Internships and Mentors Help Explore Career Opportunities
One person’s story……….
FAMILY BACKGROUND
Shariff Bukari (SB), an African American male, was born in New York City to parents who had grown up in Ghana, Africa, where they enjoyed spending time outdoors. After emigrating to one of the largest cities in the U.S., they wondered how their child could find opportunities to experience the outdoors, away from concrete sidewalks and asphalt streets.
CHILDHOOD
SB’s parents both worked late shifts so when a neighbor told his parents about New York City’s Fresh Air Fund’s Career Awareness Program, in which children attend camp during the summer and participate in career training sessions during the school year, they filled out an application for their son.
SB gravitated toward math and science as a child. One of his dream careers was paleontology, the branch of science concerned with fossil animals and plants. In essence, it’s the scientific study of the past life on Earth through studying fossils. Paleontology traces the history of life on Earth.
His interest in paleontology was manifest as a child, in love of learning about dinosaurs and combing through artifacts when he was able to find them during ‘nature walks’ with his parents within city parklands.
EDUCATION MAY OCCUR INSIDE AND OUTSIDE SCHOOL WALLS
At the age of 12, with the financial and program support of New York-based The Fresh Air Fund, SB spent his first summer in upstate New York at Fresh Air’s Camp Mariah. Leaving home for the first time made him feel more mature and aware of how big the world was. Being at camp “raised my eagerness to want to do more things on my own,” said SB.
He remembers the mental ‘rush’ of trying each new summer camp activity: building campfires, jumping into the water, listening to the birds in the trees. But what left the most lasting impact was the career training part of the program, which gave him a new perspective on his ambitions and interests.
One day, dancers arrived to talk about their training and the cultures they drew from in their choreography. The creativity and physical demands of the job impressed SB, but he wrestled with the idea of pursuing dance. Hearing people talk about the details of their careers, “you really get to understand and decide whether it’s something you can see yourself doing or not,” explained SB. Ultimately, he set dance aside as a career path.
“I was a bright-eyed kid that wanted to experience a whole bunch of different things,” he said. SB participated in the career program for two more years, exploring professions other than those involving his first two loves: math and science.
INTERNSHIPS AND MENTORS HELP EXPLORE CAREER OPTIONS
During his third year, SB found his calling after shadowing people at financial advisor firms including well-regarded Morgan Stanley. It was thrilling, he recalled, “to see how they worked with people and data. I could definitely see myself working here,” he remembers thinking at the time.
Through the Fresh Air careers’ exploration program, SB met with a mentor who made him feel confident about how to prepare for a job in finance. A decade later, SB works for JP Morgan Chase and has led his own career sessions on financial planning for the Fresh Air Fund.
“Having a mind-set of what you’re trying to achieve, at a young age, only betters you,” says SB.
SB’s summers at Camp Mariah informed him of an approach to life, as well, making him more spontaneous and willing to try new things. Now, SB wants to pass those lessons on by helping other young people explore their passions and develop a deeper understanding of their natural surroundings. In that way, he said, “the program is still shaping my life.”
ABOUT NEW YORK CITY’S ‘FRESH AIR FUND’
The Fresh Air Fund is a non-profit organization which provides summer camp and away-from-city host family experiences for underserved communities in New York City. The agency was founded in 1877, originally focused on summer activities, now providing year-round leadership career exploration and educational programs, serving more than 1.8 million children (as of 2024) since its founding.
(Donations to the Fresh Air Fund are tax deductible and may be sent to the Fresh Air Fund, 633 Third Avenue, 14th floor, New York, New York, 10017. Families who wish to be hosts and New York City based parents who would like to sign up for their children can call the Fresh Air Fund toll free at 800-367-0003 or visit www.freshair.org.)
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Editor’s note: Similar programs may be available in areas near and far from New York City. School counselors may be able to assist internet research by you or a tech-savvy friend.
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This commentary was based on several sources, including internet research and a news article written by ‘The Editorial Board’ – a group of opinion journalists employed by The New York Times newspaper, which published the article, “Exploring The World Beyond Queens” on May 26, 2024.
