Badgers celebrate National Student Employment Week

This April 10-13, students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison celebrated National Student Employment Week with a blend of in-person and virtual events acknowledging the efforts of college students who balance work responsibilities alongside their academic pursuits.

From Monday to Thursday last week, UW–Madison’s diversity centers held varied events to honor the occasion, including trivia night, ice skating, professional headshots, movie night and a pool obstacle course.

During Wednesday’s professional headshot session, these five Badgers shared insights into their diverse work experiences.

Anna Layne is a senior majoring in Supply Chain Management and Operations and Technology Management. She works as a tutor in the Business School at the Business Badger Study Cooperative. Layne helps other students solve the questions in core business classes. Before becoming a tutor, Layne possessed no prior teaching experience. She dedicates herself to enhancing her tutoring skills while tutoring others.

“It was just cool to see like how people learn and pick things up and then kind of apply that to my own classwork,” Layne says.

Andrew Karbusicky, a junior, also works as a student tutor. His found his job at the Math Learning Center in an email last fall. He applied and got the job tutoring math. Karbusicky expresses satisfaction with his job and remarks that the MLC is an ideal workplace because of the flexibility it offers.

“The MLC is really nice because I can just do a few short shifts throughout the week. I don’t have to sacrifice an entire afternoon or entire evening, just to go to my one shift which is able to space out my workload a lot better,” Karbusicky says.

Evelyn Yi is a senior working as a finance intern in the Division of Facilities Planning & Management. Typically, she assists with the preparation of a worksheet by retrieving and collating data from relevant systems. This collaborative exercise involves mutually reconciling the data to ensure that budgets and other numerical figures are accurate. Yi has dedicated a considerable amount of time to perfecting her proficiency with the new system used in her work. Her innate ability to organize and prioritize tasks enables her to effectively balance her academic and professional pursuits. Yi says she enjoys her workplace and shared her enthusiasm for the congenial and enjoyable atmosphere, where she receives ample support and guidance from her supervisors in accomplishing her tasks.

“My supervisors provide me a lot of help posting my work,” Yi says.

Yinglai Chang is a junior who works as a bakery assistant in University Housing. Chang is an avid baker who finds joy in creating delicious cakes. In her current position, Chang produces a variety of bread and desserts following the university chef’s provided recipes. One notable difference between her personal baking and her occupation is the scale at which she bakes.

“I think a lot of recipes call for like 20 pounds of butter. I usually don’t do that in my kitchen. So that’s pretty cool,” Chang says. She welcomes the opportunity to experiment with new recipes, and University Housing frequently introduces new baking challenges for her and her fellow students. In fact, Chang eagerly anticipates participating in an upcoming bakery competition.

Alexander Kress is a freshman who works in University Recreation & Wellbeing, also known as Rec Well. His daily work is to make sure everything goes smoothly while students are working out, playing rec sports and hanging out. His favorite part of this job is talking to all the other students and getting to know everybody on campus. Kress has gained a considerable amount of insight concerning effective communication, something he didn’t have much experience with before working at Rec Well.

“People get pretty emotional sometimes when they’re playing basketball, sports, stuff like that. So, there’s a little bit of pushback, but I think it really helped me grow into being a kind of strong patient individual and being able to talk people through things and being reasonable,” Kress says.

Last week and every week, UW–Madison celebrates the life and work of student employees. The diligent efforts of student employees make an efficient operation of our campus. Whether it is one provision of delectable treats at the cafeteria, a successful resolution of challenging puzzles or an execution of awe-inspiring competitions, each accomplishment owes its success to the tireless efforts of every Badger employee behind the scenes.