For many high school students, keeping up with academics, extracurriculars, and part-time jobs is a challenging balance. Leah Rogers (11) and Kirsten Carrillo (11) are two hard working teens who have overcome these challenges when they took on part-time jobs.
Carrillo, who has been working at Fosters Freeze for nine months, took this job to gain more financial skills, with the help of her friend Leah Rogers. From this work experience she has learned more social skills and customer service.
Taking on a part-time job at Fosters Freeze has been more than just a way to make money, it has been an opportunity for personal growth. She enjoys the respectful people she meets, although she admits the repetitiveness of the work can be challenging. She still views the experience as a step towards her future.
“This job is definitely preparing me for what’s ahead,” Carillo said, “It’s giving me skills and experience I’ll need to get another job more easily in the future.”
Rogers, who has been working at Fosters Freeze for a little over a year, has decided to apply for this job because she thought that it would benefit her in the future since she would be used to being in the workplace and have gained experience with maintaining a job. Rogers stated that she has learned valuable life skills such as how to be more patient and considerate of customers while working there.
Rogers stated, “I have learned to have patience, because not all customers are nice and respectful.”
This is a good skill to gain because throughout life she will be able to use it for any job or career she plans to pursue. Some of Rogers’ likes and dislikes of her job is that she enjoys seeing the customers that come in regularly and speaking with them, but on the other hand she dislikes the rude customers because she is just there to help them and they don’t seem to appreciate it. Although she says working could be difficult, she stated that having a job at a young age is very beneficial as it is a way to prepare for the future.
Rogers stated, “ I definitely am gaining life experience. Having a job at a young age is a way to get ready for the future and get used to working.”
Carillo and Rogers are also planning to continue with this part-time job until they graduate. They both said, “I want to have a job until I graduate, but I also don’t want to be going between jobs, I think it’s best to try and stay at this one.”
Working is a great way to learn things other than just in a school setting and gain life skills that you can not learn from being in a classroom. Overall, having a job as a student can be very beneficial but it also can be stressful when balancing school and your personal life.
