//PICTURED ABOVE: Arabella Ware works the cash register during her shift at Toy Maven.

With Hockaday’s rigorous academic schedule, it can be challenging for students to participate in extracurriculars like sports and theater. Some Hockadaisies, however, manage to add a part-time job to their to-do lists.

Senior Emily Stephens works two shifts a week at Flower Child in the Preston Royal center. She offers advice to others thinking about getting a job.

“Make sure you work somewhere that makes you happy and excited to go to work,” Stephens said. “I got to a point this summer where I didn’t like having more than one day off at a time because I just wanted to be at work all the time.”

She also says to make sure you can fulfill the time commitment and give 110 percent while you are working so it can show in your work that you are focused and dedicated to what you are doing.

Stephens works about four to six hours each shift, one on Thursday and one on Sunday. Being a server, she takes orders both inside the restaurant and out, brings food to tables and cleans the tables after people finish. When it comes to balancing homework and a job, she makes sure to stay productive during the day.

“I have not had to work a lot during the school year so far, but I am definitely more aware of my workload and trying to be productive during the day so that I do not have to stay up later at night,” Stephens said. “I typically get home from work after 10 p.m. if I work at night so I usually just want to go straight to sleep.”

Another senior, Gabby Evans, gave up some sleep to work as a soccer referee at the YMCA. She has been working since the spring of her sophomore year and said she finds it easy to manage her school assignments and work. Evans takes a four-and-a-half-hour morning shift on Saturdays and chooses one weekday to work an additional hour-and-a-half.

“Before, I slept in on Saturday mornings, so it was not that big of an adjustment for me,” Evans said. “I never really did much homework then anyway.”

Junior Arabella Ware, who has been working at the Toy Maven for a year, usually limits herself to one shift on Sundays, though she helps out on Saturdays as needed. Although she was not looking for a job when she first started working, she loved it so much that she decided to stay.

Ware helps people find toys, organizes the store, checks people out at the register, prices things and sometimes takes up little projects like making a PowerPoint to train new employees. Ware got the idea to work there through a family friend and Hockaday mom Candice Williams, who owns the store.

“My parents forced me to get a job, but it was so fun that I decided to work there during the school year,” Ware said. “I get a lot of real-life experiences like dealing with the customers and I think I learn a lot. I like to work not just because it’s fun but it gives me a sense of purpose.”

Story by Julia Donovan 

Photo provided by Annie Herring