Fiona Riley ‘22
Maddy Mitchell ‘22
From babysitting to lifeguarding, many Episcopal students agree that jobs teach a variety of life lessons that ease the transition into the world after high school. Kathleen Mark ‘21 shares a sentiment common among students, saying, “Having a job teaches you skills that you can use after college.” However, with students’ busy schedules, it can be difficult for students to get a job, especially when many can not get their driver’s license yet. Polls sent out on February 19th show that the percent of students with jobs increases with each grade: 40% of freshmen, 46% of sophomores, 51% of juniors, and 55% of seniors. These polls also show that the most popular jobs are babysitting, retail, sports related (coach, caddy, referee), lifeguarding, or in a restaurant.
According to students, one of the main reasons to get a job is to save money. Alex Capitano ‘20 says, “Everyone has different motives for how they use the money but personally I use a lot of my money on food and gas.” Jack Christian ‘21 says that he got a job to keep himself “occupied in the summer instead of doing nothing.”
Despite these motivations, many have discovered a myriad of other merits as a result of the jobs they’ve held. Erika Kramer ‘22 remarks on the experiences that a job can offer, saying, “I feel like it gives students more experience in interacting with other people…in the long-run, school doesn’t always help with that, so you need outside experience to help you learn how to react in certain situations.” Juliette Loor ‘22 agrees, “Having a job has allowed me to improve my interpersonal skills due to serving both kids and adults. My job has also taught me the importance of time management because of my constantly changing schedule.” Capitano takes a more teamwork-based perspective, explaining, “It [a job] teaches you life lessons on how to work with a team and it humbles you a little bit because no one really starts off at the top; you have to work your way up.” Erica Feheery ‘21, agrees, but also mentions, “I think that it [having a job] depends on the student. You can learn a lot of valuable lessons from it, but it’s not for everyone.”
Teachers at the Episcopal Academy are supportive of students having job experience in high school. Tanuja Murray, upper school math teacher had her first job in a bakery and speaks to the sense of awareness jobs can provide students: “Jobs help students appreciate people who are doing the more low education level types of jobs.” She adds that jobs, “make you more responsible and grateful for the time you do have with your friends and free time. Also, a job gives them a better understanding of money.” Erin Bilbao, upper school Spanish teacher, had her first job at fifteen and worked at the Kahunaville arcade at ticket redemption. She agrees that jobs are valuable experiences for students,“I think students should have jobs because they can learn real-world responsibility as well as how to deal with different, and sometimes difficult situations and personalities, which are skills that prepare them for life.” Murray also understands the stance of students who choose not to take on jobs, explaining, “Their schedules are very busy with homework, sports and other extracurricular activities.”