Three years ago, Lakishe McPike got her first paying job in the science field. For two summers, she was a teaching assistant, helping elementary kids in summer classes.

This summer, 17-year-old Lakishe has gotten added responsibility and is adding to her science knowledge with two science jobs. To help earn more money for college, she even has a third job conducting customer surveys in a shopping center.

First, she's been named as one of 10 Mastercard Scholars in the St. Louis Science Center's Youth Exploring Science (YES) program. She's a gallery assistant in the Center's Exploradome "Puzzles" exhibit.

The exhibit provides kids and adults a large collection of interactive math and science puzzles to solve. There are puzzles large and small, for all ages from toddlers to adults.

Lakishe said, "I greet people at the entrance. Then, if they have trouble with a puzzle, I help them. We try to show them how to do the puzzle without giving away the answer."

But, Lakishe admits she can't figure out all the answers. One particularly tough puzzle for her is called Torpedo Man. It involves getting one stick figure through bars of a cage.

"This puzzle is supposed to teach patience but I can't do it. And it hasn't taught me patience yet," she said.

In Lakishe's first two summers in the YES program, she merely helped an older teacher in the classroom. This summer, as a Mastercard Scholar, she'll be working more on her own.

Diane Miller is the education manager at the Science Center. She supervises the YES program which helps young St. Louis kids get their first paying job experience in science.

This is the first year for the Mastercard Scholars. They are given jobs with more responsibility as well as more pay.

This is the fourth year of the YES program. A total of 115 St. Louis kids interested in science have joined the program. Miller recruited 25 new kids to start this summer.

But, like Lakishe, some kids work more than one summer. For instance, there are a total of 62 working this summer.

Eight kids from the first YES class are now in college. Four of them are back with YES this summer, working to develop curriculum for future science classes.

Miller recruits YES students from eight local children's agencies. They include Herbert Hoover Boys and Girls Club, Matthews Dickey Boys and Girls Club, Girls, Inc., YWCA Teen Tool Program, Lighthouse, Christian Service Center, Anne Malone Children and Family Service Center and the Adams Community Center.

Young kids interested in joining future YES classes should contact one of those agencies to see if they are eligible to join.

Lakishe will be a senior at Metro High School in the city of St. Louis. She joined the YES program through the YWCA.

Her science interest started early. She said, "When I was small, I liked to experiment with things. When I was seven, I told my mother I wanted to be a pediatric surgeon. I still do."

After graduating from high school, she wants to go to the University of Missouri-Columbia and then to Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Why Howard? "My father wants me to go to a historically-black college. Howard has the highest percentage of black doctors who have graduated from there," she said.

The YES program not only gives the kids experience in science-related jobs but helps them develop other career skills. They attend developmental classes aimed at helping them work well with other people. They also learn how to use community resources to help them in their jobs.

Her second science job this summer is with the ECO-ACT program at the Missouri Botanical Garden. There, she'll be helping teach elementary kids during field trips to the Garden and other ecological centers.

Asked about her career choice, Lakishe said she's always been interested in medicine and also likes to work with kids. Being a pediatric surgeon would combine both interests.

Young Saint Louis.com met Lakisha two years ago when she was a teaching assistant for a summer YES science class. During one class, she spotted one of the kids who was crying. While the adult science teacher worked with the rest of the class, Lakishe counseled with the crying child.

Before the end of the class, the child had quit crying and was eagerly participating in the science experiments. If you'd like to read that earlier story from August, 2000, you can click here.