Nearly a month into second semester, students around the school have settled back into the long school weeks at Parker. High school students have a fair amount of homework each night that they have to balance with their lives outside of school. For some, this includes working a job.

Lilly Bravo, a senior at Parker, works after school hours as a research administrator for author Elliot Fineman who is writing a book on how to better gun ownership legislation to help lower gun violence rates. She works two to three times a week for roughly four to five hours a shift after school, usually Tuesday through Thursday.

Bravo spends her working hours checking Fineman’s email, writing checks, and researching various articles about gun violence around the United States. Articles such as those about the weakened legislation for gun ownership are mostly what Bravo looks for.

“When articles are found that benefit the book,” Bravo said, “I have to index it into a compiled selection of folders in his office.”

Bravo’s work load varies. “It depends on the day,” Bravo said. “Obviously there are some days where the homework load is really heavy, and so is my workload when I get to work,” Bravo said. “I do get home pretty late because I live far.”

Bravo only works weekdays as of now, but she is going to start working on weekends in the future. Bravo said, “This job has truly taught me the importance of self efficiency, organization, and shockingly, how to write checks and balance a checkbook.”

Nailah Thimote, a senior at Parker, has been working as a hostess and cashier at Nando’s Peri-Peri in Hyde Park since August of this school year.

In addition to being a hostess and cashier, Thimote works other jobs around the restaurant. “I’ve worked as a runner–a person who packs take out orders and gives it to the customers,” Thimote said. “That’s pretty much it.”

Thimote’s hours during the week are 6-9 on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, and 5:30-9 on Thursday nights. “The way they work their schedule is you tell them your availability,” Thimote said, “and from there they work around your schedule.”

As a senior, her workload first semester was not that heavy. Unlike Bravo, her job didn’t interfere with school work that much. Thimote actually prefers to get homework done after work.

“I found that when I was coming home from work at night, most of the time I had a lot of energy,” Thimote said. “I would get my best work done after work. I was tired for school in the morning, but I could get through the day just fine.”

Unlike Bravo and Thimote, senior Alex Chapman has not worked any weekday jobs recently. He works at a basketball program at DePaul, run by Fred’s Camp, which is a family run summer day camp as at well as a basketball association during the winter. The program is for four to eight year olds, and he coached a team there. “It’s on Saturday morning,” Chapman said. “I get there at eight, leave around noon,” Chapman said. “It’s been a good time.”

Chapman has worked weekday jobs in the past. “My freshman and sophomore year I would help out at my travel baseball program,” Chapman said. “I was an assistant with the younger kids, again eight year olds.”

This job, unlike his current one, interfered with his homework schedule. “Practices were at seven o’clock,” Chapman said. “So I started my homework pretty late since it’s far away.”

Upper School Dean of Student Life Christian Bielizna knows what it’s like to be a student with a job because he had various jobs throughout his adolescence. He worked a paper route for five years, did farmwork, worked in the manufacturing industry, and he did whatever else he could to get by. “It was just needing the money,” Bielizna said. “And whatever extra could go towards college.”

Bielizna is a strong believer in having a job to keep you busy and to learn the lessons needed for the world outside of school. Beliezna sends out a number of summer opportunity emails to get students doing something in the summers, whether it’s an internship with a company or academic classes offered at Stanford.

“Ultimately, it’s important for students to be doing something,” Bielizna said. “The time of sitting on the couch and playing Xbox all summer is not time well spent. It’s that balance of recharging your batteries, getting ready for whatever’s coming up in September.”

Another upperclassman, junior Simran Jain, has been working at A New Leaf, a flower shop on Wells Street since 5th grade. “At first I worked in back, helping to prep the flowers,” Jain said. “I learned a lot about design and business, and once I got older I was able to work in front and design and make bouquets. With making bouquets, I also had to go on deliveries.”

Jain works during the 2-8 hours on the weekends during the school year, but she works 20 hours a week and on weekdays during the summer. “My boss is pretty flexible,” Jain said. “I set my hours every Sunday.”

Bielizna learned to work with different managers and bosses throughout his job experiences, and he stresses that you have to be able to do what you’re told. “Having a job is the beginning of independence,” Bielizna said. “It is learning all those kinds of lessons. “Engagement, either with an internship opportunity or with civic engagement, or working for the dollar, are all important and valuable experiences.”