What it's like to work in college

What should I major in? Where should I go to church? Who should I date? Of the many questions college students face, this article explores one: Should I get a job in college? 

“I was worried at first about the time commitment because I had so many extracurriculars already with soccer, orchestra, and club commitments on campus,” junior Gwen Eschen said. Last year she worked 25 hours a week, among four jobs: Custodian for PHC, secretary for her dad’s company, P.E. teacher, and cello teacher.

The workload students take on varies, but many students like Eschen work on or off campus, and they find that it helps to take their mind off school or improve time management.

“Jobs are good for us,” junior Isaac Bedrosian said. “It helps balance our learning and apply what we’re learning to our lives.” For example, when he worked in youth ministry at his church during the school year, he applied what he learned in PHC’s Theology classes to teaching and serving the kids. “Whatever the job is, it’s an opportunity to shine the light of Christ to the world,” he said.

Currently, Bedrosian works for Grounds and Campus Safety at PHC, as well as for GamePoint Athletics, a company that provides after-school sports for public schools and P.E. for homeschoolers. “Maintaining a good work-life balance means that you’re able to realize what is the higher priority,” he said. Sometimes that priority is school and other times it’s work, especially in the case of ministry. 

“You can’t do schoolwork all the time, and working on campus was a way that I could be productive but not be doing mental work,” junior Isaiah Gonzales said. He specifically chose to work in PHC’s Dining Hall and Grounds for physical activity. Staying dedicated to a physical job also helps him be more diligent with mental work.

“The biggest challenge was knowing what was too much work and what was the right amount of work, and also saying no to people,” Gonzales said. In his first semester, he started working 24 hours a week in the dining hall, quickly realizing that was too much and cutting his hours in half. Gonzales learned that even though he was in class for only a few hours a week, he had underestimated the amount of time he would need for homework. “One of the biggest things I learned was respecting my time as well as others',” he said. 

Balancing work with other responsibilities is also a challenge for junior Luke Seykora, who works 12 hours a week on the Grounds crew. "I prioritize time for my academics and my friends/wing instead of working and the Lord has blessed that," he said. During the past three summers, he has worked full-time on Grounds or at Chick-fil-A. "While I love the hustle and bustle of the school year, summer PHC is my favorite and allows me to reset and realign myself with the Lord and where I am at," he said. He has also enjoyed participating in PHC's Strategic Intelligence Teen Camp as a guard during the summers. 

In addition to Grounds, Custodial, Dining Hall, Campus Safety, and Teen Camps, campus jobs include working in the Mailroom, the Library, the Bookstore, the Study Support Center, and the I.T. Help Desk, as well as for Maintenance, Events, Admissions, and Communications. Common off-campus jobs include working at the nearby Chick-fil-A, tutoring, and babysitting.

Off-campus jobs tend to pay more, but PHC jobs provide a lot more flexibility. Also, as Gonzales said, “The great part about working on campus is you can leave for work 5 minutes before you’re supposed to be there, and as long as you’re dressed properly, you’ll make it from any point on campus.”

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  Patrick Henry College exists to glorify God by challenging the status quo in higher education, lifting high both faith and reason within a rigorous academic environment; thereby preserving for posterity the ideals behind the "noble experiment in ordered liberty" that is the foundation of America.