Genesis Quezada, 16, takes summer one scoop at a time

These days, she runs the register, serves customers, trains and manages employees, orders the supplies — ranging from ice cream and cones to bowls and utensils — and cleans inside and out.

“I’m responsible for everyone, and to make sure things are going right,” she said.

But her parents are in charge of the “really important stuff, like with the money, they do all the deposits,” she said. They also hire any new employees.

“I just learn more each year,” she said. “I become more responsible and learn to accept it — because when I was younger, I was like, ‘No, I don’t want to work as much,’ but now, I’m like, ‘You need me to work? OK, I’ll go in.’”

The Heights Ice Cream is open seasonally, from March until the first week of September, from noon until closing. “Closing” depends on how busy it is at the Taqueria, and could be anywhere from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m.

Actually, her parents opened the shop to compliment the Taqueria and bring an ice cream parlor to the Heights.

“We only had Mike’s (Ice Cream) up until we started, so my dad wanted to put in something for the locals, because Mike’s is downtown and we’re on the Heights,” she said, noting that there are many neighborhoods nearby.

Quezada works five to six days a week in four hour shifts. If she’s opening the shop, she begins by unlocking the doors, preparing the ice cream (taking the caps off the tubs), placing outside chairs and cleaning, and then cleaning the inside.

“Sometimes, not a lot, some people will be waiting at the door when I get there, and I’ll have to go right into it,” she said.

Then she serves customers and cleans until her shift ends. She currently manages two other employees, although a third should be coming onboard soon.

The stores most popular flavor: Tillamook Mudslide. It’s also Quezada’s favorite.

One awkward aspect of being a high school-aged manager: “I’m supposed to be the boss of someone I see every day in school,” she said. “Like, sometimes I can say hi, but I can’t really be their friend and their boss.”

The best thing about her job — besides the 20 flavors of ice cream it carries from Tillamook, Cascade Glacier, Columbia Valley Farms and Blue Bunny — is the money she’s been able to earn and save.

“I was able to buy my own car because I saved up. I paid the down payment of my car because the past two years, I worked and I was saving,” she said. “The money is good for stuff like that, for necessities and for college.”

While Heights Ice Cream doesn’t do many events, they did sell ice cream at Jackson Park after the Fourth of July parade — around 800 cones worth — and will be at the Lavender DAZE festival July 18-19 at Hood River Lavender in Odell.

“It’s crazy because you don’t have everything on hand, so if something goes wrong, you’re going to have to improvise,” she said. “And it gets busier at events than it does here.”

The high school junior doesn’t plan on going into business after college — she would rather pursue literature — but she does find there are advantages to the experience she’s gained from her position.

“If I want to get a job (in college) … my experience will help me get one quickly,” she said.

And experience with customers made for an easier transition from Mid-Columbia Adventist Christian School to Hood River Valley High School last year.

“It’s helped my people skills because I have to talk to random people every day. When I first started going to the high school, I didn’t find it hard to talk to (other students), so that’s how I made friends.”

While she hasn’t settled on a college yet, she does have a career plan.

“I don’t want to be an ice cream scooper forever,” she said. “I like reading a lot, and I want to write a book … because I like that feeling that I get, when I’m reading a book and I’m like, ‘Oh, my goodness!,’ the feelings they make come out of you just by words.”