Community Issues in Middle School

After surveying their school and community, the eighth grade service learning class of Skinner Middle School under Hannah Wecks had a long list of community strengths but an even longer list of community issues. It bothered them that a large number of the community issues were youth related and, more importantly, stemmed from kids having nothing productive to do in the summers. With this in mind, the students decided to help their fellow students to get more summer jobs and educate them on future job possibilities.
The class immediately began research into summer job opportunities, résumé writing, and future job tracks. The number one hurdle the class felt stood in the way of more summer jobs was simply making the students and the possible employers more aware of each other.
In order to combat this informational barrier, the class decided to help their fellow students write résumés, distributed employer information and websites. They brought in representatives from such companies as Water World and Six Flags Elitchs, and also brought in various individuals to speak about their current profession. While their age was a decided barrier to employment, the students felt that their efforts produced moderate success this year with long term positive results to follow.