Youth Employment
Beam Center employs youth in unique programs that we call “enterprises.” We have designed these enterprises to reflect the lived experiences of our youth participants and to prepare them for interest-based academic and career experiences.
In each enterprise, youth are paid to develop their technical and professional skills and are trained to design, create, and deliver some of our public-facing programming and art offerings. Expand the sections below to read more about each of our enterprises and to hear from our youth employees.
Project Leaders
Beam’s Project Leader Enterprise is a cooperative program managed by Beam Center full-time staff and young people from our community.
Project Leaders provides contracted STEAM enrichment programming to schools and community-based organizations in a variety of settings, including afterschool programs, street fairs, festivals, and day camps. Project Leaders are graduates of our Apprenticeship program who act as peer-to-peer mentors to those completing the Apprenticeship. Project Leaders develop annual project themes, brainstorm and prototype projects, develop materials lists and lesson plans, and facilitate projects for younger students.
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Recent Projects + Themes
Project Production
The Project Production Enterprise manages the selection, collaborative development, and fabrication of Beam Center’s Big Projects, a collection of spectacular community-built public artworks.
Youth working in this enterprise are called Fellows and are trained in the fundamentals of prototyping, fabrication, and installation. Working collaboratively across Beam, the Project Production team regularly shares its expertise with our Apprenticeship and School Partnerships. In addition to its work within Beam, the Project Production team offers its services and expertise to artists with existing public commissions in need of fabrication support.
Externships
Beam’s Externship Enterprise places graduating Apprentices and other Beam-connected youth in work experiences at youth-centered creative and technical organizations and businesses that share Beam’s approach to learning-based employment.
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Managed by our Youth Employment department, this enterprise identifies potential internship placements at sites that share Beam’s approach to learning-based employment and then matches Beam youth according to their interests and best fit. Prior to sending youth out on their Externships, Beam prepares worksites by sharing practices that create welcoming and responsive experiences for young people and enable reciprocal and transferable learning for both youth and the employer. Many Externship placements are supported by funding from the Department of Youth and Community Development’s (DYCD) Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP).
If you’d like to sign-up as a worksite and host Beam youth, complete this form.
Recent Externship placements include:
Big Reuse
Brooklyn Children’s Museum
Brooklyn College Haitian Studies
Building Beats
CAMBA
City Growers
Coditivity
Collective fare
Cysana
FDA Market
Flying Leap Production
IHSHS
IHSPH
IKEA
Kids in the game
Lamont Doherty
MarkerState
NPS
NYEdge
NY Presbiterian Hospital
QWANQWA
Reelworks
Reti Center
Secret Riso
Shahana Hanif
Shandaken Projects
Shapeshifter Lab
South Street Seaport Museum
SteamChamps
Teknikio
The Point CDC
Textile Arts Center
World Explorers NYC
United for Social Change
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Beam Camp City
As Beam’s summer day camp on Governors Island, Beam Camp City also serves as a youth employment program. Working alongside our adult staff, youth who have completed the Apprenticeship or other enterprise placements are paid to facilitate project-making and the Beam Camp City experience for campers over the course of six weeks. Many youth staff roles at Beam Camp City are supported by funding from the Department of Youth and Community Development’s (DYCD) Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP).
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Beam Camp
As Beam’s flagship program, Beam Camp provides young people with a summer full of creativity, collaboration, and fun. Each session at Beam Camp focuses on skill-building, collaborative challenge, responsibility, and mentorship while retaining a culture of community, exploration, and supported risk-taking. In addition to the youth who attend as campers, Beam Camp employs youth as Staff and Project Assistants. As staff, these young people help shape the camp experience and teach campers skills.
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![Beam Camp Fellow chiseling a log in a wood shop]()
—Devon, Fellow + member of the Beam Camp City Documentation Team, Summer 2022
Coming to work with Beam Center, I learned skills in metal working…like metal bending, cutting, and even welding. My favorite experience with Beam - other than meeting all of the amazing people that work there - would have to be working on [the Documentation Team at Beam Camp City] on Governors Island. As someone who is getting back into photography and trying to get better at it…I have taken so many beautiful images and can see myself getting better every single day.
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![Beam Center Project Leader making a peace sign with her fingers as she looks at the camera]()
—Amana, Project Leader, 2021-2022
It took around 3 weeks to fully complete the project with students. Students struggled at first but then started understanding how the lantern pieces came together. One moment I will never forget is when all the students put their lanterns together, and their smiles lit up as they watched the cool shapes on the ceiling through different colored LED lights. On my last day as Project Leader, students said they still have their lanterns as their night lights. Watching my students smile and enjoy creating cool stuff made me enjoy being a Project Leader at Beam.
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![Beam Camp counselor outside wearing a yellow shirt and smiling while looking off-camera]()
Elizabeth, Counselor at Beam Camp City, Summer 2021
Beam has definitely taught me so much about myself and what it means to be a creative, in the adjective and noun sense. I’ve been provided with many opportunities to learn more about different ways to create and taught how to express myself, whether it’s through my art or with words. I’ve definitely grown a little emotionally thanks to Beam.
Projects included oobleck on subwoofers, audio time capsules, and more.