The Student News Site of Marshfield High School

The Marshfield Times

The Student News Site of Marshfield High School

The Marshfield Times

The Student News Site of Marshfield High School

The Marshfield Times

Marshfield students balance work and school

Students help prepare for future careers and keep themselves financially stable while juggling school, extracurricular activities and a social life. Some work only on weekends, while others have after-school jobs.

Noshua

By Beau Hunter & Jacob Klein | Collaborative Reporters

Getting experience.

Helping support the family.

Saving for college.

Buying gas.

MHS students work for a variety of reasons and must learn how to juggle the demands of their job and school.

Sophomore Taylor Mauer is employed at Allegany Windows and Doors where she learns many responsibilities and has adjusted to balancing the duties of work and students. She said she is fortunate to have a schedule that allows her to still get her school work completed on time.

“I work good hours and my work doesn’t interfere with my schooling,” Mauer said.

Mauer works on weekends which allows her to find some time to study. 

Although working students like Mauer have been lucky to obtain a schedule allowing them time to deal with their academics. Some like senior Noshua Setzer, who works at the North Bend McDonalds, have dealt with different situations in their family and work as many hours as they can. Setzer has managed to find time to cram his assignments in while still working almost 40 hours a week.

“It is monumentally difficult,” Setzer said. “I still manage to get it done for the most part.”

Setzer was faced with getting a job at the end of last school year when his parents moved to South Carolina and he stayed behind, often sleeping on a friend’s couch because he had no other place to stay. Since then his parents have moved back and the three of them now live with his grandmother. Setzer has continued working, and now helps support his family. He explained it is tough becuase he is one of the few who work in his family.

“My mother, uncle [who also lives with his grandmother], and I are the only ones who have jobs right now, and I’ve had a job longer than all of them,” Setzer said.

Setzer has set aside his difficulties and said he has continued to work hard in his classes to get farther in life.

While some students find jobs to help their current funding situation, others want to prepare for future careers.

                Mauer is happy to have a job that will help her earn money and provide a starting point for her employment history.  

“It will help me go onto other jobs with more experience,” Mauer said. “I’m saving for college and to pay for gas when I get my license.”

Though some students easily find jobs, like Setzer, others struggled in finding a job. Senior Kirsten Woolsey, who now works at Coos Bay Fred Meyers, spent three months seeking a job before finally being hired at the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year.

Woolsey has organized her school schedule to benefit her and the hours she works at her job. She is taking online classes to graduate early and is on track to do so.

“I have found it challenging to cram all the online classes I need to graduate and then adding a job on top of it,” Woolsey said.

In addition to earning money, Woolsey has found her job has had other benefits as well.

“Having a job definitely helped me grow up and have a big responsibility,” Woolsey said.

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Marshfield students balance work and school