The average tuition cost for a four-year private college is $32,617. College students find ways to decrease their fees through the help of getting a job.
However, as tuition costs continue to rise, students are left with no choice but to begin to get more hours out of their job. With the increase of job hours, school work and family time can create quite a stressful time for college students.
Park University freshman Olivia Gallo currently has three different jobs this semester. This black-haired, teal-eyed student with glasses, who is a Kearney, Mo., native, drives her silver Volvo S60 all around the Kansas City metro area to her jobs, school or home.
Her first job is being a server and hostess at Texas Roadhouse in Liberty, Mo.
Gallo’s second job is at Altar’d State in Zona Rosa in Kansas City, Mo., as a sales associate. Her third job is at the Kearney First Baptist Church where she watches children who attend on Sundays.
“It’s very crazy,” Gallo says. “All throughout my life I had a really busy schedule even in high school I had always been very busy with all of the things I’ve been in.”
During the summer months before school started, Gallo spent her summer doing nothing and being lazy while at night she went to work at Roadhouse. Gallo knew when the school year started her life was going to be completely different compared to her summer.
“I knew I was going to have a busy psycho lifestyle and it was going to start up again,” Gallo says.
Gallo’s average week she attends classes on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays and then attends work. On Tuesdays she works and Thursdays are her only days off from school or work.
When Gallo is not going to school or work, she tries to make time to hang out with her friends. Most of Gallo’s friends are older than her and work with her. Gallo also has friends at Park but says it is hard for her to hang out with them since she commutes so far away. She also does make time with her parents if she has the time to do so but due to her parents schedule she hardly ever sees them.
“I rather hang out with my friends sometimes because there is just a lot more understanding about it,” Gallo says. “Not that I respect my parents and hear what they say but after a while I want to be my own independent person.”
After her freshman year at Park, Gallo plans on transferring to Missouri State University where she will major in Musical Theatrical performance. Gallo says she loves doing the performances and she has done them ever since she was in high school. When she transfers to Missouri State, Gallo said she will quit her job at Altar’d State while transfer to work at the Texas Road House in Springfield, Mo.
Being in musical theater major, your life is already psycho,” Gallo says. “It’s like a sport. You have rehearsal then you have your game day which is like your performance.
While Gallo may have hectic lifestyle, she thinks she has done a good job with balancing her school and her job. She has maintained A’s in all her classes. Gallo also says she thinks other students should experience what this type of lifestyle does for them too.
“I recommend people to learn how to balance a crazy lifestyle,” Gallo says.
“Have a job and go to school so that way you know how to do it. Don’t always take the easy way out because in life you’re going to get obstacles thrown at you and you have to learn how to handle them.”
