The time of year for holiday-focused, seasonal employment has arrived. Students emerge in droves to claim temporary positions at local businesses like Tilly’s, Vala’s, GameStop and Michael’s.

Seasonal jobs, most often found in retail environments during the winter holiday rush and during the summer, are the source of many of the school’s students’ incomes.

“I worked about 45 hours a week,” senior Jake Garner, who worked a summer position at Huber Chevrolet in Omaha, said. “So I made a lot of money, and that put me away from home a lot.”

Garner also described benefits of his temporary job on his school work.

“I had the mindset of working hard, you know,” Garner said. “And that just translated right over into school work.”

Senior Jack Glover also described his summer position as a positive, productive experience.

“It made me feel for the first time like I was actually earning something,” Glover, who was a summer custodian at Lewis & Clark Middle School, said. ”And working 40 hours a week showed me what it was like to earn my own keep.”

Junior Lea Gillespie also held a temporary position over the summer in the Bellevue community.

“I’m a softball umpire [with Bellevue Recreation],” Gillespie said. “It’s a job that won’t interfere with school and is still a great way to have an actual job.”

Gillespie also talked about how flexible her schedule was in the summer compared to during the school year.

“That’s the nice thing about it,” Gillespie said. “You can just make your plans around work.”

Although many of Bellevue West’s students’ jobs end when the school year begins, there are still some that take advantage of the temporary employment opportunities the holiday season brings.

Junior Kyle Dosher described numerous benefits to his recent employment with GameStop.

“I was hired at the beginning of October,” Dosher, a member of the football team, said. “I told them my schedule, with playoffs and practice and all that, and they just told me to focus on that and school.”

Because football season and school have had him unavailable quite often, Dosher has only had shifts in the store twice. However, he expressed great enthusiasm for the upcoming holiday rushes his job will have him tackling.

“It essentially gives me more experience this way,” he said. “People aren’t just coming in casually, they want something. Whether it be deals, sales, discounts or anything like that. It’ll teaches me how to better handle tough situations.”

Mike Sullivan
Reporter