Eastside High Student
Earns First-Ever ‘Hire Me 1st!’ Card

Employers, take notice--sixteen-year-old Ebony Locus is just the kind of person you’d want to hire.

The Eastside High School junior is the first recipient of the ‘Hire Me 1^st!’ card, which was created through a cooperative venture between Alachua County Public Schools and the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce as a way of letting employers know which students are truly ready to work.

“We expect that students with the cards will have an edge over others applying for entry-level positions in our community,” said Nancy Iafrate, who coordinates the Hire Me 1st! program for the school district.  “The card will give employers a better idea of the type of student they are hiring.”

Earlier in the school year, business leaders from throughout the community met with local educators to discuss the qualities they looked for in new hires—things like good attendance and grades, participation in extra-curricular activities, and the successful completion of a computer skills course. Students who meet those and other criteria can then apply for the card, which signifies to potential employers that the student understands and demonstrates work readiness skills.

Beginning in the fall, the Chamber will begin marketing the Hire Me 1^st! card to its member businesses.

“This is very valuable to our members,” said Chamber Program Manager Jan Patterson. “It tells them that these students have the qualities that an employer would want in someone they hire for an entry level position, that this is someone they can count on to do the job.”

Locus certainly fits the bill. Her GPA is currently a 3.3, and she is enrolled in the New Media Technology Program at Eastside, which prepares students for careers in such fields as web design and development and digital animation. She’s also the incoming president of Precious Pearls, a community service organization sponsored by the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. She hopes to become a computer engineer, and recently applied for a job with a local computer business. She thinks the Hire Me 1^st! card should give her a leg up on her competition.

“If employers know you have the card, they know that you’re a responsible person,” she said. “They know you’ll come to work on time, that you won’t miss days, and that you’re ready to work.”

Carrie Davis, Ebony’s technology teacher, said she has demonstrated that she deserves a chance at a job.

“Ebony’s excited about learning, she’s very responsible and creative, and she takes on challenges with no problem,” said Davis. “I think she’d be a very good person to have in any company.”