Palmer Ridge students constantly excel in all areas. Whether it’s academics, sports, or any other extracurricular activities, our student body knows how to give their all.

A common situation that a lot of students are put in is employment. While it can be easy to get caught up in the grades and the football games, students with jobs are often just as busy if not more than the Valedictorian or the captain of the football team.

A survey was sent out to all Palmer Ridge students and there were 105 responses with almost an even distribution across all grades. The questions asked to students were as follows…
Are you employed?
If so, what do you work in?
When did you start working?
Why did you choose to get a job?
How often do you work?

While the majority of students do not have a job, the margins were close. 43%, or 46 students, replied that they were currently employed. What is interesting, however, is that 74% of the students were not employed plan on getting a job sometime in the near future.

Unsurprisingly, most students who are employed work in the food service industry. From working at McDonald’s to washing dishes in the back, the amount of jobs in food is endless, even in such a small town like Monument.

Senior, Corrina Eckberg, works at Top Golf serving food to groups of families and friends who want to enjoy a nice golfing session. “[My favorite part of the job] is all the friends I have made there.”

Eckberg began working at Top Golf in the past year and has accumulated quite the hour log. “At first, it was really hard balancing a forty hour work week and being a full time student…” she said. However, the rewarding pay and the friends made make it that much easier for Eckberg.

Even the hiring process was enjoyable for Eckberg, “…They made their hiring process seem really fun. They did a group interview, so we played games together. It was basically a social experiment to see if you’re good with other people.”

Evidently, getting a job as a high schooler really is not as intimidating as it may seem. While Eckberg was able to have fun while doing it, Liana Miller (10) got her job by walking into a Smoothie King one day in search of a job.

After an open interview, Miller was able to start making smoothies for customers at Smoothie King. “It is a pretty low-stress job,” she says, “Some parts get stressful, but it is a good first job.”

Initially, Miller says that she got a job to buy a car and, like Eckberg, she also enjoys working with her fellow co-workers, as “everybody there is a high schooler. So, everybody is really close friends. So, it is not like I am working,” she said. Miller works 8 to 11 hours a week, typically on the weekends. And, if you were wondering, after trying almost every one on the menu, her favorite smoothie is the banana berry treat.

Miller also adds that balancing a job and student life is “typically stressful”. But, her managers “are really good about if I need time off, then they give that to me. They want me to put school first. It’s easy because they help me balance it.”

However, there was also a great proportion of students who did not work in the food service. In fact, 26% of students employed responded that they work in other services such as babysitting, tutoring, or yard work.

While it may seem as though most students get a job in their later years of high school, Rhian Wiltz (9) is only a Freshman, but has jumped on the opportunity to tutor little kids as a job. Wiltz teaches kids as young as , how to read and do math at a tutoring center in Colorado Springs. “It is hard, but it is also something that I love to do and my job is somewhere I can get away and help kids who need it,” said Wiltz.

Ultimately, the being a student with a job here at Palmer Ridge is quite the admirable feat. Not only is balancing school work and social life challenging, adding a job on top of that cannot be easy. But, if anyone could do it, it is not surprising that it is us Palmer Ridge students.