HAMILTON, Mich. — Summer break isn’t over just yet. There’s a group of high schoolers with Hamilton Community Schools that have been showing up to school just about every day, and not for summer school—but for their summer jobs.
“Favorite part – driving the tractor,” said Bradon, who will be a junior at Hamilton High School this fall. He’s a member of the Hawkeye Helpers, a program the district started in 2019 after needing some extra help moving furniture for new flooring.
“Since we were doing 50 classrooms, I needed a little help and so we brought in some students to help us out and decided that it was kind of unique program and a fun way to introduce kids into helping out at the schools,” said Hamilton Community Schools Maintenance and Grounds Supervisor Keith Folkert.
Their day starts at 7:30 a.m. The students work 32 hours a week, Monday through Thursday, earning about $11 an hour with the potential to earn more for returning Hawkeye Helpers.
Jordan will be a senior at Hamilton High School this fall and this is her second summer working as a Hawkeye Helper. She said, “My brother did it and I was like that’s really cool.”
Jordan’s brother also encouraged Bradon.
“He said that I should probably take the job because it offers a lot of different things to learn and Jordan also talked me into it. So, I went to the interview.”
“It is a win-win situation,” said Folkert. The students provide improvements throughout the district, plus, “The students get to learn new skills. We try to mix it up. We try to teach them new things that they can take with them and learn from and use later in life,” said Folkert, who added that the program is “a great resume builder. It’s a variety of things that they can bring forth to other occupations.”
“I’ve learned how to change air filters which is not a big skill but it’s nice to know. Say, in the future, say I have like a big air conditioner at my house or at my work or something and they’re like, ‘Oh, does somebody know how to change this?’ I know how to change it,” said Jordan, who’s been the only female involved in the program the last couple of years.
Bradon said, “I’m learning so many things like how to move a tractor, how to use a pallet jack.”
“We’ve had them outside doing landscape work, we’ve spread some mulch, we’ve done some weed whipping and trimming, some tree trimming. We’ve brought them inside the schools. We’ve done some painting,” said Folkert.
Some other projects the teen workers help with include heavy lifting, painting, landscaping, working with the irrigation system and more. This gives the students a sense of pride.
“It looks good. After you’re done, it looks really good and you know that you put in the hard effort to see that change,” said Jordan.
Bradon also described the process, saying, “You start off – everything’s dirty. You have to clean everything out and then you have to replace it with new clean stuff.”
For Jordan, she said the program has changed her outlook on her own abilities, “I know I can do more. Like, I have the ability to push myself past maybe my comfort zone to do things that I didn’t think I could do before.”
Folkert added, “I know that they feel like they’re making a difference and they truly are.”
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