Don’t be afraid of on-campus jobs

Home Opinion Don’t be afraid of on-campus jobs

When I came to Hillsdale, I didn’t intend to have any on-campus jobs. I planned on doing school from August to May and then focusing on work in the summers. I upheld this philosophy throughout my freshman year, and remember fondly long, dark, cold fall and winter evenings spent in my tiny room in Olds, studying under a little desk lamp that was able to light almost the entire room. I don’t regret not getting more “involved” in campus life that year, and don’t remember being particularly overwhelmed by the struggles of balancing work, activities, social life, and school.

What I did with my time was study and make friends, and it was beautiful. I had plenty of time to think about the ideas I was learning about in American Heritage or Constitution or Great Books, and managed to have those typical conversations every Hillsdale freshman should have about Locke, Homer, Aristotle, consent of the governed, and so forth without much procrastination.

But I ended up with two on-campus jobs (George Washington Fellowship Program research and the Writing Center), and I am currently spending a semester on WHIP doing an editing and publications internship. Especially after I arrived in DC, I have asked myself, “How did this happen? Why did you end up here? Where did those wonderful days when you were just a student go?”

This is how it happened: On a whim, I decided to apply for GW as a freshman because I enjoyed Associate Professor of Politics Kevin Portteus’s Constitution class and wanted to study more political philosophy and American constitutional history. My sister advised me to do so because she thought more extracurricular activities would reinforce my studies.

She was right, though I’m still not a practically-minded person. My mind is far more full of poetry than useful skills, and I remain that stereotypical English major who doesn’t want to spend too much time thinking about life after graduation. Nonetheless, my jobs have been an excellent complement to my academic pursuits.

With GW research, I have been able to write and edit summaries of great books recommended by professors, as well as transcribe and proofread documents for the document volumes of the official Winston Churchill biography. These pursuits have helped me discover how much I enjoy editing. I try to put into practice many of the things I have learned about being a careful, thoughtful reader in my English classes. In the Writing Center, I have enjoyed helping fellow students think through their arguments in their papers and ask questions of their own writing. It also has been an excellent opportunity to extend what I have learned in my English classes.

Regardless of your major or exactly how your on-campus job might apply to it, it’s very useful to work an on-campus job. It obviously enables you to save money or pay for part of your way through college. It can teach you how to apply what you are learning in your academic classes in a slightly different way. It can get you thinking about what kind of job you might like to have in the future, so you don’t graduate and go into a job that you don’t really know that you like simply because you can’t think of anything else to do.

So I’d like to tell underclassman to realize that your grand plans for college may take an unexpected turn. Be willing to let your “vision” for your college experience change. Maybe that means working less and making sure your studies aren’t subordinate to your other activities. Maybe it means thinking about how to productively spend a couple of hours each week doing something outside the classroom that will enable you to be a better student when in the classroom.

Don’t be worried if you haven’t found an on-campus job yet. I wouldn’t recommend working your freshman year, if possible. (I realize there may be monetary concerns that preclude this option.) Settle into being a college student. Try not to overcommit, and spend time thinking deeply and making deep friendships. Think about what job you’d like to have, and then stick to it.

If you’re interested in WHIP, recognize the costs of spending a semester away from campus. Embrace being a student, since your time in college is brief and very valuable. Ultimately, know that balancing the practical and the ideal, the desire to have a job and the desire to learn, will always be a difficult task for the student of the liberal arts.