Students turning 16 have many opportunities, and one of the most notable being that they are now eligible to work. While some embrace this opportunity, others opt out of the choice to take on the responsibility of a job.

While many students enjoy having a job, others find that taking on more work than they can handle causes unnecessary stress that negatively impacts their school lives.

“Grades are a key indicator,” said counselor Mrs. Julian. “ If your grades start to drop because of your involvement, a job or extracurricular activity, or athletics, it’s something to re-think or assess.”

Juggling involvement and grades is one of the reasons many students opt out of a job. Wilke Macariola, sophomore, who will be eligible to get a job when he turns sixteen this year, shares why he won’t be applying for a job come his birthday.

“I am not thinking about getting a job at the moment because currently my grades are a little iffy,” said Macariola. “I have lots of activities I’m participating in at the moment.”

While many students have the same outlook on work as Macariola, others have learned ways to asses the time that is necessary to both work, maintain good grades, and find many positives to being employed. It seems the key to whether or not students take on a high school job is balance.

“They have to have a good balance,” said Julian. “You can’t be working 40 hours a week and going to school. You become too over involved, and that could happen with anything I think.”

If this balance is found students could thrive in the new experiences of employment. Jobs have the ability teach lessons that aren’t directly taught in class, and many benefit from a work environment.  

“Jobs are good for learning practical skills and responsibility. They are a really cool change from learning in class because you don’t realize you learned something until the next day.” said junior Erin Stone, who works at Courageous Bakery. “I am completely in love with my job and my coworkers are great. So, I’m really lucky!”

In the end, whether you find a work schedule that works for you or you decide to not take on a job, what matters most is that you’re learning skills in high school you can apply to all aspects of life.

“Working with co-workers, learning respect, understanding, and having an employer or boss to report to every day is an important thing to learn,” said Julian. “This is all accountability, which you’re learning in school, just in a different way.”