Choate life is, without a doubt, busy and chaotic — students juggle schoolwork, sports, clubs, social lives and (if they’re lucky) sleep. However, some brave souls at Choate have added on an extra layer to the equation: part time jobs.
Cammi Chester ’17 currently works at the take-out counter of Vespucci’s Restaurant in Cheshire. She works year-long, about 25 to 30 hours each week. She leaves for work directly after school, and some nights, even school nights, she does not leave until as late as 11:00 p.m.
Vespucci’s is an Italian family-owned restaurant. According to Chester, “Every day brings a new adventure, from trying to hurdle the language barrier between myself and the other workers to trying to appease angry costumers who weren’t given enough dressing or asked for five slices of cucumbers instead of the four they got — which actually happened.”
But this job experience has also given her a new appreciation for every dollar. She explained, “Being at Choate, surrounded by a lot of people who are pretty well off, it is easy to forget the value of your money. Now I am much more conscious of my spending.”
Chester said she has always loved to keep busy, so she doesn’t mind the extra work. In fact, this is her third job during her time at Choate. She chose to get a part-time job so she could start a college fund for herself and become independent from her parents. Of course, this process has not always been easy. “It can be difficult coming home after a long shift to only then start my homework,” said Chester.
Despite these difficulties, however, Chester feels she has “learned so much more from working and the people I meet there than lessons from books.”
Earlier this year, starting in June, Sofia Esquibies ’17 worked as a receptionist at a music store, named, aptly, “The Music Store,” in Rocky Hill. At this job, Esquibies took care of the customers and dealt with the cashier, took phone calls, and scheduled lessons. She worked primarily on Saturday, for eight hours, although she also did an additional few hours during the school week.
Esquibies recounted, “The craziest thing that happened to me on the job was that a man collecting garbage would regularly enter the store, ask for the most beat up instrument, and try to pay with whatever change he had in his pockets.”
Ultimately, the 30-minute commute between her job and Choate proved too big of a burden, and she decided to take a break from the long hours of driving.
From last June to earlier this month, Rachel Hird ’17 worked as a counter associate at a Bruegger’s Bagels in Hamden. Her responsibilities included making sandwiches, cleaning, and stocking inventory. Unlike Esquibies, Hird had the advantage of living nearby: the Bruegger’s location she worked at was a mere five-minute drive from her house.
At the beginning of the school year, Hird worked up to 14 hours a week: seven hours on Saturday and seven hours on Sunday. However, when the college process started, she could only work one day a week, for six hours.
Hird originally started working to save up for car insurance but continued working to earn some extra spending money. During her time at Choate, Hird has found that it is sometimes hard to keep up monetarily with other students’ lifestyles. She explained, “If friends want to go out to eat or go to town, it’s hard to do if you don’t have spending money.”
Hird learned that drinking coffee on the job can be a surprisingly dangerous activity, demonstrated by an unfortunate incident she experienced. One day, she began getting very light headed and started smelling chemicals. It turns out the reason she was growing ill was because she was drinking from a pot of Bruegger’s coffee in which an employee had left chemical cleaning pouches. Rachel, other employees, and customers had been drinking contaminated coffee for the entire day.
Working at a part-time job while being a full-time student can be equal parts taxing and rewarding, but it seems that these students have managed to strike a balance. For other students interested in working, Chester recommended, “Let your boss know that school comes first; work at a restaurant because that’s where the money is; and no matter what the job is, whether it is scrubbing dishes or cleaning bathrooms, be the best at it, and you will be noticed.”
