This year’s Marion S. Barry Summer Youth Employment Program (MBSYEP) explores careers in the financial sector and emphasizes financial maturity for all participants. (Courtesy of the Executive Office of the Mayor)
This year’s Marion S. Barry Summer Youth Employment Program (MBSYEP) explores careers in the financial sector and emphasizes financial maturity for all participants. (Courtesy of the Executive Office of the Mayor)

As tens of thousands of young District residents gear up to register for this year’s Marion S. Barry Summer Youth Employment Program (MBSYEP), they have at their disposal more options for college preparation and exploration of careers in the financial sector.

Dr. Unique Morris-Hughes, director of D.C. Department of Employment Services (DOES), said the newly launched Pathways to Finance Grant builds upon her agency’s efforts over the years to encourage fiscal responsibility among the District’s youngest employees. She noted parallels between the six-week program and financial literacy standards that the Office of the State Superintendent of Education finalized in collaboration with D.C. State Board of Education (SBOE). 

“Our program is slightly different but there are components of the standards, including banking, saving and budgeting,” Morris-Hughes told The Informer at the end of an event commemorating the launch of the 2025 MYSYEP application portal and the summer youth employment program’s 46th anniversary. 

On Jan. 27, Morris-Hughes joined D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), D.C. Federal Credit Union President and CEO Sybil Bogans, DJ EZ Street, and several dozen District public and public charter school students at the innovative art space known as . 

That’s where they celebrated the latest additions to MBSYEP offerings, and took stock of how the summer youth employment program has grown during Bowser’s decade-long mayoralty. 

Youth between the ages of 16 and 18 who participate in DOES’ Pathways to Finance Grant gain internship experience in accounting, economics, international finance, and risk management for six weeks before shadowing finance students and professionals during trips to various universities and institutions across the country. This program builds upon the Office of the Comptroller’s Currency High School, through which rising high school seniors accumulate banking supervision experience while financial industry services career paths. 

The Pathways to Finance Grant and Career Ready Early Scholars Program, a college-preparation program for middle school youth between the ages of 9 and 13, follow the Bowser administration’s expansion of summer job age eligibility, and a slight increase in hourly compensation for the eldest group summer job participants. It also builds upon the Bowser administration’s 2015 renaming of the summer youth employment program in honor of late D.C. Mayor Marion Barry and a total investment of $2.2 million into the Mayor’s Opportunity Scholarship Fund, which provides scholarships for high school graduates pursuing postsecondary education, occupational training, and military service. 

With a bevy of opportunities and resources for young people, Morris-Hughes stressed the importance of MBSYEP participants learning and practicing financial maturity. 

One of her suggestions focused on avoidance of check cashing establishments and other traps laid out for unbanked consumers. 

“It’s always been important, which is why we encourage young people to get direct deposits,” Morris-Hughes said. “We decided to partner with D.C. Credit Union. That’s a low-fee, non-custodial account for life.” 

Budget Questions, and a Focus on Long-Term Solutions

Students have until March 6 to apply for MBSYEP, while prospective partner institutions can register as a job site by June 1. Last year, 12,000 District students — more than half of whom live in Wards 7 and 8 — developed their skill sets and filled their pockets at more than 700 job public and private sector MBSYEP job sites across the District.  

This year’s MBSYEP launch centered on the theme of budgeting, a topic of relevance as D.C. council members, agency heads, residents and advocates gear up for Fiscal Year 2026 budget deliberations. A week prior to the event at ARTECHOUSE, high school students reflected on their budget priorities at a town hall attended by a cohort of D.C. Council and SBOE representatives. 

Some of the high school students who spent time with Morris-Hughes and Bowser on Jan. 27 engaged in a similar activity. A couple of young people stood before their peers and allocated the imaginary “Bowser Bucks” given to them to fund healthcare, housing and education resources in the District. 

Minutes earlier, a trio of young leaders, led by Banneker Academic High School student and D.C. youth co-mayor Tatum Michael Alexis Primas, engaged Morris-Hughes and Bowser in conversation about youth employment and aspects of the D.C. budget. 

During this portion of the program, Bowser emphasized the importance of young people preparing for a future in which they have to support themselves. 

“Young people… start thinking about what [assignment] you want to get,” Bowser told the youth-filled audience. “Start thinking about what you want to do when it comes time to match up to different opportunities. You can take some responsibility for those six weeks you spend with us.” 

Later, Bowser, in response to student interviewer Cydney Roberts’ question about D.C.’s school nurse shortage, touted the Advanced Technical Center, year-round internship programs, and career and technical education curricula in District public and public charter schools as part of a long-term solution to bridge the personnel gap and foster student academic achievement.

“You have to be good at science and math with interpersonal skills — all skills are important to being successful,” Bowser told Cydney on Jan. 27. “As young people make decisions about college and career, how we think about high school has changed. We want all kids to get an internship or join a school with a health focus [so] by the time you get to high school you would’ve gotten some exposure.”  

Young People Reflect on Hard-Earned Opportunities 

Other speakers at the MBSYEP application launch event included Bogans, DJ EZ Street and Diane Yomkil, a DOES employee with firsthand knowledge of MBSYEP’s impact. 

A decade ago, Yomkil, a Cameroonian immigrant and Ward 8 resident, secured an opportunity through MBSYEP to earn college credit while spending time at a private university in Boston. The experience, she said, laid the foundation for her acquisition of the Mayor’s Opportunity Scholarship, college matriculation, and work as a liaison in the DOES’ Global Kids Program. 

“I had the incredible opportunity to earn college credits while still in high school but that was just the beginning,” said Yomkil, an alumna of Manhattan College in Bronx, New York City. “Over the next two summers, I continued with MBSYEP, working as an intern in the Global Kids Program. This program [MBSYEP] didn’t just give me my first job in America, which meant the world to me…., it also opened doors to further my education.” 

Cydney, a student at ߲ݴý Latin Public Charter School in Northwest with aspirations of becoming a nurse, also extolled MBSYEP as a program fitting for young go-getters, and even those, like herself, who needed a little more prodding to nurture their leadership potential. 

“I learned how to step up and take initiative,” Cydney, whose MBSYEP experience includes a cosmetology internship and participation in a youth leadership program at Catholic University of America in Northeast. “When I get out of my shell to take advantage of opportunities around me, I become a better version of myself. I want people to take advantage of the program. They have to understand that it opens doors for opportunities.” 

Sam P.K. Collins has nearly 20 years of journalism experience, a significant portion of which he gained at The ߲ݴý Informer. On any given day, he can be found piecing together a story, conducting...

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