According to Junior Achievement USA, more and more high school students are deciding to make money or run small businesses instead of solely focusing on school. A primary reason is because students simply think grades are not that important and think of making money as a priority. While some studies show that if students do part-time jobs (less than 20 hours a week) it makes the student perform better in school, this is usually not the case. Many adolescents work more than 20 hours a week, which causes them to perform worse academically. The Anthology Student Survey (2023) found that most students that work part-time jobs want to earn a degree and make more money. Students working part-time may not be able to get their degrees normally. Fortunately for them, there are many flexible programs that can allow them to get their degrees without having to quit their job.
Ryan Lin (‘29) is a freshman at Green Hope who has experience doing part-time jobs. Lin worked part-time in New York in a car shop and when he came to North Carolina he started working at Chick-fil-A. He shared, “I used to adjust my schedule by the timings of my job last semester because I had easy classes.” Because of the lack of academic pressure in his previous semester, he prioritized his job more than his classes. After the second semester started he quit the part time job. He said, “My job was useful because it gave me money to spend but I don’t think it’s more important than my grades.” Lin couldn’t continue his part-time job because he has very hard classes this semester, such as Math 3 Honors.
The National Institute Of Health (NIH) wrote an article about adolescent work intensity and how it correlates to academic performances, which argued that the majority of secondary students are employed and tend to do worse academically by getting lower scores in class than jobless adolescents. The leading cause of teens becoming employed is perception of the idea of freedom. Many teens also view employment as an important symbol of adultlike and precocious status. To this day there are many studies going on about this topic and researchers are constantly finding diverse conclusions.
Walden University is an accredited institution offering an online Doctorate of Education degree program and in their article, “Should Students Hold Jobs While in High School?”, they say that nearly 30% of high school students are employed. The article proposes that most students are doing jobs to spend money on their social life while others are working to help out their family. The article also mentioned an online EdD program that is highly flexible so that students can earn their doctoral degree without stepping out of their job. Similar to the EdD program mentioned in the article, there are thousands of institutes that offer very flexible programs for students that need them.
Mithul Bitragunta (‘27) is a junior at Green Hope who thinks that a busy school schedule requires a shift in priorities. “I did a part time job last summer because I was free but I had to stop because of the hard classes I have.” Bitragunta shared that having a job is the least important thing for him. “First, I want to get into a good college because I want to become a dentist when I grow up… the job was only for some money that I wanted to spend, but it definitely isn’t worth getting bad grades.”
As more high school students take on part-time jobs, countless studies make connections between work hours and academic success. A USA Today piece about how expenses push teens to work in the workforce reports that many students do jobs either for spending money or to help their families. In the College Board article, “Students and Part-Time Work”, the counselor advice says that if a part-time job is worked less than 15 hours a week then “a part-time job can provide both training and experience.” On the other hand, if the student works excessively then it can “limit opportunities to build friendships and explore interests that enhance intellectual and emotional development.”
