Nursing

Junior Liliah Henderson works as a Certified Nursing Assistant in geriatrics, assisting elderly people under Bridge Haven Assisted Living.

“I give basic care,” Henderson said. “Bathe them, feed them… basically, [I] provide them anything they need to be successful in their everyday life.”

To find her job, Henderson browsed the Internet and social media, checked newspapers, and consulted her AVID teacher, Wayne Long, who informs students of upcoming job fairs.During her interview, Henderson said was nervous but confident in her abilities, as she had completed her CNA training in March 2015 at Neosho County Community College.

“They don’t typically hire anyone at my age, 16. I was like, ‘Okay, you know, I’ll give it a try. I’m probably not going to get the job.’ But after I got it, I felt great.”

To get a job as a CNA, Henderson said, employees need strong social skills along with the knowledge they have from their certification classes.

“Communication skills [are a necessity]… teamwork, too,” she said. “And you have to be very patient [and] understanding [of] what someone else is going through. ”

Although being a CNA is typically a demanding job, Henderson is able to balance it with school.

“[My hours] don’t [conflict with school],” she said. “Typically it will be an eight-hour work day, but my boss is very flexible with the hours.”

Lifeguard

Junior Noah Kucza works as a  lifeguards at the pool in Eudora during the summer.

He had a connection to the job from an old coach.

“I knew the old manager from the swim team I did,” he said.

Kuzca usues his training from swimming for his job. He also has to be focused to ensure people are following pool rules.

“A lot of the time you’ll just be sitting there, surveying the pool and seeing if anything’s going to happen,” he said. “It’s a lot of anticipation… You don’t know what’s going to happen. You can go all summer and never have to get in the water because you’re never on watch when a kid goes under or somebody hurts themselves. But if you’re not watching for just thirty seconds, you could miss somebody drowning.”

Kuzca works at the poor during the summer, and when the pool is closed during the school year he has a second job at a hardware store.

The job worked on an odd schedule, he said. The pool scheduled two sessions of swim lessons in June and July respectively, and has A and B shifts for lifeguards to be on duty, from one to four P.M. and four to seven P.M. Kuzca worked the second session.

“It was really weird, working my day around one shift, he said. “But it was also a really nice first job, because there wasn’t a lot of management pressure. There was just more public pressure, because you’re having to watch their children’s lives.”

Kucza said his jobs are a good opportunity to make his own money, though sometimes he feels it’s difficult to spend time applying himself to something he doesn’t find as fun as spending time with his friends.

“It’s hard, when you know your friends are out there, having fun, and that you can’t participate because you have to go stand somewhere for a few hours,” Kucza said. “It doesn’t seem as fun, but in the long run, I think it’s worth it.

Grocery

Junior Storm Auchenbach works at Dillon’s on Mass Street. He heard about the job from a friend of his that worked there.

“I was like, ‘Alright, I’ll go apply there,’” Auchenbach said. “I was pretty nervous, to be honest. [The interviewer] was super nice to me, and I… shouldn’t have been nervous, at all, because she was really cool.”

Auchenbach does a laundry list of tasks while he is on the clock, including bagging groceries, checking people out at the register, retrieving shopping carts from the parking lot and cleaning.

“I’m like a custodian and a cashier at the same time,” he said.

Auchenbach said that communication and friendliness are key in doing well in service work.

“Communication [is important] because sometimes you’re just standing there, bagging, so you’re the one that’s supposed to be talking to them,” Auchenbach said. “And you have to be lifting things… if they need help with their groceries, you have to help them out.”

There are few conflicts between school and work for Achenbach, unless he’s scheduled past his regular ending time of 8 p. m..

“That doesn’t usually happen at all,” Auchenbach said. “It’s only happened, like, once or twice.”

Though it gets busy sometimes at Dillon’s, Auchenbach likes his job.

“[Business] makes the time go by faster,” he said.

Retail

Junior Le’Asa Woods works at Famous Footwear, taking care of customer service and the checkout desk.

“My best friend at the time worked there and she told me to apply,” Woods said. “A lot of the time, I’ll get tasks like unboxing shoes and putting them away, but most of the time I do customer service… I work the register, too.”

Besides being able to use the register and understand how to organize shoes on the shelves, Woods has to be able to put her communication skills in the forefront and her memory is tested regularly, she said.

“You have to have a lot of patience to do it… [and] you have to have good memorization,” Woods said. “It’s hard figuring everything out, like discounts and working the register.”

Woods said she has had issues with scheduling her hours to work with school but she said things have slowed down and now works only ten to twelve hours a week.

“It gets hectic around back-to-school time and during the summer,” Woods said. “But I like it a lot.”