Accelerate Online worker finds joy in responsibility

Therese O'Brien said that life is interesting for her right now: She's juggling two summer classes, an on-campus job and involvement at St. Mary's Catholic Center. O'Brien, a junior industrial distribution major, began her job for the Accelerate Online teacher certification program at the end of May. Some of O'Brien's responsibilities include maintaining information about students in the Accelerate Online program in the College of Education and Human Development and helping her boss prepare for different activities.

"One activity I've been helping with is an internship orientation for about 30 new interns for Accelerate Online," she said. "I've been sending out e-mails to them and calling them."

Before her current job, O'Brien was a student worker at the A.P. Beutel Health Center.

O'Brien said even though her jobs aren't directly related to what she plans on doing in her career, she has still benefitted from the experience they provide.

April Pepin, a senior community health major who works at Beutel, said on-campus employers try to help students.

"Scheduling is very flexible," Pepin said. "They know that school comes first. If I need to study for a test, they understand that."

Russell Klinkenberg, senior associate director of the Division of Student Affairs at Beutel, said students should make sure to fill out applications correctly when applying for a job. "It must be complete, and the instructions must be followed, especially when you are asked what hours you are available to work," Klinkenberg said. "So many students just write down their class schedule. That shows first off that they don't follow directions, and a class schedule still doesn't tell you what hours they have available."

O'Brien said she likes having people depend on her.

"I really like my job because I have more responsibility and I feel like there are people who depend on me," O'Brien said. "When you feel like people depend on you, it makes you want to do your job better."

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