When the 3:30 dismissal bell rings, Magnet students’ workload is far from over. Hours of homework, grueling afternoon practices, and long afternoon shifts await the student body. The past two weeks I have delved into the minds of these busy bees, inquiring about their part time professional careers. The results? Shocking. (More like mildly entertaining, but still.) Buckle your seat belts to learn about Magnet’s student employees, and the inner workings of their work adventures. 

I started the interviews with a question for the employees in the Food and Bev industry, which is my home turf. I asked “what is your favorite dish served at your place of work?” Shay Seim, who is employed at the established Slightly North of Broad restaurant, reported his favorite dish was the shrimp and grits. If any of you guys are able to get a reservation for SNOB, 1) please tell me how you did it 2) make sure to take Shay’s suggestion. Star employee of Emoji Poké Inés Carillo shared that her favorite poké bowl was the tuna one. I was able to visit Inés at her place of work, and observe the careful craft of poké bowl making. I highly recommend Emoji Poké for fine dining, as the bowl Inés made for me was absolutely delicious. I thought it was only fitting to ask Inés what her favorite emoji was too, and she decided on the cat with heart eyes 😻.  Eliana Collier noted her favorite item from Trader Joes was the ice cream cookie sandwiches. I had to applaud Elliana’s fine taste in ice cream sandwiches, as the cookie ones are simply the best.

Next, I inquired about their favorite coworkers. Who helps you pass the time? Do you breathe a sigh of relief when you see their name on the schedule? Mitchell O’Dell named his cousin Andrew O’Dell as his favorite. I then inquired if he felt like he had to say that, because he was his cousin. He denied, saying that Andrew is “cool” and “knows the ropes.” If there’s anyone that I trust to run Half Moon Outfitters, it’d definitely be the O’Dells. Life guard Sarah Burnette named fellow raptor Carolyn Selvidge as her favorite coworker. “We’ve been friends for a while,” Burnette says. Eliana said her favorite coworker is Lesley, because she’s “nice, funny, and helpful. She also answers my questions.” Eliana also told me she had just started working at Trader Joes, and I think we can all agree that having a coworker that doesn’t mind answering all of your questions when you’re new is a lifesaver! When I asked Garrett Ziegler, who is an attendant at Sweet Water Pools, he told me his favorite coworker was Alex Levin. Upon further inquiry, it was uncovered that Levin is not actually employed at Sweet Water Pools. “Sometimes I do Garrett’s job, even though I don’t work there” says Levin.

For our third question, I asked what kind of activities you do when it’s slow. Responsible employees Eliana and Mitchell said they go help their coworkers. For our more relatable interviewees, Inés reported that Emoji Poké is “always slow” and she passes the time by “watching Tiktok, reading, and pretending to do homework.” Sarah Burnette says she “steals snacks and swims,” which sounds like the most enjoyable pass time out of them all. She named Fat Boy ice cream sandwiches as her favorite snack to nab from the snack bar, which I had to agree is the second best type of ice cream sandwich. Shay Seim answered succinctly with a one word answer, “talk.” A bit ironic because he did not elaborate. Garrett Ziegler answered that he “is supposed to clean the pool.” I would guess that the keywords in this answer are “supposed to.”

When I was curating my interview questions, I tried to make the prompts something that would evoke a variety of answers. For this question, I dropped the ball because not a single soul has admitted to crying at work. Shay, Mitchell, and Sarah replied with a simple “no,” though they all had to think about their answer before they said it. Alex Levin reported that Garrett “looks sad sometimes, but has not cried.” I would guess that Ziegler has not cried due to the help and support of his coworkers. Eliana said “not yet,” but I was picking up a slightly ominous tone. Though Inés did deny crying at work, she warned me to “stay tuned” for her shift tonight.

Finally, I opened up the interview to any interesting stories my employees had for me. Content warning: for those who have not recovered from “Pottygate” as Mrs Hurt calls it, just skip the next three stories. Ziegler started us off with a description of how someone apparently took a dump in the pool, and he had watched someone clean it up. Nice. Mitchell told me a story that hit close to home for the Magnet Community. He described how on his second day working, the toilets stopped working and overflowed, which gave me flashbacks to the Porta Potty Incident of 2021. Shay also had a story regarding the bathrooms at his place of work. “We used to have a co-ed bathroom at SNOB, and there was always water on the floor from people washing their hands. But we had multiple women complain because they thought men were peeing on the floor,” as stated by Seim. “We changed it to a women’s bathroom, and haven’t had that problem since.” I thought it was so interesting that the women of SNOB just automatically assumed there was pee on the floor instead of water. My favorite story was from Sarah Burnette, who told me about a reported felon. Apparently the felon has a “no trespass” at the pool, but keeps making reappearances. I wondered aloud if he was possibly a friendly felon, but Burnette assured me he was not.

Well Raptors, thats the word on the birds (creds to Nola for that phrase!) Hope you enjoyed hearing the after school adventures of our hardworking student employees.  I wish these students the best of luck for their next year of balancing Magnet workload and employment, because it is no easy feat. The next time you see these hardworking students in the hall, please give them a round of applause for their dedication and jump start to a professional career. 👏🏼👏🏼