Scholars in fourth year of program gain work experience, find mentors through summer internships
Erika Espinoza, a 17-year-old junior at New Brunswick Health Sciences Technology High School, admits that had she not been selected as a Rutgers Future Scholar, her dreams of attending college would never come to be.
“My parents are divorced and work in factories to make their money,” she says. “The Rutgers Future Scholars Program gives me the confidence, focus, and means to be able to afford to go to college one day.”
Espinoza, who lives with her mother in New Brunswick, is just one of nearly 800 participants in the Rutgers University Future Scholars program – the only one of its kind in the nation – that mentors low-income middle school students for five years in preparation for a tuition-free education. If the scholars successfully complete the pre-college part of the program, keep up their grades, and earn admission into Rutgers, they are eligible for a full scholarship covering tuition and fees.
Recently, nearly 100 11th-grade scholars from Piscataway and New Brunswick, including Espinoza, completed the summer internship component of the program. The internship program offers students opportunities with different offices across each Rutgers campus, as well as at businesses within their local communities. On the New Brunswick Campus, for example, the scholars interned in University Relations, Student Life, Career Services, Admissions, among other departments. The goal of the internships, a new feature of the program implemented this summer, is to begin to expose the students to the work world and to help them learn the skills needed for college. Scholars who participate also earn one college credit.
“Each of the scholars is truly an inspiration,” says Alessandra Sperling, assistant coordinator of the Rutgers Writing Program Institute and the Rutgers Future Scholars internship program. “We have yet to see how their networking experiences will pan out in the scholars’ futures, but we began the internships because we wanted them to get real work experience under their belts,” she says.
Espinoza gained her own valuable real work experience this summer as an intern with the State Theatre of New Jersey in New Brunswick.
Espinoza and fellow scholars Brandon Diaz-Abreu and Patrice Belin worked with Rutgers graduate Kelly Blithe, public relations director for the theater. During their internship, they learned about what happens backstage and behind the scenes and had brainstorming sessions with the theater’s art director. The students met with staff from operations, development and finance, and even offered ideas to help the theater attract younger audiences.
“We love to be able to share what we do with others because we love our jobs,” says Blithe, who is eager to work again with Rutgers Future Scholars next summer.
Sperling says that each of the scholars who interned this summer were very willing to put in the time and
And it’s clear the benefits are reciprocal. “The internships provide an opportunity for our scholars to apply their developing skills to real-world settings while sharing with our partners a talented pool of employable candidates they could continue to mentor,” says Aramis Gutierrez, director of the Rutgers Future Scholars Program.
Kim Manning, vice president for University Relations at Rutgers, was one of the on-campus supervisors of a young scholar this summer. She, like Blithe, is also excited to welcome another Future Scholar to her department next year because of the positive experience she had with 16- year-old intern, Masiel Torres, a current Rutgers Future Scholar and resident of New Brunswick.
“Masiel is amazing. (She is) intelligent, poised, thoughtful, asks terrific questions, and there was never any sense that she was at all intimidated by working in our office,” Manning says. “It was a pleasure to work with her.”
Over the span of Torres’ two-week internship, she worked closely with Manning and the University Relations staff. Torres sat in on a vendor presentation and on preparation for Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick’s fall annual address (with President McCormick himself in attendance). She also tackled an assignment and report about how to effectively market Rutgers Day – an annual event when the university opens its door to New Jersey residents for a full day of free performances, lectures, exhibits, children’s activities, hands-on learning, and athletic competitions.
“I’ve gained so much from my internship with Ms. Manning,” says Torres, who discovered she has a passion for the marketing field after observing marketing strategy come to life. “One thing I learned through our conversations is the great effect education can have on one’s life. To see what she accomplished is such an inspiration.”
Another young scholar, Jason Gaines, who will be a junior this fall at New Brunswick High School, says the experience he received while interning with Judge Vincent LeBlon this summer at the Superior Court of Middlesex County far surpassed his expectations.
“When you’re surrounded by people who care, who want to help you, it has a great impact because you want to be bigger and go further,” says Gaines, who was able to sit in on the jury selection process the first day of his internship.
Sperling hopes to add more internships with Rutgers employees and community area businesses in the years to come. “The Future Scholars Program is a family and we will be together for a long, long time. We really want to follow them, be mentors for them throughout their lives, and offer them as much access to as much as they can possibly have,” she says.