11 Burning Questions with Student Worker Julia Karnoski

1. What’s the Student Worker Program?
 It’s a group of 24 students who live and work on campus year-round in order to pay off tuition.

2. What are the perks of being a student worker?
 We’re the highest paid students on campus, and 90 percent of what we get paid goes straight towards tuition. Getting to live on campus all four years with other student workers, you get really close. We also get a discount on housing, priority registration and we get to drive carts. You get to know the faculty and staff really well and have a different perspective on how the school is run just because we get to see the behind-the-scenes stuff.

3. What’s your favorite experience being part of the student worker family?
 My favorite thing is that we do everything together. We work together, we live together, we hang out all the time. They’re a great group of people all from different backgrounds, but we’re all the same in that we’re working to pay off our tuition. We get really close and they’re the best friends I’ve made at LMU for sure. We’re a family.

4. What are the student workers’ reactions to the recycling center being moved to Drollinger?
 Student workers have always been in the recycling yard since it first opened. One of the foundations of being a student worker is working in the yard for a year, and so it will be interesting to see how it will affect the program. It will definitely be a lot of work because we’re most likely going to be the ones moving everything to Drollinger and setting it up.

5. How often do you guys work?
 The minimum is 40 hours a week during the summer and other University holidays, and 20 hours a week during the school year. But, we all work as much as we can when we’re not in school. We have normal eight-to-five jobs during the week, and jobs on the weekend. So most student workers get between 30 and 40 hours a week.

6. What position do you hold?
 Instead of being in an office all day, there are three of us who work with the general and vice general; we’re on call for all the departments on campus, if they need anything they call us and we do it. So we do a lot of whatever manual labor needs to be done on campus.

7. What’s it like being a senior with a full time job on campus?
 It keeps you busy, but because you don’t have a lot of free time, it really forces you to make the most out of the time you do have.

8. What are your plans after college?
 I am going to hang around LMU in the Marina area and just kind of take the pre-requisites I need for grad school. From there, I’ll either  go to med school, become a physician’s assistant or maybe even just go the public health route.  After that, I’m going to move to Costa Rica for a few months and take a few Spanish classes and then come back to grad school.

9. Why Costa Rica?
 As far as the medical field, it’s one of the most advanced places in Latin America and they have some of the best beaches. I think it would be cool to go down there, hang out in the rain forest and surf at the beaches. It’s very safe and they have a lot of med schools there and they’re very advanced in the medical field.

10. How has being a student worker affected your life?
 It has given me a very strong work ethic. It’s taught me that anything worth having is worth working for and it’s really made me value my education at LMU a lot more because I’ve had to work so hard to go here. Without the Student Worker Program, I wouldn’t be able to afford LMU. It’s given me the best friends I’ve ever had. It’s taught me leadership and given me opportunities to step up as a leader in the program. It’s the best experience I’ve ever had and I couldn’t imagine my college career without it.

11. What will you miss most about LMU after you graduate in May?
 The people. All the friends I’ve made along the way and having an excuse to be carefree and kind of reckless.  The fact that you’re never by yourself, there’s always someone new to meet and something fun to do. I love being around so many people my age to have fun, and do whatever you want with, because it’s college.