July 30, 2010

WASHINGTON - It was early on a Tuesday morning in July and Kalen Nash was focused on tearing and recycling old ticket stock in anticipation of a new shipment of tickets for the 2010-11 Georgetown Basketball season. Not a glamorous task, but one similar to the dues routinely paid by interns looking to break into the sports industry. For Kalen, it is his second summer working alongside the Georgetown Athletics Ticket Office. Though unlike many college interns who are looking for a glimpse at life beyond college, the rising junior, at Gonzaga College High School, is looking to see what fits his eclectic tastes as he prepares for college.

Kalen came to Georgetown last year as a part of Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty's expansion of the Summer Youth Employment Program. Beginning in 2009, the program aims to train district youths between the ages of 14-21 by putting them in short-term employment opportunities in a variety of fields. At Georgetown, Nash is being afforded the opportunity to get a head start on his peers and explore his career goals.

"Before my sophomore year I was looking for things to do besides camps and basketball," Kalen said. "I was looking to work, so I looked into the Mayor's program. I went to the job fair and Georgetown was a place that stood out and I knew I wanted to work there. They said they were flexible in where they could put me."

Tearing and recycling ticket stock has only a been a small part of the summer experience Nash has had at Georgetown. In his first year on the Hilltop, Kalen assisted the ticket department with the beginning of men's basketball student season ticket sales, among the busier times of year. His presence proved to be valuable for the department.

"Last year, Kalen really helped us out with student season ticket orders, entering those into spreadsheets and helping us with those deposits," Steve Alleva, the Director of Ticket Sales and Operations said. "We had about 3,000 student season tickets last year, so it was a lot to manage. He was instrumental in getting those initial orders into our system."

With Kalen's strong performance during the summer of 2009, the Georgetown Athletic Department was interested in continuing its relationship with the D.C. Summer Youth Employment Program. When Nash became available for a second consecutive summer it became a no-brainer for Alleva to bring him back to the Hilltop.

"I think the thing that speaks to the relationship is he wants to come back and we want him back," Alleva said. "We had already committed to the program before we knew of Kalen's availability, but because Kalen did such a great job for us last year when the opportunity came up for him to come back we said yes without hesitation."

For Nash, the decision was just as simple. During his first year he was able to get a glimpse of daily life in the working world, while impressing his supervisors with his work ethic. He was also able to pick up traits from them on how to be successful in a career.

"I got to see a lot of the behind the scenes work, helping out with student season tickets and seeing how everything operates behind the basketball team and how they're supported," Nash said. "I can tell Steve Alleva and (Ticket Manager) Maurice Wharton definitely have a passion for what they're doing. It's definitely a help, because they're both patient and helpful."

During the summer of 2010, Nash has seen his responsibilities increase and will likely have the opportunity to work in other areas of the athletic department to get a better sense of his job preferences. In addition to continuing to help the ticket office wrap up the 2009 season and rolling out the 2010-11 season tickets, Nash will have the opportunity to shadow Head Athletic Trainer Shawn Hendi to gauge his interest in that path.

"I'm in the training room at Gonzaga with the athletic trainer a lot, either trying to learn or for something I need," Kalen said. "I have bad knees so that's what started this interest. I had to do physical therapy, so being in the athletic training office before and after practice, getting treatment for my knees it turned into something that I was interested in doing."

Regardless of where Nash spends the majority of his time in the athletic department, the experience he and other members of Mayor Fenty's Summer Youth Employment Program exceeds what many current employees had at the same age.

"I definitely did not have this type of opportunity in high school, it was not until much later in college," Wharton said. "It's definitely going to be valuable. Soon enough he'll be out in the real world and he'll have experience so he's not blown away when he gets out there."

Nash, while one of the younger employees, is one of many D.C. area youths employed through the program.

"The program has been in existence since Marion Barry's earlier administration, but Georgetown has only been involved for the past four or five years," said Brenda Atkinson Willoughby the Director of Government & Community Relations and the person at the University who handles the implementation of the program. "For Georgetown, generally we've taken one or two interns. Last year Adrian Fenty really reached out to grow the program. He had asked businesses to commit to hiring youths in the program."

Last year the University employed 10 area students, this year they have employed nine, but next year the goal is to expand the program to 20 area youths.

"We wanted to match interns' career goal interests with their appropriate place at Georgetown," Atkinson-Willoughby said. "I knew of at least a dozen departments that I could approach given the information that I got from the most impressive candidates. Kalen was one of the young people that I was impressed with," she continued. "He was direct, he was friendly. We wanted to make it a meaningful experience especially if they haven't had it before and Steve and Maurice have been fabulous. Kalen has been the perfect fit and they've been the perfect advisors for him."