THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 2, 1994 TAG: 9408310105
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
It's most unusual to get a telephone call from a public agency employee raving about the summer help sent in by a federal program. But it happened.
Cindy Barnes, who works at the local office of the Virginia Employment Commission, felt compelled to tell us about three wonderful young women who worked in the employment office this summer.
``I just can't tell you how successful the summer has been,'' Barnes said. ``Any one of them could do my job and a lot of other jobs around here.''
With an endorsement like that, I went to see for myself.
I met Nicole Harper.
Although I knew one of the students was only 14, I never would have guessed this poised young woman was the youngest.
Harper is a rising ninth-grader at I.C. Norcom. At the VEC office, she worked the switchboard and entered data into the computer.
``I learned some about the computer at school and some on my own,'' she said.
She became a summer aide at VEC through the Southeastern Virginia Job Training Administration. The federally funded JTA summer program this year placed about 1,750 youths, ages 14-21, in public and non-profit agencies.
``I saw a notice posted at school and I applied,'' Harper said. ``I was lucky. They picked me.''
Harper wants to be a physical therapist after attending Howard University in Washington, or maybe a college in Atlanta.
``I like helping people,'' she said. ``I also want to go away to school.''
Harper said she decided on a career in physical therapy after participating in the ``Shadow Day'' program sponsored by the Portsmouth Public Schools.
What's ``Shadow Day?'' About 60 businesses and agencies agree to have students spend a school day observing their activities.
Harper went to Maryview Medical Center; by day's end, she was hooked on the idea of being a physical therapist.
``She'll make it,'' Jane Hamer of the VEC staff told me. ``She's efficient and she has a goal.''
Hamer, a veteran jobs counselor, said she regularly meets unemployed people ``who've never had goals.'' As a result, it's sometimes difficult for them to find work.
Harper was paid $4.25 an hour by the JTA's federal grant. She'll use the money for school clothes and supplies, she said.
Asked why she is so focused on work and the future, Harper replied without hesitation, ``I don't hang out with the wrong crowd.''
The other two JTA employees at the VEC were Audrey Scott, 20, a Tidewater Community College student, and Rhonda Jennings, 21, a student at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Jennings already has returned to VCU but I did get a minute with Scott.
``I love this job and I hate to leave it,'' she said.
It was obvious the regular staff at VEC hated for the young women to leave.
``They worked so well we really will miss them,'' Hamer said. ``If they are available next summer, we would hire them back.''
With an endorsement like that, what can I say? MEMO: Whether you agree or disagree, The Currents would like to hear from you.
Send your thoughts to The Currents, 307 County St., Suite 100,
Portsmouth, Va. 23704-3702 or fax us at 446-2607. by CNB