Because the Career Development Center at Jewish Family & Children's Services doesn't advertise its services, it usually finds jobs for people who have some familiarity with the organization.

But a grant to help find work for at-risk youth this summer brought the center 10 students from different neighborhoods and -- in many ways -- different worlds than clients the center had served in the past.

Julie Marx, the center's director, said those differences ultimately made the new program shine.

"We were all truly impressed," she said. "From the very beginning, we got these kids who haven't had these opportunities. They came into this strange place they didn't know, and right away they were motivated."

The center, its workforce partners and the students who participated in the 2009 Pittsburgh Summer Youth Employment Program called the program's first year a resounding success. So it's no surprise the center has expressed interest in expanding the program for next year.

Funded by a grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the program joined the Career Development Center with the Pittsburgh Partnership and YouthWorks to place young people from at-risk neighborhoods in summer jobs in the health care field.

Young people from the Wilkinsburg area who applied for the Pittsburgh summer program were selected through a lottery system to work at the center.

Before starting jobs at UPMC Presbyterian and at various sites within the Jewish Association on Aging, students received job-readiness training and certification through the state's YouthWorks JumpStart Success program.

Rossana Cowan, the center's youth programs coordinator, said the students were so engaged in the training that all passed the state's certification test with average scores of 93 percent. The state requires 70 percent to pass.

"They were just phenomenal kids that needed a chance," she said.

And what started as a way to make money during the summer has, for some students, transformed into a genuine career opportunity.

Malecha Israel, 15, who worked in UPMC Presbyterian's bone marrow lab and film archive department, said the firsthand experience in health care will help when she studies to become a pediatrician.

Felicia Johnson, a student assigned to work with elderly residents at the Jewish Association on Aging's Weinberg Village, submitted an application to become a permanent employee during the program's closing-day pizza party on Monday.

A 20-year-old Community College of Allegheny County student, Ms. Johnson is studying to become a neonatal intensive care unit nurse. She said the experience working with adults at Weinberg Village will definitely help in her career.

"I think it taught us leadership," she said. "And when you get older, you kind of become a child again."

Sharyn Rubin, volunteer and community service coordinator for the Jewish Association on Aging, said the residents benefited as much as the students from the experience.

"The kids were from a very different background than most of our residents, but somehow they just bonded," she said. "The residents were truly amazed that young people wanted to spend their summer doing this kind of work."

Ms. Johnson believes equally motivated students shouldn't be too hard to find next year.

"Do it," Ms. Johnson advised other teens. "It's educational and then you have something to do during the summer. It's easy money.

"Don't just sit around. I hate when I see kids sitting around with nothing to do with their lives," she said, rolling her eyes in disdain. "That irritates me."