Community High School has many students who are employed in a variety of occupations during the school year. The idea can be daunting, but plenty of students are able to work with little or no negative effects on their academics. Even though it can difficult at times, most employed high schoolers are happy with their jobs because of the benefits they enjoy as a result.
“I think having a job is an important thing for kids in high school to have [because it can help them] have responsibility with money,” said Jesse Rubin, a sophomore at Community. Rubin works at the YMCA cleaning their cardio machines and free weights. In addition to his school commitments and daily swim practice, he works six hours a week.
Despite all of his activities, Rubin says having a job doesn’t really affect his school schedule but rather is a good fit for him. He also said, “A lot of times after my shift I’ll change out of my staff stuff and go lift weights, so it works out well with my schedule. It’s a good job.” The only schedule adjustment that Rubin needed was to secure a free seventh block and a lunch forum because of his work times.
Some students, like Ela Steiger, a sophomore at Community, work only because they want to earn some extra cash. “Hopefully I am going to take a gap year and go to Europe with my friend between high school and college. My mom isn’t paying for any of it so I will have to earn the money for it myself,” said Steiger. Steiger worked at Sparrow Market in Kerrytown during second semester last year.
Steiger said that the only setback to her job was trying to manage homework. “A lot of times during Wednesdays or on the weekend I would have to put aside some time after work just for homework and I would sometimes end up staying up a little later than usual.” She added that this was not very hard to cope with because she only worked twice a week. Rubin said he had no problems with his job as far as homework and extracurricular activities were concerned.
Overall working during school is a slightly difficult but entirely possible option, depending on how long and with what frequency you have to work. Because the pros tend to outweigh the cons, being employed can be a very beneficial both financially and in regards to learning responsibility.
By: Cameron McLaren
