DATE: Friday, July 4, 1997                  TAG: 9707030626

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Education: A Special Weekly Report

SOURCE: BY LORRAINE EATON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   96 lines

LEARNING THE ROPES: SUMMER IS THE BEST FOR TEENS TO GET THE ON-THE-JOB TRAINING THAT OFTEN LEADS TO HIGHER-PAYING CAREERS.

Find the shadow spray.

One day this summer, this was Adam Law's task. Everyone on the set of ``Ghost Stories,'' a syndicated television series being filmed at New Dominion Pictures in Virginia Beach, was asking Law, ``Where's the shadow spray?'' As a production assistant, the lowest man on the television production totem poll, it was Law's job to find it.

Law, 17, a 1997 graduate of Cox High School in Virginia Beach, is one of millions of high school and college students who are spending the summer on the job, getting ahead, learning lessons that can't be learned in the classroom.

For instance, Law learned that there is no such thing as shadow spray. And he learned to take a good-natured ribbing from his colleagues.

Studies on student employment show that working more than 20 hours a week during the school year can adversely affect grades and social behavior. But a 1995 Tulane University study showed that students with work experience stand a better chance of being employed, and will probably make more money than their peers who spend the summer lounging at poolside.

Because the school-work conflict is erased in the summer for most students, the dog days are the best time to go out and get that experience.

``Even small amounts of work during the summer - five hours a week - teaches students things that they cannot learn anywhere else,'' said John C. Doyle, director of public relations for the Washington, D.C.-based Employment Policies Institute, a nonprofit group that studies entry-level employment trends. ``There are customs, a language and mores that are inherent in the workplace'' that are best learned in the workplace.

Youth employment peaks in July. Nationally, the 16- to 24-year-old labor force - those working or actively looking for work - expands sharply in the summer, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. In July 1996, the youth labor force rose by 3.2 million, to a total of 23.7 million. Virginia figures weren't available.

The Tulane study analyzed 12 years of employment trends of 2,716 students ages 16 to 19 who were in high school in 1979. It found that students who work while they are young are more likely to be employed as adults and will earn $1,300 to $1,600 more annually than students who did not work.

Young people who join the work force ``learn to show up consistently, on time,'' Doyle said. ``They learn to come to work with their shirt tucked in and their hair combed. They learn to look in people's eyes when they talk to them - social skills.''

Developing communication skills. That's what Thysha Shabazz, 16, a rising junior at Indian River High in Chesapeake, values most about her summer volunteer job at Chesapeake General Hospital.

``You have to talk to a whole lot of people,'' said Thysha, who is doing administrative work for eight hours a week. ``Even being able to talk on the phone is really good . . . . It's learning to be a people person, to write good messages and memos. This will be helpful in whatever job I pursue.''

Summer employment is also an integral part of a college education, said Janis Krebs Smith, associate director of the Career Management Center at Old Dominion University in Norfolk. Local college students are doing everything from planning the location of new sewer lines in Virginia Beach to writing newsletters for nonprofit organizations to designing computer Web pages for the Internet.

For the past two years, ODU has guaranteed internships or cooperative training to its students. During the 1996-97 school year, 2,000 students landed internships, many in the summer.

``For many students, this is an opportunity to test drive a career,'' Smith said. ``It can give them a concrete feel for the workplace and the workplace culture. It also gives them a chance to apply what they've learned in the classroom.''

Often, Smith said, when students return to campus from internships, they are re-energized and do better academically because they understand how what they are learning will help them in the real world.

Another payoff comes after graduation. Seventy percent of employers require that college graduates have internships or experience, according to a 1996 survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, an organization of human resources professionals that hire college graduates.

``All students can get jobs,'' ODU's Smith said. ``Students who have had related experience probably will spend less time job searching and will be better at articulating their job skills to employers. They'll have a better sense of focus.''

But Doyle was quick to note that there is a downside to working too much.

Law, the hard-working production assistant who wants a job in the entertainment industry and who will attend the University of Southern California in the fall, is working at least 12 hours a day, six days a week. He loves his job, but there are times when he misses being with his friends.

``Balance,'' Doyle said. ``Teen-agers have very rich lives whether they realize it or not. There is a lot of fun to be had during these years . . . .

``That adage, `all work and no play' - that actually rings true'' for students who do nothing but work all summer long. ILLUSTRATION: Photos by MORT FRYMAN, The Virginian-Pilot

Adam Law, 17, a 1997 graduate of Cox High School...

Adam Law

Chart

Teen workers earn more as adults

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