Juggling school and work becomes troublesome for students

STORY BY KAROLINA LESZCZYNSKA

More than 60 per cent of Sheridan students find it stressful going to school and working part time jobs, according to an informal survey conducted by the Sheridan Sun.

The Sun polled 50 students at Sheridan between Sept. 4-6 and found that 27 of them work part time after school.

Second-year cosmetic techniques and management student Natalia Aleksiuk, 19, works part time at Starbucks.

Aleksiuk says that sometimes her job impacts her grades.

“It depends on my work schedule. Sometimes if I have school from eight to three and then work from four to 10, I get very tired,” she says. “That leads to avoiding homework or not paying attention in the morning class.”

The survey also revealed that 74 per cent of unemployed students don’t work because they want to focus on their education.

Aleksiuk has been working at Starbucks since January and works an average of 16 to 23 hours per week.

“What stresses me out the most about working and going to school is near the end of the semester or even midterms,” she says. “You get a lot of assignments and tests and work gets in the way of it sometimes.”

Out of the students who work, 63 per cent felt stressed out managing work and school.

Aleksiuk says she will work less shifts if it gets overwhelming.

“Since I’m in the cosmetics program, I have a lot of photo shoots coming up, which stresses me out because I know it’ll be a lot of planning,” she says. “I’m not sure how I’m going to organize that all with other classes and working on top of that.”

Serena MacLeod, 21, a second year student in the social service worker program, attends school two days a week and has placement three days a week.

MacLeod works part time on weekends as a customer service representative at Canlan Ice Sports hockey arena.

“I love my job, but it’s not my career. I told [my managers] I’ll dedicate myself on weekends but during the week, school and placement is more important to me,” she says.

MacLeod says it’s important to know what your priorities are.

“When I was in first and second year I had three jobs,” she says. “I would half-ass school because I was working all the time.”

Nine students out of the 50 that were surveyed worked during the summer to pay and save up for their expenses.

MacLeod says that time management is key to balancing a busy schedule.

“Time management is a huge thing. I’m getting better with it but I still get stressed out so easily,” she says.

The survey showed 37 per cent of students found it hard to balance work and school.

“School and placement are number one and work is second. You need to realize what is more important and what should you be spending more time on,” MacLeod says. “You’re not a superhero. You have to be realistic about how much time you have to spend on certain things.”

MacLeod advises not to take on too many responsibilities.

“I use to not be realistic and try to take on everything, but you can’t,” she says. “You get burnt out, which I did.”

Sheridan offers time management workshops which can be arranged with a counsellor at the Advisement Centre.