For many students, earning extra cash or having an after-school activity makes a part-time job worthwhile.

Some students do it for fun, while others, such as Parker Clark, MHS junior, do it for income.

I work “just to stay busy, and pay off my car,” MHS junior Parker Clark said. “I like having extra money, just to go shopping or get food or a drink.”

MHS English teacher Sandra Nitcher said there were drawbacks to having jobs.

“Some students show up tired without homework done and justify it with their jobs,” Nitcher said. “Having a job can be good, but school should be the main focus.”

The reward for students is the money they get to spend on whatever they want. Having money for personal spending is something they worked hard for. Some students use this money to buy things like gas or food for themselves.

Healthy work environments were at the top of the list among students when asked about what was important to them in a job. MHS sophomore Rylea Sebastian left her previous job due to a poor work environment.

“The people there were terrible,” Sebastian said. “My current manager, he gives us daily checkups, ‘how do you think you did today.’ It’s very nice, very motivating.”

MHS personal finance teacher and coach Jerrod Handy said he believes that having a job is a great way to instill a good work ethic into students. He also said a good work ethic would also cause them to become more successful in school and the future.

“I know that hard work equals success, and if you want to be successful you have to work hard,” Handy said. “That’s something that I try to instill in my classes, talk about it with my classes, and with my basketball teams and my track teams. Doing all those jobs made an impact on everything I do now.”