ABOUT US

Summer Placement Consultants, Inc. is a summer job placement service for high school and college students. Started as The Placement Bureau in 1951, originally a service under the aegis of the Parents' League of Greater Boston, SPC has developed into an independent business of national scope. Operated for over 54 years by only three owners, SPC was taken over in 2004 by Mrs. Stacey Lai from her friend, Mrs. Lorine Hutchens.

Jobs typically entail living with a family for all or part of the summer and assisting with childcare and daily upkeep. Students enjoy good salaries plus room and board. Job locations are often in resort areas such as Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, Block Island, Fishers Island, the Hamptons, Maine, Rhode Island, California, the Oregon Coast, Colorado, Texas, and the Carolinas. The students come from high schools and colleges all around the country. New employer families are accepted by the service after careful screening and reference checks. The service is free to students -- there is never any charge to students to apply or to be placed as a summer helper.

RECENT PRESS

February 17, 2004
By Lisa Arsenault

Summer Temp Business Moves to Manchester

MANCHESTER -- Stacey Lai grew up baby-sitting in her Beacon Hill neighborhood but after getting into the advertising business after college, she never imagined that experience would overlap her professional life.

Lai and her husband Steven moved back to Manchester three years ago where Lai spent her childhood summers. The couple has bought a summer job service that places high school and college students with families in resort locations to assist with child care and light household chores.

Part of Lai's job in running the business, called Summer Placement Consultants, will be drawing on her own experiences in baby-sitting to place the right students with the right families, and to give advice to students once they're with families. Lai will also draw from her advertising career, during which she hired and managed creative professionals for companies like Young and Rubicam and Arnold Communications.

According to Lai, the summer jobs that the service provides are about more than just baby-sitting.

"It's kind of an extra pair of hands but it's also someone you accept as part of your family and not just a housekeeper," Lai said. "It's not just 'See you at 7 a.m., leave at 5 p.m.' It's a life experience."

Summer Placement Consultants began in 1951 as a volunteer service run out of a kitchen in Westwood and over the years has developed into a business with 500 families in its network. In order for a family to qualify, it must be referred for the service by at least two other families.

Students seeking jobs go through a rigorous application process as well. They must submit a written application with recommendations and an essay, have an hour-long phone interview, an interview in person, and a meeting with the family once they are accepted. Of the roughly 2000 students who apply, only 500 are chosen.

Other than fine-tuning a few aspects of the business - like putting the application online - Lai's goal is to keep the business the way it has been from the beginning.

"Because it's such an old company, I really want to maintain the integrity and tradition of it," she said.

Many of the families take on a student through Summer Placement Consultants when they are vacationing for the summer in places like Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod and Maine. Sometimes families hire a student when they are traveling abroad as well.

Students are hired to be mother's helpers or granny-helpers. Mother's helpers baby-sit children, do their laundry, prepare simple meals, care for their rooms, and take them places like the beach. A granny-helper is often hired by older families to help in running their households for the summer. They prepare meals, provide cleanup, do grocery shopping and other errands.

The placement service's previous owner, Lorine Hutchens said the program is a great opportunity for students who like children and like to travel. She said it's also a good business to own because it can be run out of a home, as Lai is doing.

"It's a wonderful service to help students who really enjoy children to make some money being outdoors, doing things they really enjoy and being in a new location in the country," Hutchens said. "These kids are great and they're excited to see someplace new."

Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce Director Mike Costello said many businesses are converting to being home-based. "It's a phenomenon of the time we live in," Costello said. "More and more people, given technology and Internet and all that can easily work at home and still be able to communicate with folks all over the world."

February 10, 2004

People

ACHIEVEMENTS

Former Beacon Hill Street resident Stacey Roy Lai is the new owner of Summer Placement Consultants, a summer job placement service for high school and college students. The company began as the Placement Bureau under the direction of the Parents' League of Greater Boston. Lai will operate the business from Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA, where she lives with her husband, Steven, and daughter, Madeline.