How Obama's 'Brutal' First Job Inspired A New Youth Employment Initiative

In a post on LinkedIn this week, President Barack Obama shared details about his very first gig in the workforce: scooping ice cream at a Baskin-Robbins as a teenager in Hawaii . Obama said the experience taught him lessons about hard work and ultimately helped him get to where he is today.

"My first summer job wasn’t exactly glamorous , but it taught me some valuable lessons," the president wrote. "Responsibility. Hard work. Balancing a job with friends, family, and school."

Obama was writing to announce a new, multi-agency initiative  aimed at putting more youngsters to work.

The Summer Opportunity Project  hopes to "significantly increase the percentage of youth in evidence-based summer opportunity programs, decrease the percentage of youth experiencing violence over the summer, and -- more broadly -- make sure that young Americans have the support they need to get their first job," the White House said in a release Thursday.

The initiative comes in the wake of a $5.5 billion proposal by the administration to create summer jobs and first-time jobs for young Americans.

In a recent interview with The Washington Post, acting Education Secretary John B. King said that there has been a 40 percent decline in summer jobs for youth  over the past 12 years. “First jobs have the incredible power to set young people on a path to productivity and success, and away from bad outcomes in their lives,” King said.

For POTUS, that first summer job, although "brutal on the wrists ," proved crucial.

"While I may have lost my taste for ice cream after one too many free scoops, I’ll never forget that job -- or the people who gave me that opportunity -- and how they helped me get to where I am today," Obama wrote in his LinkedIn post. 

How's that for 31 flavors of inspiration?