Sophomore Isaiah Pullian watches a boys basketball game and simultaneously mans the scoreboard for his after school job. Photo by Katherine Huang
Jobs provide valuable experiences, income for high school students
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School is ending. Summer is coming. The 626 Night Market, beach trips, shopping—everything costs money. Your allowance, birthday, or New Year’s money may all be spent by now. There may only be one option remaining— get a job. There are a variety of jobs for teenagers such as being a tutor, scorekeeper, or working at McDonald’s.
“For my job, I work in an elementary school after school,” senior Alice Ly said. “I help the kids with their homework, and when they are done, we just go over some vocabulary or math.”
Normally, the application process for jobs can be quite intimidating and causes some people to back out. But that was not the case for Ly.
“I [also] used to go to this program, and the boss knew me since I was a kid, so she offered me the job,” Ly said. “The first day we worked, it was just a preview of how we are going to do and she was reviewing how I was helping the kids and the kids seemed fine.”
For those who are in sports and would like to partake in a job involving your sport, scorekeeping for tournaments for youth programs is a possibility, as sophomore Isaiah Pullian did. Pullian makes about $13-15 an hour; $140 per day that he works on average.
“[Being a scorekeeper] is more convenient for me since I’m a basketball player and I know the game,” Pullian said. “I’ve been playing basketball since fifth grade and it’s something I usually do. If you want to be good at scorekeeping you’re probably going to need to know how to play the game so you don’t mess up in the actual job.”
Similar to Ly, Pullian got his job through San Gabriel’s basketball coach, who knew the owners of the gym and tournaments that he worked at.
“I work wherever there’s a tournament,” Pullian said. “There could be tournaments at any school; it varies in location. I do tournaments for different youth ages. It could be 16, 17— sometimes 15—but mostly high schoolers.”
If you do not have connections for a job, do not stress. Senior Adrian Kobayashi earned his job at McDonald’s on his own, with a wage of $11 an hour. Although Kobayashi has experience with Key Club and other programs, within the 10-11 months he has been working at his first job at McDonald’s, he has learned valuable lessons.
“I learned how to be a lot nicer to people when the time is right,” Kobayashi said. “But people are really mean. There are a lot of rude people around and you just need to learn how to deal with it. Stay in control and not yell back. It’s important to stay nice to customers.”
There are many ways to earn money, but for some, a steady job might be the best option. A combination of dependability and work ethic-building makes it the perfect summer activity.
