI have year-round income I can rely on, which has definitely allowed me to
\n pursue things.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of those things was to enroll in Stockton\u2019s Master of Business Administration<\/a> program starting this summer. And thanks to the Atlantic City Summer Experience\u2019s
\n expansion to include graduate students this year, he was able to continue to live
\n on campus this summer.<\/p>\n

Mora hopes to finish his master\u2019s by December, and in the meantime, he has spent a
\n lot of the summer training undergraduates in the Live-Work-Learn program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say that about 60% of my workforce right now are Stockton students. It\u2019s
\n very interesting to have people that are going through the same journey that I did,\u201d
\n he said. \u201cThey are starting out, and it\u2019s kind of nice to be able to tell them the
\n experiences I\u2019ve learned over the years and how to better themselves and what to do
\n and not to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to expanding to graduate students, opportunities for transfer students
\n were added this year, Jackson said. Students in the Transfer Pathways program between
\n Stockton and participating New Jersey community colleges can apply to the program
\n if they\u2019ve received their associates degree before enrolling in classes for the fall
\n semester.<\/p>\n

Jessica Gross is a transfer from Atlantic Cape Community College and is using Live-Work-Learn
\n to get acclimated to campus life. Before enrolling as a Criminal Justice<\/a> major in the fall, she\u2019s working as a security guard at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.
\n She patrols the casino floor, checks IDs of potentially underage gamblers, works on
\n crowd control and has learned card and dice destruction procedures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey aren\u2019t treating us like seasonal employees,\u201d the Egg Harbor Township resident
\n said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like, \u2018Well, you\u2019re only here for three months, you don\u2019t need to
\n learn that.\u2019 They\u2019re saying, \u2018No, you need to learn it all.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Gross has especially loved dorm life with her three roommates at Parkview Hall.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody\u2019s so friendly. We get along really well,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s nice because
\n I\u2019ve spent only a little bit of time on campus, but by doing (Live-Work-Learn) in
\n the summer I\u2019m more adapted to what dorm life will be like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson sees the addition of transfer and graduate students as natural extensions
\n of growing the program, possibly to include additional employers outside of Atlantic
\n City.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like to get accounting, finance, utility and law firms on board. And with
\n such a strong interest from our students in health care fields, we would like to offer
\n additional opportunities similar to AtlantiCare, one of our employers in the program,\u201d
\n Jackson said. \u201cLive-Work-Learn serves as a perfect training ground for our students
\n to develop their professional skills and for the employers to shape our students into
\n future, prepared employees.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Story by Mark Melhorn, photos by Susan Allen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Atlantic City, N.J. \u2014 As the Stockton Atlantic City Summer Experience: Live-Work-Learn program enters its fourth year, not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[28,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-52720","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-jobs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}