Many students around Lane Tech have a job throughout their lives. 

These students work because they want to have work experience and oftentimes out of need.

Some students work closer or farther from Lane Tech than others. Some students work during the school year, particularly on the weekends, and some students work during their school breaks. 

There are students who enjoy doing their job. There are students who currently do not have a job anymore, but have worked in the past. 

The students that have been featured include a Brookfield Zoo worker, an early childhood soccer coach, a groundkeeper for a professional baseball team, and a former worker at a Fleet Feet warehouse. 

Cullen Kader is a junior who works at Brookfield Zoo every day in the summer and weekends. 

Kader said, “[My job] is supportive and education-based.”

However, he said his job does not affect his daily life. 

“I just try to separate my at-home life,” Kader said. “Balancing [my job] isn’t really a problem.”

There is another featured junior who also has a job. The junior’s name is Deniana Clemente, who works as a childhood soccer coach at Little Kicker during the weekends.

Clemente said, “[My job] is really fun ‘cause I work with little kids, so I just have to teach them how to play games, but it’s more than just that. We have to understand ways to communicate with kids when they’re not feeling well, or they don’t feel like playing and just really, it’s a learning experience for me as well, every single day.” 

“It’s good having some financial independence,” she said.

Clemente said she uses a planner, on which she writes down what she is doing, where her things are, and how long she is doing it. She also said, “I always have an allocated time at the end of the day for when I handle emails and work things so that I don’t get too overwhelmed.”

Not only do juniors at Lane have a job, but many seniors also work. Rory Irwin works at Impact Field, maintaining grass and dirt for baseball during the summer at a frequency of two days a week, according to him.

Irwin said, “I don’t work during the school year. I try to put extracurriculars [at school] first. It’s hard to prioritize sleep and all that.”

There is another featured senior who also has a job, but does not currently have one. The senior’s name is Levi Rice, who used to control sales, manage products, and manage inventory in a Fleet Feet warehouse.

He said, “I think I really had a good job experience. It was really a chill job.”

Rice said his job at the Fleet Feet warehouse prepared for his daily life because he got to receive training. He also said it was easy to balance his hours because he worked part time for a very few hours.

Students at Lane Tech generally have jobs that can be enjoyable because they can aim to easily balance their jobs and have limited job schedules (outside of school schedules during the academic year). In addition, they also enjoy having experience from working there as it leaves them prepared for the future.