School is out, and many young adults are on the hunt for some summer spending money and taking their first steps into the workforce.

These first jobs may be remembered for years to come and influence their future, as they have for some of Newtown's prominent people.

Pat Llodra is Newtown's first selectman now, but when she was 12, she said, she had her first job, working as a picker on tobacco farms in Enfield.

"I was very short, which was probably why I was a picker. I was short and close to the ground and my job was to pick the tobacco leaves and put it in the sack on my back," Mrs Llodra said. "My older sister Kathy was a 'grader' and her job was to look at the leaf and put it in the right category in terms of its quality."

She added that her father would get paid about a dollar a day for her and her sister's work.

"In retrospect, I love farm work more now, looking back, than I think I did then when I was experiencing it," Mrs Llodra said. "It's hard work. There was nothing that's not hard about being a farmer."

Director of Public Works Fred Hurley said he also worked a physically demanding first job after turning 18, at a steel mill in Bridgeport.

"It was a tremendous incentive to stay in school," Mr Hurley said. "It was very hot; it was very dirty work. But it did teach you the discipline of working a regular job and just how much people had to put into working in the proverbial sweatshops, because the temperatures would get into the 120s, 130s."

He added that he continued to work there during summer breaks at college and the mill would even let him bring his books into work to study.

"It was honest labor and, I have to tell you, it was pretty exciting in many respects to see that steel flying all over the place, and it's gone now," Mr Hurley said. "There's no steel mills left in New England. A lot of kids today don't have those opportunities anymore."

Superintendent of Schools Joseph V. Erardi, Jr, started in the workforce at age 10 delivering newspapers, and also worked as a library page during his teenage years.

"As a youth growing up in high school, the belief was that if you worked hard during the summertime that was the money needed to pay college tuition," Dr Erardi said.

He added that now if college students work hard over the summer, hopefully they can buy their books for class.

Lessons Learned

"The value of hard work is something that I learned a lot [from early jobs], and as I look at my brothers and sisters, all of us are very hard workers - have always been," Mrs Llodra said. "I think we grew up with that ethic. I think I also learned that sense of being responsible, that my work mattered."

She also said she learned to accept the conditions that life presents, which is something that has stuck with her.

"There was never a, 'Poor me, why can't I be in a family that has a lot of money and I don't have to work and I can have fancy clothes and a great car?'" Mrs Llodra added.

Mr Hurley said that he learned to have discipline in the workplace while working at the steel mill.

"We can be told that, but human beings, being what they are, they have to kind of experience that themselves," he added. "Once you go in there and you learn working with others and being disciplined, it's certainly a life lesson that's gonna help you going forward."

While working his first jobs and watching his hardworking parents, Dr Erardi said he learned that in anything he did, he should do his best work.

"I think I was the young 14-year-old who, when people weren't looking, still tried to do the right thing, and that's kind of something I've always tried to do," he said. "When I go to work as the school superintendent in Newtown… I always want to believe that if someone was watching me make a decision they would be proud of the decision I was making, and I never ever want to allow anyone to say that I didn't work hard during the course of a day."

Newtown Chief of Police James Viadero said he started working with odd jobs in construction, delivery and sales, and gained a "newfound respect" for certain professions.

"Once you go out and do different things then you kind of see what is out there as far as professions and careers," Chief Viadero said. "The more experiences you have, the better off you are when you finally find a job or the career that you do want to be in."

Getting First Jobs

Newtown Youth & Family Services Executive Director Candice Bohr said it is important for young adults to have experience in the workforce.

"I think that it kind of molds what your interests are," Ms Bohr said. "It gives you an idea to see if you like doing a specific type of job and then, obviously, learning to work with other people to see what's comfortable for you and what some of, maybe, your weaknesses are and how you can kind of change that."

Ms Bohr added that NYFS offers programs to help people find employment, including a job bank program for students 13 through 18 years old.

"We have patrons in the community that might need someone to help mow lawns, rake leaves, do some light housekeeping around the house, help with computers," she said. "We have this whole database of kids that have been interviewed, and then they have gone through a course to teach them how to write a resume and how to actually sit through an interview process, and then we match those patrons with the participants."

There are usually many patrons looking for workers right as school gets out, Ms Bohr said, and many patrons work repeatedly with the same participants in the job bank.

She added that it is important, when interviewing for a job, for the potential hire to know about the agency or company they are interviewing with, ask questions about the position, and have a well-written resume. Also, she said, the worker, not their parents, should be responsible for their own employment.

"I'd rather have a 15-year-old come in with a resume that I know he or she did, versus one that mom did for him," Ms Bohr said. "If you do have a job and you can't make it for whatever reason, because you're sick, you yourself need to call, not your parents."

Besides NYFS, young adults can take advantage of the Career Center at Newtown High School when looking for jobs.

Peg Regaini and Kitty Latowicki, who work in the Career Center, said they hang up job applications and information about other employment opportunities from Newtown and surrounding towns on a bulletin board for students.

"They apply on their own," Ms Regaini said. "If they want help with putting together a resume or interviewing, we're happy to help them with that."

Ms Latowicki said she suggests that high school students start looking for jobs before college students come home for the summer and to "think outside the box" and look for opportunities outside of Newtown.

"They need to be persistent," Ms Regaini added. "I tell them that when looking for a job you can get a fair amount of rejections and that's not a fun experience, and it's really about being persistent. So learning how to be persistent, without being a pest, will be a skill that will do you well."

Ms Latowicki added that working teaches students about time management, responsibility and saving money.

"Having work that matters and work, that if it's not done, has a consequence for oneself and others, I think, teaches young people the value of work and why work is important, and why each of us have to contribute to the whole," Ms Llodra added. "We contribute to the common good with meaningful, purposeful work."