Congratulations to Our Summer 2021 Intern Cohort
Chief Executive Officer, Ninive Calegari, with Youth Intern.
Dear Friends,
Enterprise’s entire organization relies on incredible acts of kindness and generosity. This summer was our biggest in youth employment in our entire 52-year history and the community’s kindness and generosity were shining brightly. Thank you to everyone for contributing to create this historic summer together.
I had the incredible pleasure of talking directly with some of the business owners who participated in the SF New Deal pilot internships where Enterprise interns supported the business’s social media efforts. In one case, youth beautifully redesigned the Washington Bakery’s website. For other SF New Deal hosts, youth managed Instagram posts to drive social media traction and engagement, and for other intern hosts, Enterprise youth worked diligently to put restaurant’s menus up on UberEats.
When I had the special opportunity to talk to business owners I would walk away thinking ‘what an American hero.’ Intern Host, Sam, from The New Spot on Polk hails from Palestine and spent time teaching youth interns, Pablo and Rania, about his business culture and he successfully integrated the youth onto the team. Jimmy, who owns San Francisco’s oldest restaurant, The Chinatown Restaurant, and hails from China, was so enamored with youth interns, Angel and Katie, that he told me we should build a ten-year program to continue connecting the generations together to learn and grow. In both of these cases, intern hosts were incorporating youth into their daily lives and collaborating with them on various projects. We are proud of the combined efforts of the interns and their hosts, and are grateful to the team at SF New Deal for partnering with us.
Operating during covid has been a challenge, but thanks to our expanded digital and in-person programming we have been thriving. Not only have we designed internship programs with SF New Deal and Old Navy headquarters, but we have built out more technical training internships in health and technology, and have grown our summer Green Careers internships. While that has been going on, our longstanding program with Gap Inc was relaunched with interns in three Old Navy stores and we are eager to kick off our new Starbucks pilot. Through the tireless efforts of park leadership and Enterprise staff, we have kept young people engaged and learning through this pandemic. It has been a great honor to work alongside so many local individual heroes from park rangers to local small business owners to the leaders at companies like First Republic and Salesforce.
In the midst of all of this progress, we have one big change to announce — we moved out of our office space on Pine Street. We are happy with this decision and we hope to be back in the Financial District in early 2022, as we know that being a part of the vibrant downtown neighborhood is a powerful component of our program. [If you know about a building with gender-neutral bathrooms and smooth-riding elevators, please do let us know!] In the interim period, we want to thank our dear friends at First Republic Bank, for loaning us space to have staff meetings in person. Despite not having a full-time physical office, we will be running a rich slate of programming. This fall we will be launching another large-scale Youth Council leadership group and we will be offering our comprehensive job readiness trainings on Zoom and at a few school campuses. For youth already in our program, we will be gathering with them to sharpen their professional tool kit. To learn more and join the interested lists for either Youth Council or job readiness training, please visit us at www.enterpriseforyouth.org.
Again, to all the young people who leaned into their internship this summer — congratulations! Great work – we are so proud of you. As I have mentioned to you in person, it’s a thrill and an honor to watch you thrive and embark on your professional journeys.
See everyone soon, hopefully,
