By Camille Cox | Staff Writer
According to Baylor Student Employment, a job can help a student improve their experience, social life, flexibility, independence and money. Student employment includes on-campus jobs, community service and graduate assistant positions.
Salado sophomore Eli Pittman works for Baylor Athletics — both football and basketball — on its media teams.
“For the football team, I am a student media specialist; I create graphic designs for recruiting and social media, and I also do photography as well on game days and during practices,” Pittman said. “For basketball, I am a player content specialist, so I take photos for the players and coaches in practice and during the games.”
Pittman began working for the Baylor Athletics media team his senior year of high school, and he carried on his work after becoming a Baylor student.
“The football and basketball coaches messaged me on social media — Twitter — during my second semester of senior year of high school,” Pittman said. “I’ve always loved sports, so it’s always what I’ve wanted to do. And they presented me with that opportunity early on, so it was a pretty easy choice working with the great athletic department we have here.”
Southlake sophomore Izzy Trevino worked as a class checker her freshman year while living on campus.
“I would go to athletes’ classes and make sure they were in class on time and let their academic advisers know if they were or were not in class,” Trevino said.
While Trevino no longer holds an on-campus job, she said she appreciated the location and flexibility her freshman year.
“The job was really convenient with my schedule, and I could walk to it from my dorm,” Trevino said. “The hours were super flexible around my classes, which is rare for another type of job.”
Dallas senior Harper Taylor works in the Student Involvement Center, which is part of the Student Activities Department.
“We are the direct link between students and student activities, so some of our basic jobs are approving and denying events, approving and printing flyers, renting out materials for students to use in their events and also getting students involved who are looking for an organization that would best fit them,” Taylor said.
Taylor began working her student job on campus her junior year, finding a balance between academics and workload early on to sustain her schedule.
“Right now, I’m lucky that my course load isn’t super hard, but my junior year, when I had a much harder course load, I also worked 16 to 17 hours, and it’s a lot,” Taylor said. “You have to learn how to balance your study time and your time with your friends and your relaxation time between all of that, but once you get into the groove and figure it all out, it becomes much easier.”
Pittman also worked diligently to find a balance between work and school while maintaining an on-campus job.
“It’s easy to forget things: you think you have everything down, and then there’s one little thing you forgot about,” Pittman said. “It’s just making a calendar, sorting out your schedule for the week and making sure you know which days you have work and which days you have school work.”
Both Pittman and Taylor said they enjoy their jobs on campus and have found the connections with others to be the most beneficial part, while Trevino said the convenience and flexibility were most valuable.
“My favorite part of my job is definitely my co-workers,” Taylor said. “We are all so close with each other, so it honestly doesn’t feel like I’m going into work when I go into the office, and I can hang out with my friends for a few hours.”
Pittman also said the people he met through his job will have a lasting impact on his life.
“I grew up around Baylor and was always here, so this is the team I’ve loved,” Pittman said. “Just building the connections with the players and coaches and forming mutual relationships — because when I graduate from here, I’m done, but the relationships I’ve formed and connections I make will always have an effect on my life and career in the future.”
