In this week's Help Wanted report, the Milton Hershey School is looking for house parents.
It's hard work, but very rewarding in more ways than one.
It looks like a family reunion, but these are actually newly hired house parents at the Milton Hershey School. They're learning what it takes to cook healthy meals for 12 kids!
That's how large the group of students can be for house parents to oversee.
You might think restaurant skills are needed to be a house parent, but really all you need are good organizational skills and a love of children.
“You get 12 students that come to you from different areas of Pennsylvania or outside of Pennsylvania and you have an opportunity to connect with them,” explained Tony Cortes with Milton Hershey School. “You're a surrogate parents is what you are, that's why we call them house parents. You're a teacher, you're a counselor, you're a mentor.”
House parents have to be 27 years or older, have only two of their biological kids living on campus and a high school diploma.
They work 12 days on and then get a few days off and during those days off, the school has "relief parents" who fill in.
“They come in, they're people from the community, they have their own jobs and they also want to be able to impact children over the weekends,” Cortes added. “So they work Friday night to Sunday night and they give the house parents a break. They're relief, and we need a lot of those as well.”
Cortes says you can't beat the perks, good pay, a home and great health and retirement benefits.
Though, the best benefit is being able to improve the lives of children who need it the most.
It's hard work, but very rewarding in more ways than one.
It looks like a family reunion, but these are actually newly hired house parents at the Milton Hershey School. They're learning what it takes to cook healthy meals for 12 kids!
That's how large the group of students can be for house parents to oversee.
You might think restaurant skills are needed to be a house parent, but really all you need are good organizational skills and a love of children.
“You get 12 students that come to you from different areas of Pennsylvania or outside of Pennsylvania and you have an opportunity to connect with them,” explained Tony Cortes with Milton Hershey School. “You're a surrogate parents is what you are, that's why we call them house parents. You're a teacher, you're a counselor, you're a mentor.”
House parents have to be 27 years or older, have only two of their biological kids living on campus and a high school diploma.
They work 12 days on and then get a few days off and during those days off, the school has "relief parents" who fill in.
“They come in, they're people from the community, they have their own jobs and they also want to be able to impact children over the weekends,” Cortes added. “So they work Friday night to Sunday night and they give the house parents a break. They're relief, and we need a lot of those as well.”
Cortes says you can't beat the perks, good pay, a home and great health and retirement benefits.
Though, the best benefit is being able to improve the lives of children who need it the most.