While some students prefer to focus purely on schoolwork and activities, many others decide to take on a larger workload for some extra cash by working part-time jobs. Whether or not these working students have to pay for all of their expenses themselves, want the work experience, or are simply looking for something extra to do, working in high school can be difficult depending on the amount of schoolwork students have. Despite this, a great deal of students at Revere work towards independence and gain a greater sense of responsibility by taking on a job outside of school hours.

Senior Carter Greulich spoke about how he started to work at Bruegger’s Bagels in Fairlawn. Once at work, he gets the store ready for opening, prepares some of the ingredients for bagels, greets the customers and fulfills their orders. He also explained why he likes working there, including that he enjoys interacting with his customers and co-workers.

“I was a regular customer on the weekends . . . [and] I went there so often that the assistant manager told me that they have have a job opening and asked me if I wanted it,” Greulich said.

Junior Devin Zeller has been working at Blackburn OEM Wheel Solutions since September of his sophomore year. Zeller explained that he enjoys working in a warehouse environment because of his co-workers, and also because he does not have to directly deal with any customers or work at a desk each day. His responsibilities include pulling wheels off shelves for orders that are sent in, putting together the cardboard boxes that are used for the wheels and then box the wheels and putting them on shelves for shipment. Aside from these activities, he also has to work with his co-workers to keep the warehouse tidy and keep track of locations of the wheels on shelves.

Senior Dylan Kostar, an employee at The Farmer’s Rail, revealed that he pursued this job because he pays for his own gas and other expenses, and he also enjoys working on his truck, which requires money. He works a total of four days a week serving customers, cleaning and doing anything that is needed and explained how he chose his schedule.

“My rule of thumb has always been one day on the weekends, and four days a week in total because it gives me a good amount of hours to make a reasonable amount of money. I find that if I work anything less, it’s just a waste of time and I’d rather find something else [to do],” Kostar said.

Kostar is a runner on the track team, and he spoke about how his time has been affected with school and a job since the season started. He also touches on why he believes it is still good for him to work, even though his free time is limited.

“With track, I don’t have time to go home before work anymore. I leave straight from track and go to work until about 8:15 [p.m.]. . . . [Once I get home,] I’m pretty tired and I just want to eat, so I usually mostly try to get my homework done during school. . . . [Working] is still worth it because I need money [since] I can’t do anything I want to without money and my parents don’t pay for me to go out with my friends,” Kostar said.

Zeller also explained how he balances his sport, hockey, with work and how he handles the his work schedule when his schedule gets too busy overall.

“I don’t work on the days that I have practice and usually my games are towards the evenings on the weekends so I’m able to work in the morning. . . . My boss is very understanding so if I ever have too much schoolwork or any school function that interferes with work he always tells me that I’m a student first, an athlete second, and work comes third,” Zeller said.

Zeller expressed how he believes it is a good idea for students to work while in school because of the skills and responsibilities it can teach someone.

“It teaches [students] responsibility because you have to show up on time and you have to balance work and all the other stuff you do. You learn how to save money and spend money and you have to do your taxes and learn about that and just learn a little bit about what the real world is like,” Zeller said.

Greulich shared advice for students who may be trying to balance a job with schoolwork and other activities.

“Use all of your time wisely and be productive with your time. Since most jobs tend to be after school jobs, a lot of kids go almost straight after school, so they will be getting home late and still have to do homework and study, but you can find times during the day or maybe a little before your work to minimize the [amount of] work you have to do after working,” Greulich said.

Working a part-time job as a student can be a struggle to keep up with considering the workload that many students already have without it, however, starting to work early in life can cause some students to gain insight on what working in the real world is really like and experience the responsibilities that come with it.