Ok here is part two of this past Monday’s free-write. More about my grad school years and beyond in the future.
In college I was granted work study money, I want to say to the tune of $1,800/semester or something and I was determined earn to each every dollar. Weeks into my freshman year I got a work study job working in the Associate Dean of Liberal Arts office for about 10/hr week. My workstation was in a fishbowl of an office space, but I was facing a busy hallway and often got to see friends (or crushes) and people watch. Again I loved this job and kept it for quite a while. My favorite task was signing the Associate Dean’s name on letters to admitted students, I perfected my Jean Blue signature, it was beautiful, although to my disappointment nothing like her real one. I actually still doodle her name from time to time! While working for the Associate Dean I sometimes covered the admin’s desk upstairs over lunch. She was the admin of a few Liberal Arts departments and her desk was stationed in a hallway full of professors from Political Science, Languages, Theatre. I loved working upstairs, the professors were great and this workstation had a COMPUTER. That meant I could get paid to play Snood and talk on AOL Instant Messenger. I ended up working 15-20/hours a week in the College of Liberal Arts through my Sophomore year.
Then prior to my Junior year I met the new Campus Fitness Center Director and we hit it off, I think I gave her a tour of campus or something. I ended up picking up a work study shift at the Rec Center at the front desk for about 8/hours a week which meant I needed to cut back my Liberal Arts hours because I was only allowed to work my work study job for 20 hours/week. Then by October of my Junior year I got selected as a mid-year replacement for a Resident Assistant position which meant I needed to cut back on work study hours yet again since as an RA we were only allowed work 10/hours a week outside of work. I ended up keeping the Fitness Center job, again I loved the people watching and opportunity to be social with other employees.
My senior year I returned as a RA, but I wasn’t granted work study money because of being an RA which gave me free room and board (valued at $10K/year). I think my Financial Aid packaged changed the year before, but because I was a mid-year hire I was still able to have a small amount of work study dollars which I spread across the rest of fall and then spring when I was at the Rec Center or maybe the Rec Center paid me wages as opposed to work study? As a college administrator now myself, I know more about there different budget lines then I did when I was a student. The free room and board as an RA was great (thank you ~$20K of loans I didn’t have to take out), but I needed spending money so the summer before Senior year I went to the ol’ Career Center and looked through the “babysitting book.” I ended up babysitting for a family with little boy who was 9 months old at the time 2x a week from 9am-2pm in their beautiful home about 20 minutes from campus. Again, I loved this job. The family was great, I adored the little boy, they always had great food in the fridge, and there was a drive through Dunkin’ Donuts right by their house. I always grabbed a iced coffee prior to getting there and sipped it all day. Plus I was getting paid CASH.
If you think I couldn’t squeeze anymore college years employment in think again. My first two college summers I supplemented my income by doing office work at both my Dad and Aunt’s offices. Lots of filing, mailing, opening mail and copying. The real game changer was the 4 summers working for the new student Orientation office at my undergrad. 2 of the summers were short stints as just a volunteer Orientation Leader, but the other 2 summers had me working all summer as an Orientation Intern with the extra perk of free on campus housing all summer too. I started my last summer intern year the day after I graduated from college and worked until I had to leave for grad school.
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