A teen from a rough and tumble section of the South Bronx has moved on up to the Empire State Building, helping her struggling family make ends meet by landing a summer “dream’’ job there through the NYPD.
“You tell someone you work in the Empire State Building, and they all go crazy like ‘You work there?’ ” said Graciella Centeno, 18, gazing at the Manhattan skyline from the skyscraper’s 78th floor.
“You see everything. This is the tallest, biggest building I’ve ever been in.”
Four years ago, Centeno joined the NYPD’s Law-Enforcement Explorers group, an cop-in-training program for teens.
She got her part-time, $8.50-an-hour job as an administrative assistant with the Boy Scouts of America at ESB last month thanks to an NYPD police officer who supervises her in Explorers.
Police Officer Roger Bennett was dropping off applications for a summer-academy program at the building and overheard a Scout staffer say he desperately needed an assistant — and quickly thought of Centeno.
The teen said her stunning new workday views are a far cry from her surroundings in gritty Highbridge, where she lives in a cramped, two-bedroom apartment with five other family members who rely on government assistance.
She said her neighborhood is plagued with drugs and violence, which spurred her to pursue a career in law enforcement. She’s studying criminal justice at Manhattan Community College and hopes to someday work as a K-9-unit border patrol agent for US Customs and Border Protection.
“I grew up in an area where a lot of drugs are being sold, and I am still in that area,” she said. “I want to stop crime before it comes to the US.”
She said that being an Explorer “means everything” to her.
“I never had friends until I joined the program,” she said. “My family has never been on the right side of the law. I just want to be the different one.”
After putting in more than 350 hours of community service as an Explorer, she’s happy to finally have a paying gig.
“I’ve been trying to get a job for a while now because we’ve been going through financial issues,” she said. “My mom is proud. I wish I could work full-time, but I can’t because of college.”
kconley@nypost.com