Students at Work

Students at Work: An Audio Visual Slideshow

IOWA CITY– After a night spent with the employees at Bob’s Your Uncle, a local restaurant here in Iowa City, it was surprising to learn how many students are paying for maybe not all, but at least some, of their bills.

I talked to multiple students who were working at Bob’s Your Uncle and discussed their average weekly hours of work per week and also what types of bills they were responsible for paying. Their responses varied as far as hours and also bills. However, of all of the students interviewed, they all worked at least ten hours per week and were responsible for at least one bill.

Jake Swearengen, a sophomore at Kirkwood and a delivery driver at Bob’s Your Uncle, works an above average amount per week.

“I work about 30 hours per week, which allows me to pay for my phone, my insurance, and my rent,” said Swearengen.

“I work about 20 hours per week and I pay my utilities, car insurance, phone bill, and my rent,” said Bethany Schlagel, a junior at the University of Iowa.

20 hours seemed to be about the average hours worked per week among those that I talked to.

“I work about 20-25 hours per week,” said Ashley Edwards, a senior at UI. “I don’t have to pay rent or utilities, but I do pay for everything else.”

Emily Slach is fortunate to have two sisters also enrolled at the university, so her parents purchased a house for the three girls.

“I work about 15 hours per week and am fortunate enough to only have to pay for utilities,” she said.

Trevor Roling is experiencing the cost of living his first year in Iowa City, and also the cost of being a delivery driver.

“I work about 22 hours per week so that I can pay for utilities, rent, as gas for my car,” he said

These employees are all full-time college students on top of working an average of 20 hours a week. It can be tough for them to balance everything that they have on their plate, but somehow each one of them make it work.

In the Words of the Boy Who Never Grew Up…

I never actually thought Peter Pan‘s life philosophy would resonate with me so much.

I wish I could never grow up. If only Neverland were a real place. Being a grown-up is not all the glitz and glamour I’d imagined as a child. I have never realized this more than at this stage of my life. I feel like I’m constantly being weighed down by bills, bills, bills. Life was so much easier when you lived at home and didn’t have to worry about any bills, that was your parents responsibility.

The most painful realization I’ve recently come to: the worst is yet to come. When I fully enter the real world (no, I wouldn’t exactly say I’m in it 100% yet), I’ll have school loans to pay back, health insurance, car insurance, cell phone bills, rent, the list goes on and on.

Here’s my most recent fantasy: staying in college forever.

However, that’s not realistic and soon I’ll be a real-life grown-up. Which means that while the bills stack up now, someday soon there will be many more, so I might as well enjoy it while it lasts!