employment

Amid concerns over the coronavirus, New York City government officials canceled the Summer Youth Employment Program earlier last month, which engages thousands of youths in paid pre-professional work. But city advocates, including Manhattan Community Board 9—a local advisory board representing Morningside Heights and surrounding areas—expressed concerns and suggested that the program continue remotely to provide economic benefits for underprivileged youth.

Whether you’re an incoming first-year or a rising senior, it’s never too late nor too early to start scouting for job openings during your time at Columbia or Barnard. Not only can it be an enriching experience to prepare you for life after graduation, it can also serve as a good source of financial support.

As part of a new initiative to foster more inclusive learning environments at Columbia, the Center for Teaching and Learning has created positions for undergraduate students to serve as paid learning consultants, a role that will allow six sophomores and juniors across Columbia College, the School of General Studies, and the School of Engineering and Applied Science to directly participate in discussions with faculty about inclusive teaching and students’ learning experiences in the classroom.

It’s early June, and the clocks are striking 13. These past two weeks have been blissful, dusky, and honey-soaked. Saccharine, whatever that means. And I reckon I’ve got about three more days before the panic truly sets in. You see, I don’t have gainful employment lined up for this summer. Cue much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

It struck me immediately as I started reporting on Arise, a summer program for youths in West Harlem, what a small world I had stumbled into.

Francia Fernandez emerges from the underlit, green-tiled foyer of the Grant Houses public housing complex on Broadway as a subway train rumbles overhead. In a baby pink headband and grey sweatpants, she is stepping out just to run some errands. We converse outside the building, her dyed-blond ponytail swishing, the cadence of her Spanish musical. Although she currently holds a cleaning job, she is seeking new employment. I point to the Columbia Employment Information Center, the boxy one-story building directly next door, and Fernandez tells me she has never heard of it. She seems surprised. “Do they have cleaning work?” she inquires, knitting her eyebrows. I nod. “Okay, I’m going to go tomorrow and apply for a cleaning job at Columbia,” Fernandez replies with determination, as if she has already marked it into her calendar. As we part ways and she walks to the 125th Street subway station to continue her day, Fernandez passes within arm’s length of the CEIC’s all-glass exterior.

A lot of us come to Columbia as first-years thinking that we’ll change the world. We want to save the refugees; we want to eradicate malaria; we want to end world hunger. A few of us persevere and go to work for organizations like UNICEF, Oxfam, or Médecins Sans Frontières—or Doctors Without Borders—but most either give up on our humanitarian dreams or fail. Some of us are true academics, and go off to write Ph.D.s, but a lot of us “sell out” and work in lucrative industries like banking, consulting, and software engineering.

Piles of diapers in every room, cartoons blaring in the background, and toys strewn all over the ground. This scene is very different from a college dorm littered with open books, dirty laundry, and half-empty bottles of alcohol. When exhausted babysitters commute straight from lecture to a family’s apartment, they’re exposed to the vast difference between the never-ending pace of college and the gentle hum of a kid’s day-to-day life.

For Kelsey Hand, BC ’15, working at the student-run Barnard Babysitting Agency gave her the business skills that her liberal arts education could not.

Cynthia Meekins will serve as Barnard’s new director of Student Employment Services, Dean of the College Avis Hinkson announced in an email on Wednesday.