In a few months, Harvard will welcome a new cohort of Boston and Cambridge teens to work in paid positions throughout the University as part of the Summer Youth Employment program (SYEP).
For more than 25 years, the program has provided much-needed jobs and career training opportunities for dozens of local youth — more than 600 since the program’s inception,
It is one of several career pathway initiatives the University supports, the benefits of which go beyond job training for individual participants, explained Vice President for Human Resources Manuel Cuevas-Trisán. “We call them pathway programs because they create an infrastructure for opportunity.”
The University’s career pathway initiatives engage with a broad range of participants. Among those are pre-career internships through SYEP to partner with Year Up United (Year Up) for underserved people aged 18 to 29; internships and co-op programs for college students; mid-career initiatives such as Apprenti, which provides formal on-the-job training for various technical roles; and Skill Bridge, a partnership for transitioning military veterans to the civilian workforce.
Research shows that just over 50 percent of college graduates enter the workforce underemployed and that many remain underemployed 10 years later, which can have a significant impact on economic growth locally and nationally. Internships and apprenticeship opportunities are proven approaches to combat that trend.
“These programs not only benefit Harvard directly as an employer, because they supply workforce capability that we may need at any given time, but they also help the economy in a much broader way,” said Cuevas-Trisán. “Not only does Harvard help students, staff, and faculty, through our core mission of teaching, learning, and research, but we are also a major employer in the city of Cambridge and Greater Boston. Economic growth depends on productivity and growth of the workforce, so these initiatives directly tie to our region’s economic development.
“Ultimately, it’s all about meeting a workforce need, while at the same time having a social and individual impact. Through these initiatives we give participants tools for career success. Some of them end up here and some of them elsewhere, but their passage through Harvard has been transformative, and that’s where the excitement and the real magic happens,” Cuevas-Trisán said.
The range of workforce capabilities required to ensure large universities run smoothly makes them uniquely suited to support pathway programs like those at Harvard. “We have scholars, labs, infrastructure, hospitality, and development in a scale and spectrum that is similar to a city or municipality,” he added.
Jenitha Fingfing experienced the benefit of this career opportunity spectrum as a Year Up intern last year. Fingfing accepted an offer to work at the Harvard Visitor Center in the Smith Center. At first glance, the role seemed unrelated to the data analytics she had studied in her six-month Year Up training program.
“I almost didn’t do the internship because I thought I wanted to pursue data analytics, but trusted the process and started last January,” she said. “My very first day, I had the worst case of imposter syndrome ever. But after time, I started to assimilate and feel that I actually do have a place here.”
“I’ve learned so much about Harvard culture. I say I’m getting a Harvard education by working here.”
Jenitha Fingfing, Visitor Center staff
Fingfing has since been hired as a Visitor Center staff member while she pursues a bachelor’s degree in business and management.
“I feel like landing here was exactly what I needed to propel me forward. Had I not taken the internship, or tried to stick with data analytics, it might not have gone so much in my favor. So, it definitely feels like everything happened exactly the way that it needed to,” Fingfing said. “There are always a million doors that you could open. So, I am trying to open as many as possible while I’m here and learn as much as possible. I feel really grateful to be here, and I also feel very equipped for whatever my next role may be.”
To ensure success and support Harvard departments that take on interns, programs receive regular training and assistance from Harvard Human Resources and other organizations.
“A lot of what we do is provide context setting for young people. Even though they may be taking on a small task, like making photocopies, or cleaning up data, it can be very important in terms of an institution being able to function well. They get a better sense of what the ecosystem of a workplace looks like and how we all can collectively work to make sure that everyone’s able to do their jobs well,” said Jean Dao, who manages Harvard’s public school partnership programs with local high schools and provides weekly career readiness workshops for SYEP participants.
However, Fingfing is quick to point out that the impact of simply working in an environment like Harvard provides a wealth of learning experiences on its own. “A lot of people might not realize that there’s a lot of mentorship that happens just being in the environment, listening to phone calls and being cc’d on emails. I’ve learned so much about Harvard culture, about the Visitor Center, student life, about every and anything. Really, I say I’m getting a Harvard education by working here.”
More information about the career pathway initiatives at Harvard can be found here: Summer Youth Employment Program | Harvard Human Resources; DOD SkillBridge Program | Harvard Human Resources; https://hr.harvard.edu/year-up-united. Departments interested in hiring an intern can request more information via the pathway programs interest form.