California county program helps spark student careers

Key Takeaways

San Diego County, Calif. Child Support Services’ student worker program is helping the department fill in workforce gaps and giving youth real-world experience to help jumpstart their careers.

Safeen Akrawi, who now works as a staff development specialist for Child Support Services, was a rising senior majoring in communications at San Diego State University — unsure what he wanted to do with his career or where to start — when he was hired as a student worker for the department’s communication team, where he helped people navigate the department’s resources and worked community outreach events. 

“We’d go to local libraries, and then I would send out text messages to participants we have in that area, letting them know that we’re in their neighborhood and if they have any needs with child support or [connection to] resources, they can go to that library and get that addressed,” Akrawi said. 

After graduating college, Akrawi was hired to work full-time for Child Support Services. He started off as an office assistant and then worked as a child support officer and an analyst before assuming his current position, in which he oversees onboarding for new hires and trainings for existing staff. 

“There’s so much room for growth in this department, and I just have had so much support from my direct supervisors to the executive level,” Akrawi said. “… They let me wear a lot of different hats to see which one I enjoyed the most, which is why I enjoy the student worker program so much. They were really big on asking what my interests were and what I wanted to be involved with.” 

The department’s student worker program coordinator helps each participant create a career roadmap, identifying potential career interests and making sure that the student can get what they’re looking for from the program. 

Student workers receive an hourly rate, depending on their level of education and previous job experience, as the program is available to students ranging from high school to graduate school. The department has student workers in “just about every area — they’re scattered throughout the workforce,” including legal, human resources, information technology, communications and staff development, according to Andrea Cooley, San Diego County Child Support Services’ assistant deputy director.

“They fill those [workforce] gaps for us, for sure,” Cooley said. Akrawi is one of many participants of the student worker program who have gone on to work full-time for Child Support Services, according to Cooley. The program has been a great way for young people, whether they continue to work for the county or go on to pursue a different career pathway, to learn essential job skills, she added.

“We’re seeking students throughout the community with diverse backgrounds and talent and getting them ready for future employment — whether it’s here or not, it’s just been a great thing for us,” she said. “To be a part of someone receiving what we can share, as far as being loyal to their craft, dependable for a job assignment and just gaining some extra skills that help them down the line, has been really fulfilling on our side.”

Student workers — many of whom are tech-savvy — have been particularly helpful in the “locate” process of finding a non-custodial parent when their whereabouts are unknown and they aren’t paying child support, according to Cooley. 

“In child support, you’re always dealing with a large group of cases that need ‘locate,’ so we can’t find either parent perhaps,” Cooley said. “And you don’t always have the resources to have staff do that on a full-time basis, so we thought, ‘Hey, this younger generation can find just about anything or anyone — using social media, using different locate tools, just using a Google search.’

“They have been instrumental in helping us move some of these locate cases along, by finding individuals that maybe had gone off the grid for a while.”

When Akrawi applied to be a student worker through the county, he was asked to mark certain departments he wanted to work for. He had expressed interest in working in Child Support Services, because his sister had previously worked as a child support officer, and he’s continued to work for the department because he finds it rewarding. Akrawi said he feels there’s often a misconception that Child Support Services is merely a collections agency, but the department works to make people’s lives better and help break “the cycle of intergenerational poverty.”

“Seeing people walk out of the office with a smile, and having their needs addressed, is really a rewarding feeling,” Akrawi said. “Because a lot of times, people come into our office or call us and they’re going through a rough time in their life, and it’s really nice to be able to make that moment a little easier and try to get them through that obstacle together.”