With many eateries across campus, The Talon, Heritage Cafe, Common Grounds, Eagles Nest, the Caf and Blackstone Cafe, Biola students have many choices on where to eat, but also where to work.

Balancing work and school

Students work behind every counter, grill and blender in each restaurant and cafe across campus. They hold the positions of baristas, supervisors and managers, and work anywhere from six to 20 hours a week. Many students even work at multiple eateries.

Junior music and worship major Emily Ayala previously worked at the cafeteria, the Talon and Heritage,including working as the supervisor of Common Grounds for the last year. Senior design and Bible major Isaiah Kerkhoff held the manager position at the Caf and Common Grounds, and worked at both the Talon and Eagles Nest. He currently works as the manager of the Talon.

“This was actually my first job, so I was a student here for a couple years, and then I needed a job, so I just applied for the cafeteria,” Kerkhoff said. “[I] started that, and then I got promoted, and they started throwing me everywhere. Now, I’m trained everywhere.”

Balancing work and school is difficult for many student workers on campus. However, they all have their methods of keeping organized.

“Google calendar is my best friend,” Kerkhoff said. “I have to schedule everything including  homework time, friend time—literally everything has to be scheduled. That’s definitely what I would say, scheduling.”

Student workers agree that time management plays a large role in doing well in both school and work. For others, like Caf worker elementary education major Katherine Borcherding, balancing school comes with knowing oneself.

“Right now, I’m taking 12 units of Torrey. It is really difficult,” Borcherding said.  “In general, it’s all about understanding how much you can do, so I’m not working very much this semester because I have a lot of units.”

While balancing their schedule may be hard, students still enjoy their on campus workplace. In general, they love meeting people and have a favorite item they like to make.

“I like the convenience of [working on campus],” said Kayla Kunisaki, senior sociology major and Heritage Cafe employee. “I think being able to meet students who I normally wouldn’t meet outside of Heritage. Being a senior, you don’t really meet a lot of undergrads, so it’s really cool to meet freshman, sophomores.”

the convenience of working on campus

Sophomore cinema and media arts major Henry White, who works at the cafeteria, shares in the sentiment of the convenience of working on campus and working with familiar people. Senior nursing major and Blackstone Cafe employee Yolanda Salomon shared she loves to see returning customers and people enjoying food.

“I really love to make the breakfast burritos, those are the ones that sell a lot,” Salomon said. “They’re really good, and it just has a combination of the vegetables. You can have any choice of meat. It’s really fun to make them and see them enjoy it.”

Students workers in the foodservice industry here on campus enjoy their jobs and balance work and school to serve the Biola community.

“I think something that people forget is Caf employees are people, especially most of us are students taking just as many units as everybody else is,” Borcherding said.  “We’re just working hard because you need money as a college student.”