Major: English

Hometown: St. Louis, MO

I'm a daycare assistant at Northfield Daycare Center, which is just a few blocks away from campus, underneath the United Church of Christ. It's a small daycare--capacity is only 21--and the children range in age from two and a half to five. On a typical day, I might make and serve lunch and/or snacks to the children, supervise an art table, clean the bathrooms or the kitchen, or help watch the children on the playground. Less often, I've gone on grocery and coffee runs, helped escort the children to the library, and basically anything else that needed doing.

Probably the best part about my job is that it has given me connections to people who aren't within the 18-22 age range. On a regular basis, I see the daycare kids, of course, their younger and older siblings, their parents, and their grandparents and it really helps to remind you that life is going on as normal outside the college environment. Many of the parents have hired me as a babysitter because their children are familiar with me, and the daycare center employed me full-time last summer (to take the place of the regular cast of 4 work-study students).

My job isn't like a lot of campus jobs; I always have something to do, and I can't count on having free time to get my homework done. Even during naptime, I have to clean up the mess from lunch or help calm down fidgety children. But unlike those campus jobs, whenever everything gets too stressful, I can remind myself that I'm actually accomplishing things, that I'm actually affecting people's lives, that what I'm doing really does need to get done.

And besides, several times per week small children run up to me and give me hugs. That alone makes it worth everything--even the dirty diapers.