Work Work Work

HJ goes to a “work” college which means that every single student works in some capacity on campus a minimum of 15 hours per week. First semester she was assigned to the campus safety crew. They worked out of an office and were available by phone or handheld radio for potential campus emergencies or basic situation. As a brand new freshman and a new student to the area I was surprised to find out that she often drove fellow students off campus into the surrounding area to various appointments and such in a school van. She even once drove a student into a neighboring county for an appointment.

Overall I expected that this would have been a great job for her, not that any particular aspect of the job suited her but because most often there wasn’t anything pressing in their office and so there was a lot of time available to the student workers for school work and study. Boy did I turn out to be wrong!

Second semester she had some sort of hubbub with her crew boss and she was able to get onto a different work crew. She got onto the landscaping crew. At her groovy eco conscious school this is a very popular crew and hard to get onto. Being part of that crew has impacted her college experience like I could not believe a job could. She is outdoors every day working a physical job in the open air. She loves her job! She now loves her school and her community and she feels truly a part of it. It has turned out to be a life saver for her. She had really been struggling with not feeling part of the community even in to second semester and was really contemplating a transfer. I am so happy for her that this work crew has welcomed her in such a specific way and that she has learned from being a part of it.

When she got home this weekend she said that she really wasn’t quite ready to come home and that some of her work crew actually stay on a work contract over the summer. I teased her that she could be on the landscape crew here at home no problem and no contract required! (I am in dire need!! Weeds weeds everywhere!!)

She said that she understands now that helping maintain something and working on building something with others invests you in it. It builds community something that we are all looking for. She says she will gladly be on the landscape crew here at home! We’ll see how it fleshes out – and I only have her for a few days before she heads north to go fishing. I’ll work her while I can though!