Hello, I am Aurlie Sheppard and I am 17 years old. I am a senior at Richard Wright Public Charter School and a member of the DC Action Youth Advocacy Team, and I will not be participating in MBSYEP this year. I have some fond experiences with MBSYEP, but I have no fond experiences with DOES.
First and foremost, my biggest grievance with DOES is their poor communication. Recently, I was accepted back into the High School Internship Program (HSIP) after being on the waiting list for a bit. I did not know they had accepted me until I got an email on January 29 saying that I would be starting the following Monday (February 3). I was then unhappy with my job because I was simply assigned somewhere in close proximity to my house without being able to pick from options due to the short notice. So, I requested a transfer to my previous assignment. Admittedly, I was transferred in a timely manner. However, I received no notification of this and waited for days until I finally checked my portal and saw they had changed it. On many occasions, after not hearing back from the “youthjobs” email, I had to call the office and was given contact information. When I emailed these contacts, sometimes they would respond, other times they wouldn’t. For instance, I emailed Deshara Brown on Tuesday, October 17, 2023 at 7:25 AM. I never received a response. It was more likely that I received a response when my supervisor emailed instead of me. Lastly, during my summer job, on July 27, 2023, I was sexually harassed by a customer. My employer responded inappropriately, laughing and joking with the man who said he would “wait until I’m 18.” My mom came to the job to talk to the employer, who apologized to her and me and made excuses for the man. Later on, she would comment that I should not have minded the grown man flirting with me because I didn’t have a boyfriend. I was not made aware of any other options besides transferring if I were to be in an unsafe work environment. I submitted a transfer request with all of this information before the last week but I never even heard back. This was admittedly a late request, but I find it unacceptable to not even hear back.
My other grievance about MBSYEP is the low pay. 14- and 15-year-olds get paid below the federal minimum wage, despite the fact that we live in a city with one of the highest costs of living in the United States. $6.25 is only 83% of the federal minimum wage and 35% of the DC minimum wage. 16- to 21-year-olds are paid $9 an hour, which is over the federal minimum wage, but only 51% of the DC minimum wage. Many youth who do MBSYEP are supplementing their families’ income over the summer, as they are not provided with things they would usually get in school. Many people are doing real labor and working entire part-time shifts for 51% of the District’s minimum wage, despite being at an age where they most certainly need money over the summer. Just because it is legal to pay children way below minimum wage, doesn’t mean it is morally correct. 14 and 15-year-olds should get at least $10 an hour, especially considering some are flipping burgers and sweeping floors. We must fix this issue, and think more consciously about how we are affecting the lives of youth in the District.