No experience required, lots to gain: What summer jobs can teach local teens
As a student office staff worker in Cary Quadrangle, a century-old, sprawling residential complex on Purdue University’s West Lafayette campus, Michaela Hixson is continually steeped in dormitory culture.
Romance blossoming on the graveyard shift. Mysterious snack food deliveries with unknown recipients. Guys in boxers parading out the doors during nighttime fire drills.
And then there was the time a student showed up in the basement simply wrapped in a bath towel. “No shoes, water on him, dripping, and he said, ‘Can I please have the key to my room?!’” Hixson exclaims, laughing.
For the West Lafayette, Indiana, resident, these adventures in collegiate life started long before the SATs were even on her radar. During her sophomore year at Harrison High School, while Hixson was working at a local ice cream shop, her mom shared a summer job opening — no undergraduate experience necessary.
“It was fun for me to see how college worked, to already be in that college environment in high school, dip my toe in for what was to come,” says Hixson, who just completed her sophomore year in Purdue’s College of Science. After beginning as a seasonal employee four years ago, Hixson has expanded to year-round employment, gaining important skills in teamwork, responsibility and time management along the way.
As adults, we may joke about our summers flipping burgers or blowing a whistle at the neighborhood pool. But in truth, these experiences typically offer far more than a paycheck or a bullet point on a college application. As summer heats up in Greater Lafayette, we present a sampling of paid and volunteer opportunities for your favorite teenagers, along with a few of the life lessons that the jobs may impart.
Quarantine life
Homemade fudge, anyone?
For nursing major Allie Roberts (HHS Class of 2023), quarantine life centers around her family’s kitchen.
Growing up in west central Indiana, Allie learned cookie-making from one grandmother and candy-making from another – and watched a lot of YouTube videos and Food Network shows like “Cake Boss” in her formative years.
While living in Earhart Hall for most of her freshman year, Allie says that what she missed most about being away from home was cooking and baking. Now that she’s back with her parents in West Lafayette until she moves to an apartment in August, Allie has returned to kitchen-crafting.
But instead of time-consuming truffles or decorated sugar cookies, she’s focusing on easy recipes she can make during study breaks.
Industrial design students show off makerspace-enabled capstones
On a cool spring evening, as the sun cast waning rays against the pastel-paneled DAAP building, seniors from the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning displayed the culmination of their undergraduate studies at the annual DAAPWorks opening reception.
Upstairs on the sixth floor, amid the myriad of offerings from the Industrial Design program, were nearly a dozen projects produced in part in the 1819 Innovation Hub’s Ground Floor Makerspace. The 12,000-square facility is part prototype and part fabrication — and filled to the brim with capstone projects each year during a four-week frenzy after spring break.
This year, 80 UC students, mainly from DAAP and the College of Engineering and Applied Science, used the makerspace to construct products including bicycle parts, furniture, a chicken coop and tote bags. Read more.
UC’s makerspace to host Maker Evenings, open house
Calling all makers and doers! The University of Cincinnati Ground Floor Makerspace, located in the 1819 Innovation Hub, is hosting a series of events to foster creativity and innovation for the UC community and beyond.
Guests at the Open House and Club Night will be able to:
- Customize their own T-shirt using a heat press
- Laser-cut and assemble a phone stand
- Watch a CNC router in action and take home a small widget
“We’ll also be joined by several student organizations that frequently use the makerspace,” said Lucy Weaver, the facility’s coordinator. “These organizations will be tabling and showing off some of the great work they have made using the makerspace. While these events are targeted at first-year students, we invite all to join us for a night of making.”
The Maker Evenings are a first-time offering for the 12,000-square-foot prototyping and fabrication facility. Including popular programs like the Wood Charcuterie Board Workshop, Stained Glass Workshop and the Sticker Workshop, they’ll be a “great introduction to the makerspace’s capabilities,” Weaver said. Read more.
Hydrangea Studio 