WESTMINSTER — Graduating seniors at Bellows Falls Union High School carry an aura of optimism in spite of what is facing those who will enter the job market.
Four out of the five youths interviewed for this story are prepared to look for work or already have jobs for the summer before attending college in the fall. The fifth said he missed deadlines and isn't sure what he will be doing this summer.
Sidelined by an injury, Mike Blanchard, 18, said, “I'll be able to work at the end of June or July. I'll start looking then.”
Blanchard seemed nonchalant about what was ahead of him.
“I'm not worried,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.
Kayla Waryas, 18, who plans to attend Bay Path College in Massachusetts in the fall, has been working part time at Lisai's Market in Bellows Falls. Now that school has ended for seniors last Friday, she has a possibility of another job, bringing her potential total hours up to 40.
“I'm going to study forensic science,” Waryas said, smiling.
She said she plans to go on to attain her master's degree and knows full well she will then have to start work immediately upon graduation to pay back her student loans.
She says she has had help on lining up funding from her mother. “She's been through it,” Waryas said. “She's a nurse. She knows her way around.”
Mickey Rentas plans to attend the University of Vermont to study creative writing in the fall.
“I know I do need to get a job,” he said. “I worked at Shaw's for a year and a half and earned $4,000. I think I saved about $300 of that.” Rentas, too, shrugged his shoulders.
Rentas said his parents are okay with supporting him for now.
“I know I will need to get a job right after [college] to pay back the loans,” he said. Speaking of the transition out of high school, he said, “I'm scared, but I'm excited, too.”
Codi-Ann Hindes, 18, will travel in China for the summer. She intends to start at the University of Vermont in the fall to study political science or global studies.
“I'm a first-generation [college student],” she said proudly. “It's all new to me.”
Hindes has received “a lot of help” from Vermont Student Assistance Corporation, a nonprofit agency that helps students like her figure out loan and scholarship applications.
She considers her college debt “an investment into her degree,” said Hindes, who previously worked at the Old Tavern at Grafton for a year and a half.
“It's scary,” she said, “but what the heck. It's a new and such a different experience.”
Keeping them home
In 2006, Gov. James Douglas created the Vermont Promise Scholarship program with a $175 million budget, to encourage youth to study in Vermont, then stay to work for at least two years after they graduate.
It is an attempt to stem what some say is a growing number of Vermont's youngest and brightest - its college graduates - who are seeking jobs and lives outside of the state.
College graduates seeking employment in Vermont, according to the state's projected industry employment figures, would do best to have a computer or electronic-related degree.
Wholesale goods companies, food and beverage stores, and automotive dealers and auto parts stores provide the next tier of job opportunities in the state.
However, the biggest thing on the minds of graduating high-school seniors seems to be a growing sense of impending change, of the loss of opportunities that will “never come again,” as Mickey Rentas put it.
“We're never going to be here again,” he said. “We're just getting to really know our friends and our teachers.”
LaLiberte shared a similar sentiment.
“I'm just starting to appreciate what we have, the people in school, the teachers,” he said, looking down at his hands. “But I'm excited and scared too.”
Seventeen-year-old Eric LaLiberte is the youngest of three siblings. “There's no money left [for me],” he said with a laugh. “My parents have been through [getting loans for school] before, though, so I'm getting lots of help.”
LaLiberte is enthusiastic about getting a college degree at Mount Ida College, also in Massachusetts. He's looking forward to new perspective.
The college degree “looks good [on your resume] and helps get work,” LaLiberte said.
Regarding the debt load following graduation, he said “I'm going to come out of college … and have to start paying it off [right away].”
Asked if he that concerned him, he shook his head.
LaLiberte knows he's got to work this summer but hasn't started looking yet. “I have to get a job, or I'll feel terrible. My parents are expecting the help,” he said with a grin. He has worked as a dishwasher and in other capacities at the Grafton Village Cheese Co.
All of the recent graduates attending college this fall said they wanted to be in New England, somewhere “close to home,” after they graduated from college.
National trends show more graduating college students are doing just that, even “couch surfing” at their parents' homes until they find a job and can afford rent on their own. One survey put the national percentage of college students returning home at 60 percent - and that was in 2006, before the current economic crisis hit.
Prospects improving?
Thomas Douse, interim chief of labor markets information for the Vermont Department of Labor, said that “both the state and [Windham County] have seen an improvement in unemployment over the last year.”
That improvement points “to improved prospects for individuals getting out of school … to find work,” he noted.
Competition remains strong as individuals affected by the recession continue to look for work also, Douse said.
Job creation in Windham County for 14 to 18 year olds nearly tripled in the second quarter of 2009, with between 500 and 600 teens employed during that quarter, depending which statistics one looks at.
Most new jobs in Vermont will emerge in the health care, utilities and education fields, which primarily require a college degree or equivalent. Jobs filled by teens have the highest turnover, with new hires highest for the 25- to 34-year olds.
In February, the U.S. Department of the Interior and its bureaus committed to hiring at least 12,000 youth in 2010 - a 50 percent increase over the 8,000 in 2009 as part of its “Youth in the Great Outdoors” initiative.
The Rockingham Recreation Department is advertising for lifeguards and playground staff who are at least 16 years old, and the Brattleboro Department of Parks and Recreation employs 35 seasonal workers for the pool, summer program and day camp, and park maintenance.
Douglas, in 2009, announced funding for programs that provide “skills training and job experience they need to compete” for Vermonters aged 14-24, as part of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) that the state Department of Labor administers.
Brattleboro's Youth Services will provide a “seven-week academic and occupational summer experience” for nine WIA-eligible youth ages 14 to 16, according to a Department of Labor press release.
There are 18 programs that received funding for 2009-2010 to provide summer job experience and training for youth. Approximately 1,000 young Vermonters are targeted for employment through the program. Funding covers wages and fringe benefits for participants.
Douse was encouraged. “Longer term job prospects for young adults remain strong in Vermont,” he said.
With a retiring work force, Douse said many positions will be opening up for qualified applicants.
He cautioned those looking for summer employment that “people looking for work should know that… roughly two-thirds [of jobs available] are there because someone retired, took a different job or left the areas labor force for some other reason.”
Douse said that most other summer seasonal work for teens would be found in construction, travel, recreation, retail, and agriculture, including landscaping.
“That is not to say that finding work will be easy,” Douse added. “When thousands of students begin looking for work, it takes some time for them to find a job.”