QUEENS, NY (August 1, 2018) – Briana Rodriguez, an eleventh-grader at student at Newtown High School, didn’t head for the beach when the last bell of her tenth grade year rang. Instead, she enrolled in a summer coding class.
I started attending St. Lukes in Forest Hills after my sister passed in 2002 . I joined in order to take my niece, who’d grown up going to church with her mom. I slowly got involved, first by joining the choir, then by joining the church’s outreach program.
Last Summer my friend asked me to go to a job fair with him. I already had a summer job lined up, so I tagged along for fun. I consider it kind of miraculous what happened next.
Growing up in South Jamaica, it was either you get a summer job or you hang out at the park all day. Even at a young age, I knew the latter wasn’t for me. When I was 16, I applied for SYEP (Summer Youth Employment Program) and landed my first job working at a QCH Summer Camp in Forest Hills.
