Shuree Kurtz, present waitress,
future travel writer.
One young man works part time as the man-
ager of his apartment building and part time
as a Wal-Mart clerk. Another puts together
website info for The Caddis Fly fishing shop.
One young woman, a few weeks into the
term, quits her job as a telemarketer, just in
time for her freezer to break down, ruining
nearly $100 worth of groceries. According to
UO Career Center Director Larry Smith, the
number of students overall at the UO who
work during the academic school year fluc-
tuates between 40 and 70 percent “depending
on the survey and the point in time.”
where a freelance writer comes in to guest
speak about the work involved in pitching
successful query letters and the effort it takes
to build self-sufficiency as a writer, I ask the
students for feedback on the presentation.
Ryan offers, “Well, I don’t know. With all it
takes to free-lance, I kind of wonder if I
shouldn’t just apply to law school.”
For now, Ryan is sticking with writing
and has decided to apply for a part-time job
during school as an academic tutor. It will be
his first effort at trying to work during the
school year. Over the course of an average
‘I’ve applied for numerous
jobs, too many to count. …’
– Ashlin Salisbury
Work It!
Jobs through student life and beyond.
By Bobbie Willis
A
year ago I got lucky and landed a great
gig teaching writing at the university.
Sixteen students, a 10-week term. First day
of the term, even before I am struck by their
youth, I am struck by their attention, their
aye-aye-captain attitude for what lies ahead
in the term. They take notes with sharp pen-
cils and fresh fine-point Uniball pens in note-
books that are crisp and smooth as new
linens. It surprises me that this eagerness,
though it wavers during fifth-week midterms
and sputters a bit before finals, stays pretty
much intact throughout our time together.
These young people manage to balance
impressive academic loads with part-time
jobs, active (I suspect sometimes overly
active) social lives, club or volunteer work,
and even occasionally partners and children.
They seem focused on the here and now, the
things to be learned right this moment. What
to do with all this learning, however, still
remains a little fuzzy.
Work and jobs are constant themes for the
students. Given an economy that feels less
sympathetic than usual toward writerly
types, the question of how to make a future
living comes up again and again. But work
and jobs also play a role for many of these
students through their college years. All told,
I have 48 students over the three-term school
year. At least one-third of them work during
the school year to help pay for their educa-
tion, or to earn the mad money that subsi-
dizes the social life part of their education.
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I find that there are no dramatic differ-
ences in class schedule conflicts or deadline
problems between these working students
and their job-free classmates. Says Smith,
“Obviously so much depends on the individ-
ual student, but there are studies that show
that working while in college, your grades go
up. You get more efficient at your studying;
you get better at managing your time, using
it effectively. There are students who are
working 40 hours a week, taking a full aca-
demic load and have a family.” I have one or
two of these individuals during the year, and
I have to agree with Smith when he says, “I
mean, those are stars in their own way, to be
able to manage all of that.” In terms of how
such a busy schedule might adversely affect
a student’s grades, which may not look so hot
to prospective employers, Smith explains,
“Yeah, they may lament, ‘Gee, I wish my
grades had been a little bit better. But let me
tell you what I was doing.’ And the student’s
job, of course, is to communicate that to
employers, who may worry about things like
GPA.”
I start each term by talking a little about
jobs, dream jobs in particular. “What’s your
dream job?” I ask them. “Travel writer,” says
one. “Sports writer,” replies another.
“Teaching,” says yet another. One girl falters
a little, opens and closes here mouth once,
then twice, shakes her head, smiles and says,
“I have no idea. I just have no idea.” A cou-
ple of students look at her then look at me. I
nod, “Great,” I say. “No problem. There’s
plenty of time to figure it all out, plenty of
time to put the bigger picture together.” All
of them, even the would-be travel writer,
sports writer and teacher, seem relieved.
R
yan Earley, a student in the Honors
College, is tall of height and broad of
shoulders, with a shock of dark hair over an
imposing brow and blue eyes. After a class
year, his expenses are: zero for tuition,
thanks to a scholarship he receives (resident
tuition and fees run about $4,875; interna-
tional students pay $16,416, according to the
UO Financial Aid website); $600 for books;
$3,800 for rent; $2,500 for groceries; $800
for gas and transportation; $1,800 for car
insurance; $400 for broadband Internet serv-
ice; and $1,000 for general spending. (He
does say, however, general spending money
“fluctuates depending mostly on how much
money there is in the bank account to begin
with … and whether or not I have a girlfriend
at the time — what can I say, I’m a fool for
the ladies.”)
Ryan covers his expenses with the schol-
arship, summer jobs, and an occasional
financial pitch-in from his folks. About the
summer jobs, Ryan says, “I have worked ter-
rible temp jobs every summer since I started
college. They are easy to find and ask no
commitment of you, but are always mindless
and occasionally hurt. This summer, I have
packed soy cheese, unloaded semi trailers
full of dishes, folded T-shirts, scanned inven-
tory for Nordstrom, put away and picked
stock for various warehouses and worked on
an assembly line that manufactured keyless
entry devices.” As for the income, he says, “I
have saved nearly all of it, but the work has
been less than steady and the paychecks have
tended to be small.”
M
aybe two-thirds of the students in my
classes know what they want to do
after graduation, but even they seem to have
only a vague idea of how to get from where
they are in school to where they want to be
when they get out of school. “There’s an
internship coordinator right in this building,”
I say. “Do you know about her? Have you
been to the career center?” They stare at me
a little blankly, a polite, collective stare that
yawns and says, “Huh, you don’t say?”
cd release party & performance by
(the concubot)
FRIDAY, OCT. 3 • 4PM
R O BO T C AR NI VA L
AT CD GAME EXCHANGE
WILLAMETTE & 11TH
FREE PRIZES • GAMES • PEGASUS PIZZA
special appearance by Billy D.
also live @ john henry’s
344-7900 • 11th & Chambers • Eugene
FRIDAY, OCT.3 • 10PM
OCTOBER 2, 2003 13