By Santiago Ferreira Vila | Observer Contributor
Wake up. Go to class. Come home. Go to work. Do homework. Repeat. That is the life of many students at Mount Wachusett Community College. Financial aid may help students who are having trouble being able to pay off classes, but there is still the matter of personal purchases and bills students need to pay off as well. Many jobs can either be flexible with the students schedule while others may snarl at the fact that the job itself isn’t the student’s number one priority.
Jobs can range from either part-time to full-time, to some even seasonal workers. Either way, it’s a clash of the interests’ battle that always leaves the student in shambles.
“I had to leave my old job to a new one,” commented 25 year old Joshua Needham. Needham recently left Dunkin Donuts in pursuit of a new Job at Rent-A-Center. “All the free time I had out of class, they took.”
Joshua is a full time student and faces the same problem many other full time students have, which is balancing both school work and regular work. He said he now has a more “flexible schedule at Rent-A-Center”. Needham works about twenty-eight hours a week and is more satisfied with the “friendly management” at his current job.
Though some students may have difficulties juggling both school work and regular work, others are calmer and can find openings in their schedule. Twenty-one year old Collin Reynolds works at Shirley Catering and is also a full time student. “I put about twenty five hours into work a week and twenty five hours of class time and homework a week.”
Reynolds has been working at Shirley Catering for a few years now, and they’ve always been able to work around his class schedule. “I work more weekends than weekdays, so it’s never built up too much stress”.
Other jobs vary in whether they can be stressful or not. Nineteen-year old Matt Ford attends MWCC full time and works about 20-25 hours a week at Shaw’s. “It isn’t that work is hard; it’s just that the amount of time classes and schoolwork take up stops me from working any more than I am.”
According to Ford, supermarkets like Shaw’s hire enough people so that the employers can easily work around a student’s schedule. On the other hand, twenty-year old Rafael Donascimento spends about 25 – 30 hours at Oak Hill Country Club. He worked there for about four years. “I’ve gotten used to the job.” Donascimento’s job has him working afternoons for short shifts, but he still finds time to focus on school.
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