By: Sarah Yi — Editor-in-Chief

In addition to their academic commitments, many Sharon High School students work part-time jobs outside of school. 

Students work to gain valuable work experience, which will be carried over into their future. Due to Covid, many local stores were hiring high school students as they aren’t as vulnerable to the virus. 

“I chose to work at Ward’s because I grew up going there all the time and my cousins worked there too,” said junior Emma Botelho. Botelho currently works at Ward’s Berry Farm about two to three times a week. 

She says she hasn’t found working to impact her schoolwork in a negative way. “Except sometimes when I have long shifts, I don’t have a ton of time to complete my work,” Botelho added. 

Junior Venya Gupta says she currently works at Crescent Ridge. During the summer she worked three to five times a week, but now during the school year, she only works once a week. 

Gupta says she saw they were hiring and she was bored during quarantine. “I always wanted to work there because I loved going there when I was a kid,” she said. 

“I’ve learned how to work with others when they are unsatisfied as well as always being able to stay on my toes,” said Botelho. She says this will definitely help her in the future when adapting to new places and getting along with others.

“I think it helped with my confidence and taught me how to deal with or talk to strangers, which I really didn’t like to do before,” said Gupta. She says she didn’t like talking to strangers before because it made her anxious. 

“Once I got this job, I talked to so many different people that I got used to it and realized there was nothing to be anxious about,” added Gupta. She says this job definitely helped her learn how to deal with difficult customers and being polite and professional. 

Junior Sydney Forster works at Pizza Market at Heights Plaza. “My schedule is usually four days a week for eighteen hours total,” said Forster.

“I usually work at a camp during the summer, but because it wasn’t open this year, I wanted to find somewhere else to work,” Forster added. She says she knew she wanted to work locally and wasn’t very interested in having to get trained too intensely so “being a cashier seemed relatively simple and easy to adjust to.”

Forster doesn’t find work impacting her schoolwork. “The only struggles I can sometimes face are dealing with a busy work weekend and having to accomplish many assignments, but I try to manage my time and it has worked relatively well this school year,” she said. 

Gupta also says working there during the school year hasn’t impacted her school work because of the decrease in hours. 

“I meet a lot of people working a restaurant, and not everyone is easy to work with or understand,” said Forster. She says spending time at this job has taught her how to deal with many different people and handle conflicts among them. 

“I definitely think that all of the lessons I learned about social skills, conflict resolution, and communication will be helpful to use at any future job,” she said.

image from study.com