By Julia Train
Imagine being able to walk out of your residence building and right onto the beach and living there for free while working and earning school credits.
Stockton University is partnering with various Atlantic City businesses for a “Live-Work-Learn” program for a second summer. The program allows students to work in the city, earn credits and receive free housing.
In conjunction with Stockton’s Office of the Provost, Brian Jackson, the Chief Operating Officer of the Atlantic City campus, was able to assist in aligning job opportunities for students.
The program started with 10 businesses participating last year to 15 this summer. The employers include casinos, non-casino hotels, AtlantiCare and even nonprofit organizations.
From May 15 to August 12, students are paid the same wage as employees and provided with housing in Stockton’s Atlantic City dorms, which are subsidized by the casinos employing them.
In order to participate in the program, there’s a brief application that students have to complete. Candidates must meet GPA requirements, have no significant financial holds on their accounts and be in good academic standing.
“Assuming that they meet the criteria, they are then eligible to access the job opportunities posted on our website and they can apply,” said Jackson.
Once students pick the casino they want to work at and apply, they go through the normal interview process and get selected for various roles.
The program also benefits the casinos, which are experiencing a shortage of employees, especially during the summer.
Borgata Hotel, Casino and Spa employed the most students from the program this year, hiring 70 out of a total of 200 placed throughout the city.
For many students, employers will invite them to stay after the summer, like Michael Mora, an incoming junior who started at Borgata during last year’s program and stayed.
“I worked here year-round and they announced the program again this summer so I took advantage of the free housing. It’s just been an awesome experience,” said Mora, 20, from Morris County.
When he applied last year, he was a social work major, but then he got the job at Borgata as a supervisor at the MGM tower pool bar and realized that he wanted to “try something different,” so he changed his major to business management.
Throughout the past year, Mora learned how to deal with people professionally through a plethora of situations.
“It’s very interesting, the amount of situations you deal with on a daily basis is a lot,” he said. “It’s just a really good learning experience that complements school where you get to have hands-on learning.”
Although career lessons are obviously learned, so are life skills.
Kayla Caputo, 20, is a marketing major from Warren County completing her second summer in the program.
Last summer, she worked at Ocean Casino in the accounting office. Now, she’s working as Borgata’s pool and recreation supervisor.
“I like getting experience in different elements of business because I feel like it makes you more well rounded and I’m meeting more students that I go to school with,” Caputo said.
In addition to business and marketing skills, she also enjoys that the program is teaching her life skills, such as time management and cooking meals while working 40-hour weeks.
Within the past year, the program has seen significant growth, started with 145 students last summer and 245 this season.
“By exposing [students] to job opportunities here, they can see that there are a wealth of career opportunities in our region,” said Jackson. “There’s a lot more interest from our students and local businesses to participate. We’re already receiving interest from businesses who want to participate next summer.”
Julia is a student at Rider University, majoring in multiplatform journalism with a minor in social media strategies. At school, she writes and copy edits for The Rider News and is the News Director for the radio station, producing news updates. She’ll be graduating in the spring. Connect with her on Instagram @juliatrain
