From Crain's Detroit Business Business Education: Businesses give Loyola students glimpse of life in the world of work by Nancy Nall Derringer Most school days find 17-year-old Levi Starks in a shirt and tie and a neat pair of pants, a uniform that suits him whether he's in English class at Loyola High School or at Dykema Gossett P.L.L.C. Starks works at the downtown Detroit law firm one day a week, not after school, but all day, as part of a four-student team that shares one full-time equivalent job as part of their high school education. While many school-work programs help students find jobs, Loyola's Work Experience Program requires that they hold entry-level jobs in white-collar offices, learning what the world of work looks like from the inside. The point is not just to make money, but to learn the values of work firsthand. "This is not an apprenticeship," said Kitty Storen, Loyola's development director. "We don't try to match students with areas they have an interest in. We want them to see there may be more out there than just what they're interested in." Each job is shared equally between four students, who work one day a week and rotate on Fridays. The school provides transportation. The salary each student earns is paid to the school and is applied to tuition. The program brings in $395,000 of the school's $2.1 million budget, Storen said. Each company pays $25,000 per four-student team for work from just after Labor Day to when school lets out in June. The program has 67 students, all juniors and seniors. Loyola's program is based on a model developed in Chicago at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, where a similar population of at-risk, largely African-American urban males work themselves through a school they might not be able to afford otherwise. Loyola High School opened in Detroit in 1993 to continue the single-sex academy alternative tried by the Detroit Public Schools but later discontinued in the wake of discrimination lawsuits. Co-sponsored by the Society of Jesus and the Archdiocese of Detroit, the school serves 160 boys, most of whom don't have the academic records to be admitted to the Jesuits‚ college-prep school, University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy. "They tend to be two to four grade levels behind in reading and math when they come to us," Storen said. However, more than 90 percent of its most recent graduating class was accepted to two- or four-year college or other post-high school job training. The Rev. David Mastrangelo, school president, credits the intensely focused attention each student gets. For a student such as Starks, who transferred to Loyola from Detroit's McKenzie High School, the change was bracing. He went from being one small fish in McKenzie's 2,000-student pond to a high-profile leader at Loyola, playing basketball and serving a term as class president. He now plans to attend Wayne State University after graduation and major in journalism. He credits his work at Loyola and at Dykema Gossett with making the change. "Going to work every day, you get to see the way people really are (when they're working)," he said. "It's made me more mature. It's made me more confident." His colleagues at Dykema Gossett are similarly impressed. "They work hard, and they're fast learners," said Kim Amodeo, the firm's director of human resources. Amodeo said the key to making it work for the company is good supervision. With four students rotating through the job each week, it's important that their days be planned and blocked out carefully, she said. Students are obligated to work only during the school year. If they're hired while school is out of session, they're paid directly - about $70 a day. Companies provide no other benefits. "They're so polite," said Georgianna Anderegg, who supervises a group of Loyola students for DTE Energy Co. in Detroit. Anderegg said the company tries to expand their students‚ experience by inviting their Loyola workers to sit in on meetings and give their impressions. "They told us once how impressed they were to see people disagreeing with one another so calmly," Anderegg said. "They found it very interesting." "They're willing to do whatever it is they're asked to do," said Jill Feeney, manager of organizational development for Southfield-based R.L. Polk & Co., another participating company. These companies and organizations have Loyola High School students working for them as part of the school's Work Experience Program: ArchCivitas Architects L.L.C., Detroit Archdiocese of Detroit Blue Cross Blue Shield, Detroit Compuware Corp., Detroit Crain Communications Inc., Detroit DTE Energy Co., Detroit DuMouchelle Gallery, Detroit Dykema Gossett P.L.L.C., Detroit Focus: HOPE, Detroit Ford Motor Co., Dearborn Goodwill Industries, Detroit Health Alliance Plan, Detroit Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit Hollingsworth Logistics, Dearborn Plante and Moran L.L.P., Southfield Plunkett and Cooney P.C., Detroit Raymond and Prokop P.C., Southfield R.L. Polk & Co., Southfield Standard Federal Bank, Detroit The Bing Group, Detroit Think Detroit, Detroit Youth Sports and Recreation Commission, Detroit Crain Communications Inc. in Detroit, the parent company of Crain's Detroit Business, also participates in the Loyola program.
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