To celebrate the importance of summer jobs for youth, the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) today paid tribute to 356 high school and college students at Black Falcon Cruise Terminal in South Boston by recognizing their hard work and accomplishments in summer job programs.

This year, Massport budgeted more than $665,000 for three different job programs: the Summer Internship Program, which employs college students to work at Massport facilities; the Community Summer Jobs Program, which helps surrounding communities and social service agencies hire local high school and college students; and Massport's Office of Diversity summer jobs program.

"Summer jobs have always been an integral part of Massport's culture and mission," said Thomas J. Kinton, Jr., Massport's CEO & Executive Director. "It has always been a priority to fund the summer jobs, even during the toughest of times. Summer jobs give students a chance to learn necessary skills they will need in their future employment, not to mention the importance of teamwork."

Massport started a college internship program with Northeastern University in the mid 1960's and created its own internship program in the mid 1970's. Over the decades, Massport has provided opportunities for thousands of students. This year, it spent more than $250,000 to employ 60 students throughout Massport facilities including Logan International Airport, the Logan Office Center, Hanscom Field, the Tobin Bridge, and the Port of Boston.

The Community Summer Jobs Program, which started in 1991, benefits Massport's impacted communities -- Charlestown, Chelsea, East Boston, South Boston, Revere, Winthrop and Hanscom area towns of Bedford, Concord, Lexington, and Lincoln -- by providing funding for summer employment. This year, Massport donated more than $400,000 to help place 288 students in various positions at 39 different social service agencies or municipal departments in our neighboring communities. These agencies are responsible for recruiting, interviewing, hiring and supervising summer employees. Since 1991 close to 4000 students have benefited from the CSJP. When the program started, the pay scale ranged from $4.75 - $8.50 per hour. This year, wages ranged from $7.00 - $15.00 per hour depending on experience and job function.

Lastly, Massport's Office of Diversity this year continued a tradition established by the Concerned Minority Employee Group (CME) in 1992 by launching a revised Diversity Summer Jobs Program through the Private Industry Council (PIC) by donating $14,000 to help eight high school students of color who attend South Boston and East Boston high schools to work in Boston, Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, and Roxbury.

"Without Massport's funding, we would not be able to fund priority positions to meet our summer program demands, and being able to pay our interns is huge," said Gladys Vega, Executive Director of the Chelsea Collaborative. "With this money, we are able to hire local college students to supervise younger interns. We are extremely grateful to Massport for its past and continued support to help us provide quality summer programming to all who benefit."

While Massport's own Summer Internship Program is open to enrolled college students, the Diversity Summer Jobs Program is open to high school students.

The Community Summer Jobs Program provides funding to communities impacted by Massport operations to hire both high school and college age students. Program participation, and the level of funding, is based on the benefit to the community, the specific financial need, the number of impacted community residents served, and proven fiscal oversight. Massport's contribution is critical to many of their summer job programs, and in some cases their only means of supporting these positions.

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