Passing time, earning money

The restaurants, clothing stores and kiosks are prime places for job seekers.
By ZACH STIPE
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
NILES -- Kelsy Mikesell wraps a calzone in tin foil and places it in an oven, while her friend and co-worker Christina Santisi hands a customer a cup from behind a register. It's a typical day of summer work for the recent Niles McKinley graduates.
Mikesell, 18, and Santisi, 17, have been working at Salvatore's Pizzeria in Eastwood Mall for about four months. The girls are a tiny fraction of the number of teenagers who work at the mall, a popular employer for high school students and recent graduates.
The girls smile and laugh as they cook Italian food and interact with customers.
"Basically we are all teenagers," Santisi said, of Salvatore's. "We all get along. It's like one big family."
The place to be
Many teens frequent malls, sometimes spending money and sometimes making money. Southern Park Mall and Eastwood Mall are two popular malls in the Valley. Both employ hundreds of teenagers at restaurants, department stores and kiosks.
Kyle Vandergriff loves working at Hot Topic in Eastwood Mall. The 18-year-old from Warren taps his foot and bobs his head, while folding T-shirts. Speakers shower the apparel and music chain with heavy doses of rock music.
"I love it here," he said. "I'm in a great atmosphere."
He enjoys redesigning end-caps with different themes.
"I just did an AFI one," he said. "They're my favorite band."
Across from Salvatore's and Hot Topic sits Chelsea Pascarella, working at Sunglass City. The 17-year-old from Niles appears annoyed by two older men, who show no interest in purchasing sunglasses but are still hanging around the kiosk.
Pascarella often deals with people who have no interest in purchasing sunglasses, but she seems happy with her job.
At the sunglasses kiosk, she shows customers various styles of shades, fields phone calls from her mom and tries to meet her sales goal for the day.
"They gave me a $300 goal today," she said. "I'm only at $190."
Pascarella uses most of the money she makes during her six-hour shifts toward her car.
While Pascarella assists customers with shades, right around the corner, Alex Papalas and Katie Panagis make drinks and caramel popcorn for customers.
Papalas, 18, and Panagis, 19, work at Orange Julius/Karamelkorn in the mall. The two describe the job as laid-back and are carefree as they joke with each other and customers. Papalas, a recent Niles McKinley graduate, said that her employer hires a lot of teenage girls.
"We seem to bring in the business," she said with a laugh.