Personal Narrative: Deangelis Iron Work, Inc.

dealing with both school and work and balancing paying for bills and even rent. By having the

appealing, so like most of my peers I chose college thinking it couldn’t be much

Next, teenagers are constantly running here and there, trying to keep up with their schedules. From school, church activities, work, sports, friends, family, and any other sort of time consuming plans, they’re exhausted. A study done in 2014 showed that over 22% of high school students work a part-time job. They’ve also seen that working more than 15-20 hours per week, can affect their academic performance. Plus teenagers

Over the past twenty-five years, college costs have accumulatively risen four-hundred percent. The percent of parents who contribute to their child’s student debt has dropped from thirty-seven percent to twenty-seven percent, compared to three years ago. Due to the lack of aid, most students have to try to balance a job and school at the same time resulting in eighty-five percent of college students working at least twenty hours a week. It has also been noted that students who work twenty hours or more a week while attending classes at the same time are less likely to graduate due to the high stress environment. Sixty-two percent of college students who drop out were responsible for their own college education. Even when students drop out, thirty percent are still faced with college debt, creating a loophole impossible to recover

Working while attending college has been a norm for me. I held part time employment, up to 30 hours a week, while attending the automotive technology program full time. Since joining the Army the number of hours I work have increased. Currently I work between 50-70 hours a week, which has forced me to cut back on the frequency and number of courses I can take. Basically, I try to synchronize my school

Djuan formulates clear, concise ideals when working collaboratively with his fellow peers. Djuan has worked hard in my class and he has always demonstrated a respectful demeanor as well. In addition, Djuan’s enthusiasm for learning and concern for his academic performance have always been a priority for him while he has been in my

Working Full time and a young man’s social life, limited my time for college and also took away from my focus on schoolwork.

Laurence Steinberg discusses in his essay “Part-Time Employment Undermines Students’ Commitment to School” that students who have a part-time job do not do as well in school as other students. Working twenty or more hour shifts per week can interfere with a students grades and accomplishments in school. Steinberg states, “That the key issue is not whether a student works but how much time he or she devotes to the job”(472). I work a minimum of twenty-five hours a week making and that makes it difficult to complete my homework or study because I come home very tired and drained from my job.

Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2012). Digest of Education Statistics, 2011 (NCES 2012-001), Chapter 3. Web. Date Accessed 2/7/2014 https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=76). Many students are forced to work full time to support themselves, or their family. This could lead to an inability to balance all of the duties of work, home, and school, which often results in students dropping out. Some students are forced to utilize student loans. Students who work part time, and go to school full time may not be able to afford the cost of living on their own. If they do not have familial support to assist with this, they often have to turn to student loans to make up the difference. This results in many students acquiring a massive amount of debt prior to graduating, if they even graduate. Many students concerned with the amount of student loan debt already acquired, either place school on hold, or drop out permanently for fear of acquiring any more debt, and not being able to pay it back.

Academic obligations are not the only responsibilities for American high school students. One of the responsibilities that many students have is a job. The unemployment rate for teenagers is a mere 9.1 percent. The reasons why students work wildly vary. For some, it’s to earn

According to Lupien, McEwan, Gunnar, and Heim (2009), going off to college involves significant adjustments to their daily routines; sleeping and eating habits, time-management skills, and stress levels will be altered in one way or another. First-year students have to adjust to the new school environment, different social settings, and new schedules, all without the help and guidance from their parents, who have been there for them for eighteen years. Over 30% of college freshman report that they feel overwhelmed (Klainberg, Ewing, & Ryan, 2010), where some students even opt to work as they juggle their class and work schedules. Some students work at a job or study harder than others, but they are all trying to get degrees so maybe one day they will have meaningful and significant lives. It is a constant struggle for everyone who is trying desperately to make him or herself into a success. And every college student wants to be involved in society in a positive manner, allowing contribution of their ideals and values to others.

     Balancing your lifestyle while in college is very difficult because if you have a lot on your plate like children or other important responsibilities it’s hard to balance them all and attend college. I think this has a lot to do with time management because when making a schedule you have to put your family or other responsibilities in that schedule and make time for everything. Some people work full time and go to school full time and if you have a lot of things to deal with you will burn out from the stress that such a pace imposes on your mind and body. If you work less and eliminate some things than you will have more time while in college.

When you are in high school, you are usually working a part time job at minimum wage. You are working maybe 15-20 hours a week. But, now that you are an adult you are probably working 40 hours a week or more to try to support your family. You would have to make sure that your work schedule does not interfere with your school schedule. If your schedules do conflict then you would have to find a way to resolve the issue. Maybe work a little less and take night classes. You would also need to cut back on how much overtime you work, which would cut into your family’s weekly or bi-weekly income. Not to mention, you would also need to insure that you had enough time to complete tasks, such as projects and homework, outside of school. To insure this, you would have to set aside a time early in the mornings, before you go to work, to work on your

Waking up everyday at 6 am trying to make it to school on time. Stressing trying to do the work

The first cause of students dropping out of college is due to the fact that they are unable to balance their work and school together. A questionnaire was completed by 42 first- and second-year students from a single degree program at the end of Semester 2. Findings - Within this group, 83 per cent of students worked at some point during term-time of their degree program. In total 58 per cent of those students who worked did so to either cover or contribute to basic costs of living. While the majority of students felt they could balance work and study, half of all students questioned felt that working could have a negative impact on their degree classification (Working to live). Even full-time