When I first arrived at Oberlin College I was a bit hesitant to get an on-campus job. I didn’t know what the course load would look like, and I was a two-sport athlete. Between football practice and economics classes, I felt like I didn’t have time for a job with a strict schedule. With that said, I always found myself writing poetry and short stories on my cell phone and notebooks in my free time. By the end of the year, I had written enough for a short book, so I put it all together and self-published it on Amazon. Needless to say, I had and still have a passion for writing. The combination of my need for time flexibility and passion for writing is what led me to apply to be a blogger for Oberlin. Three years later I am so happy I sent in that application. Being a blogger has allowed me to capture my experience at Oberlin and give it to the world. At first, I wondered how many people actually paid attention to the blogs, but then a year after I first started blogging I met a few of the incoming students and they randomly brought up that they read my blogs while they were applying to Oberlin. That was a really cool moment for me and it made me happy to know that my words really could make a small contribution to people making the decision to come to such an amazing place.
After becoming more comfortable with the workload that comes with being a student-athlete I decided to apply to be a residential assistant. I wanted to be a residential assistant as I hoped to contribute to building a family-like atmosphere on campus. After going through the interview process I excitedly found out that I got an offer to be an RA while at home on break from school. Two years later, being an RA has been a tremendously rewarding experience for me. It has put me in a position to meet and interact with many people. These interactions have brought me many new friends and I always learn something new when meeting someone. Just last week my hallmates and I held a toaster strudel breakfast which allowed us to come together as a group after a long week of midterms. The energy in the room was so uplifting as we laughed over orange juice and strudels. Oberlin is a place where the students become family, so it was amazing to eat breakfast with my family after a long week.
The last job I work at Oberlin is the one that I was most recently hired for. I am a writing associate in the writing center. I decided to pursue this job as I felt it would be a good opportunity to better my writing skills through peer-to-peer learning. My job consists of tutoring students with their writing and working with them on papers they are assigned. In order to work this job I also have to take a class that covers how to tutor and teach rhetoric to students. Between the class and working with the students on a day-to-day basis, I have learned a tremendous amount about writing. One thing I find really special about the class is that we operate on a contract grading system. This allows us to explore assignments creatively instead of formulaically coming up with answers to projects and essays we are assigned. Recently I wrote an entire essay in prose form which was a fun experience that I felt really allowed me to express myself as a writer. My experience as a writing associate so far has definitely improved my writing and I can’t wait to see what I learn next as the semester continues.
While at first I was hesitant to get a job due to time constraints, the more time that went by the more it became clear to me that Oberlin is a place where there is something that fits everyone. My college experience has been amazing, and the jobs I have had on campus have been a big part of that. Between contributing to the family-like atmosphere that exists on campus, helping students with their writing while simultaneously learning from them, and painting pictures with my words on the Oberlin blogs, my jobs on campus have been a rewarding experience that has allowed me to grow as an individual through learning from others!
