I had part time employment throughout high school and learned a lot from it - mostly in terms of intangible, how-to-live-your-life kind of skills. Do any other boarding school families encourage their youngsters to take a summer job rather than, say, go on a school sponsored trip to Europe?
And do any boarding schools offer some kind of work study? What about those school “Ambassadors” who give tours of the school to interested families. Do they get paid, if not, what is the incentive for give up a part of their day to give tours?
Work study used to be common. Now, most boarding schools no longer have work study, in part because they don’t want to call attention to students on FA. That said, many schools have work programs for all students (typically unpaid).
The Ambassadors do it for love of school and as an EC.
Many BS families that I know encourage their kids to have a summer job. As for work study, only one BS that we looked into required kids on FA to have a part-time job on campus, and I didn’t like that, for the reasons that @skieurope mentioned.
At George School, EVERY student must have a job on campus for the full 4 years. It’s part of supporting the community. Reasons as noted above. (And there are enough jobs that kids tend to find jobs that they genuinely like, which is also a good life lesson!)
Exeter is pretty similar to Choate, so anyone can apply for a job and get paid relatively more than minimum wage depending on where you work. You can have as many jobs as you like as long as it’s in compliance with New Hampshire laws for working minors.
FWIW sometimes “Ambassadors” do get paid when working alumni events or other special events that demand coming back to campus during breaks or summer. It depends on your school. But this is not the same as work-study.
Students at Andover are required to do some type of “work duty” whether it is cleaning up the chemistry labs or giving tours to prospective students. My work duty this year was to give tours, and I found it really enjoyable because it reminded myself of how much I love the school. We have a seven period schedule where one is reserved for lunch, and one for a free period if you have a five-course load. I used my free period to fill my work duty for the year.
Although it is a non-paying job here, day students and local boarders ARE PAID if they volunteer to come on campus during breaks (ex. Thanksgiving, summer) to give tours. I think they have to be at least 16, and are given minimum wage.
Nevertheless, it’s a popular duty among our students
Hi @WorkingMan : it’s all unpaid. All freshmen work in the dining hall. (Some kids like that enough to stay on in later years.) Some work in the barn, some do laundry for sports teams, some help with gardening/landscaping, some clean classrooms and labs, some do set-ups for orchestra, some give tours. I don’t know what all the options are but I know my kid actually LIKED (!!) all his jobs.
Personally, I appreciated that kids had a chance to find that thete could be joy in work. Plus, it’s set up so that it’s another way to connect with other students.
A couple of schools we looked at had paying internships for upperclassmen. One had to apply.
My kid isn’t getting FA and will be working this Summer. Nothing like a Summer job for kids to learn life lessons and save some money to buy stuff I won’t.
While there is no formal work study, there are some schools where students get paid for working at the call center for the development office, as well as setting up events at the school’s student activities center. However, these are positions that students must seek out. Freshman year students might be required to work at the dining hall for a semester as a way of giving back to the community, transforming into an unpaid right of passage. Student ambassadors or tour guides are unpaid positions that students choose to participate in for a variety of reasons, including the impact that their own tour had on them and their love of the institution.
Personally, I have found that a part-time job along with juggling academics and extracurriculars is difficult for boarding students simply because most do not have the time or the resources to be able to work at a local cafe, and because there is not an abundance of jobs of campus. That being said, I have found that most boarding students use their summers to work at cafes or their local country club, have unpaid internships, or volunteer their time at some community based organization, all of which provides work experience.
I don’t know how a boarding school kid would have the time for a job during the school day. The schools I’m familiar with have classes 6 days a week; classes run from 8:30 am to 3 PM, then there’s mandatory athletics from 3:30-5:30, dinner, then study hall from 8-10 and lights out at 11. 5:30-8 is when there are extracurriculars like debate or various clubs. The schools intentionally keep students busy!
That said, a summer job is an excellent thing. My sons have worked on a farm making hay. Hard work indeed!
Our son worked junior and senior year as a lifeguard on campus. PEA has a class where he was certified as a lifeguard as part of a PE elective. He worked early mornings and weekends at the pool as well as taught swim lessons for kids. They managed his schedule and ensured it didn’t interfere with academic commitments. He then went on to lifeguard summers at the beach since he had experience/ was certified.
