Michelle Swartley photo by Aubrey Bartel
For many students, balancing an on-campus job with their schoolwork can be a challenging task. Junior Michelle Swartley of Cedar Falls, Iowa, is no stranger to balancing school and work. She is holding down four jobs while participating in the honors program and working to graduate in three years.
Swartley, a double major in accounting and economics, works off campus at Shirley’s Gourmet Popcorn Company and the Shannon Theater. On campus, she works as a Becoming a Scholar (BaS) mentor and as a business departmental assistant. Swartley usually works about 15 to 20 hours per week between her jobs at Shirley’s and the Shannon, plus an additional 10 to 12 hours at her on-campus jobs.
Swartley said it’s nice working at the Shannon since she just starts the movie and then has the opportunity to work on homework until it’s over. At Shirley’s, however, she said she is constantly busy coating popcorn and helping customers.
Her on-campus jobs offer a variety of experiences as well.
“At the business department, I just help professors with any project that they need,” Swartley said. “I’ve done PowerPoints, made posters for them to put up on the walls, or completed seating charts for them. The BaS job is just sitting in on class and having meetings with students.”
While Swartley manages this rigorous job schedule, she must also keep up with a challenging academic load. She is taking 16 credit hours this semester, including courses in the honors program.
One of the difficulties Swartley said she experiences is how the honors program courses are held at night.
“A lot of times I’ll find myself leaving the homework until Tuesday night, and then it’s like a week’s worth of homework in one night,” Swartley said. “The coursework seems a little harder than what my friends have in the regular version, but I like that we’re able to have more in-depth discussion compared to their classes as well.”
This busy schedule is not unfamiliar to Swartley, as she spent the summer working roughly 60 total hours a week between three jobs and taking four summer classes.
Swartley said much of her motivation to not fall behind is intrinsic.
“No one’s pushing me to do this, and my parents even are saying, ‘You’re doing too much, you need to cut it back.’ For me, I think if I’m not doing everything, pushing myself to do so much, then I feel like I’m not doing enough,” said Swartley.
Swartley’s motivation is also a result of her goal to graduate in three years. She said visiting different career fairs for internships sparked her excitement and made her realize her desire to get into the career field as soon as possible.
Swartley already has a general accounting internship lined up with Progressive Insurance Company in Cleveland for this coming summer. If that goes well, she said she could see herself sticking to something similar in the future.
“I think I would prefer corporate accounting versus just doing people’s taxes,” Swartley said. “Eventually, I think it would be really cool to open up my own business. The future is always motivating me to want to push myself to get there.”
