WASHINGTON — There's a reason Anacostia High School senior Aliyah Clark is all smiles.
"When I get older, I want to be an advocate for the criminal justice system, and work on prison reform," she said with a huge smile on her face.
Aliyah is aiming for a double major at Lincoln University and looking ahead to her second summer working for $20 an hour -- that’s $6.00 more than D.C.’s current minimum wage.
Unique Morris-Hughes, the Director of the Department of Employment Services, said they're extending a pilot program launched last year through the Marion Barry Summer Employment Program.
Thanks to five federal partners (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Federal Housing Finance Agency, National Credit Union Administration and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency), DOES is able to offer students between 16 and 18 years old, who live in wards 7 and 8, the bumped up pay.
Aliyah said the bigger check helped her pay all her senior dues.
"It helped me to be able to help my mother buy uniforms for me and my siblings, so it helped a lot," Aliyah said.
Morris-Hughes said most of the participants in the summer employment program live East of the River.
"We looked at our demographic population, we saw where the need was and went to work to provide these opportunities," she said.
DOES is teaming up with seven area high schools to reach out to kids in need: Ballou, Anacostia, Eastern, Roosevelt, Woodson, Columbia Heights and Cardozo.
"Can you imagine meeting lawyers and accountants and people they may never see or have experienced before?" Morris-Hughes asked. "They get to come in contact with them, they get to learn, they get to be mentored and, most importantly, learn important skills."
Aliyah said the program helped her learn how to budget and save money. The extra cash was not only motivating for Aliyah, but it was an invaluable lesson that you can't put a price on – her own worth.
DOES would like to give the $20/hour to every child in all eight wards, but said they need more businesses to step up first.