North Reading student spends summers working for Cummings Properties

While many students spend the summer working part-time retail jobs, the young men and women of Cummings Properties’ summer crew work a 40-hour week doing everything from painting to landscaping to masonry.

This summer, 72 high school and college students from 26 Massachusetts cities and towns, including North Reading, have taken jobs with the commercial real estate firm.

Griffin Paine, a 2015 North Reading High School graduate, is spending his third summer with the firm as a valued member of the West Cummings Park landscaping team, according to Cummings Properties grounds team leader Daniel Irwin.

“Danny is a great boss and everyone on the team is very helpful. I love working outside and getting the chance to learn how to use all types of power tools,” said Paine, who will start at University of Delaware the end of August, majoring in finance.

“Our summer student employees are good workers and overall very impressive teens and young adults,” said Irwin, who has been with the Woburn-based commercial real estate firm for almost 15 years. “We offer them good jobs and expect them to work hard, but we also try to be flexible and allow them to enjoy the summer.”

Evan Raffi of Wilmington, who begins his freshman year at Roger Williams University later this month, was thrilled to land a full-time summer job with the Company. His twin brother, Nicholas, is also part of the summer crew.

“Getting summer jobs that offer 40 hours a week is unusual,” said Raffi, who worked on many different projects, but enjoyed masonry the most. “I have worked with a bunch of different people with different work styles, and everyone takes the time to teach us. I am grateful for the opportunity.”

In contrast to the Raffi brothers, who are finishing their first summers at Cummings, Winchester resident Craig Fitzgerald, a senior mechanical engineering major at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), is one of five students who have returned to the commercial real estate firm six summers in a row.

“Craig is the most senior of the summer students and has no problem teaching them the ropes,” said Irwin. “I can count on him to mentor his peers and complete any assignments with little supervision or instruction.”

Fitzgerald described his long tenure with Cummings as an enjoyable and rewarding experience that has prepared him for life, work, school, and in particular, basketball. He explained that the busy 40-hour-per-week schedule taught him discipline and, several years ago, made him realize that he needed to do more to prepare for success in college-level sports.

“Working at Cummings taught me that if you want something, you have to work for it,” said Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald began adding ball handling and shooting drills to his daily routine after work. Today, he is proud to be playing his fourth and final year of college basketball at RPI.

For more than 40 years, Cummings Properties has had a strong tradition of employing local area youth. Like Fitzgerald and Paine, many students return summer after summer to earn a steady paycheck and to take advantage of the opportunity to earn scholarship funds. Since 2011, Cummings Properties has given $79,000 in scholarships and tuition reimbursements to summer workers.

Cummings Properties’ 10 million square feet of prime space accommodates offices, healthcare facilities, laboratories, retail storefronts, warehouses, co-working spaces, executive suites, and more. With a portfolio of this size and variety, the firm can meet almost any commercial real estate need from 150 square feet to 300,000 square feet. Its in-house experts in design, construction, and property management offer “one-stop shopping” for leasing clients.

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PHOTO: Cummings Properties summer crew members from left to right: Craig Fitzgerald, Griffin Paine, and Evan Raffi.