Summer of service

When most high schoolers work over the summer, it's to make a little extra money for themselves.

But for nearly 40 students who toiled as interns at nonprofit organizations this summer, the work was for others.

Among the interns placed at Raleigh nonprofits by the N.C. Community Development Initiative for eight weeks were Shay Clark from Clayton High School, Torrey Feldman from Apex High School, Vincent Mollo from Garner High School and Taylor Walker from Wake Forest-Rolesville High School.

The internships, part of the Summer Youth Community Development Program, aim to give students a taste of nonprofit work and instill leadership and financial management skills.

At Millionaires in Training, which offers entrepreneurial programs to youth in underserved communities, Vincent worked behind the scenes, helping to write grant applications, mail letters, make databases and design curriculum.

"I had a new assignment every day," he said. One assignment was to help design a planning conference for Millionaires in Training work in Uganda.

As Vincent was learning and applying new skills, he was also keeping his eye on the big picture. He noticed a level of calm amid the sometimes chaotic nonprofit work that surprised him.

He was impressed at his co-workers' ability to "work at a steady pace like that, without ... worrying about is there money coming in here, is there money going there" amid constant funding uncertainties that come with nonprofit work.

"The whole atmosphere seemed very calm and it seemed like it was a very stable organization," he said. "It seems like it could be very nerve-wracking, especially in this day and age."

In the near future, Vincent, 17, plans to go to college and study marine science or marine transportation, an interest sparked at a young age when he learned about the process of steering gigantic cruise ships into tight spaces in harbor. But nonprofit work is also part of the plan.

In fact, it's part of the present.

During his senior year at Garner High, he's helping put together a "giant, community-wide shoe drive" with a local nonprofit called Shoes for Everyone.

The shoes collected will be distributed locally, with any leftovers going to Haiti.

"This allows us to help the people in our own backyard as well as people around the world," Vincent said. "So we're not only helping our own community but globally as well."

Sharing in that spirit of helping were his fellow interns in the program. Shay and Torrey worked at Passage Home, an organization that aims to avert poverty and homelessness by strengthening families and communities. There, they helped develop a 4-H curriculum and taught at the agency's summer camp in Raleigh's South Park neighborhood. Walker worked at the N.C. Association of Community Development Corporations, where she attended conferences and helped the agency, which aids local community-building groups, with research and tracking outcomes.