Spartan Daily

Juggling work and school leaves little time for a social life

campuswork2 Freshman health science major Gurpreet Ishpuniani works at the organic Grounded bistro and coffee shop in the Boccardo Business Complex plaza. As a vegetarian, she enjoys serving the all-organic and healthy menu. Ishpuniani took the job for experience and some extra pocket money. Grounded was started by health science major Melissa Newman, who proposed the idea to Spartan Shops. Photo by Jasper Rubenstein / Spartan Daily

campuswork1 Freshman health science major Gurpreet Ishpuniani works at the organic Grounded bistro and coffee shop in the Boccardo Business Complex plaza. As a vegetarian, she enjoys serving the all-organic and healthy menu. Ishpuniani took the job for experience and some extra pocket money. Grounded was started by health science major Melissa Newman, who proposed the idea to Spartan Shops. Photo by Jasper Rubenstein / Spartan Daily

For Natasha Mendoza, working part time and going to school full time means she has more money to put toward school-related expenses, but it also means she rarely has time for herself.

"I have no social life," she said.

Mendoza, a senior English major, lives on campus during the week, but commutes an hour and a half to Carmel so she can work over the weekends before returning to school late every Sunday night.

Wiggsy Sivertsen, a faculty member for Counseling Services at SJSU, said Counseling Services estimates that about 30 percent of students on campus are working at least 30 hours per week.

Sivertsen said usually students who work in the evenings run into problems in their personal lives.

"These students have money and gain experience, but don't have full time to commit to school," she said.

Mendoza said she feels like she misses out on a lot of things by having to work so much.

According to Sivertsen, when students have to work and go to school it splits their time, which makes it harder on them.

Mendoza said her biggest challenge is time management and nine times out of 10 it is extremely difficult for her to get all of her school work done.

"I used to work full time and go to school full time, but decided to cut back on my hours this semester because I needed to graduate," she said.

Most of her money from work goes to paying for room and board, gas and books, Mendoza said.

Andrew Soliz, a senior communication studies major, works as a lead peer adviser in SJSU's Career Center — he was working about 20 hours a week, but recently had to cut his hours back.

"I was missing out on hanging out with friends because I was spending nights and weekends doing homework," Soliz said.

The biggest challenge is time management, he said.

"Sometimes when I have big projects to work on for classes I need to call in sick," Soliz said. "I miss the money, but my education comes first."

Amy Leisenring, an assistant professor of sociology, conducted interviews in 2008 and 2009 with 37 full-time undergraduate students at SJSU who work more than 25 hours per week while going to school.

She has also distributed surveys on campus to understand the effect of budget cuts on students' school and work experiences.

Leisenring stated in an email that the point of the study was to better understand the experiences of these students and examine how they balance work and school.

"First-generation college students, working-class students and/or students from underrepresented racial minority groups face particular challenges since they are less likely to receive financial support from their families and thus are more likely to work for pay," she stated.

According to Leisenring, preliminary analysis of her data revealed that more students work for pay at San Jose State than in comparably sized institutions and that many of these students are working a large number of hours per week.

"For example, 83 percent of students from underrepresented racial minority groups that I surveyed reported working more than 15 hours per week and 69 percent reported working more than 25 hours per week," she stated.

Eric Rudisill, a junior political science major, also has to balance his time between school and work.

Rudisill said he works at Best Buy about 20 to 25 hours a week and carries 12 units.

"If I wasn't working I would be able to take more classes," he said.

Rudisill said he spends most of the money that he makes on books, transportation and other expenses, and it can be difficult to meet classmates when group projects are assigned and juggle a work schedule.

"For final exams I had to request time off from work ahead of time," he said. "If your schedule becomes too strict you won't get as many hours."

Mendoza said she has to plan ahead and prioritize assignments.

"I have pulled at least two weeks of all-nighters this semester, which is a lot for me," she said. "I don't know how I do it."