Mel Pardock – Staff Writer

As the year draws to a close and Gusties head home for the summer, campus won’t be as empty as you’d think. Just as Gustavus offers summer jobs and internships, some departments offer summer jobs – available for all Gusties who would like to make further connections in these departments and make some extra cash. Two of the many departments that offer summer jobs are Dining Services and Gustavus Technology Services – although GTS has completed the hiring process for this summer.
Some of these jobs available over the summer are different from ones offered during the school year, while some are the same or quite similar. What jobs do GTS and Dining Services offer?
“During the summer GTS typically hires a handful of students to work as consulting assistants and staff the helpline during the summer months. Since much of the college is still opening and running over the summer months, the helpline still needs to be available to support our campus community members who do work full time,” Brianne Twaddle, Technology Helpline Coordinator and Purchasing/Licensing Agent for GTS said.
Dining Services is open at Gustavus over the summer in order to provide meals for those that attend camps on campus while students are gone. Jobs are very similar, but not the same.
“Because we are feeding a different age group every week due to different types of camps, we often change the menus of the stations to accommodate that age’s taste. So employees are basically doing the same thing, but often with different products. Summer employees often work 30-40 hours per week, where during the school year, the average employee works 8 hours,” Kevin Birr, Assistant Director of Dining Services said.
While these jobs are quite similar to work study jobs offered during the school year, departments downsize over break, meaning they rely more on student employees to take care of business. While this can be a large responsibility, it can provide for even more learning and experience than students would get while classes are in session.
“Our summer student employee positions are 40 hr/week commitments; 8 hours a day and 5 days a week. Our expectation is that our summer student employees are using this opportunity to its full advantage; learning what they can about technology at the college, taking on leadership and project management roles and constantly improving their customer service and communication skills,” Twaddle said.
“Because we only have 20-30 student employees in the summer vs 300 in the school year, we rely more on the students. As in the school year, we expect them to treat this as a real job, to show up on time, work while here, and have some fun as well,” Birr said.
Gustavus summer jobs provide students with further opportunities and connections within their departments, as well as something to do while classes are out. Not to mention, they give Gusties a great way to make some extra money for the upcoming school year. For further information on summer jobs in Dining Services and general employment opportunities in GTS, be sure to contact Kevin Birr and Brianne Twaddle. Get that cash Gusties!