Summer Work Program Finishes Another Successful Year

Last year the Sonoran Center launched its Summer Work Program. With the school year starting again, the Summer Work Program has finished its second year. This year featured new students, new employers, and even new virtual work opportunities.

“I think overall, it was really successful,” says Sonoran Center’s Pre-Employment Transition Services Program Coordinator, Kelsey Montaño. “We had almost three times as many applicants as last summer. With that, through screening them with eligibility requirements, we ended up still with a good amount of student participants this summer.” 

32 students in Tucson had the opportunity to learn valuable skills, get experience, and earn money. They worked with 13 different employers, with each student matched to an employer that suits their interests and abilities. 

Not only did this summer have more returning students, but more employers decided to get involved in the program. According to Montaño, “We had a total of 13 partnerships, and 4 of them were utilized either in our Work-Based Learning [Program] or from last summer.”

This year, the program also expanded to include schools, students, and employers in the Phoenix area. 23 students in Phoenix participated in the program. Employers in the Phoenix area who participated include Town of Gilbert Parks & Rec, Ace Hardware, Heidi’s Village, Poolwerx, and Anthem Golf & Country Club, among others. 

“With further expansion in the future, we plan to be a well-known project statewide,” Montaño says. “This team has a handful of schools already lined up for the Phoenix area, which is very exciting. Once these schools are more established, we do plan on bringing on more schools in throughout the Phoenix area.” 

“The strategic goal is to work with 20 schools in Arizona by 2026,” says Damian Gudino, a vocational specialist at the Sonoran Center.

The Tucson businesses included ACE Hardware, The Complete Canine, Golf n’ Stuff, Skate Country, and the Tucson Musicians Museum. 

“This was definitely a mutually beneficial program for us,” said Taylor Nelson, director of sales at Golf n’ Stuff. “We were happy to get involved because it helped us a lot on our end, and we were happy to give the students worksite experience.”

Working at Golf n’ Stuff, the students would get experience with the hard skills of the job, like keeping the miniature golf courses clean and maintaining the arcade games, as well as the soft skills like how to get signed in, where to put one’s belongings, and what to do on break.

The students not only got hands–on experience on the job, but also became more comfortable navigating the social aspect of employment. Nelson recalls the story of one student in particular that shows how the Summer Work Program helps students not only build job skills, but helps them on a personal level as well: 

“One of our students this summer, he was really into photography, and in the beginning, he was very shy, but he opened up to us and showed us some of his work. He actually had a whole portfolio on Instagram that he finally shared with us at the end of the summer. So, it was really nice to kind of see that growth with him, where he started off very shy and kind of introverted, and towards the end he was showing us some of his personal work. That was very exciting to me.”

Nelson highly recommends the Summer Work Program to other employers. Not only do the students benefit, but it can be a great help to the business as well.

“There’s a lot of stuff we need help with, we have a very big facility, and a lot of times our staff is busy attending to guests. So, it was nice to have extra hands on our busier shifts,” Nelson explains. “They actually went above and beyond any work we expected them to do, and they were all phenomenal at their tasks.” 

“We were able to hire someone from the program, and what a huge addition he’s been to the team,” says Nelson. “So, for any other employers who are debating trying the program, it’s a nice way to get to know people you may hire at the end of the program. If [employers] haven’t already started their program with the [Sonoran Center], I’d 100% recommend it.”
 
One of the new aspects of the program this summer was the addition of a new virtual work opportunity at The Tucson Musicians Museum (TMM). While the world is much more open now than it was in the summer of 2020, virtual work is still the best option for some students and workplaces. At the TMM, students could organize the museum’s catalog of Tucson musicians by genre and add photos to their respective pages. 

When asked about what struck her as the biggest difference this year compared to last year, Montaño responded that the public’s level of awareness of and appreciation for the program has grown significantly.

“Awareness in general helped—word of mouth,” Montaño says. “I think what sets our program apart is that we are able to offer a job coach, and I think that’s brought a lot of attention from families specifically. We had a lot of really positive feedback from parents and guardians about how pleased they were with the job coaches and how that’s really made an impact.”

Montaño and her team are already looking ahead to make next summer an even bigger success. As public awareness was a big part of the success of the program this summer, they hope to get the word out to an even broader audience next summer. 

“Transition fairs, social media, any kind of platform we can get on to promote it,” Montaño says. “We are invited to transition fairs and different kinds of school events. With that, people from the school come out and they’re able to see the benefits of the programs, and know if they have a VR counselor, they're able to partner with us during the summer and have that experience which they don’t always have during the school year. Giving an additional opportunity for students to be busy and productive during the summer has been really beneficial, and I think it’s caught a lot of attention and caught parents’ eyes to want to get their students out there to gain this experience.”

In addition to larger-scale promotion efforts, Montaño hopes to streamline and improve the onboarding process for the students by  creating a newer version of the student interview. “With that, I want to implement what we call a situational assessment. There might be a passage to read, or something to write — overall testing the dexterity or motor skills of an individual, to help kind of assess what setting they then could be placed into.”

Montaño is optimistic that everything the Sonoran Center has learned from the Summer Work Program this last summer will make next year an even bigger success:

“We’re excited to know what needs to be put in place to be able to facilitate it better and make it an overall easier process for all coming in next summer.”