Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

More than a paycheck

Given a chance, a business intern proves himself - and the potential of a program.

By ROBBYN MITCHELL
Published July 12, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - As Courtney Kelty backed into his parking space 10 minutes early for his 10:30 a.m. shift, his manager at Pinch a Penny Pool Supply on 34th Street S tapped his foot impatiently.

"There he is," Frank Oliva said as he puffed up excitedly. "He's the best kid I ever had the pleasure of working with."

Kelty breezed into the store, neatly pressed with his blue uniform shirt tucked into his pants. Everyone looked up from what they were doing to greet the young man, a respect that Oliva said Kelty has earned in his four years of employment with the franchise.

At 21, the husband and father of two is also the store's assistant manager - and a new homeowner.

"I just worked hard and tried to make it," he said.

Kelty began his work at Pinch a Penny as an 18-year-old intern, placed there by a Boley Centers program that helps youth living below the poverty line.

In 2003, Boley applied for a city grant to start the now-thriving vocational program. Curtis Anderson and Deborah Figg-Sanders supervise the internships, in which private businesses and public offices take on students for eight to 10 weeks.

"It derived from the vocational services program we provided for clients, but the program is for local young adults, not Boley clients," Anderson said.

Intern numbers average 150, while Figg-Sanders has built a list of 55 to 65 employers.

"Out of the 3,500 applications we circulate to all the high schools and other places, we receive around 1,000 back," Figg-Sanders said. "We do criminal history checks and then interviews to screen the students we allow in."

After the pool of applicants has been pared to more than 100, Figg-Sanders begins matching interns to employers for further interviews.

When Kelty interviewed four years ago, he came in sharp and determined, said Pinch a Penny owner Tom Rokosz, who has been involved since the program's first year.

It didn't hurt that he met the requirement of being at least 18 and able to lift 50 pounds.

Rokosz said he thinks the program does an excellent job screening and finding the exact fit for individual employers.

But that doesn't stop Oliva, the store's manager, from doing separate interviews to choose his two annual interns. Kelty has become his measuring stick.

"I teach these kids work ethics and how to work in the real world," Oliva said. "They have to be willing to learn when I hire them."

After the Boley internship, Pinch a Penny offered Kelty a full-time job, one he says changed his life for the better, exactly the outcome that program organizers hope for.

When Kelty graduated from Gibbs High School in 2002, he began taking classes at St. Petersburg College to become a firefighter.

"But I had to leave to work full time at Publix because my son was born and times got hard," Kelty said.

He and his girlfriend, Cedrita, expected to have a child at some point, but they were living in separate homes when their son was born in 2003.

He continued working at Publix to support his family. "It got tough because I wasn't able to be with him (his son), and eventually I just wanted to leave."

And he did.

Kelty's mother, whom he lived with at the time, heard about a new job placement program for 14- to 23-year-olds living in poverty.

"I thought 'why not' and applied," he said.

He was placed in Pinch a Penny at another location and took to the job from the start.

"It was more hands-on experience," Kelty said. "I've always liked fixing, and this was more technical."

Oliva noticed his work ethic and scouted Kelty for help at the 34th Street store.

"He came into our store to help a few times and I saw him and saw that he was good, so I stole him away," Oliva mused.

At the end of his 10-week internship, Oliva offered Kelty a permanent position, which turned out to be the first rung on the ladder to a better life.

He married Cedrita, now 23, in November 2003 and they began to save for the home they bought in southern St. Petersburg.

"We just started sacrificing the things we used to do, like buying clothes and shoes," he said.

His side work, washing Pinch a Penny's service vehicles, and an eventual promotion to assistant manager didn't hurt either.

Now a mentor for other Boley interns who come to the store, Kelty wants to return the opportunities and instruction given to him.

"The biggest thing I want to instill in them is to ask questions, look good every day and treat people with respect" - lessons, he said, passed on to him by Boley.

Interns are rewarded with more than a paycheck from their summer experiences, Figg-Sanders said.

"The best part is seeing the kids in the mall," she said. "They are happy, and some who hadn't been able to buy a new pair of shoes in their lives are shopping and smiling. I always enjoy seeing that."

So does Kelty.

"It has great benefits for the businesses and the kids," Kelty said. "It may give kids the opportunity to make themselves a better life."

[Last modified July 11, 2006, 23:06:21]