Skip to content

A town square for an unsquare town

redbankgreen

Standing for the vitality of Red Bank, its community, and the fun we have together.

CHARTER SCHOOL INTERNS STEP OUT TO WORK

Red Bank Charter School intern Maya Ghosh at work at Paint A Tee on Monmouth Street. Below, Amanda Annaruma in the laundry room at Hair & Company, on White Street. (Photos by Lola Todman. Click to enlarge)

By LOLA TODMAN
Red Bank Charter School Intern

For most middle school students, 2:45 to 3:45 p.m on Thursday afternoon is just another class, or time to head home or to sports practice. You wouldn’t expect to see them downtown at a salon, working, but that hour is exactly when you will find Red Bank Charter School student Amanda Annaruma at Hair & Company.

The charter school has a unique program, running for about 12 years, that places eighth-graders in jobs, which explains why students are in town rather than relaxing.

“I intern at Hair & Company on White street,” says Amanda, one of 19 eighth-graders participating in the program. “I guess for now I’m really an assistant’s assistant. I sweep the floor, wash towels, stuff like that.”

Below, Nora Fraser stacking and sorting yarn at Wooly Monmouth on Monmouth Street. (Photo by Lola Todman. Click to enlarge)

Supervisors of the program agree: each year it just keeps getting better. Technically, the program is something that all students must partake in, however it is definitely no burden to them.

“My intern was really cool,” Anna Whitaker says of her position at the Fair Haven restaurant Tavolo Pronto, using the term the students use to describe their jobs. “I’m interning mostly for Patti Balderas” Anna says. Patti Balderas (whose sons Matteo and Marco also attend the charter school) is owner of Tavolo Pronto, along with her husband, Arturo Balderas.

Ashley Houck, interning for Red Bank RiverCenter, says she hopes her intern will give her “career experience,” and most students agree.

Teachers also think that students will pull real-world knowledge out of this program, and Stacey Williams (eighth-grade homeroom adjunct teacher) even thinks it will benefit the school itself.

“By sending the kids out and staying in contact with local businesses, it provides us with a lot of community partners,” she said. The list of internship locations include : Hair & Company, Prown’s, Wooly Monmouth and Paint a Tee.

Many wonder, including parents, how each student is assigned to his or her intern. “Well, first the students complete an interest survey,”said eighth-grade homeroom teacher Kathleen Boylan, “and then we categorize the interests. You know: health and medicine, arts and communications, public services.”

Once the students have been placed in a certain interest category, Boylan, Williams, and science teacher Vern Ford help match students up with local businesses. Considering the school’s small size of just 180 students, teachers are familiar with students, and their knowledge is also a factor.

Prown’s owner David Prown knows that when students see him on the street, they think of him as a fun guy who loves to laugh and play sports. But he said it’s important that when they come to work in his home-improvement store, “they understand that I wear a completely different hat for work.”

Prown has been a part of the program since it started, “and every year I expect my intern to treat this like a real job. Be responsible, call me if your going to be late.”

Naturally, students are eager to impress their mentors, so interns being lackadaisical shouldn’t be an employer’s worry. School officials see the intern program as a fun, beneficial experience for eighth-grade students, and as of right now, the interns couldn’t agree more.

Remember: Nothing makes a Red Bank friend happier than to hear "I saw you on Red Bank Green!"
redbankgreen Classics
Partyline
JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION
Performers at Red Bank’s Juneteenth community celebration Sunday at Johnny Jazz Park. (photo by Brian Donohue)      
BUTTERFLIES LOVE THE WEED
Save the monarch, plant butterfly weed. (photo and text by Partyline contributor Roseann DalPra)  
LANTERNFLY PARTY
An invasive ailanthus tree sprouting in front of the US Post Office on Broad Street is covered with invasive spotted lantern fly nymphs Wedn ...
STREETCORNER SERENADE
An Irish doodle named Cheddar listens to native New Jerseyan, singer/songwriter and former Houston resident Tom Foti, (identified in the hea ...
Red Bank 5K Fun!!!
Red Bank Classic – June 14th, 2025 (photo by Partyline contributor Adam Kaplan)  
RAINBOW OVER RED BANK
Saturday, before and after the storm that rolled through town. (photo by Partyline contributor Thomas Doremus)    
Mini Ballers Bring the Heat at Fusion Basketball School
As the temperatures heat up, so does the competition in the mini baller clinic at Fusion School of Basketball. These little tykes are intens ...
DOZENS OF PLEIN AIR ARTISTS “PAINT RED BANK”
Plein air artists take over town for first ever "Paint Red Bank" event. (click to read)
RED BANK: SIGN ON ICONIC DANNY’S STEAK HOUSE COMES DOWN
The sign hanging from the shuttered Danny's Steak House comes down ten months after a manager reported Danny's Steakhouse would be back "bet ...
FOR YANKEES FANS, GOOD TRASH PICKIN’
A collection of framed photographs of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and other New York Yankees greats was placed curbside along with a ...
RED BANK: NEW HANDICAPPED PARKING, WEST SIDE MEETING PLANNED
New handicapped parking sign West Side advocate had pressed for is installed, with meeting planned to discuss other concerns. (click to read ...
SUNSET AT SUMMER’S START
Crazy sunset clouds shot from Monmouth Boat Club on the Friday evening at the start of Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer. ...
SIDEWALK GOES FROM WORST TO FIRST
P (photo by Brian Donohue) What had been, in our estimation – and apparently in the eyes of the several people who have emailed and te ...
RED BANK: PEERING FROM ON HIGH, ACROSS THE DECADES
Roofers on the Azalea Red Bank top off the project in the shadow of a sculpture depicting another generation of construction workers who toi ...
BRICK FACELIFT CONTINUES ON MONMOUTH STREET
A million-dollar brick sidwalk makeover of Monmouth Street in Red Bank continues.
JAY AND SILENT EAGLE
A very loud blue jay squawks at an indiferent bald eagle in a treetop alongside the Swimming River in Red Bank this week. (Partyline photo b ...
PIZZA LOVING SQUIRREL SPOTTED IN RED BANK
Pizza squirrel spotted in Red Bank. (click to read)
GET YOUR MA SOMETHIN’ NICE AT THE RED BANK FARMERS MARKET
It’s a beautiful and sunny Mother’s Day for the first instance of the farmer’s market, held every Sunday, beginning in May ...
SIGN? WHAT SIGN?
Folks in Red Bank Wednesday exercising their riparian rights to access tidal waters first encoded into Roman law in 500 AD and later adopted ...
FANTASTIC MR. FOX
Partyline contributor captures photo of backyard fox.