Federal Stimulus Money Funds Internships in Emeryville

An Oakland 15-year-old and an Emeryville yoga teacher are among the first to take advantage of President Barack Obama’s Economic Stimulus Plan.

One wanted a job and the other wanted to hire a young local person to give her new connections to the community.

Both got what they wanted.

Chakesha Thompson has just started her summer internship at the Square One Yoga Collective. It’s not far from her home in Oakland and even closer to her high school in Emeryville, where she’ll be a tenth grader in the fall.

Katy Cryer, 32, the yoga teacher and studio owner who hired Thompson, plans to teach her as much as possible about starting a new business during a frightening recession. That’s what Cryer has been doing for the past five months.

“If I can start a successful yoga studio in the heart of a recession, Chakesha can follow her dreams too,” Cryer said. “If her dream involves starting a business, marketing, PR or customer relations, I can teach her many of those skills.”

Thompson got her job, and Cryer got her intern, from EYE –- Emery’s Young Entrepreneurs — an East Bay branch of the federal stimulus plan. EYE’s budget is $84,000, enough for 25 summer internships.

The internships have been offered and taken quickly, according to Jennielyn Dino Rossi, EYE’s liaison. In fact, she said, EYE is now trying to raise money to set up more internships for the waiting list of eager students.

Thompson said she applied because “I want the experience.” She also wants to put away a little money for college.

Cryer applied for the chance to take an intern because “I wanted to help, that it would be a good way to be of service to the community.

“I’m a high school teacher (seven years teaching math to teenagers), and I know how to start a business. I want to teach her about possibilities. If there’s good stuff out there, you go after it.”

What else does Thompson want?

“I want to help her expand her business,” Thompson said. One reason Cryer hired Thompson was that the 15-year-old has a lot of ideas for expanding Cryer’s business. For example, she wants to go to the senior center and recruit older people to take yoga. Cryer, whose studio hasn’t seen many elderly people so far, likes that idea. Thompson also wants to recruit people her own age to “youth yoga.”

Square One , which has 12 instructors, charges just $10 a class.

Thompson says she doesn’t mind any of the work. In addition to the marketing she wants to do, she has typical high-school-intern chores: answer the phone, water the plants, sweep the floors, wash the cups, sign in the students.

And she’ll have on-the-job training: five classes of yoga.

“I watched yoga; I liked it,” Thompson said. “I’ll give it a try.”

She’ll get paid to take her first five classes and then have “all the yoga she wants” without charge as long as she works there. The contract says that’ll be up to 200 hours, until Sept. 30. Right now, Thompson says she hopes to make it permanent and full-time when the internship expires.

Cryer said Thompson will earn as much as $1,600 in wages.

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Square One Yoga Collective is located at 4336-A San Pablo Ave., Emeryville.

Margaret Leonard is the mother of Katy Cryer. A former newspaper reporter and editor, she lives in Tallahasee, FL.