At Jesuit High School Sacramento, students with paid jobs are few and far between. However, the part-time workers are some of the most hardworking students on campus, choosing to accept the challenge of balancing school, work, and extracurriculars. 

Grant Houle ’20 works at Leatherby’s Family Creamery on weekends. His weekday schedule is pretty clear due to his shifts, but weekend assignments and projects can be a hassle if not dealt with early in the week. 

Despite his commitments, Grant still manages to be the president of the Art of Being a Gentleman and Seek Discomfort clubs along with being a runner on the track team and taking four AP classes. While he values his job, Grant still believes that his academics are more important. 

“School is much more important than work,” Grant said. “The jobs we hold in high school will not sustain us in adult life, for the most part. The main reason I have a job is to save for college tuition, gas money, and to earn a little spending money.”

Another diligent student is Clayton Townsend ’20 who works at Save Mart. His combined shifts add up to 16-20 hours of work on the weekends and from 4 to 8 p.m. after school. Along with his job, homework, and commitment to the track team, he is only able to scrape up six hours of sleep on an average school night. Even though it isn’t a part of school, Clayton still appreciates his job as a valuable learning experience rather than a stable source of financial income. 

“School is more important than my job since there’s always time for work, but I do think that working at a young age does teach you some important lessons on how to manage your money and how life works in general,” Clayton said.

 There is no doubt that having a job outside of school is challenging. Students sacrifice sleep and free time among other things in order to maintain both their work and school lives. However, the financial gain and worldly experience is valuable enough to some tenacious souls for them to take on such a task.