Like most students coming out of high school, Megan Alzetta, pictured above, needed a summer job to tide her over between graduation and starting postsecondary in the fall. Like most student summer job seekers, she started out by considering the restaurants and other casual opportunities in her neighbourhood. Unlike most students, the job she ended up finding — as a garden and grounds assistant at the Alberta Avenue Community League, as part of their Canada Summer Jobs team — ended up changing her life.
Alzetta has now worked three summers at Alberta Avenue, because, according to her, there’s just no place quite like a Community League, especially when it comes to finding a welcoming place to work away the summer.
“Karen [Mykietka] and Steve [Michos, the facility manager and caretaker, respectively] are amazing people, the other gardeners who help out in the community are great — it just really brings a sense of family,” explains Alzetta. “I’ve met people from all sorts of backgrounds who I never would have met under normal circumstances, and getting those different perspectives, you learn a lot.”
Alzetta is one of three summer students Alberta Ave was able to secure funding for through the 2023 Canada Summer Jobs program, which provides wage subsidies to not-for-profits that hire people between 15 and 30 years old for summer employment.
Amelia, left, and Adrian Altmiks ran programming for Alberta Avenue this summer
Besides Alzetta’s maintenance role, this past year they also had sister-and-brother combo Amelia and Adrian Altmiks in to assist with running programming throughout the summer, and planning and promoting things for the rest of the year. That has meant everything from workshops on beekeeping, one of Amelia’s passion, to Alberta Avenue’s wildly popular tax workshop, which Adrian says helped him get a real sense of the power that even small bits of community organizing can have.
“Being a part of a Community League allows me to create these programs that affect these peoples’ lives, and helps create something in this shared space. It allows us to start that process of bringing people together, connecting neighbours together,” Adrian explains. As a social work student at MacEwan University, he says doing this work is giving him some direct experience with what he wants to do with his degree — the kind of experience that is very hard for most students to get in a summer job. “It’s given me a lot of insight into what I want to be doing — creating community, whether that’s through programming or some other means.”
For Amelia, who has worked with the League for years on the beekeeping program, it’s seeing that community come out, again and again, that keeps her coming back — and gives her hope for her own future.
“There’s so many people who have been doing things here for years, or involved for decades, and it’s just so inspiring to get to talk to those people, and feel some of the passion they have for the space they’re in,” she says. “It’s also nice to see that there are jobs out here that aren’t just for capitalism, for money, that actually help out and get you out into the community to see what’s up.”
There’s so many people who have been doing things here for years, or involved for decades, and it’s just so inspiring to get to talk to those people, and feel some of the passion they have for the space they’re in
All three of the students agree that, if there’s anything they’d improve about the program, it would be the chance to work longer — placements typically only last 8 – 12 weeks, which can leave you feeling like you have to leave just as you’ve settled into it (though that’s obviously less of a problem when you can come back the next year). Still, even in that time, they get a lot more than just a job out of the experience.
“You get to see these people out in the community and you just get a real sense of belonging — at the job and outside the hall,” says Alzetta, who plans to come back until she has to start looking for a full-time job, and has started attending League events throughout the year. “I just love it here.”
The Canada Summer Jobs program will be accepting applicants for the 2025 season from November 18 to December 19, 2024. Find more information at the CSJ website, and reach out to us if you have any questions about making an application.
