The school year at Belmont High had barely wrapped up when Lina Ye came up with an idea for how to keep busy through the summer.
“I figured people might need work for the summer,” said Ye, 16. “I thought I should just create my own program, where I will create a team and I will send them out to whoever needs gardening or work in their garden.”
Passionate about the environment and gardening, while also interested in pursuing a business degree in college, the rising senior was eager to find a way to combine both her interests. Born from that was the concept for Momento Gardens, a student-run gardening service.
Ye manages the business while also working alongside her staff of four to six peers. Momento Gardens offers its clients garden maintenance, weeding, pruning, planting, mulching, and assistance with garden design and installation.
“A year ago, I worked for a person named Jean Devine and her program Biodiversity Buildings,” Ye recalled. “After I finished her program, I was very inspired by her work. . . .She was also the reason I got inspired to create this business in the first place.”
Ye said building her client base required hours in the sun, placing fliers around town. It was slow to grow, but now she feels confident the business can sustain itself with the number of clients she is getting.
Ye isn’t the only teen eager for work this summer. More and more students her age are joining the workforce compared to a decade ago. In fact, after decades in decline, teens participating in the labor force recently reached a 10-year high, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In 2000, which marked the beginning of a downward trend, roughly 50% of teens between the ages of 16 and 19 were participating in the labor force. By 2010, that decreased to about one-third of teens. Today, after years of steady decline – including a pandemic, where numbers reached longtime lows – closer to 40% of teens are participating in the labor force.
“I wanted to try something new. I wanted to try a challenge for myself,” Ye said of her reason for launching a business. “I was already gardening … I figured it would be a fun little challenge and hopefully build upon [my skills].”
Elsewhere in Belmont, hiring teens to fill seasonal positions in the Belmont Recreation Department is hardly a problem for Director Brandon Fitts. In total, the department has hired about 65 staff to fill roles this summer, including lifeguarding at Underwood Pool.
In the four years Fitts has worked in Belmont, youths have always been eager for work, he said.
“I’m not sure if it’s a resurgence, but we have a lot of really awesome and motivated high school and college students who want to help their community and …they want a job where they can make a difference and impact in their community,” he said. “The numbers speak for themselves. The kids are turning up left and right to work for us.”
Before arriving as an assistant director in 2020, Fitts worked in Brookline from 2011 to 2015 and Wellesley from 2015 to 2020.
“When I was in Wellesley, I had a really hard time recruiting lifeguards and camp counselors,” he recalled. “We always had them, but we had to put a lot of energy and effort into recruiting. I think a lot of my colleagues in Massachusetts in Parks and Rec have to put a lot of energy and effort in hiring and recruiting good quality students and college students.”
In Belmont, the department lobbied for better pay rates, he said.
“We tried to work on our brand,” Fitts added. “We got them really good uniforms and made them feel like they were a part of something. As a result, I have more lifeguards this year than I’ve had since we started.”
For Ye, working this summer was, in a way, practice for what she hopes to do in the years to come.
“I want to do business when I grow up,” Ye said. “I thought it would be fun to get started early … So if I ever do business in the future, I’ll have some experience.”
For more information on Momento Gardens, email Ye at mailto:momentogardens@gmail.com or reach out to 617-201-2109.