This story appears in the May 2025 issue of Utah Business. Subscribe.
David Gray | Director, Human Resources | Lagoon Amusement Park
“I love working with young people! We have a chance to mentor them … and teach them leadership skills. We have two programs that we do for all of our seasonal leadership. In our Elite program, we discuss leadership topics, have a guest speaker and give our leaders the opportunity to learn about the different types of careers we have at Lagoon. Even if someone works in food and beverage, they get a chance to learn about our marketing teams, our accounting teams, our maintenance jobs and our operations.
The other program is our Leadership Achievement Award. Something I am extremely passionate about is teaching young people that they should never stop learning. We encourage them to take learning opportunities throughout the summer, … and then give a brief presentation about anything they choose. … Last year, we had about 60 leaders that [received] the award, and we’re hoping to inspire even more to do that.
We have [our young employees] for a few summers, and we teach them a lot of those soft skills — how to work as a team, how to work with a coworker, how to work for a boss, how to sweep a floor, how to give customer service. It’s something we as an organization really pride ourselves in. We are preparing the workforce to go out into the community.”
Jeff Hawkins | Custodial Services Coordinator | Provo City School District
“For the majority of kids that get started in janitorial, it’s their first experience with an actual paying job. With that comes a lot of uncertainty on their part — not knowing exactly what’s expected in the workforce and not necessarily coming to the table with a skill set that adults would come with. [This includes] things like workplace professionalism: showing up on time, dressing professionally, talking professionally and acting professionally as they move throughout the school. It gives them an opportunity to see outside of a school setting and what it is to interact with other employees.
Our head custodians in each of our schools play a quasi-parental role in a lot of ways, helping to ‘raise’ these younger workers into understanding what’s appropriate in the workplace. … It’s a good opportunity to teach them the value of work and that hard work pays off. I always try to stress to all of our employees that the skill set [they] learn in custodial services … will translate into anything they do in the future, custodial or not. The value of doing a job well, the value of showing up on time and being dependable and trustworthy — we try to give them these building blocks so they can be successful in the workplace, no matter where they may end up in the future.”
Davy Ratchford | COO & General Manager | Snowbasin
“We have jobs [available] … beginning at 14 years old, with roles from food and beverage to bussing tables to dishwashers, all the way up to junior ski instructors where they learn how to become instructors while they are helping teach children how to ski.
I saw a video one time of a Formula One pit change. There were 28 people, and they did [maintenance on] the car in the span of under three seconds. What I saw was everybody had a role to play, and … they were all aligned on a common goal and vision: to fix that car and get it back out in the race. For me, from the top down and bottom up, we are aligned. It does not matter what role you play, it’s a role that helps the common good. I think the biggest thing that my team tries to do … is make sure [young employees] understand that they are leaders, and everybody can be a leader at any time or in any role.
I’m incredibly optimistic about our young people and what they can bring to the world. There’s a huge amount of creativity and a huge amount of innovation in the way they think. I have amazing people who work here and inspire me all the time, and a lot of them are young people who are just starting off.”
Chaney Zinn | Executive Director | St. John’s Community Child Development Center & Camp Wild Life
“One thing that we do, even with our junior counselors, is make sure that they go through the entire [recruitment] process. They have to send us a resume and a cover letter, which is bizarre for them because they feel like, ‘I don’t have any work experience. Why do I need a resume?’ But we coach them into telling us what it is that makes them want this position because they actually do have a ton of experience.
With all of my directors, we talk about how important work ethic is. It’s one thing to show up and be there, but [we encourage young team members to] be present and excited about it and know that we’re depending on you — the parents are depending on you, and the kids are depending on you. There’s a trickle effect of how important your position is. That’s one of the main focuses.
When you’re really young and it is your first job, be eager to learn. Get in there and realize that this is your time to get out of your comfort zone. Some of my most exciting moments are when people have worked with us for a certain amount of time — it’s maybe a temporary or seasonal position — but they’ve [decided] they actually want to go into early childhood for their career. That’s a success story for me.”