Putting "Studies" First: Student Jobs at Cornell

 by Anna Ravenelle '17

I always knew, coming to Cornell, that I’d have to get a job on-campus; I worked for two years in high school and am paying for tuition on my own. Every little bit counts. My struggle was always that the jobs I found offered too few hours, citing that their reasoning for offering so few as helping me “put my studies first.” I agree, don’t get me wrong: school comes first. But when I worked fifteen to twenty hours in high school… seven hours wasn’t going to cut it. So, in October 2013, the fall of my freshman year, I got a job at the Statler Hotel that offered me sixteen hours a week. Then, this past semester, I added a second job, as a cashier at the Cornell Store. Many people, when I tell them I hold two jobs on campus, look at me aghast. “How do you have time for schoolwork?” they ask. “When do you have time to see friends or join clubs?” they wonder. I now work anywhere from eight to twenty hours in any given week, in addition to a holding a full course load, my roles as an ambassador for the College of Arts & Sciences, an active member of a Greek organization and a weekly contributor to Slope Media’s online magazine. And I still get at least seven hours of sleep every night. The best thing about having a job on campus is that both of my employers are incredibly understanding about putting my role of student first. Both of my places of work allow me to decide exactly when I want to work; I fit in shifts between classes or on weekend mornings when I would be otherwise sleeping in. Having two jobs, among my other commitments, has forced me into better managing my time. Before I got my first campus job in Fall 2013, I had so much free time I would often leave my homework until the night before, doing seventy page readings overnight instead of pacing myself throughout the day/week, and developing overall very bad habits because I knew that I would still, technically, have time to do it later. Because I now have much less time for unimportant things, I have learned to schedule my homework in because if I don’t, I might not have the time for it later. This means that when it takes me less time than anticipated and I have a free hour, I can celebrate with the things I used to (wrongly) prioritize. Having a job on campus, whether for extra spending money or to build up savings to pay tuition, is something that can easily fit into your schedule, like it fit into mine. Since acquiring my two jobs, I have become a more organized person, get my work done in a more timely manner, and have made a lot of great friends through my co-workers at both of these jobs. Whether commiserating through a slow shift or working as a team during a busy one, I can easily say that working on campus has helped me grow both as a person and as a student in my time here at Cornell.