Career Essentials
Futures and Options' Career Essentials is targeted to youth who have not yet acquired the skill level or age to be placed in internship positions. This career readiness program provides basic preparation for the work world as well as the opportunity for students to practice and improve their interpersonal, communication and office skills. The program also includes career exploration activities and field trips. Career exploration trips have included visits to PwC, Colgate-Palmolive Company and the Millenium Hilton Hotel.
Who Can Apply?
If you are a high school student in NYC, you can apply to Career Essentials.
How do you apply?
To be considered for Fall 2013 Career Essentials, please submit the Career Essentials application by October 11, 2013. All applicants will be contacted and invited to a group interview; an acceptance notification will be emailed to each Career Essential applicant. For more information about applying to Career Essentials, please visit the How to Apply page.
How often are the workshops?
The program includes two-hour workshops once a week for 12 weeks in both the fall and spring semesters.
History
Established in 2008, Career Essentials served 14 students during its pilot year. In its second year, the program's size multiplied to support 80 students, including a pilot program for 20 middle-school students from Greenwich Village Middle School. In 2012, Career Essentials more than 125 high school and middle school youth.
Students who have successfully completed Career Essentials are eligible to apply for an internship as assistant in the following semester's program. Two students are selected as paid interns each term. The interns assist in planning the program's activities as well as have an opportunity to model and apply the skills they learned in the program. In addition to their responsibilities as assistants, the interns are also take part in our Internship Program's career readiness workshops and enrichment activities.
Morolake Thompson, an intern who assisted with Career Essentials in Fall 2009, said of her experience, "As a Futures and Options intern, I became better skilled in time management and learned to take initiative. As a student, balancing several extra-curricular activities at once, every minute became significant and leisure was precious. I would very much recommend the program to other students because of the basic on-the-job skills every student needs. As a student, finding employment is difficult because of lack of experience. As a result of the internship opportunity created especially for students by Futures and Options, teens have the opportunity to prove they are mature and skilled enough to handle the challenge of employment."
Career Essentials is made possible thanks to generous support from the Gap Foundation, the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Inc. and the Capital One Foundation.
