Part-Time profit

How Northview students earn money and progress careers outside of school

Design by Ansh Vigh, Ian Sands, and Ana Michel

Ansh Vigh, Sports Editor, Ian Sands, Photography Editor & Ana Michel, Staff Writer

Most students at Northview High School would tell you that academics are the biggest worry for them. Overloading extracurriculars and doing every possible activity to secure college admission has become the norm. One avenue that some students neglect is part-time jobs. They view them as strictly separate from academics, but nowadays the line is blurred. Jobs are extremely beneficial to all of us. Students use jobs and internships as a way to both earn money and get hands-on experience in engaging fields.

Business internships allow high school students to gain real-world experience while preparing for future academic career opportunities. These internships often provide an opportunity to develop workplace skills and explore career interests. Senior Tanvi Bhat interns at a company called Flex AI, where she balances schoolwork with responsibilities at the company. 

"I help them with their marketing and sales, and I learn about all their different products. I've also written blogs for them. And also, I write reports based on AI and their consumer insights for all of their different products." Bhat said. 

This internship typically lasts a few weekdays while working a few hours a day. She receives instructions during 10 to 15-minute-long phone calls with her supervisor, and then works on her tasks. 

Bhat also explained how the internship has shifted her interests and helped her with her future career plans.

"I think it's changed my interest in tech and business because it's sort of like a combination of both.  It's also helped me gain experience in both of the fields," Bhat said.

On the other hand, political internships are another huge opportunity that students take advantage of. It enables them to work side by side with political figures and learn the ins and outs of the field through hands-on experience with a professional. One student who is in a political internship is junior, Aishvarya Prahalad. She interns for Rep. Michelle Au and gains valuable experience in more ways than one.

“There's two parts to it. One is a campaign internship, and the other part is legislative… we write postcards, host meet and greets, and go to her town halls to get people to know who she is and what her platform is. Once she was elected, the legislative internship is just going down to the Capitol, taking notes on legislation, and attending committee meetings.” Prahalad said.

The internship is a huge time commitment, but it provides her with a valuable opportunity to make an impact on the field of politics. It doesn't just help her in the short term, though; the hands-on approach also trains her for her future.

“I think learning more about the legislative process, and being able to actually go down to the Capitol and talk to voters, strengthens my skills in that field, which I think would help me when applying to college,” Prahalad said.

For Prahalad, the internship isn't solely about politics; it's also about learning skills in public speaking and persuasion. These are skills that she thinks everyone can benefit from.

“I think even if you don't think you want to go into politics, being able to talk to people is a really good skill; you have to be really persuasive to talk to them about their concerns and tell them to come out and vote. So I think that kind of exposure is really good for everyone,” Prahalad said.

Internships aren’t the only path Northview students take. Part-time jobs remain a staple for many, teaching lessons that are less about theory and more about practical, everyday skills. Junior Mason McConnell has plenty of experience with these part-time jobs, having worked four in the past: a Korean barbecue restaurant, a small family-owned market called Kim's Market, Jet’s Pizza, and now Chipotle.

“I’ve gotten better with people, and I understand how these businesses work and how they function. So I can tell you how restaurants work, how owners come in and do their jobs,” McConnell said.

Unlike internships, which are often flexible, part-time jobs can take a heavier toll on students’ schedules, as the student themselves cannot pick their schedule; they must adhere to what the company gives them and adapt to it. 

“It does get kind of tricky sometimes when your shifts are long, and then you have to deal with that after a day of school. You can’t split it up into like one or two-hour sections, you know, like you can with other things,” McConnell said. “So in a way that kind of hurts the balance, but overall it really isn’t bad as long as you don’t work too much.”

Still, McConnell explained that the value of part-time work is actually in the growth it helped him achieve, not only in his career or school life, but also in his personality and habits.

“You have to make sure to always leave a good impression to the people that you work around. So make sure to get to work on time and do your job to help others do theirs.” McConnell said.

Beyond building responsibility, time management, and communication skills, McConnell says his experiences have shaped his vision for the future.

“[A]s I’ve watched businesses run, it’s kind of inspired me to go into business management and run my own,” McConnell said.

For other students, a part-time job or an internship might feel constricting or binding. For them, independence is more essential, and they find passion within it much more. This is represented by senior entrepreneur Tyson Fung, who went this route with his fashion business. He now not only controls his own schedule and payment, but he also learns independence and skills that last a lifetime.

"If you're working under someone else's time schedule or anything like that, you're not gonna feel free. 
So when I do my business, even though I'm technically not free, I feel free because I can choose my times, I choose my hours, and that's just like the best part about it," Fung said.

Fung started his fashion business because of his dislike for the "normal" route to success. He wanted to find an alternative to what he saw online and what everyone else was doing.

"I really just want to find something that can scale me to financial freedom without having to find a college or another education and get a nine-to-five and get a job," Fung said.

His clothes caught traction after appearing on Streamer University, an event hosted by Kai Cenat, on Twitch for beginning social media influencers to gain traction.

"I had my clothes worn at Streamer University,  and it was a very, it was like a viral clip of them pouring milk on Rakai. So it's pretty cool. Also, Belu is also wearing my clothes a lot, actually. One clip I have of him wearing is in Blackboy Max's Stream," Fung said.

Part-time profit can be hard to keep up with at times, but students are willing to take the effort to gain skills that can be helpful for their future. By balancing their lives between schoolwork, responsibilities, studies, and spending, these experiences help prepare them for their future endeavors in their lives.