Home for the summer months, Woburn resident and college senior Steve O’Donnell is once more working ardently at Cummings Properties. A member of the Woburn-based company's summer crew since 2008, Steve has been earning both a paycheck and scholarship funds with which he finances his ambitious course load at West Virginia University.

According to Steve, he appreciates the fact that he has steady work waiting for him whenever he comes home, especially when many of his peers are finding it so hard to secure summer employment.

“Even when the economy is slow, I know I can always find work at Cummings,” he commented.

The Company is equally as pleased to have him back each summer.

Steve’s supervisor, Woburn resident Mark Lynch, said, “Steve can do everything the job requires, and so we’re happy to invite him back every year. He does a good amount of heavy construction for us, but we can also count on him to handle numerous other jobs. He’s a hard worker.”

For more than 40 years, Cummings Properties has had a strong tradition of welcoming neighborhood youth as summer workers, especially in Woburn. This year, nearly 70 area high school and college students, including 29 from Woburn, have found summer jobs with the commercial real estate development, management, and construction firm, both in Woburn and at its large Cummings Center campus in Beverly.

“The Company places a huge emphasis on hiring locally whenever possible,” said Dennis Clarke, the firm's president and CEO. “Hiring students is one aspect of being a good corporate citizen, and a way to reach out to the community. Our summer program keeps the student workers very busy, but they are paid well.”

The students are primarily employed as general workers doing landscaping, property maintenance, and office work. Many, like Steve, return summer after summer to earn a steady paycheck and to take advantage of the opportunity to earn scholarship funds. Along with their wages, summer employees take home valuable skills they can use in their daily life.

Steve confided, “One of the best things about my experience at Cummings is the knowledge I gained from the workers on my crew. Now, whenever anything needs to be done at work or at school, there is a very good chance I can handle it myself.”

Steve first learned about the job opportunities at Cummings Properties from his older brother. Now a police officer in Salem, NH, his brother was a member of the summer crew for eight years.

Striving to accomplish his own career goals, Steve maintained that working for Cummings Properties promotes a healthy work ethic. This trait should serve Steve well as he works toward graduating, not only with a Business Management major, but also with two minors in the Entrepreneurial and Leadership fields.