City Youth Get a Taste of Medical Center Work
For more than 20 years, young workers have learned valuable work skills through clerical summer jobs at CUMC.
This summer, 63 young people from New York’s five boroughs joined the CUMC workforce, taking on clerical duties in admissions, human resources, neurology, and approximately 35 other offices and departments across the medical center.
Through the six-week Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), these students ages 14–24 are spending six weeks offering much-needed administrative help and getting a taste of work at a medical center.
CUMC has participated for more than 20 years in SYEP, a New York City-sponsored program, which offers summer jobs to local youth at participating organizations. For many, the experience teaches them important professional skills that they can take with them to future careers.
“This role has given me a chance to expand my communications skills, which will be an important factor when I start pursuing my master's degree this fall,” said Marlene Solano, who has worked in the Office of Communications on duties including making videos for the CUMC Newsroom and scanning photos for a digital archive.
And for some, the program becomes a gateway to a career at the medical center, six weeks extending into long-term positions lasting months or years.
Read more about the program in a 2013 article.