Summer has been quite busy. All of my friends are having fun at the beach or at the movies, but I started working on completing my required community service hours for high school. I’ve been working in an office at Florida National University (FNU). The office is the Online Learning Department, and the man that I am working with is called Jose Alonso, and he is in charge of social media. I also work with Sandra Lomena, and she is in charge of online learning, and she is always at your service. I really enjoy working at Florida National University because I am 15 years old, and I am working at a university. The workers are all very kind, and I have been part of meetings and commercials. I can only do 20 hours a week; I started off the first week with 4 hours every day, but the second week I started working 7 hours Monday and Tuesday and then 6 hours on Wednesday.
I started working at Florida National University with the help of my dad who is the chef in the cafeteria at Florida National University. 
He spoke with the University’s President and CEO Dr. Maria C. Regueiro. She was delighted that I wanted to work at her university. She did not want me to work at the library because she said she wanted to challenge me; therefore, she spoke with Joe and although he was nervous at first about my working with him as he had no idea how this would all work out, he agreed. On my first day I was also nervous, but Joe guided me through the work, and he also showed me around the school and introduced me to his co-workers. Everyone started calling me his little intern; it’s kind of funny actually. Being 15 years old and working at a university is a once in a life time experience because you can learn a lot from the adults and from the students in the school.
Sometimes I felt really awkward because I saw so many grown-ups and much older students and then here was me trying to act casual. There have actually been a couple of people that have confused me with being a student here at Florida National University, and I giggle a bit and say “Nope, I’m doing community hours,” and they’re like “oh, really.” However, I had to stop going to FNU for 2 weeks because I had Biology Summer School; it felt weird not to be at FNU, and it felt weird being back at school. All the workers are very wonderful and they make you feel welcomed and at home. FNU employees are always willing to go out of the way to help.
One of my favorite experiences here at FNU was being part of a commercial; it was everybody’s first time being on TV and everybody kept laughing and joking around and it was just really exciting. I also got to be part of a meeting with the Miami Herald; it was very interesting to be able to sit in on an advertising meeting.
I honestly think I have helped my community, Joe reminds me sometimes that I am helping him with work because I work really fast and do things right. He showed me how to create the posts for the “Motivation Monday” and how to schedule them on Facebook. These types of posts are read by FNU’s students, faculty and staff. The posts are weekly quotes from famous people accompanied by an image. They are posted on Mondays. These postings help set a positive tone for the start of the work week. In addition, I learned how to post health-related articles on Facebook. These articles are supplied by the US Government. The University posts them on the weekends as a service to FNU and the local community.
I had imagined I would be doing my community hours at a Veterinarian’s office with the animals, feeding them and showering them, but I guess I will leave that for next year. Working at FNU is a huge experience because I think that I can learn a lot from the adults that are surrounding me and giving me advice on the careers that are good for me and reminding me that I need to study a lot. Working at FNU not only helps me but it also helps Joe with his work and not having to worry about the social media posts because I’m helping him. I think that’s what is most important, to feel appreciated that you’re helping someone I learned that you have to work hard and study hard to be someone important in this world and that you have to be at your service all the time to receive help from others. Everyone at FNU is a family and they are always friendly and outgoing. I think that is what I am mostly going to miss when I start school in August.
Written by
Ms. Yansly Marrero
Community Service/High School Student
