Nokesville student paints the town

Nokesville’s Owen Thomas has been painting the town this summer.

While running his own College Works Painting business and earning money for college tuition, he is also giving back to the community.

College Works Painting is an internship program that provides college students an opportunity to develop, implement and illustrate a strong work ethic while honing communication, organizational, management and sales skills.

Besides applying these skills to a Habitat for Humanity project, Thomas is donating time and labor to the Northern Virginia Soccer Association.

He has spoken with league president Bill Gregory, and he signed up to repaint five 15-by-20 equipment sheds at George Hellwig Memorial, Ben Lomond and Valley View parks as a thank you “for everything that the organization has done for me in my progression as a young adult.”

“I have played soccer with the association since I was 5, and I felt as though this would be a great opportunity to give back to the club after they have given me so much over the years,” Thomas said.

“I want to give back to this organization because I feel like a large part of my life and who I am thus far has been shaped by soccer and the relationships I have made doing it. It is a great organization with an outstanding set of people heading it. The organization is not just a soccer association to me, but more along the lines of a family.”

So that explains the soccer job. But why painting?

Thomas chose College Works because “it is something that challenges me. With this internship, you wake up every morning, and it is non-stop from 6 in the morning ’til 8 at night when you are so exhausted, you just go to bed.”

The job includes supervising three paint crews all made up of college students from James Madison and George Mason universities.

The internship doesn’t include base pay. Thomas was not guaranteed any money.

“You are paid on how well you do,” he said. “This was a big motivator for me, because I could measure myself against my peers.

“Unlike most internships where you sit behind a desk and are given busywork that others don’t want to do, you actually have to go out and experience firsthand what it’s like in the business world, and you do have the opportunity for failure,” he said.

Thomas’ hard work has paid off: He recently ranked third in College Works’ nationwide TOPGUN two-week sales competition.

“To get to that point, I had to sacrifice a lot,” he said. “I had to make the decision to stay at school and be like the rest of my peers all of second semester or to take that step out into the real world. I picked the road less followed, and it has really paid off.

“I have drastically grown and matured during my non-stop summer of 60 to 70 hour work weeks.”

Thomas said that, among other things, he has learned what it takes to be successful.

“I have learned that sales isn’t easy but that ‘You can paralyze resistance with persistence,’ as my high school soccer coach always told us.

“If you constantly work at what you’re doing, you are going to get better, whether it is on the soccer field or in the workplace.”

For more information on College Works, contact Thomas at 703-586-7186.